Considering the Power of God's Redemptions: A Conversation with Ryan Ries

The world is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny God. As such, we need thinking Christian to become as natural as breathing. Welcome to the Thinking Christian podcast. I'm Dr. James Spencer. Through calm, thoughtful, theological discussions, Thinking Christian highlights the ways God is working in the world and questions the underlying social, cultural, and political assumptions that hinder Christians from becoming more like Christ. Now, on to today's episode of Thinking Christian. Hey, everybody. Welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. Excited to be here with a special guest today, and I'm going to let my co-host Nate introduce him to you. Nate, go ahead. Yeah, we're thrilled to have my buddy Ryan Reese, co-founder of the Whosoever's, a radio show, and an author. So thank you so much for joining us today, Ryan. Dude, I'm pumped. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Absolutely, man. I mean, just jump in. Tell us a little bit about your story. I mean, I watched your I Am Second video up online, and so I know a little bit about your story, but just introduce yourself to folks if they don't know your story and your experience here. Yeah, yeah. That I Am Second film came out about five years after I gave my life to Christ, but I think it's a very well-done film from that particular ministry. If you don't know about them, look them up, Iamsecond.com. They do a lot of different musicians and artists and just all very wide variety. I think they're the best Christian films out there, period. But yeah, I grew up in Los Angeles, California. My brothers were all musicians growing up, and we got into skateboarding from a very young age. My dad got us into surfing, riding dirt bikes, and naturally that led to racing BMX. And, you know, obviously did other sports, but growing up, I wasn't really good at school. I was better with coordination than school. I just didn't really pay attention much. It's funny. I used to laugh because they didn't know how to deal with me. They wanted to put me on ADD pills and Ritalin and all this stuff. So my mom wouldn't put me on these pills. So they put me by the pencil sharpener, or they would put, later on, put me in the special ed classes because they were just like, we can't deal with this guy. And it's funny because my grades sucked, but my citizenship were always O, like later on in school. Like when I was young, I was just really crazy, but then when I got to middle school and high school, I always had a good relationship with the teachers and everyone, but I just never did my homework. So I'd have like D's, but I had O's, outstanding citizenship. So things kind of shifted more into my personality than my study skills as I got older. But that was me growing up. And my dad, he's a pastor of a church called, now it's called Calvary Chapel Diamond Bar. He's one of the original Calvary Chapel guys that Chuck Smith basically discipled. They were the first guys that Chuck Smith discipled back during the hippie movement, the Jesus People movement. And there was 12 of them. And he was one of them. And they launched the first Calvary Chapels out of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. But as I grew up around the music industry, my brothers were playing in Hollywood, doing their thing. But then I also had, my dad has a crazy testimony as well, and a movie that came out that he was doing evangelistic events all over the world. So I grew up in this very interesting dynamic of like seeing, you know, being a skateboarder, seeing the street culture, but then the music industry, but then seeing like, you know, my dad became a famous pastor and he had this huge mega church. So we had all that going on. And what was crazy is even in the eighties, Striper, they actually came out of our church, the band Striper. Oh wow. Okay. We're from our church. So my dad had this really happening church and even, you're a skater as well. Lance Mountain was there. He was going there in the eighties. I mean, I remember having my skateboard back when that Hosoi board was actually out at that time. The Hammerhead. I had the Lance Mountain mini and then my cousin had the Hammerhead mini because we were like, we were like second grade, right? And Lance Mountain and some other dudes were there and I'm watching Animal Chin and I'm like, dude, that's Lance Mountain. What the heck? So anyway, I grew up. Yeah. He's definitely been my favorite skater growing up. So anyway, this is the dynamic of our church. Okay. So this is me, this little skate kid and just like excited about life and doing all this stuff. But I was that kid that was growing up that was just very, very intrigued with like, you know, checking out the forbidden fruit, if you will. You know, because I was always told like, no, you know, obviously like don't do drugs. Like this is the effects of drugs and alcohol. And we were seeing people's lives destroyed around us, but I wanted to see for myself why this stuff was so bad. So at a very young age, I got exposed to pornography magazines in the back of my school. That's when porn was on paper. It was in a duffel bag and we opened it up and there was a bunch of porn. It was just, didn't really know. It was just kind of interesting to see at that time. I'd never seen anything like that. And then in fourth grade, I got exposed to XXX porn at our friend's house. We walked in from skate. We were like hitting a, a launch ramp out front and then we go into the house and he's watching. His older brother's watching hardcore porn videos. And I remember walking in the back room and I was just like, now it all made sense. Like what I saw in the magazines, like how it all kind of worked. Right. So pornography started influencing my life and my mind at that time. Um, kind of, I guess bringing about, I guess, being addicted to sex and, and chasing girls, I guess, you know, kind of fan that flame. And, um, got into high school, got exposed to drugs and alcohol. And then one thing led to another. And we were just smoking weed and skateboarding and stuff like that. But then one thing led to another as drugs do is you, you're around the older brothers, friends, not my brother's friends, but all my friends, older brothers that are doing more stuff. So, you know, I end up in a room, I'm smoking joint. They put cocaine on it and they call it Cocoa Puffs. And now, boom, I get introduced to cocaine and weed and um, that's a whole nother high. And then we get, you know, then I'm at the river and then we run out of weed after, you know, smoking weed for like three or four days straight on a river trip. And then they run out of weed and they go, we got LSD. And we're like, all right, so we take LSD. It's like one thing led to another. And the next thing you know, you're exposed to drugs and alcohol. So from there I ended up getting kicked out of a high school because I was never really good at it. But, um, I started going, I got introduced to the LA underground at that time. It was like the electronic music. They were doing raves. Um, there was a skate park called transitions in downtown LA. There's a lot of old school 8th street videos and stuff from there. And that place would turn into raves on the weekends and uh, got introduced to raves and started going out to raves and getting involved in that. And then that scene. And I really loved the way the psychedelic art and all that was. So I started um going to school and uh like a trade school and learning Photoshop and Illustrator on my own, figuring out how to design. And I started throwing my own parties. Uh, they started in high school, but then after high school, I started throwing parties in clubs and I'd do punk rock shows. I'd do hip hop shows. I'd work with the local skate shops and do like a punk rock show. And then I'd work with the local, like, you know, underground heads and do like a, you know, electronic DJs or I'd have like pull some guys with some hip hop guys or some break dancers and do a hip hop night. So I was basically producing uh events, clubs for different genres of, of uh music and stuff. Around that time, I met a girl and I met her at a bar and um I wasn't even really into her. She kind of approached me and long story short, kind of started drinking, hanging out with her and end up sleeping with her. And that, that relationship, which was interesting, the way I mentioned sleeping with her is because I wasn't really attracted to her at first. She wasn't my type, but I got in, I got into a sexual relationship with her. And then that really just kind of kicked off this long relationship uh with her, which led, uh, she was like a stripper, bisexual stripper, dating her. And then I ended up uh getting her pregnant, I guess. She showed up at my office one day and said, Ryan, um, I just got back from the abortion clinic. And I just remember being like, well, I'm anti-abortion. So I'm like, if I'm like, why didn't you tell me? And she was just all broken up from the abortion clinic, just getting back, just messed up. And I remember hugging her and said, I love you. I said,

You don't have to work. She wasn't working anymore. I made her stop stripping and all that, and I was just doing all the clubs. So I said, you don't have to work anymore and just raise the kid. And I was like, I'm going to marry you. We went to the courthouse. We got married. And then I was like, let's have a wedding. And I was buying a house for us to live in. And during that time over that month or two, I can't remember, it was a long time ago, but it was pretty, pretty short amount of time, she called me and was just like, I'm too young. I don't want to have the kid, but I still want to be with you. I love you. And I'm like, listen, if you get an abortion, I'm going to leave you because if you don't listen to me now, what the heck is going to happen later on in life? Like, like, I'm going to come home one day and, well, you know what, Ryan? I'm going to do this and I'm taking the kids, or, you know, like, like what is going to happen if like, if life is, there's no meaning to her with life, right? So I laid down the law and I said, look, if you get the abortion, then I'm going to leave you, and I'm never, you know, and that's it. I'm not going to marry you. And she just said she was going to go through with the abortion, and she did. And I remember at that point, I was so jacked up. It's so weird because I really had to, like, it was only like two years ago that I really looked back and thought about what was going on with me at that time. Like, I knew at that point I got, I just destroyed my room out of anger, breaking everything, destroying my whole room, obviously crying because, you know, what I thought my five to 10-year plan was literally destroyed in like two minutes. Everything that I thought was just gone. And I don't know if anyone that's listening or is going to listen to this, you've ever been like that, or maybe you're in a situation and you're faced with that. My wife, kids, house, marriage, gone immediately. And now I'm just like, anger, bitterness, throwing my middle fingers to God going, I hate you. I want nothing to do with you. Then, then the loneliness kicks in, feeling hopeless, just angry. I was never suicidal, but I was just like, I felt all these other emotions. And it was very painful, you know, to really think about that. And what happened is, uh, short, like months after that or like six months or seven months after that, um, during that time, actually, when I was dating her, by the way, I, I did a, a short, I did a video premiere for, uh, Chad Muska from Shorty Skateboards. It was called Fulfill the Dream. It was, it got like video of the year actually. And we, we basically, I got A-track, the Alcoholics, uh, I can't remember. There was a bunch of bands. We brought them all on. I have it on VHS and DVD, like that's it. Yeah, VHS for you kids that don't know what VHS is. Uh, so we, I did the video premiere for them, produced that music festival. And, you know, now this is like, you know, at least a year later or more that now here I am in this situation. And there was, there was uh talks with my brother, Ra. He uh he owned a bunch of snowboard brands, and he wanted to, I guess he was in talks at that time with Musk about starting a skate brand called Circa Footwear. So he owned Form Snowboards. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. 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So I, uh, he's like, let me talk to Muska and let's get on a call and see if he wants this new company to be like music and skateboarding. So, you know, maybe we bring you in to run the whole music program. So, uh, we have a couple conversations happen. Next thing you know, there was an opportunity for me to, to come down. So I, I got hired first with the snowboard brands and I, because I do graphic design. So I was, I was doing actually, I was just doing like outlines and doing all like the, the, the tech packs for the, um, for the snowboard companies, um, for the apparel while they were doing that just to buy time as we were ramping up to launch Circa. And then once, you know, as they're about six months and then about six months, they're like, Okay, Circa's approved. We're going to about to fire it off and we're going to do this. So then I transferred over and I just started doing all the, the music marketing. And I guess I did the team because there's only one team rider, uh, was Muska, um, at that time. So it launched, uh, it launched and we were doing a huge massive, we, we birthed a music festival called Skate Jam. It was in the year 2000 and, uh, you know, Redman, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface, uh, it was a huge lineup. It was, and that's when I used to do a lot of drugs and drink a lot. So kind of a little bit of blurry. Uh, but there was, it was a massive, it was a massive, massive lineup, you know, you know, 15,000 people, huge event. And then, uh, booking all the trade show parties, et cetera. And Circa just exploded. It was like massive. And then the Tony Hawk Pro Skater game came out. Boom. That even took skateboarding to a whole nother level. And then we had Jamie Thomas on, uh, Adrian Lopez was number two that was put on then Jamie Thomas, James Craig, Mark Appleyard, Chris Cole. I mean, the list goes on. It was, it was a huge list. And then we actually ended up starting a Circa combat, which was a team that I put together, uh, which was like Nuge, Lizard. I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah, all those guys. So that was the last team I, uh, I put together for that uh program. So we had like this Hesh team and then we had the diverse team. But all that to say, I'm traveling the world nine months out of the year, literally with bands because we're, we're, we have all the biggest bands wearing our products. Uh, like at that time, like Limp Bizkit was on top of the world trade center wearing the Muska shirt. Uh, we did a shoot for No Doubt at that time. We had, we did shoes for uh Redman, uh, Wu-Tang, uh, and all the, all the big bands anyway. So with all that said in that whole world, dude, the sex, the drugs, the rock and roll, just everything, skateboard tours. I was just indulging everything because what was going on was I, I was, I was partying because there was a lot of opportunity, obviously. But at the end of the day, what was going on is I was broken inside. I was totally annihilated inside. And what I was doing is through my career, through traveling, dating girls, drinking, drugs, partying, all I was doing is I was trying to just, what was going on inside of me, just push that down and not, not deal with it because I didn't want to deal with it. It was too hardcore. Right. And I remember I just didn't trust girls, so I never got into a, could not get into a relationship. Like girls would be like, dude, there's like all these walls. Like you will not bring your walls down. And I didn't know what they meant, but yeah, I just did not let anyone into this. Understandably too. I mean, I think that would do that to anybody. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So with that said, um, I ended up, um, my, my life sort of getting very, very dark, to be honest, very, very dark to where, um, I was, I was doing more drugs than you could even imagine. And it wasn't like I was like a crackhead in a hotel. I would just, it was almost like if you've ever seen the movie, Fear,

I did Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. And the closer you get to Colombia, the pure the cocaine is and cheaper. So I was doing a bunch of cocaine in different stops all the way down until I got to Costa Rica and I just did too much. I took too much Xanax and too much alcohol and I OD'd. Now this is the third time I OD'd in my life. Now up to this point and I'm talking about right now, I've already lost 18 friends to suicide and drug overdose. A lot of them are skaters and musicians and artists. And I OD'd in a hotel room and the skateboard team finds me. I think it was like Chave, Fellers, Windsor, Dennis Durant, Lopez. And I think that's it for that particular tour that found me. And they just called my parents. Lopez, Adrian Lopez actually called my parents and my dad, because we all have heartache. We all ride together. And he called my dad and said, hey, Ryan's not going to make it out of here alive. He's OD'd in the hotel room. Now I don't know why they didn't call the ambulance, but they called my dad. And I'm pretty sure they saw those HBO specials where you get busted with drugs in a third world country and you go to jail forever. They're like, he's just going to have to die on this one. I'm like, I'm not going to die in jail. He's going to die. So, but they, they called my dad and my mom and my parents, they prayed. And there's power and prayer as we know, and by God's grace, I came out of it the next day and that's when I, I really, uh, was, well, it took, it took a while to come out of it because I was so jacked up. It took about a day to kind of sober up. And then we took a plane from Costa Rica to Panama city the next day to finish our last demonstration. And, uh, that night after the demonstration, I was in the Sheraton hotel in Panama city and I was by myself and all the team riders, everyone was in the jacuzzi. And I just remember sitting there just by myself going, God, are you real? If you're real, prove that you're real to me. I'm like, I grew up in the church. I know, I know the Bible hits, you know, I know the hit stories. I know some of the characters, but I don't know all of the Bible, but I know Samson and Delilah. He used to like to fight and get drunk and chase women. That's, you know, I can relate to that. Uh, you know, there's an Adam and Eve. Jesus died on the cross and raised from the dead. Noah, you know, the hits. But I don't know the Romans road. I don't know Romans and acts and, you know, all the epistles and not every, you know, and the Elijah and all that, you know, just, just certain things that I grew up hearing. So I said, God, are you real and do you exist? And if you're real and you exist, prove that you're real to me. Now, as you guys know, I've done, you know, hundreds of hits of LSD and I used to like to love to do hallucinogenics to experience, right? To leave planet earth, to have these experiences. And I thought, all right, I'm going to have this encounter with God. I'm saying this prayer. He's going to reveal himself. You know, he's going to show up with this clouds of glory and rainbows and lightning bolts and angels and just be like, my son, Ryan, I've been waiting for you, you know, but nothing happened. Just nothing happened. And I was like, okay, I gave my life to Jesus. I asked for forgiveness. I asked him to fill me with the Holy spirit to prove that he was real. And now what? Nothing. And I'm like, all right, well, I guess I'm just going to die in a hotel room in my mind. I knew I was going to die in a hotel room. Like Satan was clearly telling me, this is your path. You're going to die. You're going to OD in a hotel room. So I'm like, all right, well, this is it. So then I remember there was these Bibles in these hotel rooms. They're called Gideon Bibles, and they're in hotels all around the world. So I'm now I'm digging through the drawers to see if there's any Bibles. I open up the top drawer. Boom. Blue Gideon Bible. It says Holy Bible. I'm in Panama City in Central America in English. So I open it up. I start to read it and it's the valve. And I'm like, what is this? It's like Shakespeare. Now you guys all know I was in the special ed classes growing up. I'm a horrible reader. Now I'm reading this like Shakespeare stuff that doesn't even make sense. And I'm like, whatever, dude. I go, it's the Bible. I got to read it. So I stole it from the hotel and I got on a plane and I read the Bible for six hours straight from Panama City to Los Angeles. And I remember I was on. So we're on a United flight. So there's three seats, three seats, right? 33. And it's me and like, I don't know, me and a couple other guys. And then I just remember, like, Sierra Fellers was over here and he used to be on our Thrasher photographer. And then the other. So we're all basically together in one row, like across from each other. And I'm reading the Bible and they're looking at me and they're like, the cocaine pirate's reading the Bible. Like, are you kidding me? And I just remember. I'm just like, yeah, dude. I'm like, if God's really in this book, I'm going to find him. And I just read that Bible for six hours straight. They were just like, whatever. They didn't care. They were just like, dude, we don't want to see our team leader die. You know what I mean? And it's just so what happened from there is I landed in Los Angeles. I read the Bible for six hours straight and I felt peace. Now, looking back at that moment, what happened is in the hotel room, I realized I was the dirtiest sinner and I had issues. I gave my life to Jesus Christ. I repented of my sins. So I flipped a U-turn. I changed the heart and my mind in the direction of God. So instead of going, I'm going to go continue doing what I'm doing. I'm going to. I turned to God and I said, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. And I believed by faith that Jesus Christ raised on. He died on the cross and with the blood that was shed on the cross 2000 years ago, he washed me white as snow. And then by believing my faith, there was a supernatural transaction that happened is that when I believe my faith in him and asked forgiveness, he implanted the person of the Holy Spirit inside of me. So now that I have the person of the Holy Spirit inside of me, it's almost like you're, you're without the Holy Spirit. You're like an iPhone without the Wi-Fi can without Wi-Fi. But when you receive the Holy Spirit, now it's like the Wi-Fi connection turns on and now you can hear and you can hear from God and he can give you downloads and he wants to, he can speak to you in your life. You know, the Bible says that God is the most high God. So it'd be like the most high five connection, right? The most high five and he'll connect you and he'll give you the downloads. So now I have the personal experience in me. I'm reading the living word of God, which is the DNA of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the DNA of holiness. And I have peace, supernatural peace in my life forgiven. So then I go home, I go to bed. I wake up in the morning and I hear this song singing through my head. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. And it kept repeating over and over and over. And I was tripping out and I'm like, what the heck is that? So I go out for my normal cigarette in the morning. I'm calling my dad and I'm all dad. I just, I go, clearly, you know, I OD'd in a hotel room the other day. I go, I gave my life to Jesus. I prayed. I woke up this morning and this is the song I'm hearing through my, my mind, which Yeah, it was an old song when I was in first grade or second grade in Sunday school. It was a hymn. But that shows what the Bible says. Oh, the Holy Spirit will bring back to remembrance. Those seeds were planted. The word of God was planted in the Holy Spirit was pulled it. That's how the Holy Spirit does. He pulls scripture that you plant in yourself. This is why we got to be full of scripture. And he brought it to remembrance and he spoke to me that this is the day the Lord has made. So I knew that God was real. He answered my prayer basically. I knew he was real. So from there, I ended up calling my dad and he said, Ryan, he said, now you need to go through the Bible. And he's like, listen to Chuck Smith, just go through his Bible studies, just through the Bible. And so you can grow. And I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life as far as like, I need to go to rehab. I'm like, dude, I'm like, at that point I was like, how I was like smoking crack sometimes, shooting heroin sometimes, shooting coke sometimes,

across that verse, if you wanted, Jesus says, if you want to be my disciple, you got to turn from your selfish ways, pick up your cross and follow me. And if you try to hang on to your life, you're going to lose it. If you give up your life, you're going to save it. And what does a man profit if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Is there anything worth more than a soul? That verse was hardcore. And this is where we're all skateboarders here. So this is that part where I had to like go, I don't want to be a poser. I don't want to be a poser. Can you imagine being a poser? Like, that is literally the worst thing ever. Happened to one. And I'm like, I'm, I'm being a, I'm a poser right now if I'm calling myself a Christian, but I'm having sex with my, my, my computer screen. Like, this is not, this is, this is not what God speaks of. And Jesus addressed porn years ago when he talked about it, and he says, the eye is a light to the body. If your eyes are good, then your whole body is healthy, but if your eyes are bad, your whole body is full of darkness. And if that darkness that you think you have is light, how great is that dark? Or if that light that you think you have is darkness, how great is that darkness? Dude, that's gnarly. And then he says the other one, remember he says, if you, if you even look upon a woman, uh, it's like committing adultery. Like if you're looking at her, like thinking about having sex with her, you're like, he's like, you're committing adultery. Like he already addressed all this stuff. So anyway, there was, there was a lot of things I had to go through. I wrote a whole book about it. It's called Kill the Noise, Finding Meaning Above the Madness. It's a discipleship faith builder book that basically walks people through this whole process. I get saved in like the first chapter and a half, and then the rest of the book is just going through that whole process. Because the story is not the drugs and alcohol. I mean, that's not the story. The story is God's story of everything, his faithfulness of the journey of the ups and the downs and the all arounds of God taking me through my life, getting me to where I'm at. And clearly I've not arrived, but where I'm at now from where I was, massive. Yeah, big time. So when did the whosoevers come into play? Like when, fast forward to that if you can. Uh, well, that's okay. So that's basically what's next. We, uh, so around about six months after I get saved, um, my dad is, well, right when I get saved, my dad's doing an event because he does, he does these, he was doing a lot of these crusades, um, all the way till 2009, back to 1980s when he started doing these like exit festivals. Like they were like, they were before crusades, but they were like music festivals, but he would tell his testimony with like punk rock bands and, and new wave, everything that was happening back in the little mini Coachellas, if you will, different style bands, but like for that era. And he was doing an event with uh POD in downtown LA. And I came in and they were doing crusades. I said, Dad, I go, give me the, he's doing Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And I said, give me Saturday night. Let me, let me do all the marketing and everything. Let's, let's burst something new for young people. So it was the POD night. So I, I went, I did a throwback. I, I came up with a whole new um campaign for Exit. His old festivals were called Exit Festivals. So I, I did a throwback. I brought it back and we called it Exit concerts. And uh we did it, we did it um on the Saturday night with POD and that's how I reconnected with Sunny because I knew Sunny from before because I used to give him Circa product from, from our company. He was one of the bands that we were hooking up with, but um I reconnected with him there. And then about four months later on, my dad was going to Israel and I was gonna go and I called him up and I said, hey dude, do you want to, I go, I need a roommate. You want to roll out to Israel with me if you've ever been there? And he's like, nope. So that's when he just shaved his dreadlocks because he was in a place where he was trying to get serious with God. So it was almost like, well, Paul would consecrate themselves and they would shave their heads. So Sunny was in that season in his life and his dreads were like down to his like back of his legs. That was huge for him to do that. Yeah, I remember that was crazy. I was like, I almost didn't recognize him. I was like, what happened? Where'd your dreads go? Cause I'd never seen him without him. He wasn't, he wasn't recognizable. Yeah. Everywhere we went, people would be like, look up. And then, but then, yeah, he has dreads again. He, he started growing back out again, but yeah, no, that, that's huge. That's huge. Uh, especially being a rock star, you know, like, like, you know, you, you don't, you want to be recognizable and your image or campaign, your, your marketing. So he just said, I want God, I want Jesus, right. Which is crazy. Um, so we ended up going to Israel and we're just doing the Holy Land tour. And then, uh, we're, I'm in the Garden of Gethsemane while we were out there in Israel, he goes, hey man, he goes, I got this idea. He's like, I got this name. It's called the whosoevers. He's like, I see it. He's like, I was going to do a reggae band with it, but he goes, I see it like a worldwide movement coming under the umbrella of like bringing all the denominations and everyone together in the sense of like, let's reach people for Christ, but just under John 3,16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. Like, let's go and reach people for Christ and let them know that God loves them. They're caught up in sin, which we don't have to tell anyone that they're sinners. Everyone knows, but God loves them and he wants to forgive them and he wants to change their life through the work of the Holy Spirit. So I was like, dude, that sounds epic. So then I'm like, I can help put that together. We can, like, you know, we could, you know, obviously you can design logos. You can come up with a campaign. You could, you could put something together, right? But I was just like, that sounds like an awesome idea, but I didn't really think much of it at the time. I was just like, that's a sick concept. So then, um, then I'm in the Garden of Gethsemane towards the end of the trip and there's a pastor there and he's, he's speaking about, you know, all of you guys come from different parts of the world and to LA and you're all, we're all here in the garden and you guys all know what happened in the garden, right? You know, Jesus was praying to God, father God, and he's like, God, the father is like, if you could take away this cup of me suffering, like basically if you could take away, if you could save the world without me going and dying on the cross and being murdered, please do hook me up. But if not, not my will, your will be done. And he goes, a lot of you guys have come to Israel with all this baggage that you're holding on to. Now you're gonna leave your baggage here at the cross or you're gonna take it back to LA with you. Are you gonna say my will be done or not my will, but thy will be done. And he goes, all you guys go out to the garden and go make peace with God and decide what you're gonna do. So I went out and I'm sitting there in the garden, Sunday's somewhere else in the garden. And I'm here and I'm in the, I'm sitting in mud because it rained the night before. I'm sitting in mud on a rock and I'm just sitting there praying. And I said, God, I go, if you would, God, I don't know what you wanna do with my life. I was planning to go back to Circa actually, like a couple months later to go back and just do marketing within the office. I don't have to travel anymore. I said, if you don't want me to go back to Circa and you want me to just, I don't know, if you want me to tell my story, I guess, then have someone contact me. I don't want it to be my dad or people around me because everyone's like, you should tell your story. And I'm like, no, I don't wanna tell people my story. Like, I'm good. And I said, if you want me to tell my story, then have someone contact me that's not in my inner circle. And the next day in Israel, I got a phone call from a pastor and I got an invite to go speak at his church to tell my story in Las Vegas. And I was out there with Sunny and I said, hey

The problem was Head was coming off hardcore crystal. He was like mentally jacked up, like, you know, like on crystal meth for how many years? You gotta like, your brain has to like detox from that stuff. You know, you're like, you're not normal for a while on that stuff. So Sonny's like, just chill, homie. Like, come off the drugs, find out who Jesus is, and then, you know, do your thing. So anyway, he didn't do that. So anyway, Head ends up coming out to, Head ends up coming out to flying into Las Vegas to meet me and Sonny. And then I was, I, during that time, a couple months before that, I connected with Flyleaf. That's when they came out with that album with all, what's it called, All Around Me, that hit song. Yeah, right on the tip of my tongue. I can't think of it. I can't think of it, but they were all over the radio. They sold like a million records. I mean, they were blown up, but I connected with them. And Lacey actually sung with POD down in Times Square at the New York Times Square, the, you know, the, like the Apple, the Drop, like the New Year's Eve party. So they're all connected anyway. So I, I go, I'm gonna call Lacey to come out to come hang out with us. You go ahead, and we all ended up in Vegas together, just kind of hanging out at, we went to P.F. Chang's and go eat and just all meet up. But dude, at that table, it's like we all became best friends that night. It was crazy. Like we were all just like, just like-minded. And that's another one you should get on this interview is Lacey. Yeah. But what happened was from there is that the next day, instead of me going up and speaking, we all, we all went up together and we spoke and, uh, that naturally birthed the Whosoever's movement. But we weren't flying under the radar of the Whosoever's. We were just, it wasn't, it wasn't the Whosoever's, but basically that naturally started, God naturally put together through the work of the Holy Spirit, this movement of men and women. And then from there, we started producing music festivals again. 2000, uh, we did, we did the uh, we did the Exit Las Vegas. Uh Flyleaf headlined it. Head played his first arenas since leaving Korn. It was 18,000 people in Las Vegas. That big arena, UNLV arena, Thomas and Mac. We had the metal militia show up. We had Lance come out and Steve Caballero and other guys and Command Z doing live art. And then from there, then we did another massive music festival for One Love for Chief from the Deftones. He got ejected from a car on the vacation and got put in a coma. So we worked with the family. We did this huge music festival in LA. That was also probably like 15,000 people. Um, we had like the active skate demo. We had the militia, live art, hot rods, choppers, big music festival. That was crazy. And we raised enough money to get him to New York to, uh, to get a doctor that could help him try to come out of the coma. And that's a whole nother story. But that's how the movement basically started. And transitioning from that point, it all evolved. And now there's many, many more people. Like Hasoy has done skate contests for us. Um, I've interviewed a lot of these people on my radio show as well, but we all, we all come together. The movement was created for all of us to come together under a, a banner of, of, of when we're available to do ministry. Um, it's just at people's availability when opportunities rise up. But now our main initiative is to invade the public schools. And we've been doing that for about seven years now. We do, um, we do about a- Huh? I love the school part. I was gonna ask about that next. Yeah, so we do, we do about a hundred schools a year is our average. This year we're forecasted for about 150. And we have, I have ambassadors in, um, that we planted one down in Chile with, and then we raised up another one from Chile. And they're covering Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Chile. And then, so they're touring down there. I got a, a local Mexican dude in, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, which is outside of Mexico City. And he's invading, uh, the schools in that whole country, actually. He tours all over. And we work with the government in Mexico. They bring us into these schools, mandatory assemblies. And even in, in, in South America. So we're in front of thousands, hundreds of thousands of students a year. And then, uh, and then I'm here in America. So I, I go all over Philippines and I'm going to Belgium and, or where am I going? Germany and Poland next month, Australia, Philippines. I go everywhere. Uh, but, so I'm here in America. And then we have a guy in Northern California, a couple in Southern California. We got one in Florida. Um, yeah. So they're, they're, it's, it's just a worldwide movement. But yeah, the main focus is we go into the schools and we do lunchtime assemblies. And it's, they're there by choice in America. They're mandatory overseas. But with our marketing campaign, free pizza and product and the way our flyer looks, it looks like, you know, it's just a crazy graphic. Like, you know, like a man's warped tour kind of, you know, neon and just fun skateboard stuff. And dude, we're filling the gymnasiums. Not, it's not mandatory and we're filling them and kids are not leaving. They're staying till the end and they're coming up by the hundreds and giving their lives to Christ. And we're praying for them right there to receive Jesus Christ. And then we plug them into the local Bible club. So we go in through the Bible clubs. And then what happens is, for an example, there was one school that invited us to come and there was seven kids in their Bible club. They go, would you guys come? We have seven kids. I said, that's our street team for the school. So we print 2,000 flyers. We give it to them. They put them up on the walls. They put the posters up on the walls. And then the day of the event, we show up. It's full. And that particular school, that was a smaller school. They said 350 students showed up to that. 250 students came down and gave their life to Christ. And then the next following week, the weekly Bible club, they had to move out of the classroom they were meeting in and have the gymnasium. And their Bible club was 200 strong all the way to the end of the year. Wow. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian-owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free retirement defense guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. That's unreal, man. And it changes in Mexico. We're here in Mexico City and we work with the local churches wherever we go. We always work with the local churches. And there in that Mexico City area, the teachers saw the impact we had, so they asked the local church if they could do more in their school. So they allowed the church to come and teach an English class using the Bible in those schools in that region. And then we also, because I stole the Bible from the Gideons, I'm one of their poster children. And they now, I call the headquarters whenever I'm going to a different country and they send in the Gideons to come and give out Bibles, thousands of Bibles. We were just in the Philippines. They gave out, and we were there for a week. The first day and a half, they ran out of 3,000 Bibles. And they were like, we didn't know. And I'm like, yeah, it happens. Like, dude, God does amazing things. That's awesome. But that's kind of, that's basically where, that's the whosoever's in a nutshell. I knew your story, but I didn't know about the Gideon piece. That's so incredible. I love that, hearing that little detail. That's awesome. Go ahead, James. Sorry. I was just going to say, you know, I mean, obviously, you know, things have changed. I mean, I can remember sort of the, I would have been in high school in the 90s, right? I remember the skateboarding culture. I remember MTV. I remember, like, all these different things that my kids have no context for, right? I mean, my son's just turned 18. He doesn't know what MTV was. Like, he's never seen a music video.

And people are more like stuck up as far as like, just not going to that. I'm going to wait. Or, you know what I mean? Like, eh, it's just so much stuff. Like, I'm good. It's just overkill, right? Yeah. Where other states, like, I'm in Idaho right now. I moved to Idaho two years ago. And that's, that's actually something I need to talk about. That's our new, new initiative that we have going on right now, uh, extending the movement to the Northwest. Um, but Like here, you know, people come out. Like we did a bunch of skate contests. We did a bunch of skate contests, eight, eight contests in eight days at eight parks every day. And dude, we had like from three to 800 people show up at at every single day. That would never happen in California. Yeah. That would never happen. I did a skate contest one time and I, I had the owner of In-N-Out Burger gave me a free truck with burgers and we had 50 people show up. Like, are you serious? Yeah, that's kind of what I wondered because I mean, you know, you hear about the response you're getting with the whoever's and going into the high schools and getting these kids voluntarily coming. And I just, I guess I just wondered, you know, like, are they so starved for that sort of really actual relationship, right? Yeah. And when you give them an opportunity to there or, um, you know, whether it's, it's just like pulling teeth to get people, you know, into some of these events into an in-person kind of setting. I dude, I, this, this is what's crazy. The school setting, they're, they're coming. They're coming like crazy. That's just awesome. That's it. It doesn't, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't. I don't understand it because if I try to do an event, you know, in a California, they're not, they're not, it's hard to get people there, but now we're in their school at lunch and yet they're filling up. But this is what's crazy. We're talking about testimony and Jesus and they're not leaving. What does that mean? That, I'll tell you what they're hungry for. They're hungry to hear the truth. They're open to Jesus. That's what it comes down to. Because there, there's always a remnant of people that get up and leave. You're like, like the average is probably 5 to 10 people. Okay. Like, that's it. That's it. They'll be like, oh Jesus, and they'll get up like 5 to 10, but you're talking 600 to 800 people. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So that's nothing. That's nothing. So they're open to Jesus. I mean, when you look at like the world of like, I mean, I don't need to go down this whole rabbit trail, but just looking at, I mean, now with the whole P. Diddy thing going on and, you know, the Taylor Swift and the Sam Smith and the Dojo Cat and the Little Nas X and all those people, if you know anything about those people and their witchcraft that they're pushing and the. And like, it's real. It's not like package. It's real stuff. Um, these kids are encountering demonic stuff, depression, anxiety, suicide. Uh, they're encountering all this stuff. I did a Bible study. You can look at it. Look at my name, Ryan Reese, and it's called Obedience. And I break it, all that stuff I break it down. Why we're seeing this mental health emergency globally. It's the same everywhere you go. And the students are the same everywhere you go. It doesn't matter what country you're in. It doesn't matter what neighborhood you're in. I go, I speak in rich neighborhoods where all the estates are $2 million, $3 million. And I speak where the average family lives on 130 bucks a day. And, and, and they're all like, you know, from over the border. It's like, I speak in the extreme and guess what? They all listen the same. Yeah. They all listen the same because they're all connected to the noise, to the, to their phones. And they are dealing the side effects of, of sin. If you're watching sin all day long, garbage in, garbage out, sewage in, sewage out. You know what the sewage is? Depression, anxiety, suicide, self harm. All, all, all these different things that they're encountering, they're watching and it's coming out of them. That's the side effects of, of what we're seeing. That's why there's a mental health emergency globally. So that's what it says about, uh, them. And yeah, they said that you probably, these statistics everyone knows, I'm sure. They said this is the most connected generation, but yet the loneliness. Yeah. Loneliness? Yeah, loneliness. Yeah. The most lonely, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Uh, lonely generation ever. So that's why, uh, you know, I, I, when you read my book, you're gonna see I'm a faith guy. I just, I wait for confirmation. Once God confirms, I just, I go and step out by faith. But, uh, leading me here to Idaho is, um, I was working on a building project in LA. Uh, it was weird. I was, I was at this, how much time do we have? We'd go as long as you want, but, uh, Cool. So I was at, uh, I was at this autograph signing. I worked, I worked with this band called Fifth Harmony. Um, I went on tour with them. And one of the managers contacted me and they were having issues. They're like this girl pop band. I didn't even know who it was. I just got a phone call. They're like, Hey, this guy managed Papa Roach. And then he ended up working with 5th Harmony. And I saw him backstage at that Papa Roach concert later on. And we introduced ourselves. He saw my second film. That's how he, he, Okay. Went back to the beginning of the show. He saw my second film and he just walked up to me backstage and he's like, Hey man, I saw your I am second. And he was telling me about his colorful past of dealing with drugs and addiction. And I'm like, I'm like, so we talk, we meet and I give him my number. And then one day he calls me up and he's like, Hey man, um, I'm managing this band called Fifth Harmony. And uh I'd like to get you on, I'd like to get you on the road. So I'm like, cause you know, there's, there's a girl that saw your testimony. My I'm second, another girl, he showed my I am second in the band. She gives her life to Christ in the hotel room on tour. And there's the other girl that's a Christian. So it's all back to the I'm second film. The plug, the plug. But then I dude, I'm telling you, I, I, I'll be in airports and people walk up to me and she's like, Australia, like, Hey man, are you that guy? And I'm like, yeah, dude. Like it, that that film is ton led so many people to the Lord. It's amazing. Um, so he, uh, so anyway, I tell, uh, he goes, would you, would you mind coming on tour? We're, we're touring New York city and doing some other stuff. New Jersey, New York, and some of those areas. And I'm like, who's Fifth Harmony? So I look them up and I'm like, it's all these like girls, like a pop girl band, these. And I'm like, I show my wife, I'm like, Hey, I get, cause I go on tour with bands. I get invited to go out and pray with people and be, be out there on the road for a while. So I show my wife, I'm like, Hey, I got invited by this band to come on tour. I'm like, she's going to be like, yeah, you should pass. And she's like, look, it looks like a good opportunity. And I'm like, all right. And I'm like, let me, uh, let me. And I, Oh, and I go, by the way, the manager told me I'm gonna be on his bus. And they said that all, all the parents, like just parents on the bus too. Like, cause they're young, they were young. Yeah. They'll have their parents on the bus. So there was a couple buses. So he's like, I'm, I'm with the, I'm with the tour manager and I'm on his bus. She's all looks like a good opportunity to go for it. So I go out there and uh, long story short, um, that basically led me to meet with this band. And I'm at one of their autograph signings. And out of nowhere, uh, one of the cousins of one of the girls comes up to me, that's a Christian and we're talking and she's like, yeah, I just wanted to see you. How are you doing? I want to meet you because she heard I'm a Christian. And then she gets a vision and she's like, I see a man. He's going to come to you and he's going to get, see a big brick building. And he's going to give you the building. And I see skateboarding and art and music and all this stuff. And I had this whole concept in my mind already to do a building project. Already, I've been praying about, I was already going through the process to do this building, right? With actually In-N-Out Burger in uh in Orange County. We were in the process of, of doing this building. And it, it didn't happen for whatever reason. And

and keep your hands off of it basically because then you could say, God did it. I didn't do it. And long story short, things didn't really work out, we'll say. And I just said, you know, I'm gonna walk away from the project. I'm done. So I walked away from it and about six months later, I go to Joshua Tree. I always go up there fast and pray up there. And uh when I'm, when I'm getting serious about something in my life, like having kids, getting married, building projects, you know. So I'm up there and God always speaks to me when I'm up there. And, not he didn't, he didn't give me any, he didn't give me nothing. So I'm driving home. Now I'm going back to San Clemente where I live. It's about a three and a half hour drive from the desert to the beach. And I'm, I'm coming uh down through Riverside about to hop over the hill to go over to Orange County. And I'm in my car and I remember just yelling up to, to the sky. And I'm all, God, I'm all, are we doing the building or not? This is February, 2009. Uh, February, no, I'm sorry, October, October 2009. And because that's when you go to Joshua Tree, you don't go in the summer. It's too hot. So I, I pray, 2019, 2019. 2019, OK. I was like, man, that's a long process, bro. Yeah. 2019, I pray, are we doing the building or not? So then I, I drive another hour. I get to this, my friend's doing an afterglow night on Tuesday night. I walk in the back, very small church, 10 people there. I go to the very back. I sit down. And the guy that's leading it, I know him, but I don't know him. We're friendly. It's the, it's the, um, it's the uh brother-in-law of Lenny Kravitz. So he's leading, he's leading it. And I walked in and I sit in the back and I'm just chilling. And they just get done with worship. And he walks up on stage and he goes, OK, guys, his name is Roger. He goes, OK, guys, we're gonna all pray and just see what the Holy Spirit wants to do. So he starts praying. And then all of a sudden he stops and he goes, Ryan, you're gonna get the building. And I'm all, what building? And he goes, I don't know. He's all, you're gonna get the building. The guy's gonna come up to you. He's all, I see like, I see a trapezoid building and the guy's gonna come up to you. He's gonna give you the keys. Like this is, this is the building. Just take it. It's yours. So I'm like, OK. And then anyway, we continue to do the afterglow. And then at the end, uh, you know, he doesn't know. That's all he got. So I go, OK, cool. Thanks, man. And I, uh, I told him, like, you know, what, what was, what was happening. So I'm started Googling the building that I was gonna work on, the big brick building. It's, it's, it has a trapezoid. It has points. Trapezoid is pointed. So it has points on it. So I'm like, I don't know. Maybe the guy's gonna come back and give me the keys or something. I don't know. So maybe the, maybe he had a change of heart. I don't know what's going on. So anyway, long story short, COVID hits. And next thing you know, me and my family, we travel to Idaho back and forth. We're like, it's open. My cousin's up here. He's like, just come up here and hang out. It's open. No masks. No, no nothing. Just come chill. So we're going back and forth during COVID as the whosoevers never stopped doing ministry. We never stopped doing ministry. We continued. And we were going to do skate parks all over the United States. We never stopped. People were looking at me, you guys, you guys, you're a bunch of grandpa, grandma killers. Look at you. You're touching the kids. You're praying for me. You're hugging. You're holding, you're laying your hands on the kids. You're hugging them. Like, what are you doing? You killers and all this stuff. Oh, shoot. Oh my gosh. I'm late for my meeting. So anyway, I just realized that, long story short, what happened was, basically what happened from there is we kept coming back and forth to Idaho. And then God led us to leave. He led us to leave and to, he was leading us to go to Idaho. And I felt like we had to go to Idaho. So I started praying, praying, praying and going, God, if you want me to go to Idaho, then I need a sign. I need literally a sign for me to go to Idaho. And all I heard is one day after one day I was praying out loud and I just heard him. I said, give me a sign, a dream, a vision or a word. And when I said word, I heard go through my whole body. Like the way I heard, this is the day the Lord has made. That was the second time. So I packed my whole family up. I moved to Idaho. And when I got to Idaho, I was here for a year and I didn't know why I was here. So I kept praying, going, why am I here? So then I started fasting and praying. I went to the mountains, started praying and fasting with pastors and asking God, why am I here? And very, very, very long story short, basically what happened is God spoke to me that I'm supposed to do a whosoever building here. So I told, I prayed and I told this other guy to pray and, and, you know, to pray. And basically what happened is God gave this guy a vision and the guy had a vision and he called me up. He texted me at three o'clock in the morning and he goes, call me in the morning. And the next morning he goes, I have a building I have to give you. And I'm all, what building? Me and him were looking around to buy buildings and stuff. And like, I was looking to do something and I walked over to the building and it was a square building. He goes, this is your building. I'm giving you the building. And I go, let me pray and fast about it. So about, took me about seven days. I kept praying and fasting, going to the building and it's square. I'm like, this is not trapezoid. This is not the word. And then the last day I'm coming, the last day I'm, I'm driving on the overpass coming to, to the building. I look at his building and his building's trapezoid. So the guy that came to me is coming from a trapezoid building and he gave me the keys. So now we're in a brand new building on the busiest street of all of Boise, Idaho. And actually the first In-N-Out burger in Boise is actually being built right across the street as we speak. And they gave me the keys. We're in the building and we're actually building it all out. It's going to be a whosoever headquarters slash concert venue, mini ramp, et cetera. So now we got LA location and now we got the Northwest in Boise, Idaho. So that's, that's where we're at right now. And I have actually have a meeting. I'm doing a radio show down there right now. I got to get there. Um, but yeah, dude, a lot of crazy things happening. God's moving and we're just going to see, we live by faith, right? Not by sight. And just want to see what God's going to do, what the future holds. Well, very cool, Ryan. Yeah. Thanks for being here, man. And I know you got a meeting, so we're gonna run, but I really appreciate your story. Really appreciate you just allowing the spirit to lead you, bro. I mean, it's just amazing to hear what God will do when we kind of yield to him and just let him, let him lead. And so, uh, thanks for being here, man. And uh we'll, we'll close it off now, but uh really appreciate you being here. Thank you for the opportunity, man. Appreciate it. Let's stay connected. Yes. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you and all you do. Have fun with Jamie. Yeah, we will. Okay. All right, guys. Take care. We'll see everyone on the next episode of Thinking Christian. I just want to take a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the Thinking Christian podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more. Hi, I'm Rachel Adams, host of the Love Offering podcast, where we explore how to live out the greatest commandment, to love God, love others, and even love ourselves. Each week, my guests and I share stories of how God's love transforms us and overflows into the lives of those around us. Whether through small acts of kindness or powerful moments of faith, we're learning how to make love our greatest offering. Tune into the Love Offering podcast available on lifeaudio.com and all podcast platforms.