Matt Prater: From Radio Waves to Life’s Highs and Lows—A Journey of Faith and Surprises

00;00;01;09 - 00;00;27;15
Dave Quak 
Welcome to Sunburnt Souls. I'm Dave Quak and on this show we explore life and faith and our mental well-being as a pastor that struggles with mental illness. I get to chat to people like me, people that love Jesus and follow the way of Christ while dealing with the messiness and brokenness of life. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode.

00;00;27;18 - 00;00;35;02
Dave Quak 
Well, Sunburnt souls. You guys are super blessed because this morning I have my friend Matt Prater here as a guest. Matt, thank you for being on Sunburnt Souls.

00;00;35;03 - 00;00;37;07
Matt Prater
You know, my thanks for joining me, Matt.

00;00;37;07 - 00;00;49;01
Dave Quak 
It is huge being a part of the history already from the start, because before I even started, I sent you a text that said, man, please God, me give some of you wisdom. And we had coffee and you've been super helpful for us. Thank you brother.

00;00;49;02 - 00;00;56;05
Matt Prater
Well, Matt, I just love the fact that you've got a whole bunch of interviews under your belt now, and you obviously are scraping the bottom of the barrel and it's my turn.

00;00;56;10 - 00;01;11;28
Dave Quak 
My not been chasing you for months. I've been wanting this to happen for months. Because you're learning. You're earning. Encourage you. To me, you're an interesting guy. I have got some questions, Matt, to get us going that I just have wanted to ask you. But, you know, it's never come up. But now I get, you know, I'm in control today.

00;01;11;28 - 00;01;12;19
Matt Prater
So I.

00;01;12;21 - 00;01;18;08
Dave Quak 
Ask you. So first question, why are you good at rapping? Yeah. Why?

00;01;18;10 - 00;01;18;29
Matt Prater
That's funny.

00;01;19;02 - 00;01;32;12
Dave Quak 
You know, because because you're a good rapper. I saw also on your Facebook feed one day you're rapping in front of like a couple of thousand dudes overseas and you're good. And I see even now you got a Jesus Freak shirt on tonight.

00;01;32;12 - 00;01;32;24
Matt Prater
That's it.

00;01;32;24 - 00;01;36;07
Dave Quak 
So like, he's a DC talk influence. What's rap.

00;01;36;09 - 00;01;55;16
Matt Prater
All right. Well, I used to be cool, right. I was a youth pastor in Coffs Harbor. Yeah. And I had a couple of mates that were really into hip hop and rap and all that. And we used to do, like, youth live concerts and school concerts and things like that. And like, I was a deejay, you know, I was kind of doing all that kind of stuff.

00;01;55;18 - 00;02;19;23
Matt Prater
And then I thought, you know what? I should learn a rap and, so there was a couple of hip hop artists around at the time. There was DC talk, and, there was another artist called Freedom of Soul, and I thought, I'm going to learn some of their raps. So I learned a couple of their apps, and then I've developed it now where I do their raps, and then I do amazing Grace, which is easy to rap, and then awesome.

00;02;19;23 - 00;02;38;12
Matt Prater
God, remember that song? Well, yeah. So I can do a rap with four different verses to it now. Yeah. And you know, people just love a bit of fun because I'm a daggy old white guy, you know? Yeah. And I, I can't do hip hop dancing in a, but I think it's kind of a novelty when I rap, so.

00;02;38;14 - 00;02;47;24
Matt Prater
And if my wife and kids hear me rap one more time, they can be like, oh, this is so embarrassing. Like my kids can't stand. But I just love it because it's a bit of fun, you know? Yeah, I.

00;02;47;24 - 00;02;54;29
Dave Quak 
Won't make you do it today because you've just run a morning show because you're you're a radio DJ as well. Yeah. So how long you been on the radio today?

00;02;54;29 - 00;03;12;08
Matt Prater
Well, I've done, 3.5 hours today, and, I normally do, you know, weekend shifts and I'm filling into some at the moment, so. Yeah, I've had, a big morning, but it's been good fun. People have been ringing in singing songs on the radio, and I've been cracking my dad jokes. I've been having fun. I love it, man.

00;03;12;08 - 00;03;12;17
Matt Prater
Yeah, yeah.

00;03;12;17 - 00;03;29;06
Dave Quak 
Yeah, yeah. And your capacity for the unknown Matt has always inspired me, because there is nothing less controllable than somebody ringing in and singing a song. That's. Yeah. Why were you doing that this morning? I'll need you on the way up. And it was okay. You ring in from around Australia? Yeah. Sing a.

00;03;29;09 - 00;03;48;12
Matt Prater
Song. You're going anywhere? Yeah, well, that's the thing. You know, particularly breakfast radio. You just got to. It's like you're an air traffic controller. You just got to be ready for anything that comes your way. And you got to be thinking on your feet. And, but, you know, the good thing is that, you know, Vision Radio is, really good, strong Christian radio station.

00;03;48;15 - 00;03;56;27
Matt Prater
So most of the people that ring in a strong Christians and I want to sing like, a wish song or something, occasionally get some strange people ringing in. Yeah. And you just got to roll with it when it happens.

00;03;56;27 - 00;04;11;27
Dave Quak 
You know I love it, man. And shout out to vision. They've been extremely encouraging to some band souls. Starting with our first interview together. Yep. And even now we're using the studio, so they're just a generous, awesome organization. I got nothing but love for vision.

00;04;12;03 - 00;04;14;27
Matt Prater
And your podcast is on the vision app is. Yeah, yeah.

00;04;14;27 - 00;04;16;18
Dave Quak 
So cool. So it's amazing, man.

00;04;16;18 - 00;04;19;25
Matt Prater
Yeah. No it's good. And I just think your podcast is very important.

00;04;19;29 - 00;04;20;09
Dave Quak 
Yeah.

00;04;20;11 - 00;04;35;00
Matt Prater
There's a lot of people that don't know how to talk about mental health. It's it's just, you know, swept under the carpet, just, you know, a lot of people have wrong thinking about it. And you, bringing it to the table, and it's becoming an important topic. And, you know, I'm so glad you're doing it.

00;04;35;05 - 00;04;41;25
Dave Quak 
Now, I appreciate it, and I appreciate you coming on. I'd love to chat about your life in ministry, Matt, because you. How long you been a pastor? All together.

00;04;41;25 - 00;04;54;26
Matt Prater
So I was a youth pastor, from the age of 18. Yeah, for ten years. And then I've been a senior pastor now for 18 years. So pretty much my whole grown up life, I've been either a youth pastor was saying, yes, yeah.

00;04;54;26 - 00;05;11;00
Dave Quak 
Because you've had a long innings and you've you've got your finger in a lot of pies. I always sometimes wonder if there's only one of you because you're everywhere and it's sometimes it's such a random, sometimes it's so random. But because I know you, it's not even surprising. Like, I remember once I was watching Q&A and they looked.

00;05;11;00 - 00;05;24;16
Dave Quak 
Does anyone from the audience have a question? And then Matt prayed the stands up and I wasn't even. It's like, oh, there's Matt. And it was no, but it wasn't surprising because that's what God seems to do, is he puts you in all these crazy places. Yeah. Which was that was at the Dawkins one or the,

00;05;24;19 - 00;05;25;14
Matt Prater
That was Kevin Rudd.

00;05;25;14 - 00;05;27;10
Dave Quak 
That's right. That was Kevin Rudd. Yeah, yeah.

00;05;27;11 - 00;05;33;26
Matt Prater
So that was the week before the federal election and Kevin Rudd had changed his view on same sex marriage.

00;05;33;29 - 00;05;34;14
Dave Quak 
That's what it.

00;05;34;14 - 00;05;50;19
Matt Prater
Was. And I asked him, why did you change your view? Was it just to get a popular vote? That's what you said. That's right. Yeah. And he lectured me. He did. And, there's a, close up of me looking like a deer in the headlights. I was really nervous. I bit I was absolutely, you know, nervous. And,

00;05;50;22 - 00;06;08;15
Matt Prater
And then I just said, look, you know, Jesus said, a man shall leave his mother and father, and the two shall become one flesh. If that's what Jesus definition of marriage is, Kevin, why isn't that your view? Of of, of marriage, you know, secrets of a Christian, you know, and he got mad at me and it was, you know, but it went viral.

00;06;08;15 - 00;06;11;02
Matt Prater
It actually had 3.5 million views on YouTube. That video.

00;06;11;02 - 00;06;16;16
Dave Quak 
No way. Yeah. How do you even get in that situation, Matt? In a studio, this.

00;06;16;19 - 00;06;22;13
Matt Prater
Well, I had subscribed to the email list for Q and I. Yeah. So I used to love it. I used to really get it used.

00;06;22;13 - 00;06;24;13
Dave Quak 
To be amazing, like 15 years ago. It was amazing.

00;06;24;13 - 00;06;42;17
Matt Prater
Yeah, I was really into it. And, I got invited to be an audience member, and then they asked me to submit a question. And so I asked, I submitted this question, and I think they knew it was going to be a gotcha moment, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And, so it was a massive thing. But, you know, that week I was interviewed by pretty much every media outlet in Australia.

00;06;42;21 - 00;07;09;20
Matt Prater
Yeah. The project ABC seven 910, newspapers, radio stations. I was doing breakfast at the time at vision. The calls went, you know, through the roof. And, I think it was like my moment that God chose me to stand up and speak out for my faith. And, it was, I got called a bigot and a homophobe, and I listened to that, and people said horrible things to me, from all sorts of, you know, social media and things.

00;07;09;26 - 00;07;29;03
Matt Prater
But lots of Christians, said, you know, good on you for standing up and you know, that week, Kevin Rudd lost his job and I've still got mine, you know. Yeah, he he lost the election to Tony Abbott that week. He did. So I think it was like the now in the coffin for him too, because, a lot of people change their vote because of because of that interview basically.

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Matt Prater
Yeah. Yeah.

00;07;30;02 - 00;07;50;18
Dave Quak 
Yeah. That's huge man. And I think that's the interesting thing. You seem to be positioned where, to me, you strike me as a man who's got a okay, God. I'm here. Where would you like me to go? What would you like me to do? And and so that's why you do end up in Q and A and rapping in front of thousands of people and on the air and doing all this other stuff, running your social enterprise and new Hope and everything.

00;07;50;18 - 00;07;51;22
Dave Quak 
Yeah, it's amazing man.

00;07;51;29 - 00;08;00;12
Matt Prater
Yeah. And I think we've just got to say yes to God. And, you know, like as I said in the Bible here in my cinema, we just got to be ready wherever the spirit leads us, you know?

00;08;00;12 - 00;08;13;20
Dave Quak 
So, yeah, you are a vibrant looking man. Like, I don't know how you stay so vibrant doing all that you do. Has it always been the case? Man? Look, I know that's a bit of a leading question, but, like, has that always been the case?

00;08;13;20 - 00;08;35;05
Matt Prater
Yeah. Well, I went through a really tough time early on in ministry. So when I was 30 I took over new Hope Church in Brisbane. And, I had a good start for a few years. It was a good, healthy church. We were winning souls reaching out to the lost. It was great. But then I had a massive health battle.

00;08;35;08 - 00;08;58;15
Matt Prater
Okay. And, you know, it was it was really like a burnout time for me, hit rock bottom. Basically, what happened was a church had a big split, so half the church left. And, so mentally and emotionally, that was a very difficult thing for a young 33 year old pasta to handle. Yeah. And then physically, I had this thing called Still's disease.

00;08;58;21 - 00;08;59;00
Dave Quak 
Okay.

00;08;59;01 - 00;09;22;13
Matt Prater
Which is like rheumatoid arthritis. I, I had, night sweats, like, really bad night sweats. I ended up losing 20 kilos. Okay. Which was, you know, pretty strange, you know, I ended up having, all my joints was swollen and aching, you know, I was seeing a specialist and getting steroid injections because I was in so much pain.

00;09;22;16 - 00;09;43;08
Matt Prater
Constant pain medication and, and mentally, I was just done. I was just exhausted. I was ready to give up. Yeah. And, you know, thank God for my wife. You know, she kept the church running. She stayed faithfully praying for me. And, I got through, that physical battle. But the the mental battle took a bit longer to get over.

00;09;43;08 - 00;10;08;05
Matt Prater
You know? Yeah. Because, you know, I was, just really, and under the weight of all this pressure back then, you know, and I think it was a time where I actually grew up from a boy to a man. I think in that rock bottom, like I call it my jobe time or my Valley experience. I think in my tough time, I went through, I actually stopped caring what everyone thought about me.

00;10;08;07 - 00;10;26;04
Matt Prater
Yeah. And I just wanted to live for God. And it was actually a massive transformation for me. Because I was I would definitely say the first three years as a pastor, I was a real people pleaser. I just wanted to do everything to keep everyone happy. I wanted to tell funny jokes. I wanted to be cool. I wanted to be the next this, you know, the next preacher up.

00;10;26;08 - 00;10;42;15
Matt Prater
You know, I was it was all about me. But after that brokenness in that rock bottom time, it's like, I don't care what anyone thinks. I just want to please the Lord. Now. I just want the Lord first in my life. And so it was actually the worst thing that happened, but also the best thing that happened.

00;10;42;18 - 00;10;51;19
Dave Quak 
Yeah. Well what kind of things were happening during that phase. What was it like burning like were you on the couch. What was the like your daily rhythms.

00;10;51;19 - 00;11;16;25
Matt Prater
Yeah. So my wife tells the story often when she preaches that, I was just bedridden. I was just in bed the whole time. And, you know, I had people come into the house praying for me and, you know, telling me, you know, you'd be right. Rise up and be healed. You and I, people, you know, like all the lovely, encouraging people, you know, and some Christians who just, you know, the Bible says with those who wait, some people just came and comforted me and loved me, you know?

00;11;16;25 - 00;11;43;02
Matt Prater
Yeah. But, I was just, you know, sleeping all the time. You know, I couldn't really run the church. My wife and the elders had to kind of run the church at the time. And, and my wife actually tells a story that she had had enough as well. And, after a few months of me just being bedridden and, you know, in and out of hospital and all that, she said she sat on the couch and said, God, I'm done.

00;11;43;04 - 00;11;53;16
Matt Prater
I'm leaving. I've had enough. And she felt the the voice of God speak to her and say, who are you married to? And she said to the Lord, Will Matthew? Of course.

00;11;53;18 - 00;11;54;09
Dave Quak 


00;11;54;12 - 00;12;15;10
Matt Prater
And the Lord said again to her, who are you married to? And you know, often when the Lord speaks to us, that's when you really go to listen. That's when he's really trying to get your attention. And then she realized that she was married to the Lord first, and she had a covenant with me. And that she needed to obey that, you know, honor that covenant.

00;12;15;12 - 00;12;35;20
Matt Prater
So thankfully, she stayed, you know, but after that time, she really, grew as a leader as well, you know, so a little bit of a history of our church the first three years. My wife hated it. She just didn't like our church at all because we were like a sixth sensitive, put on a show, kind of a church, you know?

00;12;35;23 - 00;12;42;26
Matt Prater
And we were previously in a vineyard church, which is a really spirit field. Yeah. You know, healing, moving in the spirit worship, you know. Yeah.

00;12;42;27 - 00;12;45;27
Dave Quak 
A side note, John Wayne was my favorite hero of the faith.

00;12;45;27 - 00;12;46;11
Matt Prater
Awesome.

00;12;46;11 - 00;12;53;17
Dave Quak 
We'll come back to that another day today. He's one of my favorite man. That 1985 Sons and Wonders conference thing. Come on bro I could watch that all week.

00;12;53;18 - 00;12;54;14
Matt Prater
Come on. Yeah.

00;12;54;21 - 00;12;55;24
Dave Quak 
Continue my friends. That was.

00;12;55;24 - 00;13;14;21
Matt Prater
Our day. And I, we were vineyard and that was a hot. But we were in this showy church for three years. And so it was interesting. After the church split and half the church left and after my sickness and, then we actually just started moving in the Holy Spirit when we started having longer worship, prophetic words, healing, miracles happening in our church.

00;13;14;23 - 00;13;31;29
Matt Prater
And it was actually more our kind of church because this is the thing, you know, you can try to copy someone else's vision and run someone else's race, but you'll burn out. It won't work. Yeah. You just got to be you. You just got to do what you're called to do. So that's why I said it's the worst thing that happened.

00;13;31;29 - 00;13;48;09
Matt Prater
But it was the best thing that happened. Because after that, my wife was she enjoyed church from then on. Yeah. And here we are 19 years later. The church is still going well, my wife's still going. Well, I'm going, I've recovered, you know, and for me, I had to change a lot of things in my life after that time.

00;13;48;09 - 00;14;07;01
Matt Prater
So I had to change my diet, because I was eating junk food all the time. I was, unhealthy. I wasn't exercising and all that kind of stuff, so I had to. I had to realize my body is a temple of Holy Spirit, so I had to eat healthy. I, I started exercising, I started, making sure that I Sabbath.

00;14;07;01 - 00;14;30;19
Matt Prater
Well, so that was a really big thing for me. Like Mondays is my Sabbath day, and I am really strict. Yeah, just chill out. On a Monday, I avoid phone calls and avoid my phone and emails. I avoided as much as possible. You know, my wife and I enjoy that day together. And it's a real Sabbath time, and and and we also have learned that we work hard, but we holiday hard as well.

00;14;30;21 - 00;14;31;17
Dave Quak 
Yeah. Okay. So we'll.

00;14;31;17 - 00;14;50;23
Matt Prater
You know, we got kids, you know, we regularly take the kids away, go on a nice holiday, to get about church and and enjoy family and and the Lord together. You know, I learned to have regular rhythms of rest in my life, too. Yeah. Because you got to have those boundaries. Otherwise you'll be working 24 seven, you know what I mean?

00;14;50;23 - 00;15;05;01
Dave Quak 
Yeah. So that's your rhythm still now, Matt, because you do you do have a lot on your plate. Yeah. So you make sure you balance that with a lot of rest. You mentioned Sabbath. What does that look like for you, man? When you when you said that your face lit up. Tell us about your Mondays. What do you do?

00;15;05;03 - 00;15;21;27
Matt Prater
Yeah. So we drop the kids at school and, and then my wife and I, we'll often, we'll just go and do an Aldi shop. Oh, yeah. Just, you know, get the groceries ready for the week, you know, and we enjoy that, you know, and, and then we'll, we'll often go out for lunch together or have a meal at home.

00;15;22;00 - 00;15;42;22
Matt Prater
Sometimes watch a movie, sometimes go for a walk, you know, go, go swimming. We'll go laps at the local pool. You know, we might drive to the beach if we're feeling adventurous, you know, and just chilling out and then, you know, Monday night as well. Just, a family meal together, you know, we try and have meals around the table regularly, but, you know, just try and really enjoy the day.

00;15;42;24 - 00;15;55;17
Matt Prater
Because, you know, a pastor's life often you got things in the mornings, often you got things at nights. And you got to really just balance your time. Well. And there's actually a sermon that really helped me in that time from Andy Stanley.

00;15;55;19 - 00;15;56;10
Dave Quak 
Oh yeah. Yeah.

00;15;56;13 - 00;16;17;29
Matt Prater
So he, he talked about how when he started his church, he was just working 24 seven and his wife had a couple of little kids and she said, honey, this isn't working. He said, well, what's going to work, honey? And she said, if you're home between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. every night, to bath, the kids have dinner, put the kids to bed.

00;16;18;01 - 00;16;37;04
Matt Prater
I don't care how late you're at, how earlier at just if you're home in that 4 to 6 period or 4 to 7 or whatever it was, you know. And so I've actually tried to follow that principle as well. My daily routine is often I'll take the kids to school and then work all day, and then I'll try and pick up the kids from school and try and be home in the afternoon and for dinner.

00;16;37;07 - 00;16;58;18
Matt Prater
Yeah. And then if I've got a night meeting, I'll go out at night, you know. But I'm, I'm pretty regular at being home around that 4 to 7 period, at least during the daytime. Yeah. Because you just, you gotta make sure that your, your family is your first shape, you know? Yeah, sure. You've got to care about shaping your church because not if you're not doing it in your own family.

00;16;58;20 - 00;17;03;25
Matt Prater
You're basically a hypocrite, you know? So you've got to you've got to make sure you're present and at home as much as you can.

00;17;03;28 - 00;17;10;15
Dave Quak 
And what a blessing you can, you know, negotiate you'll rhythms like that. That's right at the right times.

00;17;10;16 - 00;17;21;09
Matt Prater
Yep, yep. That's the good thing about being a pastor, too, you know, is that, you know, you you have the boss, you know, you can make the calls, you know. Yeah. But it doesn't always work. There are times when you've got emergencies and.

00;17;21;15 - 00;17;22;14
Dave Quak 
Crisis and.

00;17;22;16 - 00;17;44;20
Matt Prater
Everything, but, I try to make that. And I've trained my staff and my team to know, you know, my days is a Sabbath day. Let's, you know, trying to be with the family around dinner times as much as possible, you know, so we, you know, it's all about just planning ahead and organizing your schedule so that you're not, you know, because we're so busy, there's the chaos of busyness in this day and age.

00;17;44;24 - 00;18;01;00
Matt Prater
Yeah. And it's it's not healthy. It's not I love the the message version of the Bible, you know, you know, that scripture that says, Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Yeah. I think the message version says we've got to have the unforced rhythms of grace. Yes, it does.

00;18;01;00 - 00;18;03;17
Matt Prater
Isn't that beautiful? I love that it's what we need, you know.

00;18;03;19 - 00;18;21;14
Dave Quak 
Unforced rhythms of grace. And it seems to be catching on around the world, like the practicing the way guys in the States like John Mark, I mean, there's a bunch of guys, Tyler, Stan, all these people writing into the, yeah, rhythms of life, saying it's not holy to just flog yourself. It's not a badge of honor to kill yourself in Jesus name.

00;18;21;14 - 00;18;27;24
Dave Quak 
And that's right. You know, it's not. It used to be seen that way. And I'm so glad people are starting to see that. That's the way it was.

00;18;27;26 - 00;18;30;28
Matt Prater
And one of the guys that really impacted me, and this is Pastor Wayne Cordero.

00;18;31;02 - 00;18;34;23
Dave Quak 
Or do this now. Yeah. I have to shout out, you know, Wayne Dyer.

00;18;34;24 - 00;18;37;16
Matt Prater
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's my boss. I know there's another thing.

00;18;37;16 - 00;18;43;10
Dave Quak 
Matt prayed he to do is hang out with Wayne for the Euro on his, on history makers. It's a great interview with him.

00;18;43;11 - 00;18;45;02
Matt Prater
Oh, yeah. He's amazing.

00;18;45;08 - 00;18;45;26
Dave Quak 
Tell us about.

00;18;45;26 - 00;19;07;05
Matt Prater
That. So he's the founder of the new Hope church movement. And he, used to have a megachurch in Hawaii that 15,000 people, he's now moved over to Eugene, Oregon, and he's got a church of about, 2000, and, he's a great man of God, but he had a big burnout. And years ago, he spoke at the Global Leadership Summit.

00;19;07;05 - 00;19;12;29
Matt Prater
A lot of people would have heard that message. Yeah, I the church world. Yeah. And he wrote a book. I'm pretty sure it's called deadly Later running.

00;19;12;29 - 00;19;14;13
Dave Quak 
And that was the name of the sermon as well.

00;19;14;13 - 00;19;15;10
Matt Prater
Yeah, yeah.

00;19;15;10 - 00;19;16;14
Dave Quak 
Deadly to running. Yeah.

00;19;16;20 - 00;19;37;28
Matt Prater
And, and he talked a lot about how he had a burnout. He was physically and mentally exhausted. And, and so the good thing is, is that he has, challenged all the new Hope pastors around the world. There's about 120 new Hope churches around the world. And he's challenged us all to make sure that we have that Sabbath rest, that we don't burn out.

00;19;38;00 - 00;19;59;03
Matt Prater
We're here for a marathon, not a sprint. You know? And, you know, it's that whole. And he talks a lot about the ministry fulcrum. So if you look at a seesaw, you know, sometimes it can be going down to the right, and then sometimes it can be done going down to the left on a seesaw. And he said that the ministry life is like that sometimes.

00;19;59;05 - 00;20;18;01
Matt Prater
You got a lot of ministry and you busy, busy, busy. You've got a conference, you've got a guest preacher, whatever, you know, and you, he said, that's the way it works in, in ministry and in life. But sometimes when that busy life, busy season is over, tip the fulcrum the other way and then lean towards your family.

00;20;18;04 - 00;20;18;23
Dave Quak 
Yeah.

00;20;18;25 - 00;20;35;19
Matt Prater
You got to make sure you got regular balance between family and ministry. Because if it's all ministry, your family is going to suffer. If it's your family, your minister will suffer as well. You know, there's there's got to be a balance between the two. And so I've always tried to have a healthy balance between how much time I'm doing church stuff and family stuff.

00;20;35;19 - 00;20;35;22
Matt Prater
You know.

00;20;35;22 - 00;20;47;28
Dave Quak 
I love that man. You know, one of my favorite jokes is in that sermon where he talks about hell is on a silent retreat, and then he sneaks out. Do you remember this? And he comes back and he's mates. Like, did they get in trouble? They didn't say.

00;20;48;01 - 00;20;50;16
Matt Prater
You know what, that's good.

00;20;50;20 - 00;20;58;22
Dave Quak 
That was good. And, I just love that. It is a great sermon. You can see that online as well. Did later running. Yep. Wayne Caldera I think it's like 2007 or something.

00;20;58;27 - 00;21;00;22
Matt Prater
That reminds me of a good joke to go do it.

00;21;00;22 - 00;21;04;04
Dave Quak 
You. It's not a Matt Prater chat unless it's a dad joke. I got to.

00;21;04;04 - 00;21;25;00
Matt Prater
Drop the joke. Well, so there was this, guy at a silent retreat and he was only allowed to say two words every year. And, the first year goes by and he says to the head priest, he says, bed hard. That's all he said. First. Another year goes by, he has his two words and he says, food bad.

00;21;25;00 - 00;21;42;26
Matt Prater
That was it. And then the third year goes by, he says, I'm quitting. And he left. And the the head monk said to the head priest, he said, I can't believe he's gone. And the head press said, yeah, well, all he ever did was whinge. And the truth is, you know, we've got to be wise with their words.

00;21;42;26 - 00;21;50;13
Matt Prater
Yeah, we've got to make sure that we're speaking life and we're being a blessing. But night, I don't know how I'd go to Silent retreat. That would be very difficult, I think.

00;21;50;13 - 00;21;58;29
Dave Quak 
I think I'd like it for a while, but I think I'd be, like, weighing whether I could handle it for a couple of days, and I'd be sneaking out a little bit in the in the sermon. He's like, at the coffee shop. Hey, how are you doing?

00;21;58;29 - 00;22;01;13
Matt Prater
Like walking around the place talking to everyone?

00;22;01;16 - 00;22;23;14
Dave Quak 
That's right. A couple of days ago, Matt, you wrote an awesome post just about emerging pulses. It was good. Really good. Well-thought through long post too. And I read it all because I'm interested in your thoughts on emerging vocational ministers. So my theology, and I'm sure you're probably the same, is that all Christians are in ministry. You know, we're all called to bring Jesus wherever we go.

00;22;23;17 - 00;22;39;05
Dave Quak 
But there's also those called to vocational ministry. Yeah. And so you wrote a big post on that. What are your thoughts on that end to twofold questions. What are your thoughts on that for emerging leaders and what advice would you give them in light of your time in your early 30s?

00;22;39;08 - 00;22;58;20
Matt Prater
Yeah. Good. So firstly, that post I did is actually a chapter from my book. Right? So I did a book called History Makers Devotions, Dad Jokes and downloads. Yes. And that's one of the whole it's a whole chapter in that book. Amazing chapter. Yeah. I actually would actually would like to write a whole book on just that subject because it's amazing.

00;22;58;20 - 00;23;18;08
Matt Prater
It's very dear to my heart. Yeah. So I wouldn't be in ministry today if it wasn't for a few guys that believed in me. I, was a I became a youth at the age of 17 because there was a guy at my school who was a youth leader in grade 12. I was in grade 11 at the time.

00;23;18;10 - 00;23;36;16
Matt Prater
And he said, Matt, I reckon you should be my assistant youth leader. So he trained me up, raise me up. And then when he left and I was in year 12, I became the youth leader at the local, Wesley Methodist Church in Qatar. But back in the day, you know, and then, I wanted to go into ministry straightaway.

00;23;36;19 - 00;23;55;04
Matt Prater
And, I remember an adult youth pastor friend of mine, he said, no, Matt, go and get a job in the real world for a bit. First, because otherwise you live in church world your whole life. And so I started working in commercial radio. I was selling advertising and commercial radio, and it actually really opened my eyes to what the world is like.

00;23;55;04 - 00;24;13;00
Matt Prater
You know, it was all about money was a little bit, you know, they're all sleeping around. It was all about drinking on a Friday afternoon. It was all about night club and and, you know, and, as a squeaky clean Christian kid, it was very eye opening, working in commercial radio for a couple of years. So it was actually really good for me.

00;24;13;02 - 00;24;38;02
Matt Prater
Yeah. To get a bit of business acumen, a bit of experience under my belt before I got into church world, so to speak. Yeah. So I then ended up being a youth pastor employed, and I've worked in Christian radio my whole life, too. So, radio full stop my whole life. So I do believe that, there are some people who are called to vocational ministry, so, you know, they're called to business.

00;24;38;02 - 00;24;48;21
Matt Prater
Will they called to, be a sportsperson or they're called to, you know, work in the in the workplace and be a Christian, in that sphere.

00;24;48;22 - 00;24;50;04
Dave Quak 
Like an incarnation ministry.

00;24;50;05 - 00;25;23;28
Matt Prater
I think. And I definitely believe that. Yeah. But one of the reasons I wrote that chapter is because I think there's a lot of people that think pastoring is too hard. They think being in ministry is too much. It doesn't pay enough. It's too hard, because there's been so many pastors that have burnt out, so many pastors that have failed morally, so many pastors that have, you know, I think in Australia, there's 13,000 pastors and 13,000 pastors.

00;25;24;01 - 00;25;34;03
Matt Prater
And out of those pastors, I think like 90% of them want something either finished because of burnout, financial problems or immorality.

00;25;34;08 - 00;25;34;18
Dave Quak 
Yeah.

00;25;34;18 - 00;25;59;20
Matt Prater
Which is heartbreaking. Yeah. It is. As pastors, you know, if you look at the track record, we don't finish. Well, and, we need to be thinking long term in our ministry. And so back to the back to the recruiting of pastors, I, I wrote that post. I wrote that chapter because I believe that there are so many people that are actually called to minister, to be a minister in a church or in ministry somewhere.

00;25;59;22 - 00;26;10;03
Matt Prater
Who have never been nudged to do it. And that article was with me nudging people. Yeah. And you wouldn't believe the number of people that contacted me after posting it.

00;26;10;03 - 00;26;13;05
Dave Quak 
Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, you could see in the lakes and that blew up.

00;26;13;05 - 00;26;30;01
Matt Prater
Yeah, yeah. A lot of people, they just have never been nudged or they've never been off, never been given the opportunity, you know. Yeah. I'm, I'm only in ministry today because there was a few guys in my 20s that said, Matt, I believe you're called to be a preacher. You call to be an evangelist. You called to be in radio ministry, whatever, you know.

00;26;30;03 - 00;26;51;19
Matt Prater
And they believed in me. They nudged me. They were like my Paul. I was like, They're Timothy and I. And they encouraged me to step into it. And so that's something that's a big part of my calling as well. I love doing the ministry, but I'm in the age. I'm 49 now, Mike. You know, I'm getting on, you know, I feel like my calling is to also raise up mainly in ministry.

00;26;51;23 - 00;27;10;20
Matt Prater
Yeah. So that's something that, you know, if I'm not multiplying what I'm doing, you know, I'm not really being effective. So I'm all about raising up the next generation. And, you know, we've got a mentoring group at our church, like there's probably about 40 people. We've got two mentoring groups in our church where we're mentoring all these emerging leaders.

00;27;10;22 - 00;27;15;02
Matt Prater
Some of them one blokes 82. Yeah. Like they're not just young people. Oh what.

00;27;15;02 - 00;27;15;15
Dave Quak 
A legend.

00;27;15;15 - 00;27;32;28
Matt Prater
Yeah, he's he's a this guy actually comes out with me to visit homeless shelters every year. This 82 year old is amazing, you know. Yeah. So it does it doesn't have to be young. We just. Anyone that wants to be a leader, we need to equip them, mentor them, raise them, raise them up, kick them out of the nest, give them opportunities to preach and, yeah, lead things in.

00;27;32;28 - 00;27;53;04
Matt Prater
Whatever. Because I'm a big believer in learning on the job. Yeah. It's great to get your theology training in your bottom triangle. That's important. But you got to get the on the ground training as well. I'm all about incarnational ministry, releasing people. Yeah. Getting the, you know, the meetings on the street, as John maybe used to say, getting them out there, doing it, doing the stuff, doing the stuff.

00;27;53;06 - 00;28;13;00
Dave Quak 
That's doing the stuff now, it's it's so important that in our movement, we have we've had to correct mistakes from the past over the last few years because we're not seeing those younger leaders come through. Yeah. As we used to. Yeah. And so even like our ordination process used to be so rigorous that you didn't get to be in vocational ministry.

00;28;13;01 - 00;28;27;27
Dave Quak 
Yeah, right. Until you been down this academic pathway for ages, like you just said, I'm not against theological training, but now we've kind of revamped it where you can be like provisionally registered with just a few subjects under your belt to get going. Yeah. Because like you said, on the job training is where it's at.

00;28;27;27 - 00;28;28;18
Matt Prater
Yeah, yeah.

00;28;28;19 - 00;28;36;20
Dave Quak 
You know, that's where you figure it out. That's where you figure out your anointing and your gifting and, and fail and do it well and have fun in the process.

00;28;36;20 - 00;28;52;24
Matt Prater
And, and let me just tell you, one of the biggest lessons I've learned on that topic, you know, when lockdown happened. Yeah. With our soup kitchen at our church, we weren't allowed to have people in the building, so we're like, all right, Lord, what do we do? And we realized we were an essential service. I'm like, this is good on essential.

00;28;52;24 - 00;29;01;07
Matt Prater
You know, every other pastor was doing zoom and, you know, Facebook Live. I had the busiest six months of my life when lockdown happened.

00;29;01;08 - 00;29;01;27
Dave Quak 
Okay.

00;29;02;00 - 00;29;20;16
Matt Prater
We just went out. We, we, put our gloves and masks on. Everyone thought they were going to die, you know, but we didn't care. We were just like, let's go. And we started going out to homeless shelters. Yeah. And, we had about 30 of us, and we just go out every Friday to visit all the homeless shelters around the inner city of Brisbane.

00;29;20;18 - 00;29;42;19
Matt Prater
And the Lord really spoke to me and said, it's like when Jesus sent out the 72, he said, go preach the gospel, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, you know? Yeah. So the kingdom of God is at hand. Lay, you know, just bring a backpack, you know, travel light, basically. Look for the person of peace. And, if if, someone rejects your message, shake the dust off, you take off to the next one, you know?

00;29;42;19 - 00;29;56;29
Matt Prater
And. Yeah, let me tell you, when you're out there doing stuff in ministry, you get lots of rejections. Yeah, shake it off. Like the philosopher Taylor Swift said, just shake it off and, and just move on to the next, That was for my girls anyway. Yeah. But, yeah.

00;29;57;01 - 00;29;58;28
Dave Quak 
Yeah. Some of my friends will be glad.

00;29;58;28 - 00;30;18;25
Matt Prater
Yeah. It is. Might be happy as well. But, kind of keep everyone happy anyway. What was I saying? Yeah. So, and I just learned that on the job training. Yeah. So important to raise people up in ministry. And here we are five years later, we're still doing that. And I learned that that on the job training is still so important.

00;30;18;28 - 00;30;40;15
Matt Prater
So every Friday we still do that. We still have our community meal. At 1030 Friday morning. We have about 30 or 40 people for the meal. And then at 1130 we all pray and we go out in our cars. Yeah, I take about 6 or 7 people with me every Friday, and we go and visit about eight boarding houses.

00;30;40;17 - 00;31;05;25
Matt Prater
We offer them food, we offer them Bibles. We have wood for today, devotionals from Vision Radio. We pray for them, and sometimes they'll get up and do a two minute gospel message and do an altar call. You will? Yep. Oh, sometimes I'll do it there. Sometimes it's, we'll just do one on one. But but we'll we'll hand out fliers, we'll invite them to church, you know, and it's, it's, you know, I reckon for the church to truly be the church, you going to get outside of the four walls of the church, you know?

00;31;05;28 - 00;31;22;04
Matt Prater
So, every Friday I'm often taking, like, I'll have a guest speaker on Fridays off and I'll take them with me. And the sad thing is some guest speakers, they'll preach at the soup kitchen, but they won't come out to the streets with me. And that breaks my heart.

00;31;22;05 - 00;31;22;17
Dave Quak 
Okay?

00;31;22;19 - 00;31;42;21
Matt Prater
I'm like, guys, this is important anyway, so I'm not going to get off my hobbyhorse there. But I'm often taking the guest preacher or new volunteers that have joined, and I'm training them on the job as we go. I'm saying these homeless shelters all around the city, this is a harvest field. These guys are sitting in there all day doing nothing, getting into trouble.

00;31;42;24 - 00;31;59;09
Matt Prater
And they love it when we come because we bring food, we bring a smile, we bring love. And, our goal is to actually get them out of those shelters into either rehab or into, another place, because they they are dens of iniquity. They're just full of trouble these places.

00;31;59;10 - 00;32;00;11
Dave Quak 
Oh that's right. Yeah, yeah.

00;32;00;13 - 00;32;11;19
Matt Prater
We want to get them out there, you know. So that's how hot and and so I'm constantly training and rising up emerging ladies on the job every Friday. And you know Sundays is okay. But Friday is my favorite I, I love it.

00;32;11;19 - 00;32;15;12
Dave Quak 
I was just going to say I bet you Fridays is the holiday week. Hey, you got.

00;32;15;12 - 00;32;16;27
Matt Prater
To come with me one more week. Oh. Like yeah.

00;32;16;28 - 00;32;26;04
Dave Quak 
Yeah, man. I'll come along. I'm actually doing a message next week at, rehab down in the Gold Coast. With a lot of the the clients in that transformation.

00;32;26;05 - 00;32;27;28
Matt Prater
It is. Right? Right. They have. Yeah.

00;32;27;28 - 00;32;37;06
Dave Quak 
Yeah. So they do, chapel every Tuesday morning. So I'm going to go and do that. And it's good because you can be reckless with the gospel and tell your story as raw as you like. And they resonate with it.

00;32;37;06 - 00;32;55;22
Matt Prater
That's right. I actually found a number of years ago that, when we started our soup kitchen, which we call it a community meal. Now, when we started, it, I actually felt the Lord really challenged me of the parable. The king's banquet. Okay. You know, the the king invited all the rich people, and they didn't come.

00;32;55;23 - 00;33;16;28
Matt Prater
And he sent the servants out to the highways and byways to the poor, the lame and the crippled compelled them to come. And that's why we call our community meal the king's table, because we're inviting people to the table of the king, and we're going out to the highways and the byways. And, you know, I've found that that crowd are very open to the gospel.

00;33;17;01 - 00;33;25;24
Matt Prater
They're open to, coming into the church, open to a meal. They're open to a sitting and talking with them. We do this thing called the Discovery Bible method.

00;33;26;01 - 00;33;27;13
Dave Quak 
Oh that's awesome I love it.

00;33;27;16 - 00;33;46;25
Matt Prater
They're open to us sitting down and reading through the scriptures with them and having a chat about it. Yeah. Whereas a lot of us is actually on open, a lot of us these a very cynical and jaded and the wall comes up when, whenever they find out you're a Christian. But that crowd, they're open. Yeah. And, you know, it's it's bit like the scripture, you know, that, the, the well, don't need a doctor.

00;33;47;03 - 00;34;05;12
Matt Prater
It's the sick that need, you know, the gospel basically, you know, so so I love and that's my people. I love getting out there. And for us to that crowd and, you know, years ago I had an opportunity to do some TV ministry, and I was pretty pumped about it at the time. I actually felt the Lord say, that's not your call, man.

00;34;05;19 - 00;34;23;24
Matt Prater
This is your call. Wow. Go lower. Get out on the streets and do this. And so I felt, I felt that door close. This is the door the Lord open, and, I love it. And then I reckon if every church in Australia got out and actually, with the hands and feet of Jesus helping those, you know, the homeless crisis crazy, you know.

00;34;23;25 - 00;34;30;03
Matt Prater
Yeah. Every Christian got out and did that. We'd see a transformation and and I yeah, absolutely.

00;34;30;06 - 00;34;49;09
Dave Quak 
You'd see that for sure. One of the guys in my church is his biggest bugbear with church history is when we outsourced our social justice to the state, where it used to be our churches responsibility. We used to be responsible for the sick and the poor and the broken and the homeless. Yeah, yeah. You know, I know it's got I mean, this that's fraught with complications.

00;34;49;09 - 00;34;59;23
Dave Quak 
But I love his his heart for that. Yeah. And look, we were that's how we started. That's why all the hospitals are like this and. Yeah, Holy Spirit that and stuff is because the Christians used to be the best at all.

00;34;59;23 - 00;35;16;29
Matt Prater
This. Yeah, absolutely. So true. Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting that if you do look at the top 25 charities in Australia, 23 of them, faith based. Yeah. So, you know, thank God for that, you know. Yeah. And I just think every church needs to be activated in that, you know, like our church is known for that.

00;35;16;29 - 00;35;41;18
Matt Prater
Now, you know, people people think of new hope, vision of God. Yeah, that's the church that does all the stuff for the homeless, you know, and, I think in 2024, that's what Jesus to be doing on the streets of Brisbane, you know, quick story on that. I did a wedding a while back, for this couple that was from shelters, and, they invited me down to Fortitude Valley to a pub after it, for the reception.

00;35;41;20 - 00;35;55;22
Matt Prater
And, for those who don't know, Fortitude Valley, it's mentioned in Psalm 23. The Valley of the shadow of Death in a bit of a rough area. Anyway, so down in the valley in this pub and, they asked me to say grace. So I stood up and said, father, bless this food, bless everyone here in Jesus name, Amen.

00;35;55;25 - 00;36;20;06
Matt Prater
And you know, I've got a bit of a loud voice you might have noticed. Anyway, as soon as I said I'm in, there's a lady standing next to me and she says, father, can I please confess my sins? So I said, yes. My daughter. And I said, what are you doing? Yeah. So she started confessing her sins and I said, do you know the Bible says, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

00;36;20;08 - 00;36;38;04
Matt Prater
I said, would you like to give you a heart to Jesus? And she goes, what? Here? I said, yeah, she said, now. I said, yeah, that's it. Okay. So I held a hands in that pub and I let her to Jesus. And then another lady, overhearing it, stood behind her and said, father, can I please confess my sins?

00;36;38;05 - 00;36;38;24
Dave Quak 
Come on.

00;36;38;24 - 00;36;46;02
Matt Prater
I said, yes. My daughter went through the same thing again. There was a lineup of 4 or 5 people that afternoon that I prayed for at that pub.

00;36;46;02 - 00;36;46;22
Dave Quak 
Yeah, nice.

00;36;46;22 - 00;36;59;29
Matt Prater
And aroma was a bit later. I said, honey, I'm going to be a bit late. I got these people that, you know, what's a prayer at the pub? And she said to me, honey, you stay there because that's what Jesus would be doing. Yeah. And when she said that, something broke in my heart. You know, as pastors, we can do all these things.

00;36;59;29 - 00;37;18;09
Matt Prater
Board meeting and staff meetings and building meetings and then. But we can have death by meeting as pastors, you know. Yeah. But what what would Jesus be doing in 2024? Where would he be? Yeah, he'd be around the lepers, the prostitutes, the tax collectors. The last, the least in the lost. Yeah. And that's who we're called to go.

00;37;18;09 - 00;37;23;07
Matt Prater
Every believer is called to go lower. Go lower. If you don't know where to start, go lower.

00;37;23;07 - 00;37;25;25
Dave Quak 
Yeah. It's the old vineyard route staying with you.

00;37;25;26 - 00;37;26;06
Matt Prater
That's it.

00;37;26;06 - 00;37;41;17
Dave Quak 
My like I loved when Wimber and I loved when he was early saved. And he was just trying to figure out how to do Christianity. Yeah. So he just went out and just started doing street ministry and leading people to Jesus. That's it. You remember the story where he led his first guy to Jesus? He was a drunk God is like, we got one.

00;37;41;17 - 00;37;44;08
Dave Quak 
He's so exciting because it looks so well.

00;37;44;11 - 00;37;45;02
Matt Prater
Yeah, I love it.

00;37;45;02 - 00;37;58;20
Dave Quak 
I love it, man. Matt, we're getting to the end of our chat, sadly. But you said before you're 40 on what is Matt Prater at 59? Do you have any aspirations for the next decade, for your life, for your family, for your church?

00;37;58;22 - 00;38;24;27
Matt Prater
Very good question. So I am in a place where I feel like the Lord has, pushed me to step out of my comfort zone a bit, you know, I've been talking to my church a lot about this, and I've been talking to the television radio about this as well. So I've got a little ads running on the radio at the moment saying, if you want to book that provider to come to your town, he's, he can come.

00;38;24;27 - 00;38;50;13
Matt Prater
We can do youth group meetings, schools, evangelism training, men's breakfasts. We can take a team and, to combined church events, you know, I feel like the Lord is, stirring me to step out and do more traveling ministry. Yeah. And, I want to do it with the blessing of my church. You know, I don't want to leave my church and do it yet.

00;38;50;13 - 00;38;51;13
Dave Quak 
So staying at new Hope.

00;38;51;14 - 00;39;11;00
Matt Prater
Yep. I want new Hope to send me out. And, And I want to bring change a lot. So my wife and I went to Dalby, earlier this year, we saw 106 people come to Christ. Are you kidding? Four days. Yeah. That's wild. Preach. Seven times across the weekend. Youth groups, schools, men's breakfast. My wife spoke at a women's breakfast.

00;39;11;02 - 00;39;26;24
Matt Prater
We did a combined church outreach with the Jesus Revolution movie and the main street of Davina. Come on, I did an old school after it. And, you know, this little gorgeous town in Queensland came together in unity. You know, my mate Andrew McLennan, who, you know. Yeah. He's preaching there again soon, doing the same thing.

00;39;26;26 - 00;39;31;09
Matt Prater
And every six months they're going to try and have someone there doing the same kind of thing.

00;39;31;09 - 00;39;31;24
Dave Quak 
That's awesome.

00;39;31;24 - 00;39;51;27
Matt Prater
And so I reckon if we as pastors and evangelists and preachers, stepped out to these little towns around Australia. Oh big cities, doesn't matter where, we just need to do more events like this. I've been inspired by Will Graham, Billy Graham's grandson. Yeah. He's come out to Australia several times, and most every time he's come out.

00;39;51;27 - 00;40;14;11
Matt Prater
I've been doing the media with him. So I was first with him, at, Broken Hill. Then he went to Kalgoorlie, then Alice Springs and Hobart, and it's time I was there watching the way he did it. What he does is he makes sure that the minister is on board first, and then they're in unity, and then they train them and equip them, to be prepared for the harvest.

00;40;14;14 - 00;40;32;18
Matt Prater
They do the weekend and people get saved, and then they do alpha courses and Christianity explained and follow up, you know, and so there's ongoing discipleship, you know, and I reckon that model, you know, people say our crusade evangelism is over. That's, you know, that's from Billy Graham in the 50s and 60s. It's still happening today.

00;40;32;18 - 00;40;52;03
Matt Prater
Now, Bill Newman, he does it around Australia still. You know, he does around the world. You know, I, I feel that's part of my calling. And the good thing is, wherever I go, I can do lots of social media stuff. Yeah, I can do interviews, to put on the radio. I can, you know, also get, you know, something going because, you know, leadership isn't just what you achieve.

00;40;52;03 - 00;41;11;02
Matt Prater
It's what you set in motion. And what I want to do is I want to all the towns I go to, I want to see something start that continues. Yeah. And I believe if we activate, churches like this, we'll see a great move of God. So that's my my heart for revival in Australia. My heart is to see souls saved, to see churches in unity.

00;41;11;08 - 00;41;28;00
Matt Prater
So I've already got a few places lined up. I'm going to, But that's part of my dream for the future, I reckon in ten years time, hopefully I'll look back and go, yep, a guy that a good crack? Yep. I'll go out there and, you know, we saw a difference in our nation. That's part of my dream.

00;41;28;00 - 00;41;39;15
Dave Quak 
I love that ten year plan. That's a I mean, that's a good ten year plan. If anyone listening is from a town and I want to ask you and your wife to come, how do they get in contact with you? What's your best way to organize all this? Yep.

00;41;39;17 - 00;42;04;16
Matt Prater
So probably better. Best going to the new Hope church website. So it's new Hope brisbane.com. You can email me through the church website. I'm on social media. So pretty much every social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Yeah. Pokemon Go, I'm on the whole lot, you know, just search me up and, we're all so, very passionate to, to go at no cost as well.

00;42;04;16 - 00;42;17;24
Matt Prater
So, you know, a lot of, a lot of people go, how much is it going to cost? You know, we'll go at, and we'll pay our own way. But if you want to do a love offering, we'll accept it. But we don't want to, because a lot of people think, oh, that's going to cost a lot, you know?

00;42;17;24 - 00;42;22;12
Matt Prater
So so that's the thing we want to go and we want to. So in today's town really? Yep. Just want to make that clear as well.

00;42;22;19 - 00;42;25;21
Dave Quak 
Well so they can pay if they choose to. But if they don't have a budget you'll still.

00;42;25;25 - 00;42;42;24
Matt Prater
We'll just cover it. We'll work it out. Yep, yep. Because it's so good. There's people that really believe in this that that is sowing into it, you know. So yeah. So that's part of our that's part of my vision. So yeah. Contact me through social media or through new Hope brisbane.com. Or you can search up History Makers Radio.com for the History Makers podcast.

00;42;42;24 - 00;42;43;24
Matt Prater
If you listen to that as well.

00;42;43;24 - 00;43;01;16
Dave Quak 
So the History Makers podcast is great. Just a plug on that. They're normally like 15 to 20 minute chats and all different guests. Really cool. Just one last thing. Since you always been the guy who's done stuff where I'm like, how did God hook that up? Tell the listeners, who were your first three interviews on History Maker?

00;43;01;19 - 00;43;18;10
Matt Prater
Okay, because this just blew me out. Yeah. So I firstly interviewed Kevin Rudd. Was that before? Yeah, he was then the, foreign minister, shadow foreign minister, John Anderson, who was the deputy prime minister of Australia at the time.

00;43;18;10 - 00;43;21;21
Dave Quak 
Yeah, I've seen him speak. He shredded. He's a really good communicator, a legend there.

00;43;21;22 - 00;43;23;25
Matt Prater
Yeah. He does a podcast, you know. Yeah, yeah.

00;43;24;02 - 00;43;27;08
Dave Quak 
I asked him if he'd come on mine, but I didn't get a response. Surprisingly.

00;43;27;08 - 00;43;43;21
Matt Prater
Okay, okay. Just something might come up. And then there was also Tim Costello, who was the CEO of World Vision at the time. Yeah. And also Marina Prior. He's an opera singer. And sings at Christmas carols. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a they were all speaking at a Scripture Union Queensland event and I interviewed all of them.

00;43;43;21 - 00;43;45;13
Matt Prater
My first ever interviews for history.

00;43;45;13 - 00;43;45;22
Dave Quak 
Yeah. That's.

00;43;45;22 - 00;43;51;04
Matt Prater
Well, yeah. So that was pretty, pretty cool how, the Lord put me in the right place at the right time to interview those guys.

00;43;51;06 - 00;44;04;12
Dave Quak 
He does that when you step out his. And it's just the Matt Prater. It's been an epic honor for me to have you on the show. I really enjoy you and and what God's doing in your life. Could you pray for us as we wind up today?

00;44;04;18 - 00;44;26;00
Matt Prater
Heavenly father, thank you for Dave. And, he's amazing. Sunburnt Souls podcast, bless his family, bless his, church. Bless everyone listening right now. God, I pray for those people that are listening that, far from you, that, hardhearted towards you. That, away from you. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit will touch them right now and they'll come back to you.

00;44;26;03 - 00;44;47;06
Matt Prater
I probably just soften people's hearts right now. But for those that might be struggling with burnout or, that, overloaded and that are stressed and worried, I pray that they'll come to you and find the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So I pray, father, you pray Holy Spirit and bless every person listening to this right now.

00;44;47;08 - 00;45;04;13
Matt Prater
And we do pray for revival in our nation. Yeah. And, that you'll revive your church, send out your church to be an army that are the hands and feet of Jesus all across this nation. We just commit every person listening to you. Bless this day, bless every person listening in Jesus name. And everyone said.

00;45;04;15 - 00;45;07;14
Dave Quak 
Amen. Amen, Matt. Pray to. Thank you very much, brother.

00;45;07;15 - 00;45;13;28
Matt Prater
Thanks. My God bless.

00;45;14;00 - 00;45;37;11
Dave Quak 
For more candid conversations on faith and mental well-being, check out some bentos.com. You can subscribe to our podcast on any major provider, or contact us directly to book us to preach or speak. Some of that souls is a faith based ministry, and we want to thank everybody so far for their generous support. If you want to get behind us, pray our message reaches the ears of those that need to hear it.

00;45;37;14 - 00;45;47;05
Dave Quak 
Feel free to donate financially online, but if you feel obliged or manipulated to give you better off sharing a loved one a coffee instead. I'm Dave Clark from Sunburned Souls.