Day 1 of The Tabernacle | The Tent Live

One person to disciple you. Can you pray for one? Can you pray for one?

Hallelujah, Father. For the Lord is in his temple, let all the earth keep silent before him. Father God, we just thank you for your goodness. We adore you for You are holy. There is none like you, Father God. We thank you that you are our Father. You said that you love us and that we are your children, that you called us. You said that we are part of your royal priesthood, Father God. I thank you for each and every person that you have brought here, for those that may be even still on the way. We thank you, God, that you have prepared a way for them, to God, that you kept them safe. We pray for all of the people that are here right now, to God, that you have assembled them here for this seat that they are sitting in. We thank you, God, that you said that you are the groom and that we are your bride, Father God, and that there are people with gifts inside of them, God. There are people with stories inside of them that you have placed, and that there is someone that has given birth to something great that will impact the world, Father God. So we thank you for the people that are here, that as you are allowing them to steward the gifts that you have given them, I just pray that you would give them a fire right now, Father God, that you said that it would not be contained, that God, that it would be something that would refine them, that it would be something that would restore them, Father God. So we just thank you for your people here. We thank you that you have assembled a Joshua generation for a time such as this, for as the world that is going through what it is going through right now needs something fresh, God, to restore it, Father God. I thank you for these people that you have brought here, Lord, not just We pray over them in the mighty name of Jesus, that God, that what gifts, what channels, that God, what platforms that you are creating through them, that God, that they would steward it with an adoration for you, Father God. We thank you for these people that have come through these terrible conditions, Lord, that there is a hunger and a thirst that is inside of each and every one of them, Father God. We pray, that God, that you would use them, that God, that you would meet them in this place, that this would be a place, Father God, that you can rest and abide in. And as they leave, that you would go with them, God, that new ideas will be birthed, God, new concepts will be created, new partnerships will be formed, God, that you have divine connections, God, with people that may not even be in this place, that there is somebody right now that is thinking about them, that there is somebody right now that has a need that only they can fulfill, Father God, that you are preparing seats and places that they are going to be sitting in, that their ideas and concepts that you have given them would change and transform businesses, that God would change and transform industries, Father God. Ultimately, not just for their sake, God, but that you may be where you are supposed to be, God, that you would be lifted up, that you would be exalted, that your name would be in those places, Father God. We ask that you would use the people that are here, God, the people that we are thinking of, that we are praying of, to God, to transform this nation, to transform the countries, to God, not just ours, to God, but this world, to God. We pray, Father God, for your people that are here right now, that you would protect them, that you would place a hedge of protection, for we know that the things that you've created inside them, the enemy wants to destroy. And so we ask that you would place a hedge of protection around them, to God, that even as they are thinking of new designs, to God, as they're thinking of new concepts, that there may be writer's block, that there may be people around them that tell them that the things that they are creating are foolish, Lord, I ask that you would place a hedge of protection around them right now in the mighty name of Jesus, God. We thank you, God, that we can come before you and fall before you, God, in praise and in worship. And we come seeking you, God. We come giving you everything that you've given us, God. May we lay our gifts to God. May we lay our talents on the altar to God. May you reconcile us and clean us, Father God, that as we come pursuing you to God, even the things that may hinder us from taking, from going to places that you want us to go to God, we ask that you will remove it right now in the mighty name of Jesus. I pray to God that you will help them to see that they have been called to come here for a purpose to God. You said that the good work that you you started in us, you would see it to completion, Lord. You said that you know that you have— you know the plans for us, God. So I ask, God, that even those who may have been asked to come to God— I don't want to drive by myself on the road, God. I don't want to— I don't want to be here on my own on the streets. Will you come with me? Will you sit with me? I don't know anybody there. I may be uncomfortable. That even the person that was asked to be a plus one is here for a purpose God, that you have spoken something into them, God, and that this will be the place where those ideas and those dreams would blossom. I thank you, God, for those who have come to be leaders here, to, to speak, that their mouths will be used to represent you correctly, Father God.

Oh, to worship you, I live To worship you, I live to worship you. To worship you, oh! To worship you, I live to worship you. Oh, I live and leave to worship you. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, to worship you, I live to worship you, I live, I live to worship you. Oh, to worship you, I live to worship you. I live, I live to worship you. Oh yeah. If the stars were made to worship, so will I. If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. If stars were made to worship, so will I. If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. If the stars were made to worship, so will I. If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. Let's ignore it. If the stars were made to worship, so will I. If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. Oh yes. So here I am to worship, and here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're altogether lovely and altogether worthy, altogether the one that fought for me. Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together, love All together worthy and all together one, the Father to me. And I'll never know how much it cost to see my sins upon the cross. And I'll never know how much it cost to see my sins upon the cross. So here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. And here I am to say that you're my King. You're altogether lovely and altogether worthy. All together, the word before me.

Let's take 30 seconds and worship him.

I love you, love you, love you. You're altogether worthy and altogether lovely, altogether wonderful to me.

Can you just begin to pray to God? You see, we're trying to frame that creativity is holy work, design is holy work, building is holy work. So there's a level of consecration that you have when you do things before God, whether you're preaching, singing, creating, writing. What if we approached everything with the same holiness as the temple sacrifices? You see, the priest cannot enter that temple, he couldn't enter that tabernacle unless he was cleansed. So before you get into the tabernacle, there's a a golden laver where you will wash yourself clean, and there's an altar which will offer sacrifices for atonement. And that's before you even enter. So before we enter right now, can you just ask God, Father, purify me for the ministry you're gonna have me do? What if you prayed before you posted everything everything on social media? I believe social media would be a much better place. What if you prayed before every artwork you created? What if you prayed before every design? As much as we need creativity in the church, we need the church creativity. So can you just pray in one minute? Make me a consecrated creator. A consecrated creator. A creator that is set apart. You see, there are creatives in the world, but we are not like them. We're different. Our work is holy. Our work is unto the Most High God. We design to worship. What if you prayed before you published every video? What if you fasted before every Instagram post? What if we took it that seriously that a soul is on the other side of what we are creating, and you're either ministering to them or against them. So can you pray that you receive this mindset? This is holy work. Lord God, we come before you knowing that you know the end and the beginning. You've appointed all things unto you for your glory. All we want to do is bring you glory. We want every aspect of our life to be an act of worship. The Bible said, I beseech you therefore, my brethren, by the mercies of God, to offer yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. This is your reasonable act of worship. My life is worship. My conduct is worship. My speech is worship. My behavior is worship. The way I dress is worship. My life is a living sacrifice. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for in Jesus' name we pray. And the church said amen. God is good. My job is to introduce the tent, then I'm going to bring Hunter to talk about Talents in Tech. She'll give an intro to our panel, and I want to just share an inspiration behind this. I live my life by faith. Faith is the gasoline that powers my life. I hear from God and I don't see anything and I move anyway. That's faith. I don't know what the outcome would be. I don't know how it will result. But remember, Noah built an ark when there was no rain for years. So we're trying to let you know what you're building, it may not be for now, but it is also not for nothing. Amen. So one of the things that the Lord put on my heart a year ago was a program called The Tent. And I look around and I see some familiar faces. To that. And I was reading Exodus 33, and Manaea actually made me realize that my reading that scripture wasn't ordinary because he mentioned there were probably thousands of other people that read that same scripture but didn't get the same revelation. And that's powerful. You see, many people can have your same idea, but they can't do it like you. that's worthy of you doing it anyway. So I read the same Exodus 33 that many people are familiar with, but the Lord asked me a question: What happens when your Moses leaves? When your pastors, your preachers, your apostles— what happens when they leave? Think about your church right now. If your entire usher board, your deacons, your elders— if they all left, what would the church look like? That answer is a testament of the lack of Joshuas in the church. But the Bible says Joshua son of Nun stayed in the tent of meeting. He dwelt there, he tabernacled there. So we had the idea, what if on a Sunday we gathered people after they've already went to church Moses already went to Sunday service that day, but when his pastor left, he said, 'No, there's more,' because Moses only could teach him enough to go to the promise. He had to receive the instructions directly from the Lord to go through the promise. So that's what we do periodically at the tent, and we'll be doing it tomorrow at 5 o'clock. And I'm trusting that God will do some amazing things through that initiative. So today we are now collaborating with Talents in Tech to go 2 chapters up to Exodus 31. If you don't notice, I've been studying Exodus for a long time. My whole life this year has been in Exodus. In fact, as a Bible study, we've studied all 40 chapters of Exodus this year. Straight from chapter 1 to chapter 40. We didn't study anything else. So if you want to know about Exodus, you know who to talk to. So Exodus 31, we read about the Spirit of God for the first time being put inside of somebody, and that person was not a preacher, not a pastor, not a prophet. He was a designer. So we're like, God wanted to put his Holy Spirit inside of somebody to build his dwelling place, and he said Moses, who he was communicating to for the most part, he says, Moses, not you, there's somebody in your camp that I want to use. So we're believing that In this season, the Lord will speak to pastors and say, not you, man of God, we respect you, but there's somebody in your pews that you have not been using to do this holy work. So Hunter Guy is going to come and introduce the same revelation that she had, but in the book of Matthew, about how we need to get active and build and use our talents to glorify God. So can you help me and welcome Hunter Guy?

God bless, Pastor O. Hello, everybody. I see some familiar faces. Hey, Mama. Thank you so much for inviting me to speak and for inviting Talents and Tech to collaborate. This is an honor. An honor and a privilege. For those who you don't know, um, Talisman Tech is an organization that was derived out of our tech startup, our Christian tech startup, um, Study Aloud. And through our initiatives, we are dedicated to the improvement of biblical literacy through advanced technologies. And we are coming out with our very first product, which is a Bible study app that helps people to understand the word of God through culturally responsive teaching. So taking the same elements that we've always seen to identify where are the gaps so that we can then provide them the tools and resources and content that they need according to their own cultural lens. And so this is an honor and a privilege. We started Talents and Tech about almost 2 years ago now. We were sitting in a room in 1871 where Kenny and I had an idea as we were working on this app to gather people together to unpack why is it that so many people struggle with bringing God to their workplaces, bringing God into their own talents and unique skill sets. We realized that we were not alone in that, and that along the way we met a lot of his hidden Bezalels, people who God breathed life into, but they were too ashamed to speak up for him in their own respective workplaces to do his kingdom work for his glory and for his purpose. And so today I have the privilege of bringing up a host of panelists, but before then, I would like to just read our scripture aloud, um, to us and kind of give some context about what it is that we will be discussing today. So if you can open your copy of the scriptures to Exodus 31, we're going to read verses 1 through 11. It states, now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, see, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Ur, in the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and knowledge and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to create artistic designs for work in gold and in silver and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings and in the carving of wood, so that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. And behold, I myself have appointed with him Aholyab, the son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, and in the hearts of all those who are skillful, I have put skill so that they may make everything that I have commanded you: the tent of the meeting, the Ark of the Testimony, and the atoning cover that is on it, and all the furniture of the tent, the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand, the woven garments as well, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons with which to carry out their priesthood, the anointing oil also, and the fragrant incense for the holy place. They are to make them according to everything I have commanded you. Will you all please breathe a word of prayer with me? Gracious God, our Father, we thank you for this time of framing, Lord, what it is that you have to do with design. Father, everything in this world belongs to you, was created for you, through you, by you, for your purpose and for your glory. So God, I pray that you move me out of the way, move each and every panelist out of the way, Father God, and help us to see you for exactly where you stand. Father, breathe life into us now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. It was April 3rd, 2004, one of the greatest days that I thought would be of my life. My father had just promised that I could have anything— one, at least one thing on a list of 10 things for Christmas that year. And that year, Bratz dolls came out. We had Barbie, cars, we had a bunch of things, a host of things. And so instead of taking the normal JCPenney's book that I normally would and circle at least 25 different items on it, I decided, well, I have an idea where if I want to imagine something, if I can think about what it is that I want, that means that you should be able to make it because that's what I asked for. And so I took a sheet of paper and I started to sketch a bed set. For 7 years of my life, I shared a bed with my older sister, which meant that 9 times out of 10, I woke up with toes in my mouth or off the bed on the side of the bed by the time it was the next day. And so I thought that by this time, I should be able to breathe life into a design, give it to my father, and he should be rich enough to provide it for me. This bed was so decked out. I had a TV that came up out of the footboard. I had a place for my snacks and my DVDs and my VHS tapes. Tapes, and I had all of these different trinkets that were personalized just for me. And of course, as you can imagine, I did not see this bed set, and I still have never seen this bed set. But what I did learn that day was the idea of user experience way before it was a thing, way before I understood that I was a user in need of a problem to be solved. And because I had the idea to unpack what that problem was, I was able to have a blueprint to give someone to build for me. While I may not have received my own dwelling place, I learned this concept that we see here in Exodus 31, which is God providing a place for us to dwell for him and with him. We think that design is new and the design is of the 21st century, when in fact is a biblical principle and it's a concept that has happened and happened in heaven and earth well before we were even thought of. We hear things like design thinking, which is to discover, to define, to design, and then to test. This framework was given to corporations to build things that you see today, everything from the iPhone to the cars that you drive to the shoes that you wear. Someone had to first identify a problem to be solved. And so when we look at Exodus 31, we see first God discover the problem amongst his people. He just relinquished them from slavery. He gave them the keys to go into the wilderness and meet him. But the problem that they encountered was that they still felt very far from him. And so instead of designing something that he knew would be something that separated him from his people, he heard the cries in their hearts. And he gave them a blueprint, a defined estimation of exact measurements, and the person and the people who would do it. He gave them everything that they needed. When they walked out of Egypt, they came with all the materials, everything from the gold to the acacia wood to the fine linen and woven clothing. Everything that they needed, they came with. Even from their bondage of situation. And so as we stand here today and we watch this example of God, we have now the challenge and the ability to define something new for this next generation. As Pastor Oluseun Arowolaju was saying, everything that we see today, everything that we're building today is not necessarily 100% for us. Kenny and I started building Study Aloud 7 years ago, and today we still haven't seen the end result of everything that we're building. But so did Noah. Noah didn't know what would come of the boat that he was building. He didn't— he had never even heard of rain before. In a world where the world hasn't seen maybe a problem God has given you to solve for, He already knew what he placed you here to do. And so instead of being intimidated by the problem, being intimidated and the lack of resources, know that you have everything that you need in order to build the tabernacle that he has designed for you to build. We also see that God built this tabernacle in the middle of the wilderness. There's one thing that we don't really imagine is the desolation of the places that they were in. They had all of these resources. It reminds us of some of the desolate cities that we live in today. We look at the city of Chicago. In some areas, it may not be the most resourced, but we still see the beauty of art around the walls. We see murals. We see community. We see people who are able to still engage and build in ways that we never thought possible. We see the church that we're in, in the middle of Harvey. A lot of people would have thrown Harvey away a long time ago, and don't even get me started on Dalton, but not too much because that's where I'm from, okay? But God still builds in the wilderness. He builds in the wilderness and physical places, and he builds in the wilderness and spiritual places and places in our souls and our hearts where we thought that God may have abandoned the dreams the ideas that he's given us years ago. He still wants to utilize those things that are planted deep on the inside of us. And then he tests and he adapts. Way before we had the idea of what ideation was, God did the same thing. Before there was a tabernacle, there was Eden, where he built a dwelling place for us to dwell with him, to have a space to commune with him, to never be apart from him. And then after that, after we messed that up, he gave us his people. He gave us a people set apart for him to show us exactly how to live and thrive in a society that threw him away and that did not want a relationship with him. And then after we messed that up, he gave us the Ten Commandments. He gave us a book of laws. He gave us himself. And then he gave us the Holy Spirit. And so as we are moving and navigating through this world with the Holy Spirit, remember that you have everything that you need. You have the clothes on your back, you have the shoes on your feet, which means that you could go somewhere to get some resources to do the thing that God has asked you to do. And as long as you have the word of God planted inside of you, you have the blueprint, you have every single word that has spoken life into your body. And so with that, I would love for us to commune in our conversation and continue on. I'm going to introduce our wonderful panelists, and we have an incredible lineup today. So as I introduce each one of you, I would like for you to come and sit in one of the seats. First, we have Britney Applegate. Let's please, round of applause. She is a visionary brand strategist, consultant, and thought leader. Driven by her faith in Jesus, Britney approaches strategy as both a craft and a calling. She equips brands to grow with clarity, purpose, and authenticity, helping them make their mark with influence, integrity, and impact. Thank you, Brandy. Um, next we have Jasmine Patterson. Jasmine is the founder and lead photographer of J. Lauren Photography. She is passionate about helping people feel seen, valued, and authentically represented through her work. Her faith in Jesus is woven into the care and attention she brings to every session, making photography not just her craft, but her way of serving others. Next, we have the lovely and dynamic Oluseun Arowolaju, a wife and mother of 3, someone who was just working tirelessly right before she got on this stage. She is a UX designer who shapes the user experiences for Fortune 500 companies Beyond her career, she serves in ministry alongside her husband, Pastor O, leading media and marketing for the Tent and the Tabernacle and oversees tech and media at her home church, B-C-O-R. Through media, she works to bridge the gaps created by language and distance to connect believers and until all have heard. Next, we have Jaylen Jalen is the founder of Athlete's House, a platform dedicated to empowering athletes beyond the game. He equips emerging, current, and former athletes with financial literacy, career insight, and a grounded understanding of sports culture, helping them navigate both the industry and their identity with wisdom. His mission is to help every athlete thrive on the field, in their finances, and in their faith. Next, we have Johnny. Johnny is the founder of No Lab Coat Required, a nonprofit where science meets faith. He challenges the idea that science is complicated, exclusive, or snobby. The platform bridges the gap between academia and everyday life with a passion for breaking down complex ideas and making them relatable. He explores scientific topics through the lens of Christian faith, showing how curiosity, culture, and belief can coexist beautifully. Give it up for our panelists. All right. I will come join you. How is everyone doing? Great, great, great.

It's hot now.

There we go.

You got to flip it on.

Awesome. Thank you all so much for being here with us today. It is an honor and privilege to sit and speak with such a dynamic lineup of creatives, designers, and makers and shakers. We're going to start by, one, introducing yourself, but also, in no particular order, Could you tell us more about when you felt called to design and create in your space? And how did you know that God was calling you? Each of you can answer.

We're going to order then. What's up, y'all? Good to see everybody, man. The introduction was already so dope and it was so telling about just the Tentmakers' attention to detail, so I won't talk too much about myself. I'm really just honored to be here, really. This is dope, man. Got in a conversation with O not too long ago. I called him on the phone, we were talking about website design, and he was saying that, you know, he works with a lot of companies and he was just saying like, I don't understand, I just work with these companies and it's like, I go to their website, I don't understand why it doesn't look good because y'all know. Oh, uh, but man, I just say all that to say it looks good in here, man. I'm just super happy with what the tent makers are putting together, so this is dope. Um, yeah, so God, uh, placed it on my heart to create online, um, and it started on Instagram when IGTV was a thing. And, um, man, I was just reading so much about the body and health, and, uh, I grew to be, uh, to really grow fond of, like, the body on an intimate level. So it was like I really got really nerdy with it. Physiology is the technical term for it, which is learning the function of the body. And I was doing so much reading and I just couldn't keep it inside. So I started sharing it online on IGTV. A little birdie DM'd me and said, hey, you need to start making stuff for YouTube. So I started putting my content over on YouTube and then over time kept hustling, kept hustling. Went from getting from like, you know, just a few views to it becoming an actual thing where I, you know, was a YouTuber. I still feel like hesitant to even call myself that sometimes because it's like, wow. But yeah, that's me in a nutshell.

So awesome. All right.

Hey, y'all.

All right.

I'm super excited to be here today. My name is Brittany Applegate again. By day, in my full-time job, I am the Vice President of Strategy for an advertising agency. And so essentially my role is I do a lot of research about the people that brands and the creative outputs are designed to target. And so I do a lot of creative brief writing. Like I said, market research, but working very closely with some very talented creators, creatives, and writers, um, and, and filmmakers and editors to help them ultimately consider the people that we want to target. And I think that's so much like God because I think the reason why, um, he's gifted us with these skills and talents is because he's so mindful of us. And he wants us to consider different audiences that he's called us to serve. I'm blessed to do that in that world. I also translate that over into my consultancy where I work with small businesses and organizations to do the same thing. Then I'm an entrepreneur as well. I've had a couple businesses. I have a creative eye. I try not to tell people I can create things so they don't ask me. But the Lord is kind. So if you catch me on a good day, I can deliver. So that's me in a nutshell. I'm super excited to be here. Oh, and I'm from Maywood. Okay, so I'm here to represent for 290.

All right.

Just had to say that real quick too.

I'm from Dalton, so shout out to you.

But you know, I live on the way out west now, so 290 ain't no joke. I feel that. But yeah, shout out to Dalton.

And I'm from Bolingbrook, so that means nothing. Hello everyone, so my name is Jasmine Patterson. I am a photographer, so my main gig is weddings. Um, I'll break down— it's a long story, um, me getting into photography and just the whole thing is kind of part of my testimony, but In 2012, I lost my sister. She passed away suddenly in a drowning. And I, for most of my life, I didn't actually grow up in the church. I've had some experience in church, but I didn't have a lot. And the death of my sister actually brought me closer to God, which is strange because I hear a lot of people actually have the opposite opposite effect. But when my sister passed, I knew that if I did anything, I would probably name a business after her. So I'll fast forward a little bit. I went to school for chemistry. I'm not— I— no one would have considered me a creative from the jump because I was very much into the STEM. But I always loved to draw. I always loved to to do artistic things. So when I was in college, I took a photography class, really loved it. By mid into my degree, I knew I didn't want to have anything to do with chemistry anymore. It was just hard and it wasn't inspiring me. I lost my sister in college, so a lot of my inspiration to do anything dwindled away, but I did always want to pursue something in arts to be an outlet. So after graduating from the University of Illinois, I actually ran into a friend that I met in my teens who, funny enough, I used to go to church with, and she owned her own business doing event planning, which is a whole different creative space. That is also difficult. I loved her work, but you couldn't tell her work was good because it was, um, the pictures weren't great. I did photography. I was like, hey, I'll help you out with, um, an event. I did it, and she was like, you really should start a business. There's a gap in the industry. You should do it. And I always knew I was gonna, um, if I had a business, I would name it after my sister. And after my sister passed, I was searching for God. I didn't have the vocabulary because I didn't grow up in the church. I didn't understand anything, but I was like, there is a call in some way. And I know that if there is one thing I can't lose, it's a relationship with God. So I'm going to pursue that. 'cause life is futile and things pass away. But I know if I pursue that, that will happen. So for some reason, when she said, "You should start a business," it made complete sense. And it shouldn't have because I was a chem major. I didn't have any experience doing a business, doing photography, but I knew that's where I wanted to go. So I named my business after her. My business is named J. Lauren Photography. Her name was Jordan Lauren, so that's how it went from there. And from the jump of starting the business, things were working out, and I was like, this doesn't make sense. This is not supposed to be happening. But I just— it felt like it was a path to go in that direction. So that's a short part of my story. I went into wedding photography specifically because I just have always loved love, but I didn't have the concept of what marriage means to God and what marriage means to Jesus. And now that I do weddings and I have that frame point, because I, I wouldn't consider that I truly understood the concept until probably 2, almost 3 years ago. And truly gave my life to Christ. But I find so much meaning in being able to represent or help people represent how important marriage is in my day-to-day job creatively. I initially wanted to get into photography to represent people of color. There's not a lot of representation. I find that to be very important in my job, and now I get to do it for Christ. And be able to just— every wedding that I go to is a perfect example of what his relationship, the kind of relationship he wants with us. So I get to do that and share that with people, and I think it's pretty special.

Man, thank you so much for sharing that.

I love Jasmine. My name is Christine. Jasmine has been— me and Jasmine go way back. She was my RA, but she has also been my photographer since 2017. Every maternity shoot, every family photo, every birthday has been Jasmine. So we, we go way back. But for me, a little background. I went to U of I and got a degree in broadcast journalism, which also I'm like, it doesn't really make sense because I've never liked being in front of the camera. You'll always see me behind. Even sitting here is like I've been trying to get out of this seat since we started planning. Um, yes. So this is not normal for me. Um, so I went to school for journalism, um, graduated in 2017, and for the next 3 years I couldn't get a job in media, um, which was weird, you know. I went to school for you at U of I, um, did internships I had a good resume but was never able to land a job. And so a lot happened in between. I had my son in the, in between those 3 years as well as my daughter. And one day my husband just came up to me and was like, you should just do a boot camp and get into UX. And I had no clue what user experience design was. I was just like, what do I have to lose? It was actually during COVID too. So it worked out perfectly. Um, so once he said that, um, he was like, you, you're creative, you have an eye, um, you should be in tech, so just do it. So I looked up, uh, I looked up boot camps in Chicago and interviewed at two of them, chose one, and just started. And I am— and this is something that I'm working on— but I can be fairly indecisive. But in this journey in my life everything just kind of made sense. The doors just flung open without me even really trying. So, um, going back to your question, this has always been something— this has been a point for me to always reference. Like, when God wants something for you, um, it will work out, you know, uh, with stress, without stress, with worry, with planning, without planning. This part of my life has always been a testament to God's, like, goodness and faithfulness for me. So I did the boot camp. My daughter was only 2 weeks, but the boot camp was remote, so I was, you know, being a mom, doing the boot camp for a whole year. My husband was working from home, so we were trying to manage being in different rooms. We were in this little apartment in Chicago, but I finished the boot camp in a year. and I was like, okay, I have a portfolio, I have this certificate, now I'm gonna go get a job. And I applied to— I sent out one application, and then I refreshed my LinkedIn, and I saw that Accenture was— they, uh, had a job application for a UX designer, and it said it was posted 45 minutes ago. So I was like, oh, let me— you know, like, I quickly got my application in, sent it out, And probably within— I can't remember now, maybe like 1 or 2 weeks, I was hired and ready to, you know, be a UX designer. Um, and Accenture is a consulting firm, one of the biggest consulting firms. So I've had the privilege, you know, of working with the biggest companies that you can think of. Um, and it has allowed me to really grow in a space where I could sometimes feel like I don't know what I'm doing. Like, I just did a boot camp. My portfolio is low-key fake, you know? Like, these are fake projects. But, um, yeah, so I'm 4 years in now, and I, I always say I never wake up feeling like I hate my job, or, you know, I actually enjoy my job so much that sometimes when I see people struggling with their jobs, I, I like empathize for them because it's like, I don't know what that feels like, you know? So, um, definitely one of the one of the biggest blessings in my life.

Amen.

Shout out to user experience design. I'm a UX designer too. It's— UX is one of those things where you wouldn't really know what you're looking for until you really get into it. Um, I've met so many people now who have said, I had no idea this was a job. I would have done it a long time ago. I would have tried to get into it. Um, and when— very similar to you, when I was— we all went to U of I. Well, a few of us went to University of Illinois, and there was someone that worked at a consulting firm at the time that said, you know what, you really need to get into user experience. And I was like, I don't know what that is. I'll research it. I'll get an internship or something. And literally, in the same sense, I think that there's something to be said about that. I just want to put that out there.

Mic check? OK. My name is Jalen Coleman-Lance. Where I start, I mean, I started off at U of I, which is where I had the fortune to meet, know, and knowing of Christine. I didn't formally get to meet her until later on, but played sports there. Fast forward it, I went to 6 different middle schools, 2 high schools, and then 4 colleges. So, you know, retrospect, It was kind of like a pit stop. Um, but, uh, all throughout my life, um, it feels like I've been on tour. Uh, and it almost feels as if I've lived multiple lives. Um, it's, which is beautiful, but it to kind of fast forward to where I'm at right now. Um, it's been an interesting, uh, journey, especially more so in this season, being that now I've really had time to reflect. I feel like my life, if I was in a car, has just been on the highway, you know, this whole time. And then now when, uh, after winning a national championship my last year in college, you know, I actually had time to reflect and figure out like, what do I really want to do? Um, and having the option, you know, to do what I want to do, whether it be in finance, which is where I'm currently the field I'm currently in, or in sports, having the option to play professionally. Like, I had the option to do what I want to do, and it really took for me to not ask my flesh but ask, you know, kind of my Holy Spirit on what— when I look at myself in the mirror, you know, can I— am I becoming the type of the man that I envision myself to become? And that was something that as I thought about things that was missing throughout my journey, I kind of came about what I'm currently trying to cultivate, what I am cultivating within the intersectionality between financial literacy and athletes. I feel like it's just one core component that's needed, especially now with this whole space at NIL and student athletes being able to get paid. But, um, it's so much bigger than that. As we reflect on, uh, most of us probably in here have played, um, sports to some degree. Um, and for me, um, you know, as I had the fortune of, you know, being on a platform and playing at a high level, I realized, uh, my influence, you know, on my community and my family, uh, and the impact that I had. And now, you know, with this, this whole money is the ability to truly sow back into your community is 10x. And being able to, you know, be that sound ear, you know, that confidant to a lot of these younger athletes who have the ability to, with hundreds of thousands of followers and millions, 10,000 followers, and they going back and they doing turkey drives and things like that. They truly realize their impact at 17, 15. I mean, that's my youngest person, but 20, 21. For me, it's way bigger than just the educational piece, being in the financial literacy sector, but truly building trust in such a confidential space, as well as introducing, you know, Jesus, introducing kind of who they are as a core. The same questions that I had, now I get to look at them one-on-one outside of how they're, you know, viewed when they're on the court or on the field and ask like, who are you and what do you truly want to do?

Amen. I can imagine that could be some awkward conversations talking about how broke I am, but you want to talk about Jesus too? I guess, um, follow-up question to that, and a few others can chime in here as well. Um, being that you're creative and have been gifted with the skill of design, um, it gives us this unique intersection to both humble in a moment, to see, take a step back, look at the problem, know what to execute, but also having this voice, this unique voice and perspective to Speak Up. Um, when you are met with a challenge, how do you live in both worlds? With one being God's voice in the situation, but also humbling ourselves enough to say, God, I may not know everything. Has there ever been an instance, um, where you may have wanted to take full control of a situation, um, knowing what you've seen, but also allowing God to have rein of that influence?

Yeah, so I think most of us have been in the position where as a creative, we're in a role of service no matter what, because we're usually trying to achieve a goal. So I think the closest you could be to Christ is when you are in that posture of service, because that's exactly what he does for us each and every day. So I think going into projects or going into— I think being a creative is extremely humbling, first of all. I mean, you're putting your heart and soul out into something and you're giving it to somebody to for them to tell you if they like it or not. That is— I don't care what you do— the most humbling thing you could do, because you're putting your, like, everything, and they could with one text be like, nah, that ain't it. You're just like— so I think being a creative in general is just humbling, but I think in my frame of work, I always know that I am trying to serve my client the best way I can. And in even higher degree, I am trying to be a representation of Christ as best as I can in every instance. So the only way I could move in my career is humble, because I can't lash out at somebody if they don't like something. I can't You know, you really have to just, you have to be in a partnership with them and you have to really understand, okay, where are they coming from? What is their perspective? What are they seeing? How can I articulate this or how can I show this to them in a way that they can understand, they could grapple with, they could really just understand where we're trying to go and this is in the best interest of them. What they're trying to do. And I think, I think what I just said describes what God does every day. He's like, how can I put this in a way that Brittany understands she needs to do this, you know? So I feel like we're always in that heart posture of like, we just have to— we're in service first. We're trying to serve them as best as we can. How can we do that without getting in our own feelings? Because this is our— this is what we're trying to to do, but if we're just sitting there pouting because they don't like something, it's not going to be fruitful.

Amen. The theme of your question is basically around how we recenter ourselves when there's a challenge that kind of—

Yes.

That kind of throws us off course. I can't even really I'm going to try my best to put it in words here, but I really can't explain how volatile your identity is when a lot of people watch you and comment on your stuff. So on YouTube, obviously, you know, you can leave like comments and stuff. And when you have hundreds of those pouring in, what people do not know, and I'll bring you guys in on the back end of YouTube, is where you get to view everything in a different view for you and you get your analytics and stuff. There's a section in there where you get a bunch of comments and it's channel-wide recent comments, period. So whatever someone comments, it just pops up right there. 95% of them are positive, maybe 5% of them are critical. And I would refresh this page, refresh, and just see what people are saying on the channel, see what they're saying on the channel. And it felt like I was playing comment roulette because one critical one will come up, it'll just— it'll transform my entire mood. I'm sure, like, getting a comment or feedback on some of your creative work, it's almost like, well, I took that a little personal. I know you're just giving me a little feedback, but I took that personal. So I'd get this, and it came to the point where I couldn't— I had to, like, stop reading comments, and I had to, like, remove myself from even observing what my own community was saying. But on the inside, I started to refine myself. I started to really be scared of making mistakes. I started to really write things in a way that was like, yeah, nobody will be able to comment about this, so I'm going to write it this way. I started to become way more politically correct, and I started to really button up, which— this is my logo right here. I'm not as great of a designer as y'all, but it's called No Lab Coat Required. That's literally the idea behind it is No, I'm not a doctor, but I'm going to talk about the body because this is what I love. That's why I started. And I started to forget why I even started. I started to refine myself and I literally had like an identity crisis and I started to petition God like, you know, maybe I'm not cut out for this. Like, what am I even doing this for? And I was able to recenter myself over time. It wasn't an easy journey. But I have to remember that reason why I started. And man, it's been a blessing to like come back into myself to start having fun again. And then take the comments, Lecrae, you know, Christian rap. I don't know if y'all into that or whatever, but he has a great comment, a great quote that says, if you live for people's acceptance, you'll die by their rejection. So I couldn't accept praise. I couldn't accept negative or positive feedback. I just had to remain neutral and keep doing what God told me to do. So yeah, if you want to talk about challenge and still sometimes I'm in a state where my identity, I got to remember who I am. Man, O talked about it right before we started. It's like, what if we prayed before we put things out? I had to adopt that. I have to pray now because it's in this space. When you talk about science, you get into the world of academia, which is a whole bunch of nerds, y'all, just a whole bunch of nerds. Everybody got a lab coat. Everybody's smart. Everybody's an expert. What they don't tell you is that becoming an expert is very seductive. Experts don't like to be wrong. So when you don't like to be wrong, you start running into the realm of confirming your own bias and you become the most wrong in the room when you don't want to be wrong. And I started to turn into that. So yeah, didn't want to go on a tangent, but I definitely think that was one of the ways that I responded to a big cry big challenge that came my way.

So yeah, anyone else? I'll be quick.

I think that exactly what you just said, you inspired what I'm about to say. Creatives are just very talented people, and I think when you've been doing something for a long time and you transition out of those amateur years and you start really operating in your zone of genius and your expertise, it's really easy to truly feel like you are the owner of that work. And so when you receive pushback from a client, even if that client is wrong or your team member is wrong, at some point it's really easy to develop a sense of self-righteousness of like, I know what I'm doing, I've been doing this for this long, And the amount of ownership you take makes you easily offended. And I think when I've been in situations where I've reached a roadblock, I've had to remind myself that this isn't about me. Like, it's just not about me. God has used me and placed me on the mind of a person to simply be a teammate in the kingdom. Whatever he's given them that needs to be executed and needs to be put out into the world for whoever he's called them to serve. I'm simply a teammate. And when I think of that in terms of Bezalel, even the first person that God filled with his spirit in the Bible, we didn't read anywhere that Bezalel wasn't already creative, right? We didn't read that he wasn't already designing things or creating things, but I believe that God filled him with his spirit to create the tabernacle because there was a specificity and there was more to why he needed to design it the way it needed to be designed, to be the dwelling place for his spirit. And so whatever it is that we're creating, we have to remind ourselves that even though we've already been doing this, sometimes maybe that challenge comes so that we can go back to God. He can remind us that it's not about us. We can reconfigure our hearts to be for service, and then we can ask him, okay, well, whatever you gave this person or whatever you're trying to do with this project, this business, this organization, you're omniscient, so you know the big picture. That being said, I want to lose my mind I want you to give me yours, give me your thoughts, and then partner with him. So you're going into it knowing that you have, uh, adjusted your dependency to be less on your expertise and on him. But in that, I believe, like, God expands our skill set, he expands our confidence. You get that aha and that knowing, and then you go back to that client or your team and you're like, well, what about this? And they're like, that's it. That's it. And it's like sometimes you can't help but to say, honestly, that wasn't even me. That was all God, because I had to pray about you. You were challenging for me. Um, so that's what I would say. I would say when I get into that space, and I would encourage any creative or builder, you have to remind yourself this is not about us. None of this is about us. It's always about the people that God are mindful of, and we need to take less ownership and limit the amount of pride that we take into a lot of these things and that offense that comes with being sensitive about our work and get out the way.

Yeah. Amen. Anyone else?

Taylor? No, I thought that was especially, Johnny, you starting off with just the importance of Just being constant, consecrating yourself before whatever ministry that you're leading. That's something I'm learning. And I feel like, shout out to our men's group that we have, that Johnny's also a part of and always as well as a few other members here. But I feel like just having other men around me will represent representation, who's also seeking, you know, the kingdom first. Just that order. Like, when we think about Bezalel, when you talk about he's filled with the Holy Spirit and then he was given, you know, objective and how he was able to fulfill it too, just in a holy manner. Like, we have to be mindful in whatever ministry that we're leading that we won't have the maximum optimized result if it's not— if we're not filled with the Holy Spirit or if we're not, you know, connected to the vine. And essentially just kind of reminding us that, hey, we are vessels, we are branches, we are not the center. And for us to have a true, like, not just a great experience, but I mean, something that is monumental and a memorable experience. I think that's what we fail to realize is like when we try to do it on our own, we're limited on the type of success that we're capable of having.

Oluseun Arowolaju.

Christine, I have a follow-up for you. Slightly different question, but being someone who has a creative output daily, someone who has to constantly think about other people, on top of that, you're a mom, you're a wife, Fill in the blank here, you're that, you are her, right? Sometimes a lot of the things that we do in life could stifle our creativity and our creative output. What are some disciplines, whether they're spiritual or physical things, mantras you might do to help to influence your creativity or get the juices flowing when you feel like, Lord, I have nothing left?

I think honestly I am still in the process of figuring that out, um, because there's a lot going on, right? At all times there's something going on, and I have run into, um I'm in that part of my life where I'm not as creative. Um, when I was, you know, before kids and before a real job, like, I've created documentaries and I've, you know, always had a camera recording stuff, taking pictures, documenting my life. And, you know, but I will say my having a job in that field has given me the perfect in between. Um, and as I mentioned, I, I fight this imposter syndrome often at work where it's like I shouldn't— I really shouldn't be here, but the favor of God, you know, like, um, is upon me, and so I'm here. Uh, but I, I lean on that heavily, you know. And even when I'm working with clients and I'm, uh, like Jasmine said and Brittany, when you're working for someone, you're creating something for them, you're putting yourself in a, in a position to kind of get knocked down because it's not really your vision that, you know, they want to see. So this is a constant cycle for me where it's like, okay, something that I delivered made sense to me, didn't make sense to them, you know, before every of my design reviews, things like that. I'm just praying, and not only praying for a good response to my design, but even able to like communicate it, you know. So I'm constantly having to get grounded again before my calls, before these big things, to just be like, God, you put me here, like don't let me embarrass myself, you know. Every— after every call, run downstairs now, like tell people like 'Oh, that was a bad design review,' or like, 'That was a good one,' or, you know, whatever. Because it's heavy, it's heavy. And I'm always having to go back to step one, make sure I'm doing it at a good place, make sure that I, I'm leaning on that wisdom that's given to me daily, you know, through being humbled by this process. So, um, I think it's a daily thing for me.

Yes. And thank you for the authenticity because Oftentimes we feel like we always have to have the answer, especially as a creative. People come to you all of the time wanting the next greatest and latest idea, design, output. AI, you should be able to do this in 2 minutes because AI is a thing. When really we have so much access to God, but God doesn't always give us that. We have to fall in love with being in just the process with him before he can even give us something oftentimes. One thing that I've been trying to personally practice is the art of taking a step back. And so sometimes for me, that is going for a walk or going to— I love trees, and call me weird, but I love the smell of trees, especially after it rains. And I'm not talking about marijuana, right? But with the smell of a willow tree, you know, like, or an oak tree, when you're just walking by it, can sometimes just bring about something that has nothing to do with what it is that you're working on. That inspires you, music from your latest and greatest, the new Lecrae album that just embodies a whole nother level of creativity that we may not have even tapped into. So I think even the idea of designing and community is crucial. This— conversations like this, rooms like this are crucial because it helps me to think of something from perspective from, from Johnny or from Jasmine where I'm like, I had no idea that I could even think, open like that part of my brain to think that way, to apply it to something that has nothing to do with what it is I'm doing. Given that, if someone came to you and asked, how do then I posture myself to be in a position where God could breathe life into me for design? What would be a piece of advice that you would say to someone who looked at you for inspiration? Let's start with Brittany. As soon as I looked away, I know you're gonna say no.

Um, I think, uh, in the spiritual work that is necessary is improving your communication with God and knowing how he speaks to you. And growing that muscle. Because I think that, you know, we tell people to like, you know, read the Bible, and we hope that the inspiration comes from the words that they're reading oftentimes. But I think that, you know, God, sometimes he could speak to a person in a song. I can't tell you how many times I've been like, writing a creative brief and trying to find the most inspirational way to land with the copywriters and the art directors who are on the other side of it. And it was a song lyric that was like the strategic idea or the proposed headline because, you know, maybe God put a song on my heart and that was a way that he was speaking to me. I think like being in community with godly people, spirit-led people, and knowing that like he's speaking through them as well is another way that you might hear the voice of God. Um, sometimes that imposter syndrome that you speak about, I think when you hear people tell you over and over like, oh, you're so this, or, oh, you're so that, or, you're so good at this, sometimes like we don't have a mirror up to us all the time where we can also see what they see. But I think that's a way that God is affirming us or helping us understand what we're really good at, or maybe something that we need to try that we haven't done before. But I think you have to be attentive to knowing when he's speaking to you and how he's speaking to you, and that he's trying to steer you in the direction that he's already ordered your steps. But sometimes if we are too distracted, if we are too concerned with what other creatives are doing and trying to explore all these different sources for what we think we should be doing, but like we don't spend enough time in the quiet, we don't spend enough time in godly community, we don't spend enough time making mistakes because we want to be perfect. I think it's really easy to then predominantly hear your own voice, which sometimes, we speak quite negatively to ourselves most of the time. If I was to ask you all right now, what are 3 things that are really amazing about yourself, I know all of us would stall for a moment, 'cause it's really hard for us to always think positively about ourselves. But Hunter, you could probably go all day about Jasmine, and you can go all day about Christina, 'cause you see her. But if I was to say, what's one thing y'all need to work on?

I need to—

it's so quick, right? And so we just need to be mindful of, let me make sure that I am always listening for God's voice in these situations and knowing that he's speaking well about me, and getting out of my own head or the voices that want to speak the opposite, which we know who they're probably getting those words from. So I think to answer your question in short, because that got long, work on your communication with God and knowing how he speaks to you.

Amen.

Jalen, mic check.

Okay, cool, cool.

Um, I just want to say just the importance of, um, just kind of being connected, and I'm Kind of piggybacking off of that communication. First of all, authentically, you have to figure out, you have to do that yourself. That's work that is required for you. And of course, that can be started in different ways, whether it be in a group setting, whether it be through church, it can be a roadmap, but it always has to get back to your own personal relationship between just God and yourself, and then figuring out how you can cultivate that, whether it be it could be just going to your room, whatever, but it has to get to that point where you can have a one-on-one conversation. That is vital. So from that, the importance of that is because, especially being in this creative space, as we can all attest to, it's a service industry, as we touched on before. So you may be rooted in your why, or say, for instance, let's just say if you're not, If you're not in tune, you know, with who you are in Christ and like, and what people are yearning for from you is fleshly and things that you're trying to veer away from, you can see how this becomes problematic because now you're turning away from someone who you're trying to become and you're reverting back to someone who you once were. And then you see how, hey, And then it becomes even more complex because your followers are going up, the support is going up, but it's coming from the wrong people. And now you starting to be— your ideology of yourself is changing for the worse. Um, and now it gets into this point where now you get into identity crisis. So I think being connected to your root and being connected to you know, your why as a parent, having that conversation and having a relationship with God is pivotal. So, just kind of understanding, I kind of broke down as to why it's important, you know, just to have communication as well, just to kind of piggyback off what you said, Brittany.

Amen.

Johnny?

I just wish I had my notepad up here. That's good, man. Really appreciate what you said about, you know, the mirror and how we have automatic negative thoughts. ANTs, I've heard it been put, A-N-T-S, automatic negative thoughts. Man, and Jalen, you too, you actually noted it earlier that there is a very simple, it's a very simple street. You got two ways you can go. It's flesh or spirit. If we just dial it down to that. And also mentioned like identity crisis, but I'm going to mention building. I don't know what everyone here does, but I know obviously through that quick synopsis what we do, but everybody builds something in a different way. And for me, when I began building, I was very very focused. I didn't even pray to God I was that focused. I even haphazardly told myself, oh, you want me here, God. I'm focused. I'm not praying to you, but I'm getting things done. I'm putting videos out. You want me here. This is okay. You know, the crazy part is it actually worked, and I started getting views. I started getting subscribers. And then it stopped working. It stopped working real bad. I tried to bring a team on, I tried to expand, and after seeing views and subscribers and everything, I brought a team on, mismanaged them completely, and seen zeros in the bank account.

I'm like, God, what happened?

You wanted me to do this.

What happened?

Like, I was focused. It worked. And he said, you built this without me. You just went without me. You didn't petition me. You didn't fast. And now look at where you are as a result of it. I was building out of my flesh. You know, there was no spiritual connection involved, no spiritual alignment. So God started to rip that thing apart for me. And I'm speaking very slowly because this is kind of— this is a fresh testimony I'm going to share with y'all because I brought that team on earlier this year. God brought me zeros this year. So when I started to pray to him and found out what it meant to build with him, which is like what Oluseun said, you know, pray before you even put a video out. I'm asking God, what do you want me to When we read, you know, Exodus 31, the building of the tabernacle, when we read the building of Noah's Ark, and when we look at Leviticus and we talk about how those altars are built, he asks the very specific instructions. You know, you separate the meat from the fat, burn the fat up first, do this and set that on fire that way because that's a good aroma to God. Like, that very specific. God is in the specifics. So now I'm asking God, what color should I make my everything? And I started to get into a motion of asking and petitioning and creating and building with God all the way to the point up to where I'm starting this initiative. It's called Feed the Land. We're looking to reconnect people to real food. That's in a synopsis. And we just launched about 24 hours ago. And the goal is to raise— appreciate y'all, appreciate y'all. But here's the testimony. The goal is to raise $8,000. I could check it right now, but we probably $100 away from being halfway. We almost raised $4,000 just like that. And that for me tonight, for me, is a full circle moment where it's like, wow, you did all that. God took all that away, but now you included him and it's like the road just opens up. So it's been a blessing.

Amen. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And we're going to have Christine and Jasmine, then we're going to— oh, go ahead.

You said something, and I think it's so profound because a lot of the times, like, the pattern of some things that are from Satan is like he'll take you to the top really fast, like so fast. And you really think you somebody and you, you, you don't know the patterns of God well enough. That oftentimes the first thing that God does when he really wants to elevate you is he takes you into the wilderness and you'll be in the wilderness and you'll be like, wow, you know, I don't have any views. People aren't liking this. People aren't, you know, supporting me enough. Ain't nobody buying my stuff. Ain't nobody show up to my stuff. And it's like God is using that wilderness to form you. So he has to get that bitterness out of you. He has to get that, that zeal that could potentially hurt people in the future out of you. And I think it's just really important to know the patterns of God, that God doesn't always just launch you to the mountaintop first. He forms you into the person that could sustain when you get to that place. Satan don't mind letting you go up that fast, and he's going to take pleasure in watching just how much you crack under pressure and how insecure you become and how you get around the wrong people and you start taking the wrong money from people, and then how that unravels that person, that chosen person that God is really trying to form you into. And it's the mercy of God that he will get your attention again so that you can partner with him. And he doesn't withhold anything good from you, so he'll put you right back on the path that you need to be on.

Amen. Thank you so much. And, you know, I think it was up until this year where it really hurt my feelings that Moses didn't make it into the Promised Land. Well, one simple act of disobedience, no matter how great of a leader that he was, disqualified him from seeing physically the promise. The only thing that makes me feel good about that is I know he saw heaven before the rest of them. But that just goes to show how important obeying God is. When he is asking you to process with him, to be with him day by day, manna by manna, law by law. Thank you so much. Okay, we're going to hear from Christine and then Jasmine, and then we're going to go ahead and wrap our panel for today.

Can you run that question back just so— yeah, we've gone, we've gone a couple different ways.

Yes. Um, if there was someone who came to you that asked for advice for this season of wanting God to also breathe life into them as a Bezalel for the design for his purpose, what is one thing that you would leave them with?

Um, I think for me, and this is me speaking from my experience running the media and tech department here at the church, is is to step aside. I think a lot of times when we see ourselves as the vessel, we think that it means like we have to use our own thoughts and our likes and what we prefer. And something that I've learned through this journey— so some background, BCOOR is, um, it's an international church, but primarily Nigerian. So, you know, I'm Vietnamese and Chinese running the media department, so there's a respect that I always try to keep in knowing who the audience is, right? And sometimes I'm like, I want to just scrap this whole thing and go on Canva and do something really simple that I would like, but, you know, maybe God is not using me that way, you know, that's not what he called me to do, and this is not the audience that, um, it was made for, you know. So I think for me, it's like being chosen as the vessel is great, but a hard advice to give is like, you can do the work, um, and not the way that you want it, but God still gets glorified in the process. Us, you know. And that, um, that is hard to learn when you're creative and when you have your thoughts and your preferences and stuff. But, um, the, the outcome of it is exactly how God wants it.

So—

oh, that's so good. We are not our user.

Hey, I've been thinking about what Johnny said and his testimony just now a lot. Um, and there's so many different directions that we could go with that. Um, because I also agree with Brittany, what she said— Satan loves to see you fall off a, fall off a mountain, and so do your enemies, all of them. Um, but I also don't doubt that God was with you when you were building at first too. 'Cause I've had instances where, especially when I was building my business at the start, I was like, none of this makes sense, but it's all working out. And it's all like, this is all— and I knew it was divine. I knew God was with me. And I was like, yeah, this is going. But I think in that mist, there, are so many, so many crosses, like so many, um, what's the word, like you could stumble really quick. There are so many like different obstacles, like especially in your position, Johnny, when it's like you have people in your ear that you don't know and you're trying to make sure that, like you said, you were trying to be politically correct and you were trying to play into that. Like, I hope they like me. And that plays right into our soul. We want it. We want to be liked. We want to belong. We want to make sure that we're doing everything right. But when we do that, we're going further away from our identity in Christ and we're putting our identity in what other people are saying about us. And that's so easy ability to do in anything.

Yeah.

Um, so I feel like sometimes God does help us to the top because I feel like there's no way I would be as successful without God. But I have had those wilderness moments too. But I think sometimes he does let you rise and then he lets you fall and he's like, well, that's going to do something to your ego. You're going to have to work that out. So I think, yes, it's Satan. Sometimes it's God allowing Satan to do some things. And yes, but I just feel like if I were to give advice to someone, I would say definitely meditate and be slow. I think we're in a— we're in an environment, we're in an age where everything is go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And you don't have time to really just sit. We don't, we don't rest at all. Like, we are like, got to make this, we got to make that, we got to hit on the trend, we got to do this, we got to do that. All while like 90% of us are consuming majority, we're not producing. So it's like you really need to take yourself out and really be in a, in a state where you can meditate. You have to turn things off. You have to stop. Always consuming everything, because that's when you're going to get blockages in your creativeness, because you're just like, well, so-and-so did this, so-and-so did that, um, and you're not retreating. You're not feel— like, you're not allowing yourself to fill back up and to really talk with God and really eliminate all the noise. So like, even if you're in a state of you're praying to God, but you're After you pray, you're sitting there consuming everything. You're not really allowing yourself to get like really quiet. So I think we don't spend enough time really just retreating in quietness and really just like trying to eliminate all the noise that is preventing us from hearing God. Um, something I like to do, I'll watch old stuff, like I'll watch things because life used to be slower. And I feel like we're, we're always in the trends now, so it's like, let me watch something from 1920, you know, like, or let me watch a documentary. No, but even still, it's like we're reading, we're reading words from 4,000 years ago, you know what I mean? So it's like nothing under the sun has ever changed. You're gonna find something from all ages, but like in the current age we're in, sometimes you You gotta take yourself out so that you could be inspired in other areas because right now we're just, every direction we're getting bombarded with information and different things like that. And sometimes you just don't need that much. I don't think we were built for that much information, the amount of information that we're getting. So that would be my biggest advice.

Amen. Can we give it up for our panelists today? Were they not amazing? At this time, we are going to have Pastor O come back up and introduce our next guest. Thank you all so much again. This has been a delight. Thank you so much for having me. It has been a pleasure. Um, and at this time, can you celebrate them one more time?

I'm super inspired. Fire right now, um, and I just kind of want to monologue for like 2 and a half minutes. Um, I woke up this morning and I started running some errands. Um, my dad came and picked him up from the airport. Uh, Jasmine, I'm dumping the SD card, it was full. But we just needed, yeah, replacement. And then I started running around and I'm looking at the weather and then my conversation with God. And, you know, when Johnna was talking about like a wilderness moment, I'm looking outside, I'm like, this is a frozen wilderness. And when I tell y'all, like, everything was working against today happening. When I tell y'all everything, I mean the elements outside and inside. Come to find out, they're like, oh hey, they say, uh, they— the heater broke. I'm like, what you— what you mean? Like, what are we talking about here? So Holy Spirit was telling me, was like, all right, I was talking to Christine, like, for like 2 seconds, I was like, maybe we should cancel. And God was just like, that's not what I'm teaching you right now. Says, I'm teaching you to submit your expectations to me. And I was like, when I tell you, I started to get so happy and so joyful. And I was just like, and I was talking to the team, we, it was like maybe 3. I called the team, was just like, hey y'all, this is what we gonna do. We gonna tell everybody stay home. But if you want to come, come through. Because God was teaching me, it's like, my will is more important than yours. I knew everything that was going to happen when I told you to do this. And a lot of times when we go through the wilderness, when the Israelites was going through the wilderness, God knew everything they was going to need. They was going to need some manna. They was going to need some water. They was gonna need some meat. They was gonna need a cloud that leads them by day and the fire that leads them by night. All of that was packaged the moment God told Moses, go. So I want to encourage somebody, if God told you go, everything you need to get there is inside those two letters. Y'all get me? Everything you need is inside those two letters.

Just go. Just go.

So I want us to just stand up real quick and pray for a couple minutes to just warm our bodies. Can you just tell God thank you? Like, is anybody else grateful? I am so grateful because I see that God is raising people that will be sent to different industries, that he's raising people that is going to be sent into the marketplace with his armor and not the armor of Saul. I'm thanking God because he's sending people into areas of lives where you are going to be able to change your family's life based on the instruction that God has given you. I'm seeing people that would not be who they were yesterday because they have a new understanding that God is intentional about every single thing he He wants done and he wants built.

I'm seeing hands that entered empty but now are leaving carrying an idea that only God can accomplish.

I am seeing people who are hungry. God told me the people that you see today are the people that I will send.

So I'm so grateful because he is sending people. He is sending people. He is sending you back to your families and you're going to tell your mama, mama, we don't have to live this anymore. God has given me an idea. Idea, you will go back to your spouse and tell spouse, I know you are unemployed, but God has given me an idea. I am thanking God because you are going back to your situation not the same way that you entered. Because for every single one in this room, there's a God in heaven with an idea that can supply all of your needs according to his power, according to his riches. So Lord, we are grateful. We build by faith. We may not see it now, but good thing that we don't walk by Sight. We walk by faith.

So in 30 seconds, can you see what the next 6 months of your life look like? Can you see it by faith? Can you just imagine? We're creatives. You're creative because God gives you an imagination. You see something before everybody else sees it. I promise you, if they don't see it now, good. That's why it's your vision. If everybody could see, it wouldn't be a vision. So can you thank God for where you will be in the next 6 months? Thank you, Jesus. For in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You all may be seated. Um, So me and Jay about to, uh, to start our second and our final session, and I just want to frame this. Um, I was talking to a couple of the tent makers a couple of months ago, and I told them there's a warning that God is giving me for the body of Christ. And I'm honored to be able to share it with you all. And that is the flood is coming. It truly is. And I'm gonna tell you some of the writings of the wall about this. One of the rumors that are happening is that people are saying that they should begin to tax the churches. Have you heard that before? Let me see if you've heard that before. There are people that are pushing for the churches to lose their tax exemption status. Now think about how many churches will close down if that happens. Think if your margins just reduced 30% in the snap of a finger. And the Lord has been telling me, it's like, okay, there are some people that will build an ark so that they don't have to rely on tax exemption. The churches that understand this, they will begin to build, so regardless of what happens, they will sail above every storm that comes. And I'm telling you this because I don't want you to wait for your pastor to tell you to start building. I want you to wait for God to tell you to start building, and then God will tell you to go tell your pastor it's time to build. So Jay here has grown up in a church. He's a son, he's a husband, he's a father. He has dedicated his life to teaching people how they can use their creativity for kingdom work. And not only that, he has proven it, not just in the kingdom work, but even in the secular world. I went over to his hotel last night and we were talking to like 2 in the morning, just crazy. I don't recommend, um, and he was telling me of all the things he had to let go before he got to where he is now. And I'm gonna steal probably a lot of things that he want to say, so he'll be forced to dig into his bag. So I don't want— he's not going to be able to regurgitate any of this, and it's intentional. He used to produce for a lot of well-known people, and I'm not going to list some of the names because I'm not going to give them that honor, but just know you have heard their music before. And at some point, God was calling him away from that work. And at that point, he had to submit all of his royalties and says, I don't even want the royalties, I just want Jesus. Now, do you understand the type of man you got to be to let go of perpetual royalties? Maybe y'all don't know what royalties are. Royalties is something your great-great-great-grandchildren can eat off of. And it just began to remind me that every time God wants to give you something, he will first take it away. So that desire for money, for status, for fame, it all died, and something else was put in its place. And this was a very recent phenomenon, so I'm blessed that we're probably one of the first people to get to hear a message that I know is going to go from city to city, nation to nation, country to country. So y'all, can you help me welcome Jay Robertson to this exalted Black seats so we can tell you guys how you guys can build an ark? You ready for this? So first question, how do you build an ark?

You need a lot of gopher wood. Uh, man, first and foremost, I just want to say thank you to PO. Thank you for having me out here. It's an honor and it's a privilege to be out here amongst other purpose-driven creatives, right? Who are carrying the image of our Father, who is the Creator, right? So I really appreciate you guys just putting this on and hosting this because it's so important, and this is exactly what we need, not just in the body, in the world. This is what we need in the world. So this is so important, and again, like I said, it's just a privilege and an honor to be here and just to be able to share Um, man, so to answer your question, it's funny because before God told Noah to build the ark, they didn't know what rain was. They had no concept, no context for what that was. And so just put yourself in his shoes for a moment. God is telling him that something's coming that he doesn't have context for, and he's telling him to build something that nobody has ever seen before, right? But when you understand the nature of God, it makes sense because this is exactly what God did in creation. It's exactly what God did in the beginning. God was speaking things into existence that weren't there before. Right? So we see this pattern show up again when he's talking to Noah, telling him to build this ark. The first part, I guess the first answer to your question is having the ability to obey the voice of God when he speaks to you, right? Because a lot of times we get in our own way. It's like God tells us to do something, it's like, well, why do I need to do that? We never had to do that before. What do you mean rain is coming? What is that? It's like we asking all these questions and he gave us a simple command, right? And so I think a lot of times just like, just obey. We complicate things so many times just because we feel the need to be in control or to understand. Understand something, or we want to be in that seat. We want to be in God's seat, and he's like, look, just do this, right? Just do this. And so I would say the first part is just having the ability to obey the voice of God when he speaks to you.

Yeah, I feel that. And I definitely, um, I want to speak for some people in the room because there are times where God speaks and tells you to do something but secretly you're still afraid of failing. You know, anybody ever felt that before? All right, so we got some people in here. You know, you are confident that this is something that God told you, but deep down you're still afraid of failing. Like, how do you overcome that in like these early stages?

I think we're— I think we've become afraid to fail because we think that the outcome is dependent on us, but it's not. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're just a part of the— like, think about this. God is so— like, first of all, who are we that God is mindful of us to even ask us or, or give us the opportunity and allow us to partner with him in something that he does not need our input in, right? Everything he has done and created was by beautiful and intelligent and perfect design, and then you're going to ask an imperfect being to partner with you on this thing? You know what I'm saying? So it's just like, first of all, who are we, right? So I think a lot of times we become fearful because we feel like we have to perform in order to get this end result, to create this outcome. But if we could understand that we don't have to perform, we just need to be in his presence, and that's where everything flows from, that takes all the pressure off of us, right? We don't have to perform. We just need to be in his presence, be connected to the source, and that's where everything flows from. And so there's no pressure. There's no pressure at all. It's like God has not set us up to fail, right? And so we believe that he's a good father, then we should know that he's given us the alley-oop, you know what I'm saying? He's given us the alley-oop. And again, it's like we'll get in our way, we'll get in the way. We got to question things. What if this doesn't work out? What if they don't receive me?

But I can't talk like Moses.

Come on now, Moses had every excuse in the book not to go to Pharaoh. And to deliver the word that God spoke to him for his people. We do the same exact thing. It's so funny. I think this is the funniest thing of like reading the scriptures is like we read the story of the Israelites and all the people that God used, and you know, we plan— we're, we're looking at them and we're like, man, like why didn't they just do this? And why didn't they just do that? Why didn't they just listen to the voice of God? Like God already did all these miracles and did all this stuff, like, why didn't they just obey? And why did they— you know, we do the same thing. We do the same thing. It's like we literally have an open book test and we choose to fail. It's like we done read these stories already of the people that came before us that were humans just like us, that had the same thoughts and emotions and feelings, shortcomings, insufficiencies, the same things that we deal and struggle with. We had this open book test where we see time and time after again these great people that God used, and it's like still today, 2025, we still limit God in our mind of what he can do through us. And it's like, just get out of the way. It's not even about you, right? It's not even about you. Just get out of the way. Just say, yes God, I'm willing and I will go. And just let him cook. Let him cook.

What are some of the indications that you are living in performance and not purpose, right? Because there's a lot of times where, especially in the age of social media, that we can be very performative, right? I mean, I don't want to knock anybody's hustles, but sometimes I'll be looking at some of the things that I see on social media and I'm like, I'm never gonna do that, bro. Yo, sometimes I'll be seeing some of these dancers and I'm like, You're never going to pay me. You can't pay me enough money to— no, you know? And I feel like because social media is this huge stage now that like it's easy to live in performance and you can find yourself out of purpose. So like, what are some of the indicators that you may be performing and not in that purpose?

I believe that if you feel like you're striving and if you're grinding and hustling, and I gotta make this thing work, I gotta figure it out. Like, that's the most telltale sign that you're not operating in purpose. Because think about it, like, purpose is a thing that God created and designed you for. So when God created trees, he gave them a purpose, right? Now, a tree cannot be an ox. A tree can't do the job of a son. A tree has a specific purpose that it was created for. And so I, I don't know about you, I've never seen a tree grind and hustle to be a tree. I've never seen it happen before. I've just seen a tree be a tree. I've seen it planted in good soil. I've seen it get watered. I've seen it take in sunlight, right? And it produces what it was created to do. I think a lot of times we try to be trees that produce— trying to think of something out of there that trees don't produce. I'm gonna say SmartWater, right? Trees don't produce bottles of SmartWater, right? We try to be trees that produce bottles of Smartwater. And so it's like, why? Again, getting in the way of God's beautiful design, right? And so it's just like, God gave us a purpose to do something. And like I said earlier, your purpose flows from being in his presence, right? When you feel the need and you feel this pressure, you already know you're performing. What is the pressure for? Why? Why are you feeling pressure? Right? There should be no pressure when you're operating in your purpose because you know that God has already given you everything you need to operate in the, in the purpose that he created you for, right? But it's when you don't understand that, that your purpose comes from alignment and being in the presence of God, then you start to let the world tell you what your purpose is and what it is that you should be doing and how you should be doing it. When it's like, when you're connected to the ultimate source, that should be the only person you're getting your orders from, right? That should be the only person you're getting directions from. It sounds so simple that we have to complicate it because that's how our brains work. I'm sure Johnny could probably talk about this. You talk about the body and all that type of stuff like that, but things that come so simple and so easy to us, we feel like we have to complicate it because it's too simple, it's too easy.

I've fallen into that for sure. Like, I think there's two reasons why people don't walk in purpose. Like, one is that complication aspect, and then one is like the covetedness. The complicating is that it just can't be that easy. Like, I come from a culture where you— if you are not— if it don't look like you're working, then you're not working. It's like, you gotta look like you're working. Like, hey, you can hire a whole employee to do the work and you still gotta look like you're working, you know. And it's just, it's exhausting, man. And I feel like we just complicate when— I feel like if God put us in the Garden of Eden, we'll get kicked right back out because we'll just find work to do that he never gave us to do.

It's just, I mean, it's funny that you said that because I was, I was literally thinking about this this morning. I was like, God created the environment and the assignment for Adam before he even put Adam in that assignment, right, and gave him a job role. But before sin entered the world and before man fell— okay, let me back up. So God creates the environment, he creates the garden that he's going to place man in to tend it and to keep it, to work it and to keep it, right? So he's given him a job, places him in the garden. There's no sin, it's a perfect paradise. What was he having to do? Like, what work did he have to do? He told all of the trees to produce after its kind, right? He told the land to produce the beasts of the field and to to produce after his kind. He told the waters to produce the creatures inside the water and to produce after his kind. There was no death. What work was Adam doing, right? Have y'all ever asked that question? Like, what was he doing? What work did he have to do?

That's a good question.

But think about it though, it's not the work that we automatically jump to in our minds, like, oh well, he was just you know, farming. He had to pull up the wheat. What weeds? Weeds come to kill, you know what I'm saying? There was no death. What was he doing? What work was he doing? He was in the ultimate form of rest because he was fully aligned with the purpose God created him for, and there was no sweat of his brow because that was God's beautiful design, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, is the work that you do Are you so aligned with the Spirit of God? Are you so aligned with God that the stuff you do doesn't even bring sweat to your brow? Like, you're not even— like, you don't even have to think about it, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Like, I think when you truly get to that level of being aligned and being in your purpose, that's really where the joy and the fulfillment comes from, because it's like you're not striving. You are thriving in the purpose God created you for, and that's God's nature. God is not going to set you up to fail. Everything that we put our hands to is supposed to prosper because prosperity is an attribute of God. So if we're creating his image and likeness, the things that we put our hands to should prosper. That's us being in alignment, walking in purpose. Yeah, I don't know if y'all ever thought about it before. I was just like, that's crazy. Like, what work was he doing?

He had to make work for himself. It's like your boss gave you your day off and you were like, day off? What do you mean vacation? I'm a hustler. You know, I think about this a lot because, um, there are two— I preached a sermon, you know, maybe two months ago about the wonder of rest. And, you know, God was revealing to me in scripture that Uh, man was supposed to stay inside of day 7. Like, day 7 was supposed to be the end of it all, but then man by sin created a day 8, and we're in a perpetual day 8 trying to run back to day 7. And the enemy wants to keep us in day 8. And when you read scriptures, there's no such thing as a day 8. And you know, like, that fall is— I'll give you, I'll give you an example. I mean, I sometimes I beat my head over about this, but in the last 3 months, my YouTube has gotten through 1,000 subscribers. And on my way there, I was just like, I want to make cinematic videos. I want to have all the amazing edits, and I want to do the sound design, and I'm putting all of this work work into these videos. You know the videos that took off, me just sitting in front of the camera and talking. I'm literally— is it supposed to be this easy? And you understand its purpose when it feels like work to others but play to you. If you can find that in your life, something that Everybody says, oh man, that's hard work. And you were like, really? For example, for me, public speaking. I saw, I saw somebody in my job do some public speaking and my man almost passed out. I mean, he was shaking. He was like, I'm like, who's torturing this man? Yeah, when it's my turn, I don't even have notes. I just, they were like, how long did you take to prepare your notes? I'm like, I just went up there and started talking. It feels like play to me. And, you know, I just want to encourage you guys to like— like, play was invented by God. It's okay. Don't— you know, sometimes I feel like it's our parents that beat it out of us. Stop playing. It's like, no, I want to play for the rest of my life. I honestly want to enjoy what I'm doing. I don't want to sweat before I eat.

Amen. I thought about this verse. I can't, uh, off the top of my head I can't remember the exact reference, but there's a scripture that says, and I fear just as the serpent beguiled Eve with his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted also from the simplicities that are in Christ Jesus. And so the enemy doesn't come with new tricks. He's using the same trick, the same lies, the same tactics that he used in the garden against Eve to deceive us out of the simplicity we have in Christ. So again, this kind of goes back to that concept of us complicating things for no reason when this walk is really simple. It's very simple.

Yeah, I want to talk about the church. We've— we spent a good part of our discussion yesterday talking about the church and I wanted to frame it this way. Our whole point in doing the Tabernacle is we believe that there's a role that design plays in the sacredness of God's temple, right? There's an intentionality. And right now, let me just say it like this, and I don't want to call anybody out, but I saw the way that people were eager to accept our collaboration to promote the The Tabernacle. And y'all might not know this, but like the collective following of everybody on this panel was like over 350,000. So like imagine if we all had one idea and we wanted to distribute it to 350,000 people, we can do it right here, right now. Don't you think that's powerful? Yet it seems that the church hasn't fully taken advantage of it. I believe that the collective following of the people in the church is more than the church in itself. But it seems like there's some friction, there's some resistance for including some of these creative and artistic ways of thinking into the church. So how do you think for ministers and pastors, they can begin to adopt, you know, some of the work that, you know, their congregants are even doing for themselves?

It's interesting because before I even met Pio and before we ever had a conversation, I was talking with my younger sister about this exact epidemic that we're going through right now, just with creatives, Spirit-filled creatives all over that are feeling homeless, that feel nomadic almost. It's like, I don't have a place. For me. Like, and so they migrate to other areas to get fed and to find community and collaboration, and they don't even have it in their own hometowns or in their own home church. And it's heartbreaking because it's like, we all know this, but the very first thing God tells us about himself is that he is a creative. He is the creative, not a creative. He's the creative that created us in his image image and likeness. And so God was so intentional about telling us that about himself as the very first thing. Don't you think we should start paying attention to that and approaching that with some, you know, with some reverence? Like, wow, there's something— he's given us a blueprint here, right? Even just this whole concept of the tabernacle in Exodus 31, how God explicitly says for the very first time in scripture— you will not find another scripture before Exodus 31 where God himself explicitly says, 'I have filled him with the Spirit of God,' the empowering Spirit of God, the Ruach Elohim, for creative work. You won't find it. Now, Pharaoh recognized that that same spirit was operating, but again, Exodus 31:3 is the first time God himself says it. This is one thing that I love about Hebrew. I like the Hebrew thought and just how ancient writers, uh, thought and how they conveyed thought through scripture, right? There's this principle in Hebrew study or Bible study, like, it's called the, the law of first mention. I learned this from my mentor Myron Golden. If y'all have never heard of before, y'all need to go check them out on YouTube. But, um, it's this principle called the law of first mention. And so basically meaning when the way that God mentions something for the first time in scripture, one, he's establishing a principle, and two, he— that's the way that he intends for that thing to operate throughout scripture, right? So again, the first thing God tells us about himself is that he's creative. The first time God fill somebody with his creative spirit. The same spirit that was hovering over the waters in Genesis was in a creative, a designer, a builder. Not a shepherd, not a prophet, not this John the Baptist type figure. A designer, a creative, right? And so it's like, I think a lot of times— not even I think— we've become so accustomed to seeing ministry as up here on this pulpit, standing behind the podium, right? And it's like, we are all— we all have a seed of creativity inside of us from the Creator that we have an obligation to steward, right? And so now that stewardship becomes the expression of God's creativity through our our gifts and our skill and our talent and our assignment. That assignment and that work that we do is worship unto God. That is ministry. So it's not separate, right? The pastor that stands up here is not holier than the creative that's down there. There needs to be a joining and a meeting place and a collaboration where— not in hostility, right? Not in, you know, We need to put honor on our leaders and our elders, right? They play a very important role, but we can't disregard the creative, right? Because God didn't disregard the creative. And so I think God is so— I was talking to my sister about this because she's very creative and she's a songwriter, she's a worship leader, she plays instruments and stuff like that. And she was just kind of grieving a little bit about like not having her people, like not having that, that place. And I was like, go create it. Like, don't wait around for it, go create it. That was kind of like the commissioning God gave me, which I didn't even know that it was going to turn into all of what it is now. But there was just something in me that knew enough, like, okay, I don't see what it is that God is calling me to. I'm just going to create it. And as I'm being obedient to his voice, I believe that people are going to recognize it and notice it. And what do you know, after I started being obedient to what God was telling me to do, certain leaders and elders from my church were like, oh, we see what you're doing. You know what I'm saying? Can you help us? And so without me having to be disgruntled or be offended or you guys don't have a place for me, it's just like, just go obey the voice of God and God's going to reveal it to them in due time. Right. But I feel like God is strategically picking and calling calling and raising up creatives all over to build tabernacles, build places of worship, build dwelling places for his Spirit to come. And it's getting the attention of the generations before us who have only seen ministry in one expression, and it's reshifting the way we approach ministry. It's reshifting the way that we view doing God's work, right? Because we're all building towards the same goal.

So, yeah, the world is changing. And I'll give you an example. If anybody has been in community with me, I've been yelling about AI for a long time. For a long, long— I've been yelling, screaming, telling people, trying to enlighten people about it. And I was with a pastor friend of mine earlier this summer and he said something. He's like, man, I need to inform my congregants on the jobs that AI will take so they don't come looking for me in 3 months praying for a job again. It's just like, if we can get ahead of things, we can prevent a lot of harm that's being unleashed on our communities. I can't stop thinking about how, like, Isaac Newton, the inventor of calculus, was a Christian. Can you think of that? See, maybe y'all too churchy. A Christian invented calculus. The calculus you failed in high school, that was your brother in Christ. Look at us now. We have completely limited God's creative ability to build structures and systems for his glory and for our benefit. So we're about wrapping up, but I got just a couple more things. Um, you know, I just want to draw parallels between creativity and innovation, right? We had Hunter who is building a Bible app. Can y'all shout out Hunter? Like, do you understand that the process and the concept of that is not just gonna birth the app, it's gonna birth a way of thinking that the young girls in her church are gonna be like, I can do that too. And next thing you know, the Bible app, YouVersion, a billion users. They just passed a billion users. You find me a pastor that has preached to a billion people, I'll wait. I'll wait. Yet we still want to work. But one of the easiest things you can do is either create software or create media. Those are things that work for you while you sleep. And I feel like we need to get into this innovative mindset that, like, if you're exchanging your time for money, you will always be restless. So how can— especially from you, because you've even before created content, you were in the music industry, which is another form of creating media that works for you in your sleep. What part of your brain made it okay for you to create and to innovate either software or media so that you don't have to keep exchanging time for money?

If you ever read about King Solomon in the Bible, This man created, I think his proverbs were like 3,000 and his songs were 1,005. This was a man that asked God for wisdom above everything else, right? The interesting thing about that word wisdom in Hebrew, like, and you'll see this in different translations in the Bible, that word actually means skill. Skill for what? He asked God for skill. It's funny because it was saying like when the, when the Queen of Sheba came to hear about the testimony she heard about King Solomon, it says that she saw his wisdom, she saw his skill, right? That is tangible. There is supposed to be something tangible that manifests from the wisdom that we have from God, right? If you were to put Solomon in a modern-day context, he would be a content creator, right? He made 3,000 proverbs. I don't have 3,000 posts on social media, by the way. Johnny, you got 3,000? Yeah. All right, we got some work to do, bro. Uh, I definitely don't have 1,005 songs, but that is content. That was content of the time. That was content of their day. And so, uh, you know, I always— when I walked away from the music industry in 2020, I knew God wanted me to do something. I just didn't know what it was. And I had— I tried a lot of different things. And it was funny because God was leading me to these different paths and picking up different side hustles and hobbies and things to do. And I wasn't like fruitful in a lot of them, but I was gaining the information and the knowledge of it, right? And I was like, okay God, I don't know why you just had me go down that rabbit hole for 6 months because it didn't produce anything. And then he'll move me to the next rabbit hole. And, and in retrospect, I realized like God was letting me gather like little bits and pieces from these different buckets that I needed for what I'm doing now. And so, you know, this whole thing, the concept talking about building a tabernacle in wilderness. Like, a lot of times you feel like you just running around and you scavenging for, you know, things in the wilderness, and it doesn't make sense. But it's like when you bring— when the people of Israel brought all of their, you know, possessions in one place, in one pot, it was like, okay, this makes sense. There was a use case for it, right? And so just a little encouragement, like, don't get discouraged when you feel like God is taking you on a detour. Like, soak up what you're supposed to soak up in that season because you're going to use those resources later on down the road. So yeah, like, when I knew God wanted me to do something, and when I walked away from the music industry, he just kept putting content in my mind, in my heart, and I was just like, okay, I just got to figure out what the avenue and what the lane is. But kind of like to your point, I look at content as a digital asset. I look at it as an appreciating asset. You put a piece of content out, it has the ability to you know, generate income over time. And so instead of striving and grinding and working in this system that is meant to, you know, break you down, I believe that we have an obligation to buy our time back, to redeem it from loss, because the days are evil. I was sharing this verse with Pastor O last night, but, um, to me, that, that puts us in a position to freely walk in the calling that God has created us for, right? When we don't have to worry about, uh, you know, someone else controlling our schedule and our time and stuff like that, right? And so for me, content was just like the clearest lane. I was like, well, if I just, you know, lock in on the content and dedicate, you know, my time to this, I think that it will buy my time back and free it back up. And that's kind of like where I'm at right now. But I love content also because it's just like, that's like, for those of you that don't create content, like, that is a very— I know I'm overusing the word, but that's an extremely creative process. Like, Johnny, I know you can attest to this, but it's like there's so much that goes into it before you get the final, the finished product. Like, you're talking about the ideation of the idea for the video, right? Then you're talking about maybe if it's long form, like script writing and coming up with the concept so that you can communicate effectively what it is that you're trying to convey, right? Then you have the setup, the composition, the cameras, the lights, the microphone, the audio. Like there's so much that goes into it. And so I feel like you tap into so many different creative buckets just to make a video that the average person doesn't see. So I don't know, me personally, I feel like that's like one of the peak forms of creativity is like just making a video. But I enjoy it.

I enjoy it. I just want to encourage you guys. There's not a single millionaire that you know, modern day, that didn't make it in either software or media. Even the real estate industry is a media business. Like, you look at— there are some people in real estate, they post a video, I'm like, I don't even need a house, but I'd buy that house. It's like somebody put some oil into that video. Um, and like, the last thing I just want to say is, if we don't adopt this, the world will. One thing that God has been like showing me, he's just been showing me Google, and he was just like, see how many design designers are in Google that should have been in the church? And I'm like, oh, see how many software engineers are in Apple that could have been in the church? Do you know what the church would be like if we kept our talent? You know how many of y'all favorite rappers started off in the church? Your favorite singers started off in the church. Your favorite producers.

Y'all know what I'm talking about, because when they get those Grammys, they say, thank God for the church, but now I'm in the world, lost as ever, but thank God for my—

like, exactly.

So I— the last question, and it's going to be a prayer too, like, what do you think what the church can do to keep the assets that God has given us?

It's a good question. You know, honestly, I think that a lot of it kind of just goes back to what I was saying earlier. You know that God has placed a burden on you. If you know that God has commissioned you for some work but you don't have the acceptance from everybody else around you, if you make that the main focus, you will get swallowed up in the flood because you were waiting on man's approval when God already gave you permission. That's not to take honor off of anybody that you're submitted to with leadership, a pastor that you're under, but at the end of the day, when God speaks, it's not just to tickle your ear. I think a lot of this is again going back to obeying the voice of God. Even when it does not make sense or it's a little bit uncomfortable because you're a pioneer and he's telling you to do something that there is no path for, right? And I think out of that type of obedience is going to awaken, you know, the church. I think, I think we have a responsibility to awaken the church from our actions, from being obedient to the voice of God and being faithful to the work that he's telling us to do with our hands. And I think there's going to be some type of chain reaction where the church is starting to pay attention, where it's like, wait a minute, this creative event, there was 3,000 souls that got saved at a creative event? What? Wait a minute, what's going on? Wait, we doing something wrong?

Yeah.

And I think that's going to allow and open up the doors and opportunities for the divine partnership, which is where all of this is supposed to be in the first place.

Yeah.

And you're already starting to see it. I feel like if I can ask you all, what are your— some of your favorite churches right now, it's probably people that are doing both very well. Very well. At least I could think of the top 3 in my head, and I'm just like, yeah, this solid word. But then there's excellence, and I believe if there's no excellence in the church, it's the creative's fault. That's what a designer does. Your job as a designer is to eliminate obscurity. Is to create clarity, is to create flows and systems and processes that, that make sense. It's a user journey. Hunters know what I'm talking about. Like, when we build, like, I, I love to build. Y'all know me, I love to build. I build websites, I just— anything tinkering. Like, whenever I'm building something, I'm thinking, there's a human on the other side of this. What can I do to eliminate the pain in this process? That's how I think about design, is removing pain from my brothers and sisters. If it takes you like 90 seconds to find a contact— you know what aggravates me about websites? I try to find the address. I'm like, man, I just want to know where you are. I'm going—

I can't— I don't know where this company is.

It's just like, this is terrible design. Why? Why are so many websites so bad? So I was like, all right, that's my burden. They're like, all right, let me make your website for you. Yeah, I almost do it for free at this point because there's pain in your website. There's a lot of pain there. We don't need all this. Too much pain in the world to have it on the web. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox. I just, I just think that God likes when things look good. And I think that's why he made us in his image, so that we will look good, so that we can get confidence in us looking like him. So our confidence doesn't come from how we act and how we function, all of our flaws. If there's anything wrong with me, it's God's fault. Let me conform to that image. Let me fit that model. Let me Let me behave like him because that's what perfection is. God is such— he's intelligent. He's the best designer. I mean, the trees are still producing fruit after its own kind. You show me some software that is still working after 40 years. I— capitalism has been working for a while, but I don't think it's gonna work forever. Like this happens over and over and over with the new technological revolutions. People were just like, they're trying to get rid of horses. Ha, you hear, you see, they're trying to get rid of horses.

What?

Horses?

No, we're gonna ride these horses forever.

Every time you see somebody riding a horse now, it's a meme. It's like, why is he riding a horse on the Dan Ryan. So there's a huge shift happening in culture right now, and if we don't pay attention to it, our kids going to be like, Daddy, why didn't you invest in Bitcoin? Why didn't you learn to adopt AI tools? Your kids are going to look at other kids and they going to be like, And you remember when you used to compare your parents with somebody else's parents? Now you don't want to be that parent. Why can't you be like Johnny's mom? That's not going to be me. It's not going to be you. It's not going to be none of y'all. Let's rise and pray about it. I just want you to pray in one minute. I refuse to be the same. Can you just resist the urge to be complacent? Can you resist the urge to, to be a cog in the wheel? To just be a number? To just be a— you can't be a number. If God knows the number of hair on your head, you can't just be a number in somebody's company. Can you just pray, I refuse to be the same I will be distinct. I will be set apart.

I will be like Bezalel and Aholiab.

I will be unique as you have called. Jay, get on your microphone. You pray with me because we are going to impart you.

You are going to build systems and structures that save your family from shame. You will not live like this. You will not rely on government assistance.

All the while, we thank God for its availability.

But the system that God has given to you right now will allow you to build homeless shelters. You will be the supply for the need that this world has.

There is pain in this world.

We need people that will build clinics. We need people that will build shelters. We need people that will build hospitals. We need people like you that have the compassion of God to go into the government system. We don't need governors that lack empathy. We don't need presidents that don't have the Holy Ghost. I pray for you in the name of Jesus that when you leave this place, you go back to your communities and you be a change maker. You be a difference. When you go back to your workplace, you tell your boss, I'm like Daniel, give me 3 days with me and my God and I will solve this problem, you will be like Joseph. You will go before the Pharaoh of your world and you say, the Lord said to me, 7 years shall we keep, 7 years shall we eat. You will go back to your churches and tell your pastors, famine is coming, but have no fear because God has spoken to me. I will not allow this church to close down. For the Lord has spoken to me. You will create a Goshen for your family. You will create systems and structures that your children will enjoy. The Bible says a righteous man leaves an inheritance for his children and his children's children. Oh, I pray for you in the name of Jesus. What you are storing up right now, your children will enjoy. Your children will not struggle. Your children will not beg. Your children will not have to grind, and from the sweat of their brow shall they eat. The Bible said, I was young, but now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his children beg for bread. Your children will not beg. You will not beg. Your parents will not beg, in the name of Jesus Christ. The world can't look better than church. It can't. The world can have better systems. They can have better structures. They can have better schools.

I'm gonna share a quote from the late great Wadie Bokum. He said, you can't send your children You can't send your children to Rome and expect them not to come back as Caesar. We have outsourced discipleship to people that don't know God. My barber is a Christian, and every time he lay his hands on my head, I thank God. I thank God. I'm like, I at least know before he brushed his teeth he prayed, and he's laying his hands on my head. I thank God. I thank God when I come into spaces like this and I see if I need help building a YouTube channel, I know who to go to. If I need help building a mobile app, I know who to go to.

If I need help building merchandise to sell, I know who to go to.

If I need help building a men's community, I know who to go to.

I will not go to the world for what the church has anymore. Can we pray that together? I will not keep going to the world. I go to my neighbor, I go to my brother next to me, my sister next to me. Oh, we are creating a new Wall Street. We are abandoning the systems of Pharaoh. We are abandoning the systems of, of Baal. We are creating systems and structures for us to enjoy. If I need a mechanic, I will find one around me. Oh Lord, give me work in my hands that my friends can benefit from, that my family can benefit from. If the church is looking for someone to build, I will be a builder. If the church needs a real estate agent, I will be the one. If the church needs marketing strategies, it will be me. I will be at the forefront of this new system and structure that will bring the gospel to every nation, tribe, and tongue for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of those that never heard the name of Jesus. They need your creativity. For the sake of the one that live in the system and the structure that there's no internet, they need your innovation. For the people that can't read and they suffer from literacy, they need a Bible app that does not care how literate they are, they will read the word of God. We need you. I beg you on behalf of every pastor, every bishop, every prophet, apostle, teacher, I beg you in the name of Jesus, we need you.

We need you.

Hear from me, we need you. This world is too big and souls are too precious for us to give our gift.

The Bible says do not cast your pearls to dogs and give holy things to swine. Your creative gift is holy. Does your employer really see it that way? Your ability to communicate is holy. The way you design, the way you think is holy. Can you give it back to God right now as worship and just say, I will worship you with these gifts, I will worship you with these abilities, let this be my act of worship forever? You pay attention to every pixel— that's worship. You decided to study color theory That's worship. You refuse for every stitch to be uneven because your God deserves excellence. Can you see what you do as holy right now? When people walk into your storefront and they see excellence, they find out that you serve God, they will begin to build a reputation in their minds about the excellence Christians have in the world. I'm so tired of people saying, oh, it's just because I'm Christian and I don't have help. You have God. You waiting for help to produce your sounds and you have God? You're waiting for help before you launch that business. If God can't help you, nobody can. Can you just submit your ideas, your thoughts, to the help of God? Ebenezer, your help is here. We've learned today that we can't wait for permission when God has already given us instruction. Obedience is better than sacrifice. You, you say you're not doing it because you are trying to be humble. Do you know false humility is pride? It is pride for you to take a talent and bury it into the ground. It means you know better than the one that gave you the talent. Are you hearing me? Can you rip that talent out the ground right now? Can you rip that talent?

I don't care if it was buried in your childhood. I don't care it was buried because the way your father spoke spoke to you. I don't care if it was buried because your employers didn't honor it. Can you rip it out of the ground and put it back in the marketplace? Lord, we rip up every talent that was buried, every gift that was put on ground. Lord, we rip it back up and we place it to this holy, exalted altar as an act of worship. Every dream that was buried— they thought that they can kill your dream, but you are like Joseph, you woke up out of the pit, you woke up out of the dungeon, you woke up out of the palace, and you were exalted in a high place by the right hand of God. Every dream that you have forgotten, I pray that the Holy Spirit bring it back to your remembrance in the name of Jesus.

Can dry bones live again? That idea you think somebody stole has not been stolen. I'm talking to somebody. You think that somebody has already done it before you. I'm telling you, somebody can start 10 years before you, but when God goes to you, you will lap them in one day.

10 years can become one day to you.

10 years—

I'm praying for somebody. 10 years become one day. What you thought would take 10 years will happen in one day. What you thought would take 10 years will happen in one day. 10 years compressed by the Spirit of God to a single day. Oh, he has given you speed.

Lord, we say thank you. We thank you for this moment, Lord, for those that have come and they've sacrificed their comforts to be here. Lord, I come before you in all humility and I say thank you, Lord, that they will honor an invitation like this, that they will honor just mere clay and dust. It can only be by your spirit. Lord, that they will leave the comfort of their homes and they will enter into a wilderness to show up this evening. I pray you leave here with an abundance of blessing in the name of Jesus. I pray that the Lord convicts you into the brightness of your tomorrow in the name of Jesus. I pray that the Holy Spirit convicts you about the improvement of your tomorrow in the name of Jesus.

I pray that the Holy Ghost convicts you about the security of your future in the name of Jesus.

I pray that God in heaven assures you that you will not sweat any longer in the name of Jesus.

I pray that the rest of day 7 become the rest of your life in the name of Jesus.

Thank you, sweet Holy Spirit. For in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Amen. Can you guys help me celebrate Jay? God bless you, man. Can y'all celebrate yourselves? Man, I'm not gonna lie to y'all. I need each and one of you, each and every one of y'all names. Because I'm writing it down and I'm going to put it in my prayer closet, and you guys are going to live in that prayer closet for the rest of my life. Seriously, I just want to say thank you. Hunter, can you come here? Can y'all celebrate Hunter? She is a walking inspiration. When we went to Tallison Tech last year, It's crazy, that was just last year. And we walked around and I'm like, so Christians can do stuff like this? I'm like, wow, we can build things, build communities? So I left that place and I was telling Kenny about it, I'm just like, man, I'm charged now. I gotta go build something too. A couple months later, that's when we did the first tent at Aziz, 29th floor of his crib. God bless you, brother. That was what launched it all. And it's been exactly 1 year, 1 year from that very sacred moment. There's some people in our team that still think that was the best tent yet. I'm not going to name them, John, but it was a very special moment. And that— I pray that God gives you destiny helpers. People, you know, hmm, if he wasn't the man that he was, he would be like, if it's not my idea, you can't use my resources. But there's a selflessness when people see that God is doing something and they yield their resources to to the agenda of God. I just want to say thank y'all for doing that. So, um, we'll be back here tomorrow evening. The weather should be 10 times better, and if not, I'm gonna pray all night about it. Um, but y'all saw the worship that Daniel led for like 10 minutes. If y'all thought that was anything, you just wait till tomorrow. It's gonna be very special. All the things that we have just put into the air, tomorrow is the time we crystallize it all in prayer. I couldn't— I almost got away with myself. I almost turned this into a prayer meeting. I'm like, hold on, let me— this is day 1. But if you really want to pray concerning some important things tomorrow, tomorrow is the day, and we will not be streaming tomorrow. Um, if you want to support us, buy our merch. That's it. That's it. We, we want to practice what we preach, so we can't be here talking about building, designing, creativity, and not have nothing to show for it. So, um, this was put together by— I think every single one of the team had input. Some designs went through review processes, you know, and this was the final output. So they're gonna be on your way out. So feel free to pick up one or just donate. If you're looking for ways to donate, let me know. I could get you a link. TheTentLive.com. Hit the give button. It allows us to do stuff like this, and we will not stop doing things like this until Jesus Christ comes back. The Church of God is moving forward in the name of Jesus. So I just want to ask you all to say a prayer, and can I have the rest of the panelists up here as well? Can y'all help me celebrate the panelists? And the reason why I'm bringing them up here is because they have figured something out. And I just want them to spend 1 minute just praying for you all, that whatever took them years to figure out, may you guys figure out in 1 day. Some of them, I mean, they're doing some incredible things, working with Fortune 500 companies. I mean, they have incredible platforms. I could go on and on and on with their skill sets, like their craft. Yeah, right there. Especially this one. This one's mine. Um, so can y'all just stretch our hands to them and then just begin to pray for them? That whatever you struggle to figure out, may they figure out with ease. Every obstacle. They have their own ideas. They want to build apps, they want to do merch, they want to do content, they want to make music, they want to take photos, they want to get into advertising. You have that Bezalel inside of you by way of the Holy Spirit. Can you impart it upon them? Let's bring our prayers to a close. In Jesus' name we pray. Lord God, we just say thank you again as we close. We start with prayer, we end with prayer. We start with you, we end with you. You are truly the beginning and the end. Lord, we have just learned about the importance of the Holy Spirit in creative work, that behind every creative is a God, and a God that is worthy of our worship. So Lord, remind us that everything we build from henceforth is an act of worship in the name of Jesus. Lord, we refuse to compromise our consecration as we create. We refuse to allow the world to have an opinion that you don't hold. We refuse to take feedback that does not come directly from the throne of grace. Father, give us the discernment to know who's who in the name of Jesus. Lord, as we go forth to different industries, we go forth now into the areas of finance, we go forth into the areas of software We go forth into the areas of healthcare. We go forth to different industries and sectors, all represented. We go forth like an arrow from the bow of God, being launched into new territories, claiming them for the glory of God in the name of Jesus. Allow us to change lives and preach this gospel from now until Christ comes. And the church said amen. God bless you all. Thank you again for coming. We'll see you again tomorrow. Oh, if you guys want to fellowship, pizza's on the way, and we will be congregating in that lobby. And that lobby is the actual place where warmth still dwells. So if you want to dwell with warmth, I will be in the lobby. Come find me there. God bless y'all.

Just play, right?

Okay.

Okay, the mic's on. No, just this one. I think just a little mic.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. So I build with you. And I'll be with you. I think maybe—

yeah, all the ways we can check it.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We give you glory because you are wonderful. You are worthy Oh Lord, you are wonderful. You are worthy. Oh Lord, you are wonderful. You are worthy. Oh Lord, you wonderful. You are worthy, oh Lord. Okay, I think it's good, man.