This is the Truth Network. There's an old adage in business: network or don't work. That's not just true in business, Pastor Nathan. The Liberty Church Network. It's true in churches, we got to stick together, brother.
Why is that so important?
Well, if it's network or don't work, we're here to work. I love it. We're here to encourage pastors to keep pastors connected. We talk about community and and the importance of being connected in our churches. We got to do it as pastors as well.
So we got to learn how to encourage each other, to equip each other, pick each other up, challenge each other, sharpen each other. All that happens through the Liberty Church Network happens here at the ref. Conference that we're sitting at right now in Lynchburg, Virginia, hanging out with great leaders and pastors all over the country. It's been an incredible two days. I love it.
And what happens is you end up having a good kind of meeting soup, you know, because what would vegetable soup be if there weren't those delicious soft carrots and chunks of green beans, right? And maybe a little beef and other things.
Well, vegetable soup, but you know what I'm talking about. Got a little bit of everything.
So I got with me Pastor Nathan, who pastors in Winston Salem Revo Church, right? You guys got how many campuses? What's God doing there? Three. Campuses right now, man, just trying to ride the wave and be faithful to what God's called us to do.
Seeing lives changed by Jesus never gets old. But just like no man is an island. No church should be an island. Like we got to bond together, and that's what you're doing with this LCN, this Liberty Church Network, right? That's kind of the that's kind of the the the infrastructure behind this refuel.
Obviously hosted here, Pastor Jonathan, so gracious. The folks at Thomas Road open their doors. They lay lay out the red carpet. They don't even charge for this event. They feed us Chick fil A, is all that stuff.
But really, the essence of that is to do what? This is an opportunity for pastors to come in, like you said, free of charge. Don't know how they're coming in the door.
Some of them encouraged and excited about the previous season.
Some. Of them, honestly, ready to quit, ready to throw in the towel. We get emails every year from pastors saying, "I was ready to be done, and when I walked into the door, like God spoke to me, stirred something up in my heart." We want to do that not only here at Refuel, but we actually have local centers, gatherings of pastors all over the country that meet once a month to encourage, build up, challenge each other, be better disciple makers.
So we're doing it on a big scale here in Lynchburg, but but also in smaller settings all over the country. If your church wants to be a part of this network, we're going to tell you how in just a little bit. But first, someone wants to know your birthday, Pastor Nathan, and they want to know it right now because he is Doctor Date the Word Carson.
Someone else wants to challenge your church to do more evangelism. Imagine if eighty percent of your Connors were actively sharing their faith every week. He is Jesse, share the truth, Connors. But first, Dr. Carson, pop the question, brother.
Well, Nate, when's your birthday? We don't need the year. We just want another date. Six twenty-five, and I have received enough encouragement and texts from a certain particular date. The word that I know.
Not gonna mention names. He's got a verse that's gonna challenge me and encourage me right now.
Okay, June twenty-fifth. Maybe Hebrews actually, or no numbers? What you got? Number six twenty-five. Oh, here we go.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. I don't know if it could be a better verse for someone who's trying to do the work of the Lord. The Lord make His face shine upon you. That's idea being anointed. You may have prayed that over Samuel for him.
Six twenty five. That's a lucky date, buddy. You were. I'm telling you right now. God knew when you were born that day.
It was it was Labor Day for your mom, but it was a good day for all of us when when Pastor Nathan was born on six twenty five and. Dr. Carson, that's what you are doing, and you encourage pastors. You did a breakout session. How did that go?
Give us a quick, like thirty forty five second summary of that, and what you gave every pastor that was in there as a gift.
Well, we challenge them to speak the word of God to be remembered. We're not speaking to be remembered, but we are speaking the word of God to be remembered because once the word of God is in someone's life, it fastens their life together like well-driven nails. But also, the pastor has that opportunity to prod them along to the word of God to do what God wants them to do.
So we gave that challenge and gave everybody a Thomas wrote purchased my book the day. The word daily devotion and gave it to all the pastors who are here, and we're just trying to stir people up to be getting back into the word because when the word's in you, you fall more in love with the Lord of the word. And we might have a book for this pastor Nathan right here, huh?
Well, you think we got an extra one for him? Yes, sir, we do. Absolutely, we want to bless you, man. And another blessing is if revival breaks out at your church, something about sharing the gospel with someone.
Something about my bad day gets a lot better when I realize that the unbeliever across from me, their bad day is they're going to die and go to hell one day if they don't have Jesus. And suddenly, when I share the gospel with them, Pastor Nathan Jesse Connors, what happens? Share the truth, man. It's like taking a spiritual vitamin. You know, we have a stomach that's that's physical.
We take a vitamin, we feel better because of it. The same is true when you're evangelizing. God just gives you so much passion and love for that person you're talking. And all of a sudden, those problems that you're facing just fade away, Stu. That's so cool.
And so it's just simple. You have a website now, ShareTheTruthNow.com, I believe, and you can order 200 cards. We'll give you a couple, Pastor Nathan. But the idea is, you order the cards, you're free. You hand one to every member of your church.
Say, "Give this card out to one person this week, and just tell them this proves God loves you." What do you say, real quick? Give them the script because we got to go.
Okay, so very quickly, we have a church, a church way to do it, and then a generic card way to do it. The generic card is truelife dot org is on one side. It answers millions of questions. It adapts for unbelievers. If there are, if they're in a conversation with a Muslim, Mormon, Jehovah Witness, whatever it is, there's special videos there with former believers in that worldview.
Talking to them, but it also adapts any question that they have. On top of that, for the generic card, it allows someone to order their own box of cards for free.
Now, for a pastor in a in a church, I love to say that it doesn't matter about the size of the church; it doesn't impress the Lord. What impresses God is how many people are doing evangelism. And in fact, the bigger the church, the more responsibility the pastor has, because Jesus did say, after filling up two boats of fish, "Come, follow me," and I'll make you fishers of men, and we have to ask ourselves how many of the people that we are leading are actually fishers of men, Stu. Wow! And so, Pastor Nathan, this is kind of a a snapshot, like a collage of what people experience at Refuel, because you have all of these exhibitors, like Jesse, like Dave, the Word Carson, that are sharing about their ministry, trying to get the body of Christ going, and sometimes you refuel by getting charged up to get out there.
And be on mission for Christ, right? Absolutely, and we want to connect you with all of the resources, the the people that we had on Main Street here that were interacting with pastors, the resources that we have all available. You can go to refuel dot org, see all of the past sessions, all of the vendors that were here, any of the information that that you need will be right there for you. You know, I drove up just personal testimony. I want to be more transparent, maybe than I normally am.
I drove up thinking, hey, I'm going to connect with Pastor Nathan, do some interviews. You know, I talked to Zach Clinton, Clayton King, all these guys, but I ran in to catch Clayton King's message, and I sat there and I took a page of notes. Landon was with me, our Truth Warrior intern for the day, and I'm telling you that rocked my world. It's like that's what I needed to hear. Here I'm thinking about all these.
Oh, I got to get these guys on the radio. I got to interview these guys. This author over here on discipleship—some great stuff. Oh, I got to hit the green room and get that yummy food and have these breakout sessions with Dr. Carson.
But Nathan, I just tell you, we we have got to in ministry leadership, we got to stop. And we gotta pull up to that gas tank sometimes and fuel up, don't we? Yeah, absolutely. And the thing I like about Clayton is, man, not only was it a powerful message, challenging pastors and leaders in the room, but to your point on evangelism, that's where it starts. Man, like when we leave, re-energized and refueled, it's not just to go home and be a professional pastor, man.
It's to win souls. Man, it's to change the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's to make disciples of all nations. It's hitting all the dots.
So cool. On that on that note, I want To see how easy it is to hand out these cards, one of your people in your church that are that that could be considered very introverted, and all they have to do is say to somebody that hands on something first. And I also wanted to give you this: it's an invitation to my church and a website that proves Jesus loves you, and then the spiritual nourishment comes into their life, and they have a more likely, higher chance to hear well done, good and faithful servant. Because you can't hear well done, good and faithful servant if you're if you're not evangelizing. And then also for for a Stranger, because Jesus's ministry would never have existed if he didn't talk to strangers.
Zacchaeus in the tree, the woman at the well, on and on it goes. The disciples were strangers to begin with. We are supposed to talk to strangers. He was even asked after the greatest commandment, "Who is your neighbor?" Right, love your neighbor as yourself. And he gave the good Samaritan, who was a stranger.
So it's all stranger oriented.
So what? Not all of it, but a lot of it, and we can't overlook that.
So what do we say to a stranger? Is this is on ShareTheTruthNow.com or TrueLife.org? Pastor section. For a pastor to help your church get out there, you just say to a stranger, "I may never see you again, so I wanted to give you this." It's an invitation to my church and a website that proves Jesus loves you.
Okay, I love that, Pastor Nathan. I want you to close us out with a challenge to all the pastors out there and all the people that are in churches. How do they can pray for their pastors who are going through a whole lot as they take care of us? I mean, they're they're doing they're preparing multiple sermons a week for funerals, for weddings. I mean, this is you guys are working hard.
But first, our young truth warrior intern for the day, Land. How did this conference impact you? You came up here to refuel with me. You're like, hey, I'm just going to shout at you, Stu. You're a graduate of LU.
Tell us what you're walking away with and how encouraged you are, real quick. And man, coming to Liberty is like coming back home. You slow down and you realize, man, that this is where it starts. It starts at surrender, and ultimately, I've learned that your surrender must always outweigh your anointing, and to be surrounded by men and women that love Jesus, and to their core, you have to slow down. And acknowledge that God is God and I am not, and that's enough.
And so, what did I find here? I found men that were teachable, coachable, accountable, available, and accepting of the truth, being ready to leave behind everything else and seek the Lord first. I love it, Nathan. Can you send us home with a verse or even a challenge, just to pastors out there, in for how we can better love our pastors? Man, you get up every week, and there is not like Pastor Carson opened his talk today with like, "Hey, I hear the worst joke you can tell is you mean I we pay this guy." All this money, and he only works for thirty minutes a week.
I mean, come on, right? I mean, this is but it's terrible how some people think that way. But give us a challenge, challenge for pastors out there, and challenge for people how to love their pastors and pray for them. Yeah, I think about Acts one eight when when people are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, amazing things happen. Man, would you pray that your pastor daily, not just on Sunday when they're preaching, but daily that they would be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit?
That'll change their family, their marriage, their ministry. They're preaching like everything about your church will will get better when you are led by a spirit filled pastor.
So would you pray for your pastor, man, that that God would just fill them with a fresh fire and a fresh wind, and and and we'll see what God can do. That how He'll change your life through the leadership of of a man or a woman that's filled with Holy Spirit. I want to bring a boatload of people next year. Refuel dot org, right? That's it.
Truth talk.
