¶ Member Spotlight
Alright . Hey George , how about the church ? How's everybody doing ? Good , good , good , good . I don't know why I started doing that .
You always talk about how cheesy I am , and that was the cheesiest thing you could have done .
Hey , it was good , I'm excited . So with us today we have a member spotlight and let me tell you , when it's my least favorite member , it can only go up from here . So we have Jason Brown . So , jason , how you doing today ?
I'm doing well down here on the bottom .
Good , good , hey , there's only up to go . You know , the only way to go is up . So , anyways , we have our member spotlight , so me and Jake can kind of take a break today . So it's going to be super . In fact , we're not going to talk about it , you're going to talk the whole time ?
Oh no , he will do that , so to anybody who's been taught by Jason , this might be the longest podcast ever as well . No , I'm just kidding .
You know one thing that we've had some people tell us in the churches that are listening to the podcast is they want to hear topics , you know , things that people struggle with , but they also want to hear from people in our church .
They want to hear testimonies and stories , and so we've asked you , Jason , to come and be kind of one of our first members and Jason is a deacon in our church . How long have you been a member at Georgetown , roughly .
Probably 25 years somewhere around in there .
So you know Jason . Let's see , I was 10 when Jason became a member . Now I'm the pastor , a real rags to riches story there , I was being born there you go . So Jason is married to Tammy and they have two sons . In fact , we're calling Jason the pod father because his son , jayden , helped us get the podcast started this past summer .
But Jason is a deacon , he's a longtime member , he's served in various parts of the church . He you serve in the student ministry and college ministry . Dedicated member of our church . So you know , jason , just tell us a little bit about what , what your heart is for Georgetown Baptist Church and what are you . What are you excited about ? What ?
You know how things have been and where things are going .
Okay , so I'm limited to 20 minutes .
Yes , you are , yes , you are man , it's .
It's kind of hard to think of a starting point to talk about the church here , because it's it's really huge part of my life , my family's life , and it has been for a long time and God has really used the people of this church to raise our family . You know , I've had lots of faithful people investing in us as we grew as a family .
I've had lots of really godly examples of men and women and you know just people that I've looked up to and my wife has looked up to and we've encouraged our kids to look up to .
And I guess my heart for the church here is just it's a I'm a servant hearted person , I like to do stuff for people , and when you're a member of Georgetown , then if that's who you are , then this is the spot for you , and when I think of Georgetown , I think of servant hearted people .
You know , and you know you talked about the college ministry what I've , what I've shared with college kids and with youth , is , you know , I've never felt closer to Christ than when I'm serving people and I think that's because he came not to be served but to serve . So I share that with them and I really share . You know , try to develop that servant heart .
So that's that's what my heart is for Georgetown is . It's just a place to serve . It's full of people that love to serve this church , love serving children and youth . It's just . You know , you're proud of , I'm proud to be a member of Georgetown Baptist Church . Well , it gets me excited is a lot of things .
You know we've got a young staff which you know has its frustrations , but you know it's , it's really it's good to . You know , when you've been here as long as I have you , you kind of see things kind of come full circle and you see the next generation of ministers and leadership .
And you know I've talked with Marshall and David a few times and you know I see a lot of younger couples in the church . That we were them , you know , 15 , 20 years ago .
And you know , and we're now at that place , of the people that I looked up to , you know , in the church here , like you know , Bruce Barnett and Dennis Holsey , and you know Tracy Badger and Scott , and you know it's just I'm at this phase .
You know those people have moved on to another phase but now God has sent some really solid young families and leadership in this church . That Excites me to see what he's gonna use them to do in the church . As far as Tangible things that I could , you know the building .
I've been privileged to be able to be in some of those discussions and be on that building team and you know , we've kind of we started off with some momentum and , and you know , through circumstances and under God's control , I think we we took a pause in that , which was healthy for us .
You know , ever since we started , I've been been praying that God builds this church and then he put the walls around it . So when I think of this building program , I'm I've been blessed to see God building this church , building the heart of this church , and I'm I'm looking forward to him wrapping those walls around him and permanently placing some seats .
Yes , you don't have to be so but out and put up every week .
So just so y'all know , our deacons take a week you know between the seven of them to be in charge of putting out our chairs . So on Saturdays , because our building is used so much throughout the week , our deacons have to set up chairs every Saturday . So at some point we're gonna just set the chairs there and they're gonna stay .
I think all of our deacons are just gonna start crying and yes , just because they don't move chairs as much anymore , that's gonna be , that's gonna be .
They're going away present .
We're gonna give you one of the chairs no so you talk about seasons , one of the seasons that , like , of course I am not in , but I can see that you and Marshall , that you are in , is some of the youth that you've spent you know y'all's time in and you know , spent weeks in at false creeks and denows , but but even more so just on the Wednesday nights
that they are now Married or getting married and starting families and that there are the young people in the church and like I Think I would cry every Sunday , like I'm not a crier , but I think I'd cry every Sunday if I , if I saw that happening , and I think that's so cool and that's a testament of just the servanthood that you and many of our other
deacons had to that . So that's a good season . But I want to ask so you're a deacon of our church . Somehow now I'm just kidding you're a deacon of our church . What does that mean ? Like what ? Like you know , we all know that churches have deacons . We know the , the people that are on them are usually great and they're fantastic .
But like what does it mean to be a deacon ?
¶ Importance of Serving in the Church
Yeah , you know the the first deacons were . You know they needed some help serving the church and the needs of the church and so they could focus on the ministry and and pastoral things . And Really that's what we're here for , is it ? You know , to meet the needs of the church outside of the pastoral stuff .
And you know we do some pastoral type things , but really it's if there's a need then we're available to serve that need , then we do that . You know Claude Henderson , who was a deacon here when I first came on as a deacon and kind of mentored me .
We were at his house doing something and he was just talking and wisdom and he often did , but he talked about being that somebody and I share this with the kids . When they ask what a deacon is , I said well , a deacon is just somebody , and you know they give me that confused . Look they always do when I say something to them .
But I say , yeah , if you ever heard , hey , somebody needs to do this , or somebody needs to come do that , or can we get somebody to go do this , then be that somebody . That's what a deacon really is for the church and you know we've got a lot of people that serve that aren't title deacons .
But I will tell you , the fellowship that we have amongst the deacons has been really sweet for me and over the last few years it's really , you know , I felt like I've grown tremendously because of their influence in my life .
But it's a humbling position to be in , an undeserved position to be in , but a privileged position to be in , to be able to serve the church .
You know , jason , you're a person that is involved in the local body of Christ and we have people that they're praying . They're praying like should I get involved ? Should I , you know , go beyond simply attending on a Sunday morning but get involved with the people ?
And you know it's a scary feeling , especially maybe if you didn't grow up going to church and you're married and you've got kids and it's kind of that time . Are we going to make this commitment ? What would be a message you would just give to people that you know ?
20 years ago you were them , but now you're in a position where you can share a little bit of wisdom there . What would you tell a young family that's considering getting really involved in the local body of Christ ?
You know , like I said a little bit earlier , you know I don't I've never felt closer to Christ than when I'm serving , serving people , and I didn't grow up going to church so the actual serving other people's needs instead of my own was a pretty foreign concept to me until I really witnessed , witnessed that in action , witnessed Jesus working through people and
serving people . You know I've had a . I could sit here and just talk for the next several minutes about families that have impacted me growing up and just watching them as a family serving . And you know , when you think of your relationships that you've developed with people in the church , you've developed a serving with them in some capacity .
Right , if you don't have like an outside relationship with them , like a neighbor or you know you work together or something like that , then in the church , really the best way for me that I've connected with people in the church was by serving with them . You know . You really get to get away from .
I guess your own kind of circle that you're in your own bubble you're in and sometimes it's uncomfortable and sometimes uncomfortable can be great .
That's when .
God uses you the most , I found out . But yeah , I would say for encouragement for people that are kind of right there on the cusp of I don't know , kind of like a share of the youth that all in kind of you know , and I would encourage you because there is no , I don't know .
Hindsight is easy to look back and see God blessing you , you know , through attending church , through serving in the church . You know I ever talked about seeing kids now that are at different stages in their life , that you know they were in youth or children when I was serving there .
But the joy from just seeing other people serve , that you had an opportunity to serve and Paul talks about we've been studying through Philippians with the college kids about one verse a week Because it's just so deep . But he talks about the Philippian church being his joy and his crown .
And the older you get and the longer you serve in ministry you can look back and just and those people that God has allowed you to minister to and serve are really just jewels in that crown . And when you see like Hunter Mullen X leading a very successful starting and leading a very successful college ministry down in the Houston area .
You see like Landon Bowman going into youth ministry and you see Maverick , who the first day I met him , if I ever thought I'd be sitting across from the table talking about church stuff with him , that was , yeah , that is God definitely working there , but no , I don't know . For me it's just joy and serving .
I would encourage you to do that because you will not regret a moment of it and I think it impacts your family too , as they grow and see a difference in you .
Well , yeah , that's a good say . We didn't even know what I was about to say . I was like you know , me and Jake , we love talking about just the families and how the church just affects the families , and I mean we had a podcast we haven't listened to . Just how does the family thrive in the local church ?
And well , we have plenty of examples in our home church of how families thrive in the local church . I mean you and Tammy easily come to mind . You know you all came here as a young family served in the church and your son was our summer intern , like on staff , and now it's going to DBU .
It's crazy , though , how Tammy has remained in that young category , but you're no longer there .
Yeah , that's true . That's a good point . How'd she do that ?
You don't have to tell me that's a different podcast .
Prayer is powerful .
But like it's just , like y'all's family has thrived and I mean it's not without its challenges , of course , but it's just y'all being servants in the local body and and just getting to see just different stages of y'all's family coming in and , like I said , jaden literally helping and helping us serve here and now he's just we're championing him as he goes off to
DBU . It's just , it's a good testimony to see . So like what is and I know you kind of hit on the serving spot but what is like your wisdom to well , to like a family like me and Mal to remain faithful .
You know what's your , what's your wisdom to just the young family and when those hardships are faced , I mean what helped you and Tammy just be faithful to the , to the local church .
Goodness , you know , the first thing that comes to mind is just . And you know I want to go back to Philippians because we've just been studying it so much . But you know , in chapter three , you know , paul's talking about running the race and to be like Christ .
And that's the prize one day will be like Christ in heaven , and that's also the goal of the Christian life is to be like Christ . And right after that he throws it there for in there which I tell the kids , my favorite word in the Bible , one of them . But he rolls into , you know , some practical things to help you run that race .
And the first thing he talks about is imitating him and imitating godly examples of people pursuing Christ . And for Tammy and I , we have been surrounded by that in our lives in our marriage . I say I didn't grow up going to church but I had a great family life . My family loved me , I got a lot of extended family .
But then I got Tammy and I started dating and I could see just something different in her family . It was Christ and it was just how they interacted with other people . They opened up their homes and Tammy and I have been the beneficiary .
I think God honors people through the generations of their lineage that have been faithful serving and I think we're blessed because of the faithfulness of Tammy's parents in their walk with Christ and , like her two brothers , just having that example .
And for young married couples find an older couple in your life , spend time with them and listen to them and go to those young married Sunday school classes . The devil has no new schemes and tricks . I keep going back to what I share with the kids , but in verse Corinthians he talks about there's no temptation you'll face .
That's not common to man , but personally Satan tries to put you on an island . I think he can also do that with your marriage too . He can kind of distract you with some things , and Tammy and I were this way early on .
You distract you with things , worldly things , you kind of get away from church and then it's really hard to like just plug right back in . So watch out for that . Be faithful to church . I don't know how struggling marriages survive without the influence of godly marriages in their life . You guys know that you can go .
Lots of people that you've ministered to that have been in those situations . So young families , young married couples , find those people in your life that you can pattern your marriage after . See what they do , hang out with them . Go , let them buy you something to eat by your dinner and tell them thanks .
Well , you know , we're kind of getting to that point where we're gonna finish this episode . But one thing that I really appreciate about you , jason , and other men in the church was Jason , you were on the committee that helped hire me and I remember sitting in the room and hearing that we need a discipleship in our church .
There were other things y'all discussed , but you talked about discipleship and one thing that I remember hearing in that is I've heard a lot of people say you know we need this in the church and then you try to come in and you bring that and once it's there , people's reaction is well , maybe not .
Maybe I actually didn't want that .
It sounds good on paper but the actuality of that .
But you know we talked about in our discipleship episode that we're looking for faithful , available , teachable men and my very first group of people that I worked through in discipleship was our deacon body and I didn't talk to a group of men that simply have been in this church for a long time and said , hey , you know , you young buck pastor , don't come in
here trying to tell me how to follow Jesus . I've been following Jesus for a long time .
I saw faithful , available , teachable men and we went through discipleship and then you've gotten to take a group of men in your area of influence through discipleship and we don't have a lot of time , but has that been impactful for you to be able to go through some discipleship and then take your own group through ?
Oh yeah , it really has . The bad thing about the discipleship thing is that it has an ending , you know , after 10 weeks and then that group you've really formed a really close bond with . So we still , you know , we still talk a lot those guys that I went through first off .
But about the discipleship thing just , and I'll be quick , you know , during our , during that transition season we were , we were in , you know , god God is not a God of confusion he was very specific to us in our prayer time about some areas in our church that we needed , some we needed to address and we felt like part of the transition would he would help
us address those . And one of the big ones was was discipleship . We really felt like we needed some , some depth and some structure in our discipleship .
And so I remember we asked the question about that in there and you were talking in the interview and you were talking about , you know , getting your doctorate degree and that was kind of the focus of your doctorate degree was discipleship and it's just little reassuring , reaffirming things like that .
So that really came out of that season for us , that that was something our church desperately needed and I think we're seeing really the really early on . We're seeing some of the fruits of that , and so God has been preparing you for this time , just as he was preparing us for this time .
And you know , you can be a 30 young , 30 year old pastor and come in with a group of deacons that have been deacons for everyone of them probably 20 years plus , and you can sit down and you can walk them through something like this and it can be a learning experience for you leading them , and also a learning experience for them and for me .
You know anything I've ever taught or led through ? I've learned more from the people there than they have for me by far . So it's been great . I'm really looking forward to doing it again with another group of men .
So , yeah , that's absolutely fantastic and I we could easily keep on going , but , man Jason , thank you so much just for being on , and if you want to get to know Jason or if you want to give him a hard time , please do .
And now , if you want to get to know Jason , you want to talk to a person who has been through just a lot of our church history , through good and bad , but just talk about how God's just remained faithful through every season of our church . Jason is a person to go through . We talk a lot about discipleship .
If any of you men want to get disciple , jason is one of the people that we pair up people with and if you want to just get plugged into our church , you can always find me or Jake . But man Jason is also another guy who we turn a lot of people towards . So thank you so much , jason , and we will see you soon and love you guys .
Take care and thank you for listening .