44. Bonus Episode: 1 Year Anniversary!

And here we go. And here we go. What's up, James? John, I'm doing great. Glad to be here with you today. And I think we've got a special show today, John. So it's pretty exciting. This is, yeah, this is a bonus episode. It's a bonus episode because this is dropping today on June 11th. Why is June 11th such a significant date? 6-1-1. Is it numerology, John? Are we tying in Revelation or something? 6-1, maybe 11 minus 6. Oh, if we just had a 1. If we just had a 1 before 6. We'd be 16-11, brother. We've got to figure out some type of numerology. I can't believe. Okay. So the reason we're doing this bonus episode is because it's the one-year anniversary of starting this podcast. But I had no idea. I didn't even realize I started it on June 11th. 6-11. But it is 2021, 6-11. So if you do the date year first, you would get 16-11 if you, how you write that. And if you add 1,611 weeks, that's when Jesus is coming back. Amen. Amen. So see, we just showed numerology at its finest right there. Dude, we should write a book. 1,611 reasons why the Lord's coming back. That's awesome. 16-11, baby. That's awesome. Yeah. So this is just a bonus episode to drop and say how thankful we are to everybody that's listened to this podcast and downloaded it and all that jazz. And we're so thankful and humbled, really, that we are where we are with the podcast. And to talk about where we are with the podcast, we'll get to sort of some things that we wanted to sort of praise the Lord for. But, you know, the podcast did start one year ago. I was itching to do something that I think that could help, you know, some people. And, you know, there were other podcasts out there that I think I was not aware of. I was aware of Preacher Boys. I was aware of RFP. But there were a couple of avenues that I thought at the time that maybe I could speak into that weren't exactly getting to in the other ones. And so I was like, well, this was this was the thing. I was like, I'm going to I'm going to do this. And if I'm not getting like 100 downloads for an episode after a month, I'll just call it quits. Nobody's listening. And and that wasn't the case. It wasn't the case at all. And so it was it was actually something that was that's really cool. And it's grown. And of course, my my mind has is just sort of like, oh, what if we did this? What if we did this? What if we did this? And quite honestly, James, the podcast has evolved from where I originally had envisioned and wanted to do when I first started. And that's OK. It what I had started out with and what I wanted to do with it and to where we are today, it has changed a tad bit. And I think that's OK. I think it's actually been for the better. Yeah, I remember when you first began, you wanted to do a fun Friday episode or some type of casual Friday. Casual Friday. Yes. And when we recorded that episode, I think it may have gotten like 10 listens when you dropped it or something. Yeah. But it was it was great when you when you asked me about you wanted to start a podcast. I think I gave you the same response that I gave you when you called me and said, hey, the RFP guys want to have us join the network. And it was awesome. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. James was for, you know, James. James didn't come on until like somewhere around the episode 20 or something. You we did. I had you on as a guest and we talked about like American politics infused with the church and how the IFP does that. And then me and you actually spent a weekend together. And you told me a little bit about your story. And I was like, you know what? That that would be great to have on. And then, of course, then it took the holiday break and then came back and I was like, let's let's you know, if you are good with coming on permanently, let's make you the co-host and do it with me. And you were all on board. But quite honestly, you've been a part of this thing from day one because this podcast would have never got online if it wasn't for James. We were fun story. I'm sure everyone's turned us off by now, but we're sitting up at the church where I'm at and we're in our sound room computer and we're logging into apple.podcast.com. And John's logging in and I'm trying to get it set up. And he's like, well, do I have a podcast now? I'm like, well, I don't know, because it's not live yet. You haven't made an episode. So we were just new at this, trying to figure it out, trying to put everything together. All the moving pieces were fun and learning, to say the least. And I think we're still learning. I think we today is the we've got a new platform we're recording with, a new hosting website. So we're learning it today. It's just growing. It's fun. Yeah. I think I had already recorded three episodes, but I was like at a loss on how to get the podcast live. And so I went, James was like, I'll help you out. And so I don't know if you'd actually already set one up for your church for like the weekly sermons or what it was. And it took us literally like three hours because there was a graphic issue that I had already messed up and trying to start myself. And it took us a while to figure it out. Yes. Oh my gosh. I was pulling my hair out. So Apple is crazy and they make you. We re-edited the graphic like so many times. I literally went in and changed his website like five times and was like, John, it's still showing me an error. Did you use the other logo anywhere? No, I don't think so. Oh yeah, I did put it in that one place. And so I went over and changed it and boom, it worked. Oh, so bad. Oh, so bad. I love your impersonation. Yeah, you like that? And you know, that was getting it on there in Apple. And then I was like, well, maybe there's a way to get it more. You know, not everybody uses Apple. And I had some people reaching out doing that. And so, and to be honest with you, Apple is like the most popular listening area. But their stats are actually not very good. To be able to track how your podcast is doing, they actually do a very poor job. And then I came across Anchor podcasting platform and switched the podcast over to that. And their statistics for gauging how well your podcast is doing was fantastic. And so it's been very helpful for us to sort of see what's going on and what episodes have done well and that kind of thing. So we're actually going to talk a little bit about sort of the stats of the podcast. And this is not like a braggadocious thing. This is actually something to like just say how thankful we are to those that's listened to it. And James, I think you have the majority of the stat information. I do. John, I want to go ahead and ask a question here because you, I don't think I've shared this with you. And so I'm going to sort of test your brain to see where you think our number one state. So in our podcasting app, Anchor FM, it tells us who listens by rank of state. What state do you think is number one in our podcast listening region? Oh, shoot. Hmm. There's 50 in the union. Yes. I know there's 50 states. Oh, okay. Sorry. You got a one in 50 chance here. I'm going to go. My first two shots are going to be the states that we, me and you live in. So I'm going to say Tennessee. North Carolina. North Carolina. Number one, baby. Come on. North Carolina has the number one. I think 10% of all of our audience lives in North Carolina. Whoa. So pretty cool. Our number two state, John, still not Tennessee. What? Nope. Still not Tennessee. Tennessee is horrible. Texas. Number two. Wouldn't have thought that at all. They're pulling it in. Number three. Still not Tennessee. Georgia. Number four. Number four. Sorry. No, you're good. Number four goes to Tennessee. And number five goes to Florida. And from there, it's like 1% for all of them. But our top five. North Carolina. Texas. Georgia. Tennessee. And Florida. John, as I'm looking through the statistics, three states really fall short. We're in. Yeah. First of all. Hey, let's say thank you. Let's say a big thank you to North Carolina. Yeah. Texas. Flow Rida. And Tennessee. And what was the other one? Georgia. Florida. Georgia. Texas. I was heard it said. So let's say a big thank you guys in those states. Yeah. We are short three states. We got to get these three states on. Because we have no listens. We have no downloads from these three states. All right. So the first one. Come on now. Yeah. Yeah. The first one is Maine. John, do you know anybody in Maine? I do not know anybody in Maine. I don't either. Don't have a soul. Don't know. Now, I do know a couple people in the next one. And the next one. But. Really? Okay. I know a couple people in Massachusetts. I say it wrong every time. So you know people. I do not know anybody in Massachusetts either. I know some people that were from Boston. Boston and the harbor. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. But yeah, I do know people that live in the third state that we got to get some downloads in. And that's Hawaii. No one. Those three states, guys. I want to give a great thanks to all the other 47 states. And the District of Columbia. We have people in Washington, D.C. So technically we have 48 because it counts that as its own territory region. So we've got 48 of the 51 if you count it that way. Hey, I want to do this, John, because we're able to. Um, you want to guess the geographical location in North Carolina that has the number one listening area? Uh, like the Piedmont area? No, city. By city. It goes by city. Sorry, John. Charlotte? Charlotte is number one. Then it goes to Jacksonville. I don't know a lot of people in Jacksonville, but hey, if you're from Jacksonville, huge shout out. Thanks for listening. Number three, John, you ready for this? Drum roll. Drum roll. Salisbury, North Carolina. Third most listened to place that has listened to our podcast, which is where me and John are from, which is pretty cool. That's interesting to me because I'm pretty sure none of my family listened to this. I don't know who's listening to it in Salisbury. Very, very interesting. And you know, also on that note. Yes. Thank you so much for listening. We, we are represented in, in, uh, have downloads and listens to in 28 countries. 28. Yeah. Crazy. That's crazy. You know, James, when all of our, our big monies come in and we start getting that prosperity gospel preaching money, we should do like a tour of every place that our podcast is listening to. You know what I'd like to do, John? I'd like to pick out the furthest location, like city from where we're at, like Lake Juanita in Washington state, Singapore, not Singapore in the United States, uh, or like Juneau, Alaska, wherever the furthest location away from us is. And just take a flight one day, go to Juneau, meet the person that's listening there, do an episode with them or something. And then fly back. Like, how cool would that be just to randomly show up in Juneau, Alaska or Honolulu, Hawaii or wherever. It may be that they listened to it one time and then didn't like it. And then we show up and meet them and they're like, yeah, we hated your podcast. I don't know. Yes. That's awesome. I'm great with that. Well, at least we got to meet them fan or a foe, whichever one. Yeah. We don't know if those, all of those listens represent people that like the podcast, but speaking of those who do like the podcast, um, Apple provides a way where you can rate and review, which we say at the end of every podcast. And, uh, we have a couple of different ratings. I looks like I have like two or three one star ratings and we have one, two star, a couple of three stars, one, four star, and we have quite a bit of five star ratings. And let's, let's, let's go through James. We'll alternate here and, uh, you read a review. Do you have the reviews up? I didn't forget to ask you to get those. Pull it, pulling it up right now, John. All right. So James, I think, yep. See that first review is on June 11th, 2020 from a year ago. So why don't you read that? Jimmy styrofoam. Starting at the beginning. Yeah. Very first one would be me. Okay. I'm Jimmy styrofoam. Um, I just wanted to see if when, when we actually comment, if it actually shows up and all that, so this was one year ago today, June 11th, 2020, John put out his first episode and I put it out. Check out this exciting new podcast. Five star review. Jimmy styrofoam is the man. Come on. Thanksgiving. Which is me. I'm, I'm being facetious there guys. The sec. But I did really say that. The second one. And I'm going to read this in an English accent because it just sounds cooler. I actually know who this second one is. And, uh, so I'm going to read this love, love John and the perspective he has greatly appreciate this podcast. And it's so important, not just for ex members of the IFB, but for people who are former members of any legalistic or controlling environment. Thank you so much. A guy in his camera. And, uh, James, you read the next one from July 10th, 2020. Next one up says, thanks, John. I don't have any really fun accents. John does. I don't. So sorry to disappoint all of our listeners. Uh, this is by NC seven FSU. So I guess this is the NC state and the Florida state fan. I'm assuming. I don't know. It says, I appreciate your passion for the truth and willingness to put in your hard work behind the scenes and deliver a good podcast. Good, not great, but good. Well done. This was on June 10th. I'm sorry. July 10th, 2020. All right. And here's the next one. I think this person is got to be from like, let's see here. What, what is this person from? I think they're going to be from, um, Australia. Let's, let's do Australia. John is doing a great service to the church with this podcast by exposing the depth and reach of abuse within the IFB movement. He speaks with passion and that is still filled with grace. And that's where it ends. Thank you. Bow hunter prime. Frog haters. Cause we all hate frogs around here. So we're going to name ourselves frog hater. No, I appreciate frog hater. October 28th, 2020 commented and said informative, a very informative overview of the IFB IBF history and other issues. The church is facing. I also love the preaching inserts. You add it nails down your points. All right, John, let's read John five boy and a great informative approachable. Uh, not, is this you, John? This is not me. I promise you. It's not me. Not me at all. All right. Yeah. So, uh, John five boy from January 8th, 2021 says these guys put out great info in a way that's down to earth and approachable like a casual audited class at church. Give it a listen. Thank you so much. John five boy, James, go ahead and read our next one from Becca T. Becca T. Maybe this is a Townsend. I don't know. Maybe this is a CT and Becky Townsend. I don't know. Maybe she just changed her name to Becca instead of Becky. Uh, maybe she's giving us a listen, but she said, I have listened to all the content. Thank you, Mr. Townsend, Ms. Townsend. Uh, so far, uh, just spitballing here, uh, on James and John's podcast. This was on April 19th. Uh, I have learned so much. Well, yes, you probably would have. Yeah. Uh, thanks guys. It's what it says. And we appreciate you Becca listening and listening in to our podcast. And John, you get to listen to, you get to list the last one. This was on May 24th, just a couple of weeks ago. What does it say here? From Southern Tech 13. It said, this podcast is fantastic at exposing the nonsense of the IFB. Great discussions between John and James. Keep them coming. And, uh, we appreciate that Southern Tech. Thank you guys so much. We've also received personal messages through Messenger and, um, and, and different forms. Uh, that just encourages us, uh, throughout, you know, really the past year. And, uh, some in email, some in personal messages. And guys, for all of it, we are so thankful. And, uh, that's, that's sort of been the main goal to begin with from day one. And that is to help one person, to help someone grow in their journey with Christ. And if anything that we've done is, is, is helped that at all, then that, that makes it worth it. And so, um, you know, that's some of the stats of our podcast. Some of, some of the, what, uh, some feedback that we've received from the podcast. And then, uh, you know, we're just, we're gonna wrap it up and be short today and, and talk about what's, what's ahead for the podcast. What's coming forward? What is next? Well, we're in the middle of our RFP crossover event series. And yesterday, if you haven't listened to it yet, yesterday we dropped our episode with the ladies of the RFWP. And we absolutely had a blast with them. But what else do we have coming up next, James? We have Nathan Gravatt coming up in just a couple of weeks. We have the church split. And we have another episode that we're trying to work out for our, our meetup in Missouri. And, uh, it's a pretty cool event that we're looking at. We've reached out to some fillers there. We don't want to give any names yet. Uh, but me and John are really excited about this. And, uh, it's gonna be an episode, uh, very worthwhile of the listen. And so, uh, we're excited about that for our crossover main event, uh, Avenger crossover epic event that we had. And we've got a lot of feedback from, and we've had a great time recording, just getting to know the other people in the network and talking to them personally. I'm excited about meeting a lot of them in Missouri in just a couple of weeks. Absolutely. We got the Preacher's Kid podcast coming up soon as well. And then, um, some episodes that we have in the works that we're wanting to do is, uh, and I know some other of the podcasts within the network are also working on this. So maybe it'll end up all hitting at the same time. And I think that would actually be cool. But, uh, we're gonna do an episode. We're actually gonna do two episodes on music. We're gonna tackle the subject of music. But we wanna look at it in two different parts. Part one, we wanna look at legalism and music as it concerns music within the church or in a church service. And then we wanna look at legalism and music in your personal life. And, uh, I think we've heard, uh, messages that were communicated to us on both fronts. And I don't think, um, there is, there is some, some pits to fall in there. And there's some wisdom to be used in there. But I think also there's legalism that's crept in, in those two areas. And so James and I are going to get in dangerous ground and cover the subject of music. And then, James, uh, what else? Uh, we got a couple other, uh, subjects and topics that we wanna cover coming up. And Mitch, why don't you mention those? Yeah, we're looking at doing an episode on manipulation. Um, there has been this manipulation tactic that happens. Um, quite frequent in, uh, the IFB movement as well as in just, um, our own day-to-day life. People use manipulation in a very, very harmful way. And so we're gonna cover manipulation, what it is, how to look for it, how to identify manipulation, um, and know when you are being manipulated by someone. Uh, we're gonna do an episode on panic attacks and anxiety, what it looks like, how to handle that. Um, our resident theological counselor, John Holyfield, will be there giving us all the great insight for that. And then the, we're looking at doing an episode on what to look for in finding a new church. And so that'll be what's coming up. Most of those will be in August. Um, we're gonna finish out in June. And then me and John, because of our business, we're gonna be taking the month of July off as a break, sort of a sabbatical for a month. Uh, spend some time with our family, vacations, things like that. And then we'll be returning in August, um, and be covering most of these episodes in August in the, the later half of the year. Yeah. We're excited about these things coming up. And we also have some ideas for some new guests to come on and even discuss some of these topics with us that we're wanting to cover in the future. And also, uh, we are looking forward in August to be in Missouri, as we've said many times at the RFP meetup in, uh, Missouri. And, and just looking forward to what, what's gonna come next around the corner as the RFP community family continues to grow. And, uh, James and I are here to, to help in any way that we can and, and do our part. And, and so if there's something that you'd like for us to cover or something like that, that, uh, you know, reach out to us and ask that. And we'll do some research and, and put our heads together and try to see if we can make that happen as well. But, uh, it's been a year and we just want to say thank you. Thank you so much for the kindness that you've shown to James and I, to nobodies that just had a heart and a desire to help people. That's walked sort of a similar journey than we have, that we have. So, um, James. John, do you think, do you think that, uh, one year ago today that you were imagining sitting in two different states a year later with almost two, um, 20,000 downloads in a little over 40 episodes? Did you think that that's where this would be a year ago? Heck no. Heck no. I didn't either. I didn't either. So, it's been a blessing. It has, it has. And, and James and I have been, have been also blessed by the, the, those that we've been able to meet through this. He's already talked about some of the, you know, being able to get to know some of those that, uh, our other hosts in the podcast through the series we've done. And that's been encouraging and fun as well. But, uh, we're going to continue on and next week we'll have a new episode on Thursday. And, uh, and so until next time, guys, to God, not the pastor, be the glory. Thank you for listening to the For Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give a rating, leave a comment, or share it on Facebook or Twitter. To find more helpful resources for your journey through the independent fundamental Baptist world, check out RFPNetwork.org, where you can find this podcast and others such as the Recovering Fundamentals podcast, the RFWP podcast, the Young Baptist podcast, the Church Split, the Preacher's Kids podcast, the 26 Letters podcast, and the RFP in Espanol. God bless. God bless.

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