No Sanity Required
No Sanity Required is a weekly podcast hosted by Brody Holloway and Snowbird Outfitters. Each week, we engage culture and personal stories with a Gospel-driven perspective. Our mission is to equip the Church to pierce the darkness with the light of Christ by sharing the vision, ideas, and passions God has used to carry us through 26 years of student ministry. Find more content at swoutfitters.com.
No Sanity Required
SWO24 Kickoff | Staff Interviews & The Core Values of Snowbird
In this episode, Brody walks through the 5 core values of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. These core values explain why we do what we do and show the characteristics we hold ourselves accountable to. Tune in to hear some staff interviews as Brody pulls a few people aside to ask them how staff training is going.
Please continue to pray for our staff as they’re getting adjusted, learning how to lead recreation, and enjoying fellowship with one another.
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I'm actually recording this intro to this week's episode while the staff is in a time of worship. They're singing, they're just praising the Lord. We've just come out of a session and we are rolling with staff training. I've had so many listeners of NSR reach out in the last week and say, hey, we're praying for you guys and that means more than you know. Thank you so much. Please continue to pray. All total in-house right now there's a couple hundred people if you count support staff and folks that are driving and cooking, and we consider every facet of this ministry to be contributing to the greater mission, which is to advance the kingdom, you know, to see people impacted by the gospel, and so pray for us and continue to do that. We would appreciate it. Uh, going to walk you through in this episode.
Speaker 1:Uh, an overview of our core values. This is different from our mission statement. Our core values are five things that, that, uh, that we, we strive. We want every staff, staff member striving to attain, I guess, or marks that we want them to make and hit in their personal life day to day, in the way that they execute in ministry. For instance, one of them is servant-hearted. So we want there to be not a mindset of entitlement but a mindset of service. One of them is hardworking, so we want there to be work until know, work till the job is done, stay late and show up early and that mindset of always doing what needs to get done. So those are part, you know, part of our core values.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that I did this just in the last couple of days is I grabbed quite a few of the ladies on staff and just ask them some questions and so you're going to hear from them. We've got folks, some of the women that are in leadership today. We split up guys and girls, our men and women. We split up. We had the girls in a session, the guys in a session just talking through biblical sexuality, gender stuff that's good and talked with mostly just ladies today. Next week I'm going to do the same with the guys and you'll hear from some of the guys. So you're going to get to hear from some folks.
Speaker 1:Just quick, in-passing interviews. A lot of noise in the background with these interviews, because I did it in a really high-traffic area between some sessions around lunchtime. So you're going to hear from some of the ladies in leadership, some summer staff folks, some of the girls that are in our element program and you're going to even hear from. There was a group of students here this week from local FCA and one of them came over and said hey, what are you doing? Can I be on the podcast? So you'll hear from her.
Speaker 1:So I hope that that's something that gives you kind of a different perspective and angle on what we do here. But yeah, and then we'll do it again next week and we'll probably drill a little deeper over the course of the summer into the core values. We've got a lot of content lined up that we want to cover and get into, so hopefully we'll drill a little deeper into the core values. But thank you, this is a long intro, but I just wanted you to kind of be prepared for how this episode is going to look, because it is going to look a little different, and hope you enjoy it and it's a blessing to you. Thanks for tuning in to no Sanity Required.
Speaker 2:Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. A podcast about the Bible, culture and stories from around the globe.
Speaker 1:All right, this is Joy here. Hold on, let me get this right in front of your mouth.
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:All right, can you hear you yeah?
Speaker 3:Can you hear me yeah?
Speaker 1:All right, I'm gonna ask you three questions.
Speaker 3:Wait, I feel like I'm on ESPN right now.
Speaker 1:No, you're on. No Sanity Required.
Speaker 3:Oh, what's up? What's up? My mom's listening probably. Yeah, she loves this Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we are. Let's see what's today, day four of staff training. Say your name and where you're from.
Speaker 3:Okay, my name is JB or Joy Beth. I'm from Kennesaw, georgia, and yeah, that's pretty much it and what do you do here? Uh, this summer I'm working with element. I'm super excited and, yeah, that's exactly. You already got some girls that have come in yeah, we have three today, we're getting a fourth today, so they start trickling in all week and all total how many? 20, 20 girls okay, real quick.
Speaker 1:Okay, uh, short overview. What is the element program and what?
Speaker 3:okay, so element is basically just, uh, a program for high schoolers to come in and, um, basically how I explain it to like friends and family who are like kind of familiar with camp but not, I'm like they're like half camper, half counselor, so like they get training, like we do teaching. We're going through first peter this summer with them. We'll go through like some spiritual disciplines of how to study your Bible, stuff like that, and then they also have a chance to help out on rec. Like harness, other campers that are here go in a share group every other week and then we also do things like campers are able to do. So we'll go down the river, we'll go river tubing, lake tubing. So I feel like it's a really good program, like best of both worlds it is.
Speaker 1:It's uh, some would say the best program at SWO, Right? So if you're listening and you got a teenage son or daughter and you're looking for something for next summer, I wish.
Speaker 3:I did it. I never did, but I wish I did.
Speaker 1:This is your third summer, mm-hmm. I took a First summer with Element.
Speaker 3:Yes, first summer with Element I worked summer 21, 22. Didn't work last summer. Came back for this summer Running it back.
Speaker 1:Running it back. We're so glad you're here. I'm happy to be here. Awesome, all right, thanks, I'll let you adjust it, okay, and then get that microphone right in front of your mouth, okay, all right, introduce yourself.
Speaker 7:My name is Channing Hurt and I was an intern during the year and now I'm on the summer staff again.
Speaker 1:So this is your second staff training.
Speaker 7:Yes.
Speaker 1:Last year and you, growing up, you came to SWO summer as a camper. Yes, one time in 2019. To SLO summer as a camper.
Speaker 7:Yes, one time in 2019.
Speaker 1:Okay, so just once yeah, and then came to work in 2023.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and I got saved. That's where I got saved in 2019.
Speaker 1:So you came to faith in Jesus.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In the summer camp program at SLO.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and where are you from? Mississippi.
Speaker 1:What was the church?
Speaker 7:Uh, gaston, baptist Church, that's who you came with.
Speaker 1:There's a little shout out. Yeah, we got a few Gaston alum that are on staff.
Speaker 7:Yeah, there's a big group of us.
Speaker 1:Real quick overview. What is the Institute? Jb just talked about Element what?
Speaker 7:like in the Institute. How would you explain it to somebody in just a brief description? It's basically just a good opportunity to get to grow with, like other believers, um, and you get the opportunity to take classes that can transfer to college credits, um, and then you get to work in departments just to help out camp. And it's also a good like opportunity to be able to serve in our community too, um, not just getting to serve at camp too.
Speaker 1:So oh, yeah with pinwheel, yeah with pin. So were you a tutor in the pinwheel program all year? Who was your kid?
Speaker 7:Scholar.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 7:Yeah, she was great.
Speaker 1:What a cool. So you're learning local ministry, you're working in the ministry at SWO, you're being invested in your own spiritual growth and development Um, that's good. And now you're back, now being here a second summer, but having been here the whole year, do you feel like really much more solidly playing it Like you know what?
Speaker 7:to expect. Yeah, so much better Basically, just more confident and just like kind of because you feel at home now that you've been here for a year. So that's really nice.
Speaker 1:So last thing, we're four days into staff training Thoughts assessment week one of staff training.
Speaker 7:Honestly, it's so much fun already.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's been really great and I've made friends with so many people just in four days, so that's been really cool.
Speaker 1:That's cool. It's going to be an awesome summer. All right, thanks. All right, thank you. I see Tiffany Long walking by. Oh my gosh, Come on, Come on, hey Tiff Tiff, our listeners know you.
Speaker 8:Yes, they do.
Speaker 1:Because we did a couple episodes the year before last. You and Adam yes. So what's your job For our listeners? Remind them what your job at SWO is.
Speaker 8:I am the hospitality manager Yep, so that means I take care of all the cleanliness, organization, event setup, breakdown, decor, all of the above.
Speaker 1:And it is a family affair for y'all. It is a big family affair. What's, adam, do your husband?
Speaker 8:Electrician on the maintenance staff.
Speaker 1:Yep, and like when we say electrician. Let me be clear, that is a modest description, although Tiff will brag on her man but he will not brag on himself. But that dude is like master electrician union dude 20-some years in Atlanta. If you can run power through it, he knows how it works.
Speaker 8:That is true, and he can keep you from getting killed, that's right.
Speaker 1:Hospitality has gone to a new level with you. I'll say that Thank you. I'll say that Thank you. So anybody that's been here for marriage respond men's events. They've seen your hand on things, so that's really cool. Last thing, quick assessment of week one of staff training. What do you think?
Speaker 8:Week one of staff training. I'm excited I actually have a new Macy came to be with me on my hospitality team that's right.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Macy Meyer Full time.
Speaker 8:Full time. Full time Going great so far Looks like a good group of kids. They seem to have heard a lot of thank yous, a lot of acknowledgement of the work that we're all putting in the staff. So that's nice they're being respectful. Being respectful.
Speaker 1:If they're not, they'll get a knot jerked in their hands.
Speaker 8:They will get a talking to.
Speaker 1:We're a little old school. I know we're a little bit old school with that. I know they better not mess around.
Speaker 8:Sometimes I have to tamp it down a little bit because. Mama wants to get crazy. That's good, All right thanks. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, this is a treat. Tell me your name, Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn you? What are y'all doing at SWO today?
Speaker 9:We're just here doing rec stuff and we had a Bible study.
Speaker 1:It's with FCA, right, you are here with FCA, so it's an FCA outing Uh-huh, but you're getting them in school all day.
Speaker 9:Yep, I am. I'm not even doing anything at school, so that's perfect.
Speaker 1:Are you like early graduate dual enrolled? What?
Speaker 9:I'm doing. Yeah, I'm dual enrolled, so most of my classes are done with because the college is done. So I just have chemistry in the morning and then I have PE in the afternoon.
Speaker 1:So I just have like two blocks where I'm literally napping, crocheting, making slime. That is awesome. That's cool. And what was the lesson this morning at FCA? I think Tucker did it. What did he talk about?
Speaker 9:He was talking about how like it's so easy to get caught up in, like how, since we're Christians and we can't do the things of this world, how like we can't like receive pleasure, like there's nothing we can do, but God calls us to a higher pleasure, like there's so much more for us through him. So, like he said specifically that we can to like defeat our desire for the pleasures of this world. Like we we can do better. I don't know how to explain it Like.
Speaker 9:Oh, yeah, like you can fulfill yourself with the pleasures of God and then like it's just completely overruled.
Speaker 1:It's a greater fulfillment. Yeah, that overwhelms the smaller fulfillment of what the world offers, exactly. Yeah, that's cool, awesome. Well, have an awesome afternoon. Let's see it's 12. So are y'all here till three?
Speaker 9:Yes, we are.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Enjoy your afternoon. Thanks for coming on. Hold on this next. This is good. Hey, we got Amy Davis. Amy Davis, I mean, this is not your first staff training.
Speaker 5:This is crazy this is my 24th staff training 24th staff training 24th.
Speaker 1:Give me your assessment of this week, like where we are. This group yes. Any thoughts early on?
Speaker 5:Okay, early on, there are way more rules than were in 2021. I will tell you that. And we have way better rec and we have way better preparation.
Speaker 1:You mean in 2001? What did I say? You said 2021. Your first summer was 2001. Yes, yeah, way more rules, way more rules, oh gosh. Okay, all right, not many people are going to appreciate this, like me, and you Give me one thing from your early days, 01, 02, that we did that. Now you think about it. It's like and Maddie can edit this if it takes you a minute to think about it- One thing that I do 100% is going down wesser falls in the hail storm yep illegally who was your guide?
Speaker 5:you were me and you and spencer and my friend that I had brought up from florida and we were um going and it had been a hail, it was hailing, so everybody was had the raft on top like we were holding it above our heads, and then you're like this now or never, guys, we got to go. The bus is leaving. We would like, at the end of our river trip, the students or whoever would be getting on the boat, on the bus, and you would sneak a couple of us. We would like.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's go let's go do it and um man, that was so fun and now I think you get big trouble if you do that, even like down there. You know, yeah, that down there. You know. Oh, yeah, that's funny. What do you? This is you're talking to the NSR audience. Hello NSR, what do you do now? What's your job now? Because it's I will say this Amy. Amy's the one person that gets me when it comes to design and branding and how we decorate stage. You know the new stage set each year. Amy's really the only person I'm super comfortable working with because we've been doing this together so long. What your primary role job? You got a bunch. You wear a bunch of different hats I get to work with everybody.
Speaker 5:Hank describes it as um collaboration so I'm kind of like the art and branding collaborator yeah, that's good so I get to kind of have opinions about everything as just somebody else's opinion.
Speaker 1:That gets to make things look nice for instance, if somebody goes up to the pool, you're getting ready to do a new mural on the pool wall. Are you going to do the slide? What are we doing on the side of the tube slide? That'll be you T-shirts this year. Do you have any designs? I have a couple shirts.
Speaker 5:A couple of shirts I got in the mix, and then we'll do the stage, which is phenomenal.
Speaker 1:The stage, by the way, is my favorite ever that we've done.
Speaker 5:And I'm doing a community group, so I have my own own group of girls that I get to meet with every week and that's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1:and the women's like the ministry wives breakfast that we do on Wednesdays.
Speaker 5:We get to do that. What talk about that for just a second? So every Wednesday morning during the main session of the morning, we have, if you're married to a minister of any sort missionary, youth pastor, pastor we kind of just have a little get together for the women who are here at Snowbird. You know we've got a lot of Red Oak ladies that are elders, wives and our husbands work here at camp. So we kind of just provide a space to have some unity built and we share a little bit and talk and pray and it's super beneficial. Every woman is welcome If you're married to a pastor. Youth pastor needs some encouragement. Most of the time when ladies sit down, the first thing that they want to clarify is I this wasn't my idea to be a pastor's wife. I didn't start off this way. I was a whatever. It is like an English teacher or whatever. But God, just, you wake up one day and all of a sudden you're a pastor's wife.
Speaker 5:Like very few of the women who come here, that was their aim in life and um, it's awesome to see how god changes us and grows us, and one actually one time, sarah conti, was just like, oh my goodness, so are we? We're pastor's wives now, because red oak how it started was, we kind of got like didn't know, going into it, that that's what was gonna.
Speaker 5:So it's pretty funny how god just uses all these little you know adventures of snowbird and red oak, and all that to be able to encourage people of all ages, no matter what season of life that they're in when they come here, whether you're a student, or a lay worker or married to a pastor, and you had an extra spot, so you came. And then here's all these other women who are also in this very specific genre of ministry you know it's always encouraging.
Speaker 1:It's been a huge success because now we have ladies, because y'all have been doing it like seven years.
Speaker 5:Oh, it's like Longer than that. Yeah, 13 years at least. It's that long yeah.
Speaker 1:Y'all been doing that women's breakfast brunch Wow. I know that there are women that have said to me it's changed their whole, that one hour has changed their whole camp experience. They look forward to coming to a week of SWO and that's the centerpiece of their week, which is really cool.
Speaker 5:That's encouraging.
Speaker 1:Literally, I just shut the machine off on accident. But we're laughing because literally I'm set up on a trash can in the metal building a trash can. People are walking up putting trash under the podcaster.
Speaker 5:Um, you need to have an intern to do a no sanity required social media, because this picture of you doing this by the emergency procedures, I think isa came up and grabbed some stuff for Instagram.
Speaker 1:Probably, I'm assuming I saw Issa taking pictures of us, okay, although that was when Tiff was over here. What was it? Oh, you have a podcast.
Speaker 5:I do. Yes, I have a podcast I started last year called Generate Joy and it is just identity, purpose and mindset for Christian women to just spur them along in their faith journey and to just grow in Christ and to have another voice of reason out there. Yep, you know.
Speaker 1:We're going to sit down and talk about that. We're going to do our. I'm going to go on Amy's podcast. She's going to come on NSR. We're going to do a full episode on each about talking about that. And you're married to Spencer Davis and three kids. You've got three kids. Who are they?
Speaker 5:I have three kids, Alani, Knox and Jed, and I always introduce myself to people as the risk that Spencer manages outside of Snowbird.
Speaker 6:Because Spencer's the risk management guy.
Speaker 5:He's the risk management guy and, honestly, today we drove up Alani's learning how to drive. She's got a driver's permit, so we permit. So we get to the coop, we get out, I come down here, do a couple things. Alani's here at fca today. We go back up, I walk, spencer walks me back up to the car and the car is running and the keys are in the car. He's like amy, you left the car running. I've been here like an hour.
Speaker 5:I was like no, that was alani and he's like no but you're in charge of alani, You're like driving with her in the car and I was like, oh man touche so funny. I love it Well, thanks Thanks for having me on this awesome little moment at the metal building.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's been a zoo. Alright, introduce yourselves. Hello, say your name. I'm Rylan. Rylan, I'm Alani. I'm Hannah. Alright and Rylan, you are Element. Yes, sir, this summer, I was it last summer and now you're just full bore. You're working, alani, what are you doing this summer? I'm going to be working with Element and Alani. We just heard from your mom. We just heard from Amy, and she told a funny story about risk your dad has to manage outside of snowboarding 100% 100%.
Speaker 1:You've been here since Monday, haven't you, hannah? I've been here since Friday. Yes, sir. So give me all right, let me do this. Give me your assessment of week. This is your first staff training. You worked all last summer, but this is your first going through staff training, right? Yes, sir? Give me your thought. What do you think?
Speaker 6:I love it. I think it's a great opportunity to learn how to do camp, Because last year Nikki and Morgan, they gave us kind of like a shortened version of a staff training, but this year I think it's really good for everybody to kind of see what Snowbirds Envision is.
Speaker 1:Yes, we've been talking a lot about the mission statement, the vision and the core values. Have you give me, give me thoughts on one core value that has stood out so far?
Speaker 6:Definitely the relational part. I mean for me. It can be hard to connect with campers, especially when they first get here. But just to keep your mind on, this is their only week of camp they have, so just to make the best of it, like the first day is the last day they're going to be here, so do everything to the fullest.
Speaker 1:That's good. Awesome, Rylan. What are you most excited about? You've been here 24 hours, not even.
Speaker 10:I'm really excited about like just the people we're working with and like getting mentored and then being able to turn around and be able to mentor other people who don't know the gospel and like the whole. They fill you up and then you go pour out but like you don't have to, you're never gonna just be like empty. You've always got mentors who are helping you, guiding you, teaching you how to study your Bible Stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as you're pouring out, I like to explain to people, as we're asking you to pour yourself out, we're pouring into you, so it's like an overflow, if that makes sense. Yeah, you're going to do awesome. It's going to be an awesome summer. And, alani, last thing, you're here today for FCA event. Yes, but you're also a SWO kid, so you're on both sides of the deal today. Yeah, it's really funny.
Speaker 10:Just seeing people come through and they're like oh my gosh this is amazing. I'm like, yep, I've rode that 19 times in one day. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Three-man On the three-man swing. They loved it. Yeah, the kids from Andrews High School, fca. I kids from Andrews.
Speaker 10:High School FCA. I've been trying to get her to do it for 16 years. Wait who?
Speaker 1:Molly, she did it. She rode the three-man swing with us. You think Molly would jump on here. Probably not. She's so bashful she would you think she would. I might try to grab her during the afternoon. She's fantastic, cool. Alright, thank y'all, all of you, awesome. Alright, say your name, introduce yourself.
Speaker 4:Hey, my name is Emma Linsley. I am the assistant kitchen manager here at Snowbird.
Speaker 1:At SWO. How many meals do you think Okay projecting ahead? How many meals do you anticipate preparing this summer? Let me do math 14 times 10, so 140 meals per day.
Speaker 4:We're going to feed 750 people per meal.
Speaker 1:Let's do, okay, 1400. You said 1400, 140, 140. Let's see 140 times 750. Yes, 105 000 meals. That's just in the summer. And what do you think? Okay, here's the big. Here's what's so impressive to me that kitchen's's probably designed really to handle a much smaller load. Y'all are like miracle workers.
Speaker 4:We make it work, yeah.
Speaker 1:And people that come to SWO. A lot of our listeners have been here and they brag on the food. They always brag on the food. So you guys, what you do is phenomenal, biggest. Okay, we're day four of week one staff training. Give me your thoughts on the staff so far.
Speaker 4:Oh, they are joys to be around. Yeah, I'm excited there are some that walk through and have the biggest smiles on their face and I think they're going to have a blast this summer.
Speaker 1:That's so cool because Tiff I had Tiff on here and she said they've all been real respectful and helpful, which is very encouraging, I think, for our listeners to know there's still a lot of really good 20-year-olds out there. You know late teens, early 20s. They're there yeah, and your crew. How many people you got working on your crew at each meal?
Speaker 4:We typically we try to have at least four of us in starting at the day and then ending at the day and then we have more people come in throughout the day, overlap, yep.
Speaker 1:And then the Element ladies will help with some of the front of the house stuff the bars, the salad bar, the hot bar stuff like that Clean up, resupply. Element boys will be pulling trash and running trash out.
Speaker 4:And doing all of our dishes. We could not do it without them.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and you'd be a good person to ask about this. But I have heard and have been in some meetings actually that there is a new dining facility that's starting to be drawn up and is in the works, and that's exciting.
Speaker 4:It's so exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're going to have literally your hand in that, so really cool, all right, thanks, yeah.
Speaker 4:My pleasure.
Speaker 1:Awesome. The first core value we'll talk about is gospel driven. Now you'll, one of the things that's very common um word usages in evangelical Christianity right now is the phrase gospel centered. We like I like to use the word we we use the phrase gospel driven, like to use the word driven, because the gospel is driving what we're doing. Um, and when we, when we say let me give you a little bit of definition and then explain gospel-driven a little bit, and then we will hear from some staff what they've learned during staff training this past week and what sort of this means to them now, as it's sort of taking shape and helping them understand what their role here is going to be Gospel-driven.
Speaker 1:We are theologically conservative, we are culturally progressive. I say that again theologically conservative, culturally progressive. In other words, we are pushing the envelope culturally. We're getting in the cultural current. We're doing things that might have made your grandmama and her little independent Baptist church very uncomfortable. A lot of our people don't look like Christians looked in the way you were raised to believe Christians supposed to look. We got a lot of ink and sleeves and piercings. Then we got folks that are very conservative in even the way they present themselves and we just we're very diverse as a staff, um, culturally Now we don't have a ton of um diversity, maybe in terms of skin tone, you know, a lot of times our staff will be 90% Caucasian, but within that, a crazy amount of diversity culturally.
Speaker 1:And so, uh, what binds us all together is we're theologically conservative, meaning we hold a high view of scripture, a narrow view of truth. We believe that everything Jesus said is authoritative. We believe the word of God has authority for our lives and we are to submit to the scripture. We believe the scripture is sufficient. We believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. There's no hope for salvation apart from Christ. But we're culturally progressive in the sense that we will have hard conversations and enter into the cultural space and spaces Use that word space, use the word space because that's real trendy right now in the woke culture. So we'll jump into the woke space or the LGBTQ space or whatever it is in any given period or era. We'll get into philosophical arena, secular arenas and we'll go there and we'll articulate the gospel in a way that adapts to the culture. We don't compromise it.
Speaker 1:But what does the gospel say, what does the word of God say about a given subject and then theology is driven and cultural adaptation is driven by the gospel. So if we're theologically conservative and we're culturally progressive, what's driving both of those things is the gospel. We're theologically conservative because the gospel says that. You know, paul says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. There's no other salvation, there's no other name given among men whereby we might be saved. The gospel is all about Jesus. Theology is driven by that. So we teach theology that is driven by a high view of scripture and the gospel. And then the way that we adapt culturally, that's driven by the gospel. What that does is it keeps us from compromise. We don't go off the rails and You'll see folks try so hard to be cool, to look hip, to be appealing to the world. Some of the worship stuff that's put out right now. I watch it on YouTube and I'm just like come on, man, you're trying too hard to look like somebody performing at the Grammys. You don't have to go over the top with that. Sometimes I feel like we can compromise that and I don't want to be judgmental of how somebody does that, but just for Snowbird, we. All of that is is rooted, grounded and driven by the gospel. So we're gospel driven. Simplest way to say that is that it's all about Jesus. Everything we do is driven by that fact. It's all about Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now, if we're going to break down the gospel, um, I would break the gospel. We would categorize it into five things. We'll include this, by the way. We'll give you these notes. Number one the past work of the gospel, which is the incarnation of Jesus, the prophetic fulfillment of Jesus when he came to the earth, he was fulfilling all the old prophecies of scripture. The life and ministry of Jesus. His temptation and conquest, his victory over sin and temptation and death and hell in the grave. His resurrection. The fact that the death of Jesus was substitutionary he died in our place, he was our substitute is vicarious. We died with him through and it was just. God's justice was satisfied. So there's that past work of the gospel.
Speaker 1:The second way that this is when we're articulating what it means to be gospel-driven. The second observation would be that everything we do is driven by the fact that doctrine matters. What you know drives what you do. We believe in who Jesus is, who he said he was. Doctrine matters to us and that drives what we do. So in that sense we're gospel-driven. Third observation would be that God's word is authoritative and sufficient, and the gospel is central to that. The gospel is the central message of the entire word of God and it has authority for our lives. And it's sufficient, it's all that we need in terms of what God would reveal to us. The fourth observation is that the gospel calls us to action. So we're on mission both here and abroad, and so the gospel calls us to action. And then the fifth and final observation under gospel driven is that the gospel matters for every part of our life. The gospel is not only the power of God that saves me, it's the ongoing power that the Holy Spirit is working in me. So gospel driven, meaning we're theologically conservative and that theology is driven by the understanding of the gospel. We're culturally progressive and that cultural adaptation is driven by the gospel. And then there's those five observations that we hold to, you know, in terms of the kind of guide, how we do, what we do. Okay, second course. So that's the first core value.
Speaker 1:Gospel driven Second core value is to have a servant's heart, or to be servant hearted. A servant is not above his master. Jesus is our master. He came, you know, he says this in Mark come to be, uh, to be served, but to serve. To lay down my life, you know, as a ransom for the many. Jesus died for those that he would leadrificial life, sacrificial ministry of Jesus, it's the foundation and basis for all ministry. So having a servant's heart, serving and working like Jesus, that was the foundation for how you do ministry. You serve others.
Speaker 1:At SWO we want people who have an attitude of serving others, not an attitude of entitlement. I think that's the opposite of servant's heart. Entitlement's the ultimate disabler in ministry and you could add that to business, family, church. If you are entitled, it disables your effectiveness, but an attitude of service and servanthood is the ultimate enabler. If we're going to change lives, it'll be through serving others well. So this means for us that those we work and serve alongside others, the people that we're going to minister to, the community we're a part of. It all fits into this. We're serving one another.
Speaker 1:We have this attitude, this mindset of serving others, and it's not just like a little child's preschool lesson, or it's not just a cliche. It and it's not just like a little child's preschool lesson, or it's not just a cliche, it's a niche item for SWO. By the way, I will never use the word niche. I will never pronounce it niche. That sounds so stupid and that's the new trend. I'm not going to do it. It is a niche. That's a CH in there, by the way, and I'm not French. It is a niche item. That's my little rant for today's episode. Rant for today's episode. It's a niche item for SWO. So it's not a cliche, it's not a little child's lesson, it's. This is.
Speaker 1:This is one of our areas of identity and and, uh, dna. We want to serve one another, we want to prefer one another. We want to give people kindness and grace and the benefit of the doubt. We want to treat people the way we want to be treated and, uh, it's critical to obey in Jesus's command that we're to love others well, and he set that example for us. So the goal that we have is to see others meet Jesus and grow in grace and holiness. That begins by us doing these things ourselves. We want to grow in grace, we want to go, have kindness towards others. We want to be kind, not just nice, but kind, genuinely kind, genuinely caring and so this is, this is critical to our daily interaction as a ministry and as a ministry family, um, so, with that servant's heart. So the first core value is gospel driven. Second core value is servant hearted, uh. Third one is relational. We're relational, be relational, all people. You know this. This goes into our again, you'll hear. You'll hear hints and and shadows of the mission statement in each of these and uh, so that that piece uh relational is. You know, right there in the mission statement, through, through relationships. All people are created for relationship, all people are created for community. Scripture calls it fellowship.
Speaker 1:From our executive team, which is myself it's me, matt Jones and Hank Parker Jr. That's the executive team at Snowbird. Our leadership structure is we have three executives Brody Holloway, matt Jones, hank Parker Jr. We then have a team of directors that answer to that executive team, people like Brandon Crocker, zach Mabry, spencer Davis, rob Conte, jeff Garner. We've got directors, some right, uh, right, right, right below that, not below that, we'll say below that. But then we've got managers, people that manage different departments and areas, and all of these people are in leadership executives, directors, managers, all in leadership, um, and then we've got uh, interns that are here for the year. We've got folks that are um here in a three-year paid internship called FT3 got people in every every kind of level of of leadership, um, and wherever you go, there needs to be a culture of team and family and relationships and uh, and we care about each other and we're growing in relationship with each other, um, so one of the core things that we focus on is discipleship, and I think discipleship is most effective when people feel important, when they feel loved, they're invested in you. Look at how Jesus, you know, trained his disciples. He lived with them, he was ministering alongside of them. So everyone who comes onto the property or that we meet outside of our property, we want them to feel that relational connection, and I think we can do our best ministry when we love people well and we sincerely invest in people.
Speaker 1:Next is hardworking. That's kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it? Um? To me, this is where it's like you got to have a no days off mentality. There's no days off in ministry. We work hard, we expect the unexpected, we're dealing with people in the brokenness of the world we live in. There's no clock to punch, and you know it's not like show up at 8 30, leave at 5. You know whatever, show up at 8, leave at 4 30. You, you can't have a clock punching mentality now.
Speaker 1:There are days through the year where we do that. I mean there's days where and that 4, 30 chimes and it's like the place clears out like a ghost town during the school year. But in the summer ain't nobody getting off work at 4.30. Maybe some food service folks or maybe a bus driver, but the ministry team that's working with students and churches and each other at 4.30, we're just ramping up. I mean 4.30 is the halfway point for my day because I'm never done before 12.30. So 4.30 is literally noon for me. Um, so you don't punch a clock at eight and punch it at four, 30 and go to the house, it's. There are days where you do get to leave.
Speaker 1:There's times where in the middle of summer I'm like you know what, I got to take a break and I'll just get out of here and go to gun range, go, uh, go fishing, go home and sit at the barn and watch the chickens peck. You know, throw out some, some chicken scratch, just so I can be entertained mindlessly. Whatever, you know, you pull away, but for the most part it's seven, somewhere between seven and eight in the morning, your feet are on the ground and you're going wide open until midnight or one um. So it's a hard working mentality, no days off, no clock clock-punching mentality. But as hard as we work, we're going to play, we're going to rest, we're going to build community, we're going to have.
Speaker 1:There's times we're in the middle of a work day, just a bunch of folks hanging out. You know there's a lot of nights where, end of the day, we'll all just get together. I'll go to Hardee's. I'll call in. The only fast food burger joint we got in, andrews is hardy's. I'll call down there say, hey, get me 200 cheeseburgers. Go down there. And you know I'll call in three hours ahead and they'll. They'll make that many cheeseburgers. Go get them and then send out a text hey, everybody, come up to the parking lot in front of the coop, got cheeseburgers. It'll be 11 o'clock at night. You know, share groups are just ending. Everybody comes flying up there and so it's, you know it's.
Speaker 1:We're going to work hard but they're going to enjoy hangout times and and uh, just never a waste of time when we're cultivating relationships because we're relational. Some of the hard work is not driving a nail, carrying a bag of trash, backing up a bus to offload kids at the put in at the river. All that's hard work. Sometimes what we're doing is cultivating relationships and that takes a work ethic. You know it's hard work to do that, long days, short nights of sleep a lot of times. But our calling is to serve others with the love of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus. As exhausting as it is, it's so rewarding.
Speaker 1:And then the fifth and final is to be positive, positively focused, positively engaged, positively driven. We deal with conflict positively. So I want to be a team in ministry that you know you've got the glass half full attitude. Got the glass half empty. Are you a glass half full person? You're a glass half empty person? Um, or you're a person that's like, oh, the glass is completely empty, there ain't nothing in the glass Ain't going to be. You know how negative are you by nature, you, you know we used to use the phrase whatever it takes and we still. That'll still come up from time to time. You got to have a whatever it takes mentality.
Speaker 1:Saw a t-shirt one time. It said it was three cartoon glasses. It was like a glass of water and each one of them's half full. And the little hands. This is like stick figure hands and feet. And the glass. The first glass says um, I'm uh, let's see. The first one says I'm half full, and he's got a big smiley face. He looks, you know, like a positive face. The next one says I'm half empty, and his hands on his hips and he's kind of looking down. And then the third one has got this freaked out. Look, kind of frazzled hands are out, and he says I think this might be urine, I think he says pee.
Speaker 1:But the idea is, you know, some people are very positive, some people are very negative, some people live in freak out mode and, man, when you're doing this kind of ministry, there's the opportunity to freak out a lot. So we just want to be positive and, at Snowbird, if you're going to work here and serve in this ministry, that's a big piece of who you are and what you do. It's a core value to us and so I wanted to share all this with you so you kind of know how we approach our staff uh, training and and, and then these, the, the core values at snowbird are what guide, how we promote people, how we you know the people that climb sort of up into management positions like they're hitting on all cylinders with all these core values? They're? They're sort of measurables for us. And then I've actually we don't talk about this a lot, but I've got personal core values that first and foremost are like, for me personally, kind of self-evaluating, um, and they are, and I've taught these within our leadership team, particularly, uh, during all the COVID stuff. You know, we grew like crazy during COVID because we hit these.
Speaker 1:So the three leadership values that I try to live by and then instill in our leadership team is to lead, to innovate and to manage. So leading is man, it's biblical. You look at the judges, the kings, the prophets, jesus and his team, paul and his team. Some folks lead naturally. Others have to really work at it. But when in doubt, you just serve others well and work really hard and be relational and pursue Jesus and leadership will fall in place. But you have to be intentional with it.
Speaker 1:So we teach a lot of leadership principles and so I think, within leading, there's a need to be ambitious, there's a need to be energetic, there's a need to grow, you know to to be wise. Good leaders are going to be wise, they're going to be energetic, they're going to. They may not be like their personality, may not seem real energetic, but they're going to have a lot of energy and what you know, modern corporate gurus would, would refer to as bandwidth, you know, or capacity, um, lots of leadership ability is, is, is going to be, there's going to be evident with someone that has those characteristics. And then, uh, the second one is innovate. I always think about the COVID-19 action plan in 2020 camps through in the towel, left and right. Everybody closed the doors and we figured out a way, man, we figured out a way and we ran it and ran it hard and fast, and, and grew by 13% during the COVID years. Crazy Lord gave us a lot of favor and grace and and um, it's because of innovation.
Speaker 1:And then the third leadership value or principle is to manage. It's just like how do you delegate, how do you create an atmosphere of cooperation, create an atmosphere of positivity and support People feel supported by the people that are leading or instructing or, you know, heading up their department? Um, management is, management is key to successful business and ministry, you know. So, these leadership values I just kind of put those on as kind of a footnote. Those are values that strengthen and connect to the core values of SWO and they're guided by the mission statement Very important. So that's the core values. And so hearing from people and getting to see how this is impacting some of our staff, I think is super helpful.
Speaker 1:All right, well, we're going to wrap up this week's episode. Hope that you are focused. Your hand is on the plow man. You got your eyes fixed on Jesus. If you're listening to this and you're not a believer, jesus wants to have a relationship with you and offers that because he alone has the authority and the ability and the power to offer that. And if you are a believer man, jesus says no man who puts his hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Paul said that he fixes his eyes on Jesus, that he fixes his eyes on Jesus as if that were a great prize, and so this week, keep your hand on the plow. Even now, as I'm listening to our staff sing songs of praise in the background Literally, I don't know if you can hear this, but it's incredible and it's an encouragement. So I know it's been a loud episode, a little different, but maybe it's been just what you needed. I pray it has been. We'll see you next Monday.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us at SWOutfitterscom to see all of our programming and resources, and we'll see you next week on no Sanity Required.
