Conquering Cancer and Strategic Church Growth with Curtis Simonson

Each podcast confronts real-time struggles facing the local church in a post-Christian culture . Step into the action with the ULC at unitel leadershiporg . This is Leigh Time .

He's in a leadership class that the ULC is teaching right now and we're learning with him there , and you're going to hear the story of a man who's experienced incredible joys and incredible sorrows and struggles .

So , before we get into his ministry story , I wanted to start with the fact that life is suffering and life is suffering with our suffering savior , jesus , who has overcome every temptation and knows what it's like to grieve and to lose and to suffer .

And so we're going to start with that story of suffering today , curtis , that you were just telling me you have six kids , seven grandkids praise , be to God and you've been on this kind of learning journey for a while . But right before we got on , you told me that just in 2015 , you had stage four colon cancer . You were given a month to live .

You coded for four minutes , four surgeries and 278 days of chemo and radiation , and that's extraordinary , brother . So what did Jesus teach you through that journey of suffering , curtis ?

What do you say ? Really neat , go ahead . I coached for 32 years and when you come out of something like that , the things you once thought were important suddenly don't seem very important .

So as a football coach , when football seemed to be all that was important , spending all my time turning boys into men and trying to figure out a way to get those 75 , 80 guys to work towards one goal , and all those things suddenly I was out on the field and even last year , at the college level , it was not the same anymore . Your purpose seems elsewhere .

So in that you can see that through suffering and God telling you , ok , here's your cross , you learn that what things are most important . You know what ? Well , what is most important Sharing the word of God with people and bringing as many people as I can through His Word and through His Word into faith , and trying to just build the kingdom .

You're really exceptional and in the church I see a lot of times the people that are self-driven to participate in groups or to lead or to minister . Those people seem to get a lot of attention and then your um , what we call consumers . They just keep coming and going and nobody you know , and then pretty soon those people drift off .

So when your personality and your motto is everybody from the bottom up gets the same energy , then you get a community that's working together . Please don't mind practicing and being a scout team if they know that there's praise and reward and coaching , and I'm going to spend as much time with you as I am going to spend with my five-star athlete .

And in the church it's the same way . If you don't appreciate those people coming once a month or you know the Christers that can only come on Christmas and Easter you have to . You're going to end up with just a top-end church and no growth .

So my church right now , that's exactly what happened and the top group which our church has some really wise , elderly , well-versed Christians in that church , but they're concerned about themselves . They're not worried about growing the church because , let's be honest , they're out of here in 15 years or so and you know , it's not their problem . They don't think so .

We have a lot of work to do at my church and it's going to start from the bottom up .

I got reprimanded a number of years ago for being disrespectful of folks that weren't here as consistent , and I'm never going to say anything . Whoever is here , we see you , we value you and we want to go on a journey with you to draw you closer to Jesus and the way that works . And this is in our leadership class , right is it ?

There is a certain structure , but you've got to work down . Your leaders have to become selfless , sacrificial to see it , not about elevating themselves , but taking Philippians to the humble place and when that saturates a culture .

And we've talked about the 80-20 world and I get kind of sick , curtis , of hearing that 80% of the people do you know , 20% of the people do 80% of the work right and that man . That's really dysfunctional . What about 20% of the people developing the 80% right ? Let's flip that on its head . That would totally change so that the bench gets raised up .

Now , not everybody's going to grow into a vicar pastor , whatever , that's not the idea . But they will be noticed and their gifts will be utilized .

Everything you say is more important . So your servitude climbs as you climb . You don't . It doesn't go the other way . And the lower you are , the more we need to serve you . So that's one thing we do . That's very similar to church .

I'm such a bad coach because I'm looking out on the field and my kids are getting on sportsmen like and my kids are jumping off sides and my kids are , you know , not prepared and it all came from . They just reflected me . So your church will reflect its leadership .

If your leadership is not prepared , disorganized , quick to anger , not patient , they don't treat everybody the same , whatever it is , it'll reflect in your players . If you're a coach versus a lot , if you're a coach that talks bad about other players when they're not around all those things kids absorb , and so does your congregation .

No-transcript , whatever comes out of you is going to reflect in your congregation , I think . And if you're all about love and community and coming to church and embracing from bottom to the top , I think your church will reflect that .

And if character is not maturing and in a community where people can tell the leader , let me get your take on this , because continually placing yourself at the lower position requires you to have people that can speak . When they see something going wrong or off in you , they can ask the question and provide the critique and the correction .

But the higher you go up in any organization , the likelihood of you having that person or group of people who speak , the love of Christ and the accountability of Christ into your character when they see you a little bit off , prone to anger or whatever it could be , that's a huge invitation .

And one of the things about this podcast is we're praying that leaders at the highest levels in the Lutheran Church of Missouri Synod would have those people who speak and if you're in a leadership position , that you would receive it humbly and seek to grow . Seek to grow .

Any thoughts about the higher you get , the harder it is to receive kind of words of critiquing correction .

And if you look at God's ministry , Jesus' ministry , women were paramount to His ministry , but more so I want echo . Chambers is what we call them . If you ask me or any of our elders or any of my other leaders a question , the answer should almost echo exactly what I would say , or exactly what Scripture says .

I don't want them to hear three different points of view . I want them to hear one echo , and that's about the mercy and grace of God and forgiveness and love . I want them to hear those things . I don't need them to hear your personal opinion or something like that . I want to echo .

So in sports , if we call it an arrow route for the running back out of the backfield , I can't have another coach calling it a bench route and another guy calling it a flat route . It's got to be the same . And once you get that consistency , everybody starts . Well , I know what that is . That's an arrow route .

So if you are dealing with sin and your family or something happens and you ask one person , they say , well , there's no sin that God can't forgive , and that should echo throughout everybody in the church instead of getting three different messages that all conflict . So that's really important Having the same message echo throughout everybody who is in leadership .

It's unwise to not focus on creating common language that shapes the way you're going on mission in your community and the behaviors that you're going to exemplify as you go on that mission and can everyone actually share what the mission is , be aligned on , multiplying disciples , whatever it is , bringing the gospel to as many people as possible .

Hopefully it's toward a reaching , going , striving , failing , but getting back

up and getting after it kind of perspective . That's the heart of Jesus and that's what you learn on a team . We're going to establish that common language . We're going to go into the battle of the game together and there is a spiritual battle that all of us are in right now and the church is waging and we're going to go .

We know the victory has been won , but it's going to be tough and we're going to need one another and we're going to need the character of Christ , the humility of Christ , to saturate every conversation that we have .

A lot of times , you know , I was kind of interested when you said echo chamber , but another word for echo , because a lot of times we think that that's kind of bad , like there's no individuality and personality . There's plenty of room for that .

There just has to be a leader who says we're going this way and this is the way that we're going to get that , this is how we're going to treat one another and that is my job .

And I would pray that a lot of lead pastors and churches , small or large , would say I really , at the end of the day , have two , two job descriptions , one casting vision , very important for where we're going . Where are we going ? And let's make it tangible . You know , let's dream some big dreams to start new churches et cetera .

Right , especially in a post Christian with pre Christian day and age . So where are we going and how well are we loving one another on the way to there ? That is mission and that is the values and the character of the leaders that are going on that , on that mission . Anything to add towards that , curtis ?

So last year we needed to make a conscious effort to run the football and we were going to run the football and we had to , and our kids came up with a slogan they called it EAT , which is effort , attitude and trust . Okay , and that goes towards your Christian faith . Where is your effort ?

Are you getting into scripture every day , spending time in prayer every day , in your playbook , every day , you know , with your teammates every day ? Is there effort there ? What is your attitude , you know , and towards God , towards your faith , towards your teammates ?

And finally , trust Are you trusting God that he's gonna do things for you , and are you trusting your teammate ? So , in practice , rather than yell at one another when a kid wasn't Kind of on board , somebody just whack him on the butt and say time to eat . And they knew exactly what that meant .

It's you know , it's time to get Yourself to do a self-check and say I'm not eating right now . I'm , I'm doing my own Thing , I'm feeling sorry for myself , I'm upset that coach scolded me or told me I did it wrong . Or I'm upset that I'm just not playing well today and a kid just pop him on the butt hey , time to eat .

You know , and that's all you had to say . You didn't have to say you missed your block . You didn't have to say you were kind of lazy on that one or you did the wrong assignment . Hey , it's time to eat .

You have in mind the things of , of man , and that's normal because you're of the earth . You know you're , you're a fleshy man , but I'm playing at a different , different , on a different field and on a different plane , if you will , and I'm going to invite you up to that and that's what . That's what teammates , good teammates , do . That's so funny .

You bring up eat , because our football acronym for Gilbert Christian High School was eat to . It was just instead of trust , which I love . Trust , actually , maybe that we use team . It was effort , attitude and team . But yeah , trust is a building block for any , any good relationship , any good team . So this is so cool . What people may not know about you ?

Let's get into your story a little bit more . Um , you not only played football at concordia seward Uh , we just missed each other by a few years but you're also a two-time powerlifting national champion in college as well . I've never got to hang out with a powerlifter .

And me and some guys said yeah , we would , and a couple guys from campus and um , we had a About six , seven months to train and , uh , I got really into it because it's a different way of lifting , you know . You know , lifting for speed , you're just , it's all about power .

And um , I was very blessed as a young man to have uh Irregular strength , I guess , and um , I could lift a lot and for my weight , um , I could lift a lot .

So actually funny thing is , the first time we went to Lincoln for the national intercollegiate championships and , um , you do bench press first and then you do uh squat , or , I'm sorry , squat , then bench press and then deadlift .

It was last and there was a kid from Kansas who got up for deadlifting we were kind of dead even and he said , put uh 605 on deadlift and grand , this is a 191 pound weight class . And he said , put 600 on . And he picked it up like it was , like it was nothing . I had never done more than 600 . So I said , okay , 605 .

So I go over and I barely get it and he says 650 . So he picks it up like it's nothing right . So it's my turn and I go 653 . You know , I don't know and I I'm picking it up and uh . Uh , by the grace of god I got it up .

Now in powerlifting there's three lights , three judges , and when you pick it up , the judge , the head official , who's on the floor with you . He'll tell you when to set it down , and you have to set it down Under control . You can't just drop it , drop it .

So I'm holding 65 , 70 pounds , more than I've ever picked up before , and I got to let it down lightly and and I I barely do I was afraid I crashed it a little too loud , but I got all three green lights . So the next guy comes up , he has to do 660 , to beat me 665 and he goes put 750 on there . Dude what ? And he picked it .

He picked it up like it was , like it was nothing . And soon as he picked it up , he put his hands in the air , dropped it , put his hands in the air that he's the champion . And red light , red light , red light , he gets disqualified .

If I saw somebody like putting four plates on and making a big deal of it and a crowd crowd you know gathering around this guy , two and four hundred , I would wait for him to finish and I'd go over and I'd say , do you mind if I try ? And he'd say , yeah , sure , do you want to spot it ?

Say no , and I pump out about 10 or 12 of them and then rack it and then just walk away .

I did some of my best praying and I don't know what you'd call it just spending time with Jesus when I would lift , and because you know you put your headphones on and you just go about your business and you can really spend time with God and just reflect on all the things he's done for you , and it was something I really enjoyed .

I don't lift more than oh , I don't go over 300 anymore .

But the more the Holy Spirit kind of rests upon me , the warrior with the appropriate balance within every and I'll just speak to men within every man's heart needs to come alive and men need to move , Like young men need to move in the classroom , Like this is why we try to have more interactive time in the classroom .

But then is and not the women don't , I think , just men need it at greater proportion and I don't , our minds are not as sharp as they could be and I could speak .

I'm not , I'm going to be charitable , but pastors sometimes struggle , and mentally , and maybe we get to some dark places and one of the reasons could be that we're not moving , moving our bodies . Because , when we have , especially , resistance training .

All the science is showing like what it does to our brains , yeah , like it helps us think clearly , like the best part for those of you listening , I do all the podcasts like to start the morning on a Monday , early morning on Monday , early morning on Tuesdays , and if I didn't have my 45 minutes to an hour of working out and stretching and pushups and squats

and riding my bike and taking in you know , not just water but the word on my bike , like I would be , I wouldn't show up , I couldn't do . I couldn't do this . Yes , I think it's a habit for me in terms of moving and it's not a legalistic thing .

It's just like I wake up and I do these , I do these things , you know , and so , yeah , what is it about resistance training that calls out , like we're so static today , curtis , like leadership . I'm just sitting on my butt . That's so long . You know I was made to move and it glorifies God . One other thing my son , my son . You talk about your son .

I'll talk about my son really quick . God made him really fast . He'll be strong , but he made him . He made him really fast and he told me it feels like I'm floating and I told him . I told him , you know , jesus smiles over you when , when you run fast and use your body like that , and he goes oh , that's cool , that thanks .

You know , like we were made , made to move , we were made to move and he had thoughts on that Curtis .

And I'm coming out of the locker room and he's there . He was a member of our church and he said he wanted to talk to me for a while and he wanted to know what it felt like to

run . He's like you're so fast when you break loose , what does that feel like to run at that speed ? I never , ever , thought about it . It had never crossed my mind and I was like , wow , this kid has never experienced that rush of you know , and I'm sure you did once , you know many times in your life .

But as a running back , when you break through and you see that grass and you hear the crowd get to that fever pitch and you know you're , there's a guy chasing you and you know you're not catching me and you , you know , and you take off . And from then on it was such a overwhelming awareness of the blessing and the gift of what God has given me to .

If you would ask Courtney , he would say that I was probably a hard or tough person to coach just because I was so adamant to squeeze every last drop out of whatever time I had and I wanted to go , go , go like I didn't want to waste a second , and sometimes I was too young to have the right words or the right attitude or whatever , but he always kept me

, you know . He always reminded me , don't forget . You know what's truly important , and he was a great Christian mentor for me as a young man man , I love that you can't .

It has to come from God , because this life is pretty folly filled , pain filled , suffering filled , and yet , despite the fact that we know we're moving toward a day and age when we're not going to be able to run physically , move like but God put that this is like at the center of me , this drive , this desire that needs to be stewarded well , shaped well by

Christ and the community . That's a major part of your story as well , but like that lionheart in me is there and I think it's meant to glorify God . The church , unfortunately , has become a very kind of passive place . You know this wasn't our intention , but this is a clarion call for men to rise up .

And too often the church and ladies , we love you , but too often it's kind of overly feminized and so some of the characteristics , the softer , more passive , conflict averse characteristics , become imbalanced in the church and unfortunately , a lot of times then the men kind of because who wants to make your mom or grandma mad ?

No one wants to do that , you know . So a lot of times in the church we just kind of men kind of take that kind of passive place , kind of pull emotionally back .

But man I'm praying for , with love and with respect , with boundaries , more of that lionheart of saying , man , there's green grass just use that metaphor there's green kingdom grass , that's ahead , and there's people in the end zone that need me to run this play , run this touchdown , who are lost , who need me and us to go on a mission after them .

I think that's a huge , huge metaphor for us today . And to land the plane , it's only because we know the crucified and risen one who's going to return to make all things new , to raise us up , to give us brand new bodies Luther talks about . He gets pretty whimsical about talking about the resurrected body .

You know , kind of defined space and being able to jump , you know , over mountains and stuff like that . And it's fine that we use our imaginations for what the resurrected body , which is like unto Christ , the risen one , will be on that day when he comes , man , it's going to be amazing .

And so we get to , we get a foretaste of what that is right now in our physical flesh as followers of Jesus baptized in his name . So any any response to that Curtis ?

And every time that thing shoots in that chemo it would hit your , it would hit your throat and it's taste terrible and and it burns and pretty soon your veins are on fire and when you're going through all that you can either focus on the pain and the and the bad taste in your mouth and the weakness and the , the seizures or whatever , or you can focus on

the fact that this is the best the devil can do . That's all you got . That's all you got to because my God's already won . So if this is all you got , bring it on , and so you see that lying mentality come out of God , saying this ain't going to happen . He's going to carry this cross for a while , but I'm going to give you strength .

Same thing in our church right now . We're we're really elderly . We have one couple under the age of 50 . We have zero children . My average age is 68 and everybody's doing this . What was us ?

We have things we can do , and so , through the class that your group is teaching um , I'm having elders meetings tomorrow night I'm going to propose a new movement , and our new movement is , first of all , what does our church have as a skill ? That's most important . We're well versed , very well versed , and we're very welcoming . So how can I use that ?

Well , in the last three weeks , god has sent me about 10 people that say I'm not Lutheran or Catholic or anything . I want to be baptized , wow . And then another one , then another one , and God's , you know , tapped me on the head . You know , mcfly , wake up and uh , it came to me and I'm like that's it .

We're going to be the place that's going to baptize and we're going to baptize as many people as we can .

Now I got to come up with a way to fund it , to advert , to get attention , to get them and then to keep them , and we'll worry , worry about turning them into , you know , growers , but right now , I got to get them , I got to track them , get them and keep them , and I need young people and baptism fits perfectly with that .

The other thing is it's it's simple , it's repeatable , and what was the last one ? Simple , reproducible and right , and and we can just keep baptizing and then , and so we're going to have these baptism events once a month . We're going to advertise . You don't have to be a mentor , you are . You don't have to be a member , you don't have to .

All you have to do is come on Saturday , we're going to bring you into church and we're going to make sure you know what this is , what is about to happen ? Okay , what is about to happen ? And if you're up . If you want to do that , we're going to take care of that . We're going to all march outside and we're going to baptize as many people as we can .

So good , by the grace of God . Hopefully , the love and knowledge of our church will come through and the welcoming will bring them in and hopefully will gather a few more sheep , because if we don't do anything , we're going to close in 10 years and the other thing that's going to work , I think , is I'm going to .

It's not going to be just me baptizing these people . I want my people oh , I lost you for a second . I want my people in my church participating in those baptisms . It doesn't have to be just me standing there baptizing people . I'd like to see some of the elders get involved and some of the ladies get involved . And I told my wife that and she goes .

I can't do that . I said , why not ? She goes , I'm not worthy to baptize somebody . I said what she said I'm not worthy to . I said I'm not either . I'm not either , but God calls us to do so . He calls us to do this .

He's called me to do this , and I think he's calling you to help the church grow , and sometimes you got to forget those things that you're not worthy , or that you have sin , or whatever it is .

He's been connected to an LCMS congregation for a number of years in the Illinois area and because he had a divorce 15 years ago , he was not able to enter into the SMP program at either of the seminaries Concordia St Louis and Concordia Fort Wayne and I'm not disparaging that decision , it is what it is .

At the same time , there still is a local congregation , peace Lutheran , there in Illinois that is welcoming him , helping him grow , and I'm excited to see what Jesus does in and through him .

There are many Curtis's in the LCMS who have pain and struggle from the past , have worked it out and have that lion heart that I pray leaders within the LCMS can see stewarded well in community with the humility of Jesus . That could be trained for Word and Sacrament ministry .

I know you were blessed by Curtis and we're going to have many other conversations with leaders like Curtis in the LCMS in the future on lead time . It's a good day .

Go on and make it a great day , share it and it's caring Like , subscribe , comment wherever it is you take in lead time and we look forward to having you join us again very , very soon for another episode . Peace .

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