Serving Communities through Broadcasting

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. I'm Dr. James Spencer. I'm joined by my co-host, Nate. And we are talking today to TJ Jackson. And he and Nate know each other. They actually work with 88.5 in Kansas City. And so I'm going to let Nate intro TJ, and then we'll have a good conversation around what TJ's role is there at the radio station and the positive impact that media can actually have on our communities. So, Nate, go ahead. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm super excited to have my friend TJ Jackson on. When I first started in radio way back in like 2012, he was my first radio friend I ever made. So I'm super excited to have him on. I've always looked up to him and just love his heart for community. He's actually the community director for Life 88.5 here in Kansas City. I get to do weekends and I just get to cheer him on and love all he does. So I'm excited. Welcome to the show there, TJ. Man, it's so much fun. Nate, we've had so much fun through the years doing different things. And we've known each other a really long time. And now to have a chance to do ministry together like this is just incredible to watch how God continues to work through so many people to bless a lot of people here in Kansas City. Absolutely. Yeah, it's great. There's so much stuff. I don't even know where to begin. We we have just recently provided a roof for a lady and her family in Kansas City. And the listeners kind of voted on that, which was super awesome to witness and get to be a part of and kind of champion cheerlead, whatever. And then also we have been collecting on our Terrific Tuesdays in October, November. We've been collecting food for people in Kansas City that are in need. You know, everyone's affected by current state of our country right now. And we are about to hit our goal in TJ. You could speak more to this of ten thousand. Tomorrow's our last Terrific Tuesday. Ten thousand pounds of food, which is just incredible. Well, what's really interesting is as we have expanded on something called Terrific Tuesday here at Life 88.5, it really began last year in the first stages of that particular outreach. And we know that one in seven families here in Kansas City finds themselves food insecure. And so that that's a pretty staggering stat when you really think about it. More than likely between the three of us, we know somebody that fits that category. And so when we rallied and tried to think about, OK, how can we help come alongside some of these food pantries that are being hit extremely hard by this desperate need? That's where Terrific Tuesday was birthed out of. And so we do these food collections leading into Thanksgiving. And this particular year we're doing the nine Tuesdays up to Thanksgiving. And we thought really outside the box. And this was it was almost a little bit of a tough sell at first because we do these collections actually in the morning from 7 to 10 a.m. And I'll ask all the time, like, why, why 7 to 10 a.m.? Like, why in the morning like that? And it's intentional because our purpose is to get people to think when they wake up, one of the very first things that they can do that day is to do something for somebody else. The mindset carry them throughout the day. And so we've seen that be the case time and time again. And so with eight of those nine collections already finished at this point, we sit here 483 pounds away from 10,000 pounds of food collected this year because people have. Have said, hey, I can impact my community in a really positive way, maybe people that you don't necessarily know, but friends, neighbors, people that are just down the street from you that find themselves wondering where the next meal is going to come from. We've seen literally hundreds and thousands of people come alongside this year and say, hey, I can provide a sack of food. And now we're on the cusp of being able to collect 10,000 pounds. That's incredible. I love that. And I think you just said it, but food insecure just for people who might not be aware. It's for people who aren't sure where their next meal is going to come from. Is that a is that the appropriate way to describe it? Correct. Yes. Yeah. So 10,000 pounds of food and sort of the power of the radio station, the power of listeners, you know, coming in and really engaging and finding a niche where you can actually help the community that's listening to you or even the community that may be not be listening to you, may not be listening to you, but is still your community. How do you think about that as a community director? I mean, connecting those who are listening with those who aren't listening. Yeah, that's the big thing that we try and really focus on is finding the happy medium where you're reaching out to people and wanting to get them active because what we found throughout the course of the year is that I'm 20 years into my role here at Life 88.5. And so the biggest thing that we know is people, for the most part, want to help, but they don't always know necessarily what to do. And so up with different initiatives to say, hey, here's an easy way that you can help somebody. And what's been neat about Terrific Tuesdays and the food collections that we've had a chance to be a part of is we've seen people that have been in that place of being food insecure in the past and knowing how valuable having a food pantry has been in their life. And God has maybe brought them out of that situation. And now they're in a place where they can turn around and help somebody else. 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 powerful to see. And we've heard those stories time and time again of people that have been like, yeah, I know what it's like to be there. And so now this is my chance to come alongside and help somebody that's in need. Yeah, absolutely, man. Working for ministries the last 25 years of my life, I have to say a lot of ministries say, oh, we have community impact, but you don't always see it, especially radio stations. And I might be stepping on toes saying that, but TJ, you know what I'm talking about. We've talked about this offline, but when they say that they are ingrained in the community, they really mean it. I mean, you can see it. It's not just music affecting people's lives. Like he has a goal. How many cities are you trying to get to? OK, so this last Tuesday, we actually celebrated a pretty big milestone because in May of 2022, we made a promise to the listeners of Life 88.5 that we wanted to be boots on the ground in 100 of our listening cities, 100 unique cities in the course of three years. And you don't necessarily see a whole lot of radio stations with that type of a mindset of wanting to connect. We call it belly to belly, like getting out and being belly to belly with people and connecting in a really personable way because we know that when those opportunities come about, you can't meet somebody for the first time and have the relationship stay the same. Like meeting somebody and even having a brief conversation with them, that changes that relationship. And so we know that getting in front of people is a really incredible way to, one, take the hope of Jesus to people and get to know each other a little bit better. And so 100 unique cities was the goal. And this past Tuesday in Savannah, Missouri, we were able to celebrate city number 100. Six months early, which is pretty cool. I mean, to think that's amazing. I knew we were close. I didn't know we hit the 100. That is just awesome, man. That's so great. It's city number 100 and we'll be at actually 101 tomorrow morning in Hamilton. So, yeah, the beat continues. We want to continue to connect with people and really take that love of Jesus all across the area. And it means so much to these communities, even if they're an hour outside of a metroplex, like they just never get no love. They never get a concert. They don't get events. You know, we've had snow cones with cops like we're just connecting on community level in ways that these communities just never see. And so when they do get that, it's like they feel like it's the biggest thing to hit their city that year.

Steve, Willie Wilson, or George Brett, or somebody like that is actually in Concordia, and something really cool is happening, and the town rallied around things like that. And so I remember what that was like, being somebody from a small town. And so having that mindset of knowing that, yeah, we know that people that listen in some of the smaller communities, they mean just as much as somebody that listens in one of our bigger cities. And some of our biggest times of impact maybe have happened in some of the smaller communities. One of the examples that I like to share is we were in Polo last summer, and it was, this is no joke, it was about 101 that day, and we were at the Polo Panther drive-in is where we were. And we were facing the sun. It was kind of steady and it was just beaten down and Polo's a town of about 500. And that day, 227 people came in the two hours while we were there just to play the birthday wheel or just to share a prayer request or to come by and see what was going on. And it was just a really special moment to get to visit with people and let them know that God loves them and that they're important and they're valuable in his eyes and share that type of hope is always a lot of fun. And they felt seen where maybe sometimes they don't. And that's what I love so much about your vision and leading into all this. Everything we're talking about, and honestly, we could spend the whole time today talking about the impact. There's so many amazing things that this, I like to say ministry before radio station does, but we recently just got recognized with a national award that was really significant. If you want to share about that, TJ, that'd be awesome. Yeah, it was, it was a wild day. Life 88.5 was very blessed to be the recipient of the CMB large market station of the year, which obviously against other stations that are in the larger markets, there are three different finalists and we ended up winning this summer. And then the one that was really exciting for me as a community engagement director is we actually won the community service award, which is every Christian radio station in the entire country. And that meant a lot because there are so many different people that played such an incredible role in that, because when you think about that, the impact that Life 88.5 is able to have in the community, that happens because we have the best volunteer team. We call them our life support team. I love that. And these people serve passionately. They serve sacrificially. They love to get out and connect with people. And we're not able to do all of the events and outreaches that we can without an incredible team like that. And so to see them be recognized in that way was so remarkable. And to see the excitement when we were able to relay that message to a lot of the people on that team, man, they got so excited because they were able to see how God was able to work through them to reach a whole lot of people. Absolutely. And I was so thrilled just knowing TJ before when my office closed in 2018, I think I shared this with you, James. I was able to encourage a few of my great volunteers to head over there. So when I did start at Life 88.5 and did some events right at the beginning, I was like, oh, I know a lot of these people. Like some of my most amazing people that I counted on, like TJ does now, are here and just, you know, still having the same heart all these years later. And so that is amazing that it's not just one person. It's many people giving sacrificially to make that impact. And we all get to, even me, I didn't do much. I just got to kind of cheerlead and champion, but I get excited every time I talk about it because I know what it's like, you know, to see that impact happen and to know that we're going to these fringe communities that don't get much love is just so encouraging. And I love that. So I couldn't be more excited about it, man. That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Absolutely. So do most Christian radio stations or Christian music broadcasters have community engagement wings? I think a lot do. There's a difference, in my opinion, between having a promotional side and like an engagement side because a lot of radio stations have a promotions person that, you know, they go to whatever phone company and they are there for a couple of hours and do call-ins or they go to the grocery store and promote the actual radio station. But we look at it a little differently here at Life 88.5 because being engagement is different than promotion because engaging takes it much deeper than that because we're more about sharing Jesus' love than Life 88.5 because we know that people will hear about Life 88.5 even as we're doing all of the different outreaches. And so we don't focus as much on that. We more want to connect with people and let them know that they're cared for and that they're loved and that there are ways that they can rally around and help their communities and different things like that. So that's kind of like what we focus on more on the engagement side. We try to take it a little deeper than it being more about self-promotion. Okay. Makes sense. Absolutely. Yeah, the promotional side makes, you know, I mean, I've seen that at other radio stations, but the community engagement side, I don't know that I see an awful lot happening there, you know, apart from promotions, let's say. Yeah. And so it's just, it's sort of interesting to hear what you all are doing and it makes sense why you won the Community Service Award with CMB because it sounds like you're doing something that's really impactful to the communities that you're in. As you've reached out to these hundred different cities, what kind of activities are going on there? I mean, there's a hundred of them, so you don't have to go through all of them, but you know, just give a general sense of what your anticipation is with that, why you felt like that was important and what you're hoping it all accomplishes. 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. Okay, I'm going to kind of go through a couple of different things that have happened the last couple of years and kind of break it down just a little bit. So let's rewind a little bit to 2017, and that was the year, one, that our Life Support Team started. We knew that for us to be able to carry out the mission of Life 88.5, we needed more people to help us get boots on the ground. And so that year was the year when it was decided, okay, we also need to try and figure out how to connect on more of a city level with like city leadership and wanting to do things with other cities more like in partnership. And so Excelsior Springs was the very first city that ever took a chance on Life 88.5 to start a partnership with. And so that was really fun for me because at that time, I was still doing the morning show with Melanie McKay, and we were able to emcee the lighted Christmas parade in Excelsior Springs. And so that's a really great event. And it brought out a whole bunch of people. And then to see it start right there, I actually have a picture just over my shoulder where I have a little 8x10 of the group that served that night because I knew in that moment that that was going to be a monumental thing for Life 88.5, having that first city that took a chance on us. And so we slowly started to see over time that that opened the door for the next city and then the next city. And then Liberty came along and some of the others, and we were able to do stuff with Kansas City. And it's really gotten to the point now where we have amazing working relationships with 40 to 50 cities all across our area where we do things like fireworks displays or we come alongside when they're having a parade or maybe some part of a festival of some kind. We do pop-up parties where we go for a couple of hours and we bring the birthday wheel and prizes and different things like that. But maybe the thing that we're the most known for right now is something called Snow Cone with a Cop. And that was birthed out of a really interesting season because remember, the LST came in 2017. We started having city connections then. And in 2019, not just in Kansas City, but really all around the country, there was a whole lot of unrest going on. And it was a really challenging time.

a lot of people. This is pre-2020 and all of that chaos that went on. And so we really thought about, OK, how can we? Connect cities together and let people know that we're not really all that different, because we knew that law enforcement, they were having a really difficult time. There were people that lived in cities that felt that they were maybe unseen or unheard, and there was just unrest everywhere. And so we came up with this idea, what if we used snow cones to be the bridging factor there and do these events where we could get law enforcement, get people from the community together and just build relationships and start doing that. And so in 2019, Snow Cone with a cop was birthed, and we started actually doing those at 7-Elevens. And the very first one that we did was on Central Avenue in KCK. And that particular one, in the 72 hours leading up to that event, there were actually seven shootings right there in that neighborhood. I was going to say, that's a rough part of town. Yeah, so we go into that neighborhood knowing, okay, we've got the KCK police with us. We let people know what was going on that day, that we were going to be giving out. It was Slurpees at that time. We were giving out free Slurpees, and they could come by and meet officers, see the vehicles, maybe come pet the police dog and stuff like that. And as that event started, we realized quickly, okay, we need to put the balloons on the police cars because they saw the cop cars there, and they thought something was going down because of the unrest in that area. Yeah. But what was really amazing about that is you started to see students that were out of school that day coming over to see what was going on. And then cars started pulling in and started asking questions. And we were just handing out the Slurpees and had the prize wheel and stuff like that. And people really just kind of took to it. And we started seeing conversations with law enforcement and residents of the neighborhood and in a positive way because a lot of times, for many people, they don't get to talk to a police officer unless there's something going on. And we wanted it to be something that was very positive. And that first event was really neat. And I think the first one we had like 320 some Slurpees that we did that day. And then it just really kind of snowballed from there. And we changed it to snow cones after a couple of years because we started to expand the areas that we wanted to serve that event at and connect with different cities and different pockets of people all across the area. And even just this year, we were in Raymore for a snow cone event. And I noticed a lady that had come up and she kind of stayed off to the side for quite a while. And finally, after about 45 minutes, we made eye contact and she kind of motioned for me to come over there. And so I went over to talk to her and she told me a story about how she had been in social work for 27 years. And she said, you know, I never cared to work with law enforcement. She's like, they make me nervous. I just don't. I don't like I don't like anything about that. But I heard that the snow cone event was going on in my city. And she's like, I wanted to come see what it was all about. And she had a chance that day to visit with some of the police officers. And she told me to my face at that event. I learned that we're really not that different. She's like, I had a chance to visit with some of these officers. And she's like, they were friendly. They were great. And it was wonderful to interact with that. And so over the course of these last six years, we've been able to do those types of events, providing bridges for communities to just kind of rally together. Because no matter where you take the snow cone event, law enforcement, people from different areas of the city, us, all of us, we all want pretty much the same things and want to be contributors to society. We want to try and do what we can to help others. We want to go home to our families at the end of the night. And we're really not all that different. And so that's what really those events are all about, is trying to get people to understand that, to see that there's not a good and bad side to anything like that. And so at this point, six years into these events, we've served more than 17,000 snow cones and had a chance to see hundreds and thousands of stories come out of that where people have been able to make connections, start with police officers and residents have been able to see and build those relationships with people that are serving and caring for their communities. I love the two-part impact of that because you truly are bridging relationships there because, like you said, a lot of people, and I grew up doing skate ministry and being a skateboarder. So when I see cops as a kid or even now, still in the back of my mind, I'm like, oh, am I somewhere I'm not supposed to be? You don't always have your initial response in your mind is not always positive. So I love that connection. And then on the other side, I'm sure a lot of these police officers absolutely love the opportunity to be celebrated and to be looked at in a better light than just a negative because they usually show up, like you said, when something is wrong, when something's going down that people don't usually have good interactions. They're not always, I should say. And so that has to be rewarding to see both sides of that. That's amazing. One of my favorite stories that has come out of that was last year, I had a police chief in one of the cities that we worked with, and he's a guy that's been there for a long time, for 35 years, he has served as police chief. And he told me after the event, he said, I think in my 35 years of being in law enforcement, today was absolutely my favorite day to get to connect with the kids and hand them a snow cone and watch them play in the fountains and spin the birthday wheel and watch them play in the bubbles and things like that. That's really cool to see, to think that that moment was made possible because there was just some really special connection that happened between people from that community and some of law enforcement. And then as they leave, maybe not that day, but the next day, they listen to the station more. God uses the song to impact them. And then God is raised up, but it wasn't like front and center. You know, it just opens the door and people's minds and hearts, I think for God to start working on people. And that's amazing to me. That is like the best way we could be Jesus with skin on just out there bridging connections and making those ways for people to know the heartbeat of the Lord. You know, that's amazing. It takes all of the pressure off of us to know that God calls us just to be the person to make the introduction. We don't, he's powerful enough to be able to take an interaction at a snow cone event or handing somebody if they win, like an ice scraper or something like that on the birthday wheel. I mean, he's way big enough to take those things and translate it into real deep life changing connection. You just have to be willing to go and be people that want to be boots on the ground to let other people know, Hey, have you ever heard about this Jesus guy and make that connection happen? And he's able to take those and strengthen relationships and get people connected to listen to life 88.5. And who knows on this, we'll never know this side of heaven, how many lives are going to be impacted for eternity because of that. But it makes it really exciting to want to come to work and be a part of things like this every day. That's amazing. It's interesting to hear you talk about your role because you mentioned earlier that, you know, that it's deeply connected to 88.5's mission. And my wife sort of has introduced me to these mission integration folks at her Catholic healthcare system here in the St. Louis area. And then, you know, St. Louis has a lot of Lutheran sort of affiliations. And so they also have a mission integration specialist. And what they essentially do is they keep the mission right up front. You can imagine in healthcare system, it's really complex. You're hiring in people who aren't necessarily in a Catholic healthcare system. My wife's not Catholic, you know, so they're hiring in people who aren't Catholic and they're trying to help those people understand what is the mission of this? What's the heart behind it? What's really the driving force? Why do we bother doing any of this at all? You know, it's not just about, you know, some sort of generic wellbeing that we want to foster in society. Like they talk about in terms of the hands of Jesus healing people and those kinds of things. And so it's a really fascinating, I think position in a lot of these organizations. And the fact that organizations keep them going, you know, financially sustain those positions is fantastic. And just as you're talking, it's like 88.5's mission. I'd be interested to hear you talk a little bit about 88.5's mission and how you think about it, but also how your organization thinks about it. Because this is a fairly significant effort. Yes, it has some promotional value. I mean, I get, you know, you can kind of see how that would reach into these communities, but at the same time, you're not really trying to quote unquote, target.

An audience, right, with a specific promotion. And so help us understand 88.5's mission a little bit and how this all fits from your perspective. So our mission here at Life 88.5 is to lead people to Christ and nurture believers in their spiritual faith through Christ-centered media. And so that's something that's at the forefront of everything that we do. Just figuring out how we can be good stewards of the opportunities that God has given to us to connect with people every single time that we go out because ministry doesn't just happen at those—okay, a lot of people also think, too, well, you're a radio station, so it all happens when, like, you punch the button and you listen. Right, right. And that's a part of it, but for us, it's also a part of being intentional about being boots on the ground, and that's a big chunk of what happens because we're able to go into places sometimes and share with people and make it not so scary for people to—and we hear all the time, too, people say, oh, well, this isn't at all what I expected a Christian radio station to be like. That's pretty cool. I mean, to think about that. We're just, alongside, we're normal people just like you are. We're just trying to figure it out. We don't have all of the answers. We know who has the answers, and we can point you to him. And having a chance to connect with people that way is really pretty amazing. We actually just did an event this weekend. We did two significant events that were just about getting in front of audiences that we knew weren't necessarily going to be predominant Christian audiences or something like that. We did the big holiday boutique at Overland Park's Convention Center, and we handed out shopping bags to these ladies that were going to do Christmas shopping and things like that and just having a chance to visit with them. And we'd put download cards in the bags so that they could download the app. And then there's an evangelistic piece to those download cards also because we have a resource where you can text the word START to 41-224 and ask some of those big questions. Ask some of the things that maybe you want to know more about this Jesus guy or you want to know more about what it means to follow Christ or what the Bible really talks about. You can text that and it starts that conversation for a lot of people. And so we're always looking for ways to get in front of people that don't necessarily know a lot about Jesus. And it's surprising, too, when I don't know if a lot of people realize this or not, but when you look at Life 88.5 as a radio station, there's a good number of people that listen and listen almost daily that don't necessarily consider themselves followers of Christ. It's about 40% of people that listen that consider themselves believers. And so that's an incredible opportunity on the listening side to continue to play songs about Jesus, to continue to have conversations about things that have happened in people's lives that for the people that are on air to connect with people with. I wouldn't have guessed that. I wouldn't have guessed over 40%. That's an awful lot. Yeah, it's shocking sometimes to know how many people are listening that they just want it to maybe be safe for their kids or something that's easy to listen to and they don't have to worry about something that's going to be said on the radio. They're willing to have it on in their car or in their home or wherever they're listening. And it definitely changes the sort of complexion of some of the community outreach, too, because if your listenership isn't, I think I had in my head that it would be almost 100% Christian. But given that it's not, it almost makes what you do in the community engagement space that much more important because now you're going beyond what they hear on the radio and for it being, you know, quote unquote safe to putting a real face to it and helping them have that, you know, sort of more relational connection with people who are Christians who are now wanting them to connect with Jesus and maybe, hopefully, you know, taking them beyond, oh, this is just safe for my kids or family friendly and those kind of, you know, words, which is something that can be developing relationships. That's fascinating. 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. Well, and something else that happened in October this year that really was big and we didn't necessarily know a lot about it as it was happening is, so in July, we gained the signal 91.1, which is based out of St. Joseph, which is on the northern area, and it helped us to reach an additional 180,000-some listeners that listen on that. So 91.1 plays Life 88.5 on that signal. And so we've started doing events in the 91.1 listening area in the last couple of months. And in October, we did a trunk and treat event with a biker group out of St. Joe. I love this one. They didn't necessarily know a lot about us, but they had asked on social media if anybody from the community had fun games or activities that could be done at this particular event. And I was like, oh, actually, we do. We got a big prize wheel, and we'd be happy to bring it and play some music and just have some fun with the people that are coming to the trunk and treat event. And so we go to the trunk and treat event, and we set up, and we've got some music and the prize wheel and fun things like that. And we had shared on the air about that leading into the event. I kind of promoted what was going to be going on. And we don't typically do a ton of those events, but this one was really special because 2,500 people came to that event that night, and they had expected 200 people, the bikers. They had expected 200 people to come. And so this is a group of people that not a lot of them probably had ever listened to 91.1 or to Life 88.5. But by the end of the night, what was really cool for me is I had a gentleman come over to me, and he said, What type of station are you? And I had to share with him about what we do. And he's like, Well, he's like, I don't know anything about it. But he's like, You sure have a lot of people that listen because. And then that's when he told me about what their expectations were. And so what was neat is we not only had the opportunity to connect with people that came to the event to do the trunk and treat and to get candy and have fun like that, but we were able to connect with a group of bikers that maybe didn't know anything about Life 88.5. Maybe they didn't know anything about Jesus, but he told me he said, I'm going to check it out because he's like, This is crazy. I didn't expect anything like that. And so at the end of the night, they might not have known a ton about Life 88.5 and what our mission was, but they sure respected what we were able to provide to help their event be successful in serving their community. And so that was really fun to see. And that was something that we didn't necessarily anticipate how deep those connections would go. But God did. And so he put us in that place to connect with a whole lot of people in very special ways that day. One thing I love to thinking eternally, you talked about we'll never know the amount of people this side of heaven that that this these seeds, you know, come to fruition or this this life change that happens. We'll never know the amount. But I think it's also awesome to talk about and say there's other stations out there that just do the bare minimum. A lot of people when they think of promotions, they don't think about the other stuff we're talking about today. They think about just showing up and having a booth outside of a concert and talking about their station. So hopefully this encourages other radio stations to not just be a radio station, be a ministry and ingrain themselves in the community and let this community impact happen. And that's where God can really start to build those relationships. That's inspiring to me because it's not just the people. Hopefully on a peer level, it encourages and inspires other radio stations to raise the bar of what they're doing. Well, Nate, as somebody that has done something similar to this in the past for you, when I look at me here at Life 88.5, the way that I would rank ways that we can connect with people, I would much rather be boots on the ground in a community setting or doing something in a community of any size or anything like that.

And I would put connections at concerts way towards the bottom. Now that's not that there's not connections that happen in Christian concert settings, because it does. I mean, God works in, he works through music all the time like that. But for me, in wanting to see that happen, I, there's just something about getting to meet people outside of a typical setting like that, that opens up maybe more opportunities for meaningful conversations to happen. And that's what's really fun about this Christmas season too, is because we have a chance to connect with a lot of different cities, uh, for like mayor tree lightings and Christmas festivals and things like that. We were just at one on Saturday this week. It was an event that we had tried to be at for about 12 years and had been told no a lot leading into that. And finally, for whatever reason, when I asked this year, they said yes. And so we jumped at the chance to get connected with that. And there were, you know, four or 5,000 people at that event. And it was Really fun to see people that would come by the booth. And again, it's just something about the Christmas season that maybe softens people's hearts a little bit, or they're, they're more willing to ask questions and find out. And so we were able to, to connect with a lot of people at that particular event. And then the person that organized it said to me after we were all done, like, wow, we should have done this a couple of years ago. And so that's the thing, because then you're like, okay, that, that means that it was valuable in their eyes. And so sometimes going into some of those secular settings and just being able to be a stark contrast to what other options they have at those events is really meaningful and powerful. Absolutely. Well, where do you see this going? I mean, you know, you've got your hundred cities six months earlier, you're going to hit 101 tomorrow, right? Yeah. Where do you see this going in the future? You have any unique ideas you're willing to share here? His map is on his whole wall, by the way. So I'd have to, he would have to move to another part of his office to make the map bigger. Okay. So something that happened to me actually this summer while I was on vacation with my family, I felt God actually tell me in that moment, okay, this is something to look at. My family and I had a chance to go to, um, oh, what was the name of the National Park, right? Yeah, we went to uh Zion National Park. I couldn't think of it. Yeah, yeah. Great. That's awesome. I love Utah. Incredible, incredible area. And one of the places we stayed in the middle of the desert in one of these little small towns there. And one of the nights, I just happened to log onto my computer and when you're in a different area, you know, your computer identifies that and you'll get little ads that'll pop up and stuff like that. And I actually had one pop up on my social media and it said, Hey, such and such community center is doing this free swim night on Monday. And I don't know if anybody has been to the Zion area in summertime, but every day we were there, it was like 118, 150. It was, it was hot, man. And so I told my family, okay, when we get back from the park that night, let's, let's go over to this little water park and, and go because it was for free. And, and so we went over there and we go to this event and the kids are swimming at the swimming pool and they had a little lazy river and that was kind of neat. And I'm sitting there and I'm looking at this incredible setting because the, the little mountain plateaus are all around and it's beautiful. And I just feel like God tells me, listen, and I was like, Oh, listen, what does that mean? Like, listen. And so I, I start to, I sit there and I'm listening and I'm like, okay, like what, what are you trying to say here? And I can't figure it out. And then I just feel, I feel like see is what the word was. And I'm like, okay, God, I don't, I don't know what that exactly means. I go back to the little Airbnb that we were staying at that night and in my email, I had an email from a city here in the area on the outskirts that said, hey, we're doing this free swim night. Would you guys be interested in coming to this event? And I was like, and the hair on my arm stood up and it still stands up when I think about it. And I was like, okay, God, I think this is like what you're, what you're kind of telling me here. And so as we look at 2025, one of the new things that we're going to add to our arsenal of ways to connect with people is we're going to work on setting up some swim nights for different communities across the area where we can come in, open it up for people to come and bring their families and swim and have fun. And while they're swimming, we can play life at 88.5 and just let them get introduced and that way. So that's something that's coming down the pipe for us that I'm really excited about for this next year. And we're bringing back this collection that we do in the summertime called Cards for Cops. And basically what that is, is we collect these gift cards throughout the summer and the gift cards are usually for restaurants or gas stations, things like that. And so those gift cards are given to different police departments that we work with throughout the year. And they actually don't know that we do the collection. They have in the last couple of years, so we get a kind of surprise them with this at the end. 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. And we take all of the gift cards that are collected and we divide them up based on the populations and different things like that. And we give them to these police departments so that they can use them as basically like surprise and delight opportunities for people that they interact with. So our listeners give the gift cards at the different events. We collect them. We turn them over to the police and maybe when somebody has a flat tire and they make the call to the police department and they come out to assist them, they're able to say, Okay, you know, look, I know it's a bad day for you. You got a flat tire, but hey, here's a $20 gift card to go get a sandwich, like after you get your tire fixed. Or they can go up to somebody that's literally at a gas station getting ready to get gas and just whip out a $25 gift card to get your, let me get your gas today or let me get your groceries when they go to a grocery store. They just have these surprise and delight opportunities again for them to make connections with the people that they're serving in their communities. And it's just helping to equip them to care for the people that are where they're serving and where they're living in it. And when it happens to people, they're like, They can't believe it. They're like, What? Are you serious? You're going to do this for me? And so we're bringing that back for this coming year. We'll have another round of snow cone events as we continue to push. We've worked now. It'll be year number seven in 2025 for snow cone with a cop. And we will cross probably 36 different law enforcement agencies that we've been able to partner with across the area. Anybody from like the local police departments to the DEA, the just like different groups of like the FBI. We've had them at at several events in the past and things like that. And so it's just neat to continue to expand that outreach to connect with as many people as possible. And so, yeah, we've got some other things that we've got another collection that we're working on for the spring where we're going to be collecting used shoes that will stay here in Kansas City to help an organization equip people that are in need of things like that. So 2025, we're already, we've got a pretty good start to what we have in mind for how we're gonna attack the entire listening area and have a good time with it too. That's awesome. What would you say to people that are listening to this because this will go out to a bunch of people if anyone is interested because I feel like even if they haven't, once you get to experience that one time watching

up when you get to be a blessing, even if you didn't do it, if you were just the conduit that an organization, a ministry, or the Lord used. Like, that is addicting to me. I think to most people, it's like, man, that made someone's day. That was awesome. And it really didn't take much except for me stepping out. So what would you say to encourage anyone out there that wants to make a community impact wherever they live in the country? What would you encourage them with? To do it. To do it. As soon as they feel God telling them to do something, like, the most of those decisions are made within the first seven seconds. So, like, if you feel God telling them to do something, don't wait. Like, actually move and do something. Whether it is being a part of serving, I mean, you might live somewhere else in the country and want to serve in your church, or if he tells you to do something like that, take the opportunity to jump at it. For us here in the Kansas City and the St. Joe area with 91.1, we are always looking for people to be a part of our life support team. People that want to volunteer and actually be boots on the ground and serve at different events like that that we get a chance to do. We're looking as we continue to build that team to help us serve in the 91.1 listening area. My wife and I, when 91.1 went on the air with us in July, we had a chance to go to St. Joe, and so we kind of based out of St. Joe for a week, and we did a welcome week across that area. And we went to 38 different churches and cities across that listening area just to visit with people and to let them know about the change that was going on and that we truly want to help them serve and connect within their communities. And we did events in several of the different communities across that area just to really get the ball rolling and to get people to see that we're trying to do radio differently than other people and that we want to really impact in a unique way. And so, yeah, people that want to come alongside and be a part of the volunteer team, that helps us out huge because that lets us go to areas that maybe we haven't even been able to get to yet. I mean, I've got this big 6 foot by 6 foot map in my office where we chart all of the places that we go. And for 2025, I've got a pretty significant list on the Missouri side and the Kansas side of cities that we have targeted for this next year to try and reach. I think you hit something there that makes sense and to tie it back to Scripture. I might butcher exact wording. James would definitely be able to correct me here, but faith without works is dead or without action is dead. And so if you have this faith, you have this good news, but you're not stepping out, even if you're uncomfortable, you kind of limit yourself or limit what God can do in that situation. So I think taking action, like you said, is the best advice we could give someone. Well, and what's neat too is people that think, oh, I don't know if I'd want to, I'd be comfortable serving as the life support team people. Let me tell you, we've got an incredible group of people that have served with us for several years now. We have a handful of people that have been with us from the very beginning of 2017 when that team began. And that number continues to grow, which helps us reach more and more people. And so if somebody's wanting to maybe take that step and be a volunteer to help, and we've got some incredible volunteers that in a heartbeat would take you under their wing and just love on you and help you and carry out that mission. And so, yeah, if you wanna find out some more about volunteering with Life 88.5, you can go to our website at life885.com. Yeah, and I was gonna say, if you don't live here and you wanna check out the station, you can download the free app. It's free to stream in any streaming service, Apple, Android, whatever you have. Just look up Life 885. I use the app a lot of times when I'm at home and don't have access to a radio right by me. That's a great way to stay connected. But TJ, I just wanna say, man, you always inspired me and I just love your heart. I love your heart for the ministry. I love the heart of this ministry. And I just wanted to kind of champion that and showcase it to our listeners to hopefully encourage others that you can make an impact that's significant, just being one person by stepping out in faith and being the hands and feet of Jesus in your local community. And I think that's something that we all could get better at and we all could take more advantage of and we all could do more. Well, if all of us did exactly that, Nate, and just stepped when God told us to, I think the world would be a much better place, man. We'd be a shining example of like being different than others. And so to do that, go ahead and watch God work through you in a really remarkable and fun way. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree with Nate. I mean, we, I mentioned before we started talking a lot of times I get tapped to talk about the dangers of the media and the difficulties of the media and, you know, how media is shaping our minds for the worse. But you guys really seem to be shaping our minds for the better. And this has been a really helpful and eye-opening and encouraging conversation. So very much appreciate you being here, TJ. Thanks for being on the show, man. Absolutely, guys. Thank you again. Yep. Take care. And we will catch everybody 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. A powerful prayer life does not require hiking a mountain to be able to hear from God. God can meet us right in the middle of our busy lives to help, guide, and speak to us through prayer. I'm Christina Patterson, host of the Teach Us to Pray podcast, providing practical teaching and encouragement on how you can make prayer a natural and consistent part of your everyday life. I promise it won't require hiking a mountain, but you just might develop the faith to move one. Listen and subscribe at lifeaudio.com.