Passing the Torch: Navigating Pastoral Leadership Transitions | feat. Jay Strother
In this episode, Mike sits down with Jay Strother, Senior Pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church. Jay shares insights from his first year leading the church after Mike’s long tenure, reflecting on the challenges, surprises, and spiritual growth involved in transitioning into this new role. Together, they explore the keys to navigating pastoral leadership changes, building unity, and guiding a congregation toward a shared mission. Tune in for a powerful discussion on faith, community, and the impact of long-term leadership in ministry.
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Mike Glenn: Hi, I'm Mike Glenn. I am the president of the Engaged Church Network, and this is our podcast. We're glad you dropped by. Joining me today is Jay Strother. Jay Strother is the senior pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church. How does that sound? It's still, still- ... still not easy for me to say. Uh, Jay has been the pastor for Brentwood Baptist Church for 11 months.
That's right. Coming up on a year. 11 months, coming up on a year. Yeah. Uh, as, uh, most of you know, Jay followed me, and we literally, I preached the first part of the sermon, and then I gave the pulpit to Jay, and he's had it ever since. Because he and I have known each other and been working together for 20 years, 'cause we are such good friends, uh, we do have the opportunity to talk about a, an interesting process that is kinda out there, but nobody has the opportunity to talk about it, and that is how you work through the transition of [00:01:00] becoming a new pastor, how you follow a, a, a pastor who's been there a while- Mm-hmm
and all of those details, uh, that, that can make or break a ministry in those first handful of months. Now, um, it hurts my feelings to tell you how well Jay's been doing- ... uh, since, uh, taking over a- and the lead chair. Uh, but, uh, what, what were you telling me yesterday? Uh, attendance is up 11, 13%, giving's up- Yeah
uh, double digits as well, so. Yeah, we're grateful. Yeah, just, uh, it hurts me bad- ... to see how well they're doing, uh, without me. But, uh, and, and over lunch yesterday, I said, "Hey, let's talk about what it is like to come in, uh, even though you were part of the church team." That's right. Uh, there, there were no surprises.
You knew the church. Mm-hmm. Church knew you. But there is still this challenge that you have to overcome. Mm-hmm. So my first question is, is- You were on the team, now [00:02:00] you are the lead of the team. Yeah. So what'd you learn? Yeah, yeah. Well,
Jay Strother: you sit there as a staff member for all these years- Yeah ... and you think, "I'd do it this way if I was in charge."
That's right. That's, yeah. And then you're the guy in charge, and you realize- ... why you have to do it a certain way. Uh, it's definitely humbling. No, I was thinking about this, you know, Mike, in pre- preparation for today. I think if you wanna put some big rocks in the jar, you know, all pastors, everybody believes, right, theologically the church is, is bigger than you are.
Right. But unfortunately, a lot of pastors don't act that way in their practice. Mm-hmm. They think it all depends on them. Mm-hmm. And so one of the things I appreciated so much, you know, over the years was your humility and, and your, uh, being able to squint and see the future- Right ... as you would call it.
Um, still very focused, right? Eyes wide open on the present and the challenges in front of us, but as you, as you would squint and see the future, you recognized, hey, we've got to begin to cultivate and develop leaders- Mm-hmm ... within the church. Mm-hmm. Uh, and so you were very good at, at giving me, giving some of the other campus pastors [00:03:00] opportunities.
Um, and we both played basketball growing up. Right. Looked at the basket, right? Mm-hmm. You only get better at layups by shooting more layups. Mm-hmm. You only get better at preaching by getting in the pulpit. Right. And so your willingness to, you know, put us in the pulpit instead of we're in Nashville, we're in a large church, you could have had A-list communicators step in.
Instead, you gave us the opportunity to, to earn reps. Right. Uh, you gave us the opportunity to preach sometimes even back to back. Mm-hmm. I mean, it meant you got two weeks off, you know? That's right, that's right. Which is smart, smart. But how many guys just think, "No, it's gotta be me. It's gotta be me all the time," uh, and are not willing to develop leaders.
Mm-hmm. So I think looking back, you know, that was really crucial for this moment for me, that, that in other words, I stepped into this moment, uh, not feeling ill-equipped or unprepared. Now, the thing that you have to grapple with is, is again, y- you know, you've had to learn in your ministry, you start out every- all of us do in ministry at runway level stuff.
Right. You know, you're planning the youth pizza party, and you're figuring out how many buses do you takes to get to camp, and then you, you know, you're teaching- Mm-hmm ... Bible studies, and then you're, you know, [00:04:00] well, now you're at a whole nother level- Mm-hmm ... where you really have to, as the leadership principle goes, look from the balcony but listen from the floor.
Right. Uh, and so I, I think, uh, you know, you used to talk about it takes a lot of time staring at the wall- Mm-hmm ... uh, trying to discern the threads. Holy Spirit, what are you doing? Mm-hmm. Uh, what are the patterns and trends we're seeing? Uh, and then, you know, the spiritual disciplines, you know, long, interrupted time in the Word- Mm-hmm
to be sure that you hear from God clearly so that you can put that into practice in your ministry, um, because it's all gonna rise and fall on how closely you- Right ... follow the biblical model- Mm-hmm ... of what, what God lays in front of you.
Mike Glenn: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, you came in- Uh, church is healthy, church is good.
Uh, but even in the, the best situations, change has to happen. I mean, uh, you know, we've talked about this. Yeah. One of the reasons I stepped down when I did was I recognized that there was change on the horizon, a change that would last anywhere from [00:05:00] two to five years, depending on- Mm-hmm ... all of the ramifications.
I didn't feel like I could commit- Hmm ... uh, t- the energy that it would need to take through that. So it was a, it was an advantageous time to walk through that. Uh, Jesus talks about, uh, uh, going through your bag and keeping the good and throwing out the old and, and, and, and- Mm-hmm ... that kind of stuff. So how did you discern, uh, what process did you use to say, "Hey, this process is tried and true."
Yeah. "We're gonna keep this. This needs to be modificat- Yeah ... uh, mo- modified." Yeah. "We don't need to keep doing this."
Jay Strother: Sure. Yeah, great, great question. So year one, Mike, I committed to a couple things. Uh, number one, I tried to listen to you well over the years, and I remembered that a long time ago you said, "Hey, when I, when I first became pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church 32, 33 years ago, if I could make one change- Mm-hmm Drank more coffee and ate more pie And
Mike Glenn: listened.
That's exactly right. Yeah It ma- and,
Jay Strother: and of course what you mean by that- Yeah ... is that I, I would've just spent a little bit [00:06:00] more time getting to know the culture. Mm-hmm. Now I, I had a benefit you didn't have coming from South Carolina. Right. 23 years- Mm-hmm ... you know, as part of that church family, even though I'd pastored another campus now for 15 of those years, I, I still was with the leadership meeting.
So, so I, I had a head start, so to speak. Mm-hmm. But I decided, for example, I was gonna sit down with every staff member at year one and, and just, you know, hear their story. Mm-hmm. What, what three things is God doing in your ministry? What three ways can I pray for you? Mm-hmm. So that I could begin to draw out some of those threads.
But w- and but
Mike Glenn: go, go back.
Jay Strother: These are people that you knew. Oh, yeah, yeah. You had worked with for a long time. Yeah, yeah. A lot of them. Yeah. But it changes when you're the lead pastor. It, it does. It does, and that's what you begin to understand. You know, it is, it is funny, 'cause I feel like, well, it's the same old Jay, but I laugh at our first...
We have a quarterly staff meeting where we bring- Right ... bring together all 200 staff members and, you know, I'd always sit at a table with all the guys, and you're joking around. All of a sudden I sat down, and nobody sat next to me. I was like, "What, what? Did I sm- " And then you realize it's, it's because you're the senior pastor now.
Yeah, you're the main man. Yeah. And it's just, it's just a different seat, like you said. So yeah, it's a reestablishing of those relationships. [00:07:00] Um, you know, and, and I was trying to draw out and discern, you know, wh- where we're at as a church. Um, also, you know, uh, uh, uh, we, we have a good system. We're grateful that G- Mm-hmm
that God's enabled us to put in a good system. So you use the term sometimes system quarterback, you know. I'm that in a sense. The, again, plays change, defenses adjust. You have to adjust. So let me give you the most practical example I can think of. We, we have a really solid mission statement that we developed, uh, six, seven years ago.
Mm-hmm. Engaging the whole person with the whole gospel of Jesus Christ anywhere, anytime with anybody. Mm-hmm. Uh, uh, that it doesn't, that's not dependent on church programs- Right ... or four, four walls of a church. Mm-hmm. So we love... We're, we're keeping that. Mm-hmm. We have five really solid biblical values.
We're keeping that. What I began to recognize was we were seven years into the five-year vision- Into it, right ... that we had cast, which is kind of the, the picture. Mm-hmm. This is what ministry should look like. So we took the old one, and I, I went through a process beginning with our executive leadership team, took it to the campus pastors, took it to the trustees of saying- Mm
"What, what does that need to look like for the next five years?" Mm-hmm. And so that's something that we, we updated, so [00:08:00] our new vision statement that we just rolled out- Mm ... at a church-wide summit, uh, is, is that, uh, we fuel- A disciple-making church multiplication movement in middle Tennessee and beyond that eventually will share the gospel with millions, that will meet community needs by the thousands, and will end up producing 100-plus healthy churches- Churches
a, in partnership with people like- Mm-hmm ... like the Engage Church Network. And so i- i- you know, for example, and you're talking about how things change, so it was interesting when I talked about communities by the thousands. There's been several, several spheres as a church that you always led us to be involved with.
Uh, schools in the community- Mm-hmm ... uh, poverty, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, healthcare initiatives, those kinda things, platforms that the, the church has traditionally engaged their community by. But one of the ones I mentioned was mental health, and did you know when I mentioned that's a need that we're gonna press into, people cheered?
Right. They, they applauded. Right. Mm-hmm. And so that was instant, okay, we heard right. The people are recognizing- Mm-hmm ... that's a need. That's where we're gonna have to put, put resources. Let me give you a quick example. I've been reading a book called The Anxious [00:09:00] Generation. Right. Jonathan Haidt. Jonathan Haidt.
Yeah. And what he says is, "We have overprotected this generation in the real world- Mm-hmm ... and we have underprotected them online." Wow. Yeah. And so as a result, anxiety is off the chart. Mm-hmm. Mental illness is on the char- off the chart, all of these issues. And so our people instinctively know. Mm-hmm. A- and so again, building on what we've done, we've been able to update that- Right
that vision statement. We were talking at lunch. Yeah.
Mike Glenn: And, and you know, what, what I would bring up to you guys, when you do that, when the idea, when the process comes from the, from the people- Yes ... and you say back to them- Mm-hmm ... what you have heard them say to you- Yes ... they instantly connect with that idea.
Yeah. And you don't have the change curve issues, you don't have the enthusiasm issues- Yeah ... because the folks are- Yeah ... are on that immediately. And as, and as you
Jay Strother: know, one of the great things about our church has always been is that God has always put amazing people out there. Right. And so I get emails back, I mean s- some people I didn't even know were sitting out there in the pews- Yeah, I do this
who have significant experience. Mm-hmm. I mean, [00:10:00] one of them has connections d- straight to the top in Washington, DC, uh, working with the Veterans Administration- Right, yeah ... and mental health. I mean, all of a sudden these people are emerging, and now they're stepping forward and saying, "Hey, I, I can own that part of the vision."
I can do this. Right. You know, and so I think, you know, whereas a lot of churches in a transition, and you've mentioned this before, the pastor announces he's gonna retire. They, uh, whoa, we- we've gotta take all the engines offline, right? Mm-hmm. There's this- Mm-hmm ... ends up being really a five-year dip in momentum.
Right. By you preparing us, preparing the church well, you know, did things slow down a little bit? Sure, 'cause people were kind of let's wait and see how- Yeah ... all this plays out. But man, it was, it was just more like a gradual growth. Mm-hmm. And now, now we're beginning to, to- Mm-hmm ... really see some momentum again.
Mm-hmm.
Mike Glenn: Let's talk about, uh, one, one of the first decisions you made. And, and I've, you know, I've told you before, I, I think this is just pure genius. You, you decided to preach through the Bible- Mm-hmm ... in a year. Yeah. Uh, and, uh, got the chronological Bibles and- Yeah ... what's that sold, what, 6,000, 7,000 Bibles- Yeah
to people who already had Bibles. Yeah. It w- yeah, right, [00:11:00] right. Now- I know ... now you're the, you're the leading Bible salesman in America. I should have gotten an endorsement deal somewhere for that- Uh, but- ... but, uh, I'm not smart enough to do that ... it is a very basic decision. Yeah. We're gonna preach through scripture.
Yep. Everybody supports and agrees with that. But I thought it was a master stroke of reminding folks of what they already knew- Yeah ... and establishing the baseline. Yeah Yeah. "This is who we are. I know, I know Mike's been here. Now Mike's retired, but let's remember what this moment is always about." Mm.
Thought it was a pure stroke of genius. Now, tell me about your thought process in getting- Yeah ... getting there.
Jay Strother: Yeah, so one of the things we did after we announced that I was, I was the lead candidate for the senior pastor role is we did a series of town hall meetings. Mm-hmm. Uh, so again, I, I take notes, listen well, you know, and, and I was encouraged on a couple fronts.
One, we had our people saying, you know, the, the world's changing. Mm-hmm. And, and most of our church folks, they're like, we, we know what we believe, but it was basically some version in these meetings of we need, we [00:12:00] need more equipped, we need deeper- Mm-hmm ... Bible teaching. We need something to really, you know, we, we gotta be solid on this stuff- Right
you know? And then the other piece that was interesting was we have nine campuses, and so I thought I'd get some of, "Hey," as I'm, you know, touring- Mm-hmm ... the campuses, "Hey, we need more staff. We need more parking. We need more buildings. We need more budget money." Mm-hmm. Instead, I got a lot of, "Hey, what's your plan?
We, we like this hybrid model, right?" Mm-hmm. We're, we're contextualized to our community the way that we do it- Mm-hmm ... but we're all one big family. Right. What's your plan to keep us all on the same page? So I began to process, pray through that, again, stare at the wall- Mm-hmm ... with that a little bit, and, and, and those threads, I realized, be- begin to emerge.
I thought, man, well, w- w- what would be more unifying than for all nine campuses to, to really press people to walk through the Bible in their group- Right ... in their home devotionals- Mm-hmm ... with their spouse, and then we would preach kind of wherever we're at in the, in the meta-narrativ- Mm-hmm
meta-narrative, in the big storyline of the Bible. Um, and so, you know, I, again, you've, I've not been in this seat before- Right ... like you've been. You know, we have a bunch of creative, gifted people who are just waiting, chomping at the bit- Right ... for that big idea [00:13:00] to crystallize. Mm-hmm. "Oh, okay, I can take this piece and run with it."
Mm-hmm. So I, I rolled it out, you know, as we were moving into the fall, right after I, I got the baton from you, uh, and we set up to do that in 2024, uh, last fall. And so the communications team starts running with it. Yeah. They develop a website. Here's links. We're, we worked with, uh, the, the Bible Project.
We worked with the Bible app folks to get- Mm-hmm ... our own version of the chronological Bible on there. We worked with the LifeWay people to sell their chronological Bible. Uh, bluntly, I thought we'd sell a couple hundred. Right. I was blown away that we sold 6,700 chronological read Bibles. Yeah.
Mike Glenn: To people who already had Bibles.
To, that's exactly it, right? Yeah, that-
Jay Strother: You know, and that's the amazing thing. And, but I told the stories, you know? Mm-hmm. We, we did a read-through-the-Bible thing at our Station Hill campus a few years ago, and it was a great story. A 100-year-old lady whose husband, she was the widow of a Baptist pastor- Mm
was the first to sign up to do the Bible reading plan. She said th- this will be the 61st time I've read all the way through the Bible. Oh, my word. And, and, and I said, "Well, why?" And she said... I said, "Why would you do that again?" And she said, "Because God shows me something new every time." Every, uh, yeah. Every time, every day.
And so, you [00:14:00] know, again, just- Mm-hmm ... just these, these common rallying points. And so that's been what's been really fun, is that everybody's got behind it. You know, our Nolensville worship pastor wrote a song, a worship song- Right ... called Christ On Every Page as we were helping people see, you know- Mm-hmm ... a lot of people had never made that connection between, oh, here's how this Old Testament story points us forward- Yeah
to the promise- Mm-hmm ... of the Messiah. They, you know, just people making connections right and left, and it's been fun, Mike. I'll get stopped in Costco, and they're like, "Hey, uh, you know, Ezekiel and this linen underwear thing." "You know, you gotta, you gotta explain that to me, you know?" Um, you know, it's, it's just been, been really, really fun.
Or confess
Mike Glenn: to you, I'm behind, but I'm catching up. Yeah. Oh, sure. So yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Jay Strother: Absolutely, but, but it's been this journey. You know, it's been unifying. It's, it's... And again, like you said, for us, it's a little bit of a level set to say- Mm-hmm ... "Hey, Baptists, we're people of the Word. We're gonna, we're gonna start with the Word, uh, and, and we're gonna build from there."
Mm-hmm. And so I can keep coming back and saying, "Hey, remember last year?" Or, "You remember that first year?" That's right, yeah. Yeah. "We walked all the way through scripture. This is, this is what it says. This is what it's about." Mm-hmm. So thanks for your encouragement in that, but, uh, it was great because I inherited a people used to [00:15:00] biblical teaching and preaching, hungry for the Word.
Mm-hmm. Uh, and again, for pastors listening, don't, don't overestimate this. The number one comment we get at our campuses the most, at every campus- That's, that's probably true ... is that you guys actually open the Bible- Yeah ... and you teach from it. Mm-hmm. Not just you read a verse, sit it down, and tell some stories or whatever.
Mm-hmm. People keep coming back. So some of the things that we think are attractional- Yeah ... to people actually aren't.
Mike Glenn: Yeah.
Jay Strother: They're foundational-
Mike Glenn: Yeah ... to the folks. Yeah. Um, so what's ahead for Brentwood Baptist Church? You've been in now almost a year now. It's, it's now your vision Yeah ... and, a- and your dream.
Yeah. So- Yeah, the- So when you squint and look at the wall, what's happening? It's a
Jay Strother: great, great question. So one of the, the neat things, you know, and you know this, you get invited to some different type opportunities- Right ... when you're in this seat. Uh, and so a lot of it's, uh, trying to figure out which ones are worth it- Mm-hmm
and which ones aren't, and I've been able to lean on you for some of that wisdom. But one, one of the really neat things, so I got invited, uh, to the National Day of Prayer, and then I got to speak at- Mm-hmm ... the Ukrainian Prayer Breakfast. We have a, a [00:16:00] member who's heavily involved in ministry in, in Ukraine, and a pivotal time for them, of course.
Uh, I got to go visit a church planting friend out in Las Vegas. Mm-hmm. Who is, is leading a church plant that's exploding, and you would think a place like Vegas. Well, yeah- Yeah ... because there's so much gospel opportunity. Mm. People are desperate for it. Uh, I had the opportunity to go to Brazil. Uh, a, a pastor who showed up to one of our English as a second language classes- Mm
here, here, he was on a sabbatical year, ends up being the pastor of the biggest Baptist church in Brazil and invites me down to speak. So, so i- all of a sudden, you know, again, you're stepping back saying, "Okay," and all of these, these churches and places saying, "Will you partner with us?" Right. "Will you help us?
Will you..." And I'm like, "What, what do we have to offer you? You guys are already crushing it- Mm ... when it comes to ministry." Here's, Mike, is w- my takeaway, and this is w- w- woven into that, that new vision statement. God is, God's up to something. Mm. I mean, we believe that, right? But, but in particular in our age, churches that are committed to disciple making, multiplication, and missions, God is blessing, and they're finding one another in what I would call [00:17:00] natural relationships- Right
and networks. Yeah.
Mike Glenn: The old c- the old conventions and all the traditional structures are morphing into these relational
Jay Strother: connecting structures. Yeah, yeah. They're, you know, the, the traditional, a lot of the institutional stuff, and I respect it. You and I- Mm-hmm ... benefited from it, you know, in our ministry development.
Um, but, but it's, it, a lot of it's getting bogged down, and it's getting politicized. It's bureaucratic. Mm. You know, all of these kind of things. There's just some unhealthy things- Right ... that have happened. And so churches are finding other churches- Mm-hmm ... that are committed to these things, and they're saying, "Hey, let's learn from each other.
Uh, let, let's collaborate together." My buddy in Vegas, I'm like, "Steve, you're, you're crushing it, man. You're, you're baptizing tons of people. You're, you're- Right ... why do you need our help?" And he said, "Well, because your church has been at this for 50 plus years." Mm-hmm. And he goes, "And your church has what I would call trellis."
He said, "We're vining everywhere." Right, yeah. Right? We got growth, but, but... And I'm a farm boy. What happens if that vine lays on the ground? Well, eventually the fruit rots. Right. You gotta have a trellis to hang it on. And he said, "We need the structure. Your church has figured some things out just 'cause you're ahead of us, you know, a few years.
Could you help us with, with [00:18:00] ministry structure and organization?" You gotta have a skeleton, you know. Right. So, so those kind of things are needed. Well, you know, we've even had
Mike Glenn: church staffs come visit us, and we've gone to visit other church staffs and-
Jay Strother: Yeah ...
Mike Glenn: and stolen the good ideas where we could Yeah, yeah
and that kind of thing, so. Yeah,
Jay Strother: so to put in a plug, we're, we're gonna start our own one-day conference next year- Mm ... called Elevate, just a one-day. But come, come. It... Bring your staff, Middle Tennessee, wherever you're from. It... Come and, and we're gonna share with you some of the things- Mm ... we're doing in our playbook.
'Cause again, you know, some churches try to hold that to themselves. Right. Man, God's given it to us. We wanna show you what we've learned, and we wanna help you not make the mistakes we made. That's exactly right, yeah. Right? Um, and, and you'll be a part of that, and, and others will be, too. I don't know if I told you that yet, but you- Oh, I am?
Okay ... you'll, you'll be a part of that. All right. Just so you know, contract's on the way. But, but, um, but we also want it to be a collaborative time. Mm. We want it to be a different type of conference in which we sit around some round tables and we say, "Hey, here's what we've learned. Now, what, what are you learning that we can learn from?"
Mm-hmm. Because I really do believe the future, uh, i- is, is in those... Again, the Spirit is moving among those churches that are committed- Right ... to doing gospel ministry in their communities. Mm. A- and they're less worried with all of [00:19:00] the, the, you know, the hype and the, the- Right ... the fluff and, and even the doomsday sayers.
You know? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. That's what we're seeing in these churches that I'm talking about. It's, it's so interesting, 'cause you go read the books and the narratives and the statistics, and it's all doom and gloom. Right. And the church is in decline, and churches are closing their doors, and yet we are seeing, not only in our church- Right
and campuses, but among our partners- Mm-hmm ... the opposite. We don't have enough room to put everybody. Yeah. We don't have enough parking. We don't... You know, we're trying to figure out ways to, to, you know, come up with more space. And so praise God for that. But I, I would say really year one, you know, those are my two big takeaways.
Uh, people's hunger for the Word. Right. Like, you don't have to gussy it up. Like, just give them the Word, let the Word do the work. And man, do ministry in your own community. Like, you know, uh, you know- Mm-hmm ... just, just, man, get out there and do it. Um, and find churches that are like-minded, that are partnering together.
Yeah. I, I
Mike Glenn: call it the Mother Teresa rule. Go where nobody wants to go, do what nobody wants to do.
Jay Strother: Yeah.
Mike Glenn: And the world will give you a platform-
Jay Strother: Yeah, yeah ...
Mike Glenn: when that, when that happens. That's a great point. Uh- Absolutely. That, so.
Jay Strother: So it's fun. Yeah. Really grateful. [00:20:00] So what
Mike Glenn: really surprised you?
Jay Strother: Oh, man. Hmm. You know, a- again, I don't know that there were things that totally caught me off guard because I had an unusually long ramp- Mm-hmm
you know, in, into ministry. But I, I do think there's what I would call a healthy weight that you carry- Mm-hmm ... uh, for your people. Uh, you know, there, there's, there's a burden as you pray, pray for them. Uh, there's a, uh, you know, y- you have a famous little phrase, "Inch over your head, mile over your head, you're in over your head."
That's
Mike Glenn: right. Yeah. Over your head, over your head. Yeah.
Jay Strother: And so, you know, th- those prayers of, "Lord, I, I'm... I," you know, I now pastor a church that our membership is three times the population of my hometown. Like, it's just surreal. Yeah. And so you have that moment, a little bit like David, right? Mm-hmm. "Lord, who am I in my house that you brought me this far?"
Mm-hmm. Um, and, and so y- you know, y- but, but i- that's an increased desperation, right, in your prayer life. Mm-hmm. Um, so I think that there is a unique weight and burden that you carry that it's just impossible to describe until, you know, [00:21:00] you're, you're handed that, that mantle- Yeah ... as the Bible calls it, of, of leadership.
Um, and so, you know, on one hand, I'm grateful. I, uh, you know, power of the Holy Spirit, I just gotta do what He tells us to do. Been well prepared, I feel like, for it. But on the other hand, there's, there's no way to recreate it. And so, you know, I, I would encourage those people listening, you know, if, if especially if you're not a, a, a pastor, pray for your pastor.
Right. Like, tho- those emails- Mm-hmm ... those cards, they, they mean more than you realize. Um, you know, uh, you know, b- being supportive, you know, asking good quest- all those kind of things, man, th- just, I, I've been incredibly encouraged. I've joked, you know, my honeymoon period for six months with all the emails were- Right
"Great to have you back," you know, Pastor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Second, y- y- si- six months, we're like, "Great to have you back," and, "Why aren't we doing this thing?" That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Or, "Where's," you know, "Where's this ministry?" Or, "We should start this." So- But tell him, tell him the
Mike Glenn: story about your shoelaces Oh,
Jay Strother: yeah.
That's a great point. Yeah. Yeah, if you wanna know what it's like to be pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church, uh, we have this time after the service, we go to a place called the Welcome Center- Mm-hmm ... so that we can engage in conversation. We have prayer partners in the room if you need to respond [00:22:00] right then and there, but we also want to engage people in conversation, so our staff meets in a room called the Welcome Center.
And so there's usually a line of people who are meeting me, and it's always just a toss-up, you know? Right, yeah. Some people just wanna meet the pastor. Some people are visiting the church for the first time. Some people have deep spiritual needs- Mm-hmm ... you know, and so you pray with them, and then we have staff there that I hand them off to so we can follow up appropriately.
But one guy waited in line, like, 15 minutes, then he came up and he said, "Hey, your, your shoelaces." And I said, "Yeah, what about them?" And he said, "If you tied them differently, they would lay down instead of stick up." Instead of stick out like that. And I just thought to myself, man, if you w- wanna know what it's like to be the pastor- Yeah
of a big church, that's the kind of microscope that you're under. Sit out in the
Mike Glenn: congregation, and that's what he remembers. You know, he leaves the church and says, "You know, his shoelaces were sticking up." Yeah. Well, I will remind you, my friend, that, uh, uh, in the history of Brentwood Baptist Church, which is now, what, f- 60 years old?
Yeah. There have been three pastors. Bill Wilson founded it. I followed Bill, and now you have followed me. So you are in a very select fraternity- Very honored. Big [00:23:00] shoes to fill ... of, uh, of those three, of the three of us, so. Yeah, very humbled. But I am very honored to have you as my pastor, and I'm grateful for, for the time you've given me today.
Well, we're grateful for you. That's Jay Strother. He is the senior pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church, my pastor. And I am Mike Glenn, president of the Engaged Church Network. Thanks for joining us on this podcast.
