Why the Basics of the Faith Matter: A Discussion with Evangelist and BMX Rider Vic Murphy

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 everyone, welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. I'm James Spencer, and we are joined today by Vic Murphy and also my co-host Nate. And so, Nate, I'm going to let you introduce Vic, and then we'll hear a little bit about his story, so go ahead, man. Yeah, I'm really thrilled to have Vic Murphy, BMX legend, and leader of an awesome ministry that we're going to learn all about today. So welcome, Vic. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. I am honored. Well, Vic, I mean, this is the first time you and I are meeting. We had a little pre-interview time, and obviously, I read up on you before you came on the show, but tell us a little bit about your story. How did your faith journey sort of end up merging with BMX, and how did all that come about? In the beginning... Good place to start. Yeah, well, we all have different, you know, stories and testimony. And my testimony is that, you know, Jesus brought me from death to life, but all of our life stories are so different, and you look and you see, like, why did this happen? And all of us have that as well. Like, we look back on our stories, and everything for me... I was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and I grew up in Alaska until I was 17 years old. And my parents were divorced when I was young, and I always... I hate even mentioning that stuff, but I think it's so important for so many people in the world just to grow up fatherless in some regard, even though my father was still alive. He wasn't there for me every single day. And that was a huge part of just my life and, you know, even BMX. Like, what brought me into BMX? Just the freedom. I always call the, you know, call bicycles, I call them freedom machines because you're a little dude, a little chick, and you get that first bicycle, man, and you're, like, on the road. It's just freedom. And my parents, my dad was married and divorced five times. My mom was married and divorced three times. She's been married four times. And the significance of that is just that desire to have a stable father in your life. And so I didn't have that. And again, growing up in Alaska, just a wild frontier, the last frontier in the United States, especially then, and just loved action sports. I raced motorcycles when I was real young, got into bicycles because you didn't have to put gas in them. And my uncle and I had the very first Burton snowboard dealership in Alaska. Because I saw pretty much the life changer for me was I was, I think I was around 11 years old, and I got strep throat. And so, and I was already, like, into jumping my bike as far as I could and just lived on my bike and snowmobiles, motorcycles, all that. I loved that stuff. But I had strep throat, stayed home from school. My mom brought me to the drugstore to get some medicine. And there is a super BMX magazine on the magazine rack. And I had never seen anything to do with BMX before in my life. And I saw that, and it was just like, oh! Like, it was like finding the Bible in the unreached people group. And I just, it was just a life-changing moment. I brought that thing home, and in the magazines at the time, they would advertise other magazines, which is weird. But just all these different videos, and they were terrible. BMX was just terrible at that time. And, but it was still BMX, and I just loved it. And I started ordering all that stuff, and just really changed my life. And then, quickly after that, there was a guy that moved up there to work in the fish canneries from Seattle, and he was a true punk rocker. So this guy was, you know, Mohawk guy, and punk rock, and this giant skateboard that we have never seen in real life before. And me and my friends were riding our little bikes, and we're just like, whoa, look at this guy. We thought he was the coolest guy in the world. And he was doing all these things where it's like foot planting, and, you know, just the typical skateboard street plant kind of stuff. And we were just going, wow, this is amazing. And so we started riding with him, and doing the same kind of tricks that he was doing. Just foot plants and all that stuff. And that's kind of how my bicycle career started, was because of the influence of this skateboard punk from Seattle. And so, yeah, I did not do well in school. I just had a, I wasn't the worst guy in the world, but if you would have looked at me from the outside, you would have thought so. I mean, just because in that culture, up in Alaska, you know, we're talking the 80s, punk rock, skate slash BMX kid. They just thought I was the devil, you know. And all I wanted to do was ride. And so my 11th grade year of school, I pretty much quit school. And the reason why is because it was sunny outside. It was in the spring, and I was sitting in class. I had my skateboard in my locker, and I'm looking outside going, it is sunny outside. Why in the world am I locked in this prison? And so I just, I went to my locker, got my skateboard, and just skateboarded away. Just saying, I'm never going back. And I don't have the details on this. I need to ask my mom what was going on. But I think my mom, she saw, like, this kid really is never going back. And I would tell her, living in Alaska, I would tell her all the time. I would say, Mom, why do we live here? I would show her pictures of the BMX and skate magazines. And I'm like, see this? Sun, you know. And so I think she conspired. My uncle had moved to San Diego, and she called him and said, hey, we got to keep this kid in school. How about if he can come live with you, but we got to make sure he stays in school. And so that was kind of what they came up with, and I was happy. I mean, straight from Kenai, Alaska to San Diego, California when the skate scene there was just absolutely raging. I mean, almost, it was almost like a movie. Like, rolling into Southern California and just where we landed in East County, San Diego. And you got gold wing trucks and Z-Boys and airborne skateboards and all these guys, just huge skate jams, just absolute paradise. I mean, and there was a drought. So the year I moved to San Diego was a drought. And so there was not a cloud in the sky for six months. You know, I'm just like, yes. Well, and finally, you get to have like 360 days of sun where it's just. Oh, yeah. That had to be a big change as well. And no wind. Like, wind was always the thing that killed me in Alaska. It was like, dude, it would be so. We lived on the, like, right on the ocean and on the peninsula. And it was just windy, man. You'd be like riding your bike down the road just like gale force wind. It was ridiculous. So I was just so, so happy. And it's funny, like, I never missed home literally for one second. I mean, I wasn't like my friends, my family, my childhood home. I was like, dude, never a second I cared. I was just riding nonstop. So anyways, I guess to back up how it led me into ministry and then I'll continue on that, is I was not a Christian. My family was all from Texas. They all moved up there for the oil. So we were Christians because we're Americans, right? And so the only thing, we had gone to church a few times. I mean, you know, when I was young, we went to church a little bit. But it never really impacted me. But the one thing I was always told from my mom or from whoever would tell me, they would say, we're not Mormons. We're not Jehovah's Witness. Like, they would just say, don't listen to them. We're Christian. We're not Mormon. And so I'm like, okay. I listened to that and I had a respect for God. And so this time I moved to San Diego, went back to school, living the dream. No BMX bike. Just skating. I wanted to be a pro skater. I loved skating. I loved the culture of it so much more than BMX because BMX was still kind of a motocross kind of thing. And so because of my buddy, my mohawk Seattle buddy, I just, I loved Thrasher magazine. I loved all that came with skating, the marketing, just everything about it. And I loved street. Like street has always been my thing. And so, so here I am skateboarding, not a Christian by any means.

But very focused. So I I didn't fall into a lot of the, a lot of the drugs, alcohol type stuff. I would do it just for fun, but I wasn't like a lot of my friends just really went down into that rabbit hole. And even, even girls, relationships and stuff. I mean, I would have girls that liked me and they'd be like, hello, and I'd be like, I like the bike. I have no time for you guys. I am riding and skating. Like it is almost bizarre to think about. I remember I would have girlfriends, you know, girls that would like me in Alaska and I had this big ramp in my backyard. And they would call on the phone and you remember when you could just, you know, you had your phone and you'd say, hang on a minute and set the phone down. I would like tell girls like, hold on a second. And then I would be in the backyard for literally an hour and I would forget about them completely. And I would go back and they're like, hello. I'm like, oh my gosh. Like I just, I was single focused on just trying to break something, you know, all the time. Just wanted to ride. And so again, being in, in San Diego, I was just so focused. Um, just as soon as the bell would ring that last period of school, I was riding, uh, just until midnight. And, and I had to ride quite a ways from where I lived to the hotspots and just, um, but I could go into that more, but I just want to, one of the things that happened because, you know, obviously eventually I gave my life to the Lord. And I, the biggest thing that happened, uh, in my life was my grandma. I call her Billy Grandma. And she, she was, even to this day, and I hang out with some of the greatest evangelists that are alive today. I mean, some of, from every camp of theology, I'm hanging out with these guys that are just, that's what they focus on, evangelism. My grandma put these guys to shame. I mean, every person that came in front of that lady's face, uh, she told about Jesus and she was smooth and she was crafty and she used every means possible. And I went to visit her when I was around eight or nine years old. Um, she lived up in Anchorage, so a few hours from where I lived and I went to visit her and I always tell this story about this hitchhiker guy, you know, kids know you're not supposed to pick up hitchhikers, right? Well, there's this dude on the side of the road just like the craziest looking guy. I would say like he had a machete in his backpack, you know, he's like, if you could just come up with a crazy hitchhiker guy, this is the dude. And my grandma, she's got the big old giant Buick and she, uh, she pulls over to pick this guy up. And I was terrified. I'm going, we're all gonna die. And this guy gets in and he's all stinky and shady looking. And she tells me, get in the back seat. I'm watching this thing. She pulls out and she looks over at this dude and she goes, do you know about Jesus? And this guy, just me as a little kid, watched this guy just become terrified. Like he, he just was like, no, no, no, like I gotta get out. I gotta get out. He just 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. 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And I'm like eight or nine and I'm like, I was scared. I'm like, I have a heart condition. And my grandma's telling me like, you're cursed. And so she, she just drove the law into me. Like, it's like, I got no hope. I'm dying. I'm nine. God hates me. And then she goes, but I got good news and his name is Jesus. And uh, she had this big painting in her, in her living room of Jesus, the thief on the cross painting, you know, and Jesus is all bloody and the thieves are hanging next to him. And I would look at that and be like, what kind of sicko puts that painting in the living room? And uh, she points to that and says, you know, Jesus, he took the punishment you deserve. He conquered death. He'll forgive you. He'll make your heart clean and white as snow and whatever. She tried to preach the gospel to me. And the funny thing is I just thought just like a lot of religious people think that it was just like soap. Like, okay, whoo, that was a close call. You know, I went to my confession, I gave my book and then I'm good. That's what I thought because she used that term, make my heart white as snow as she was leading me through a sinner's prayer kind of thing. And so in my little brain, I thought like snow, you know, everything's muddy and dirty. The snow comes, you wake up in the morning, everything's white and beautiful. And so I thought like a lot of religious people think you go, you confess, you ask forgiveness, he cleans you, and then you're back out to get dirty again and then come back. And so that's what kind of my only context of what Christianity was. And that's how I used it. You know, in any time I would use it, would use the concept of a God. I would use it when I had done something so bad I felt dirty. And so I would just go, God, forgive me. Make my heart white as snow. Amen. I'm good. I'm good. Go to bed. So, but just the seed that my grandma planted in my life, and really she, she did sit me down. She made it clear. Um, she made it like we have, we're in a bad situation, but Jesus can correct that. But I didn't have a good understanding, but that was a big seed. And then, um, a couple other seeds as I moved to San Diego, there was, uh, you guys may know some skateboarders named Primo and Diane. And they were, um, they were like these flatland skateboarders. I had seen on TV even when I was up in Alaska. They were pretty famous. And I went to their house. They had a bunch of ramps at their house and they were, they were believers. And so they had on their ramps, these mini ramps. It's like, Jesus loves you and the cross is everywhere. And they had the little tracks where it's like the half pipe and you know, the middle's gone. And you'd like, if you drop in, you're going straight to hell. But then, but then, you know, the cross goes up where you can make it to the other side. They had all that. And I was tripping. I'm going, wow, these people, I liked it because I was punk rock kind of guy. So anything that was like the anti-establishment, I'm like, this is cool. They're standing up for what they believe. It's not my thing, but that's cool for them. And then even, uh, even going to rock concerts and heavy metal shows and the people that have the signs like, you know, if you go in here, you're going to hell kind of stuff. I like those guys. I'll be like, these guys are crazy standing out in front of a Slayer concert with a sign like that. I'm like, that's pretty bold. So I always appreciated the stuff. I was just like, it's not for me. And um, so that puts, that's my, that's where I was at. Yeah. And so what happened with my whole skateboard thing was I'm probably three or four months into San Diego, maybe a little bit more skating, having a great time. And I'm at a skate jam on a Tuesday night. Everybody's skating everywhere. There's these group of BMXers. And so I still love BMX, but I was, I was talking to these guys and I'm riding their bikes doing some tricks. And they would always look at me like, what

And something in my brain just clicked, like, click, like, what am I doing? Like I had grown up dreaming about being a pro BMX rider. It was just like the movie Rad, like I'm like this little guy, like I'm going to be Rad, you know, and I'm going to be in San Diego. I'm going to be in California. And I wasn't. And then now here I am, but I was on a skateboard. And so I immediately got a BMX bike. And within a few months, they announced the very first BMX street contest for pros that was ever held. And it was directly across the street from that parking lot that I was standing in when they said that was. That's awesome. And so I just started training for that thing. And it was all street. And I was using all these tricks that I'd picked up from the skateboard guy when I was a kid. And I got first place in the expert class. And, I mean, just easily got first place in the expert class. And that night they have this big party afterwards. And it was comical. Like, I wish we had videos of this stuff. It was so funny because these guys at the time, the guys that were on Rad, like RL Osborn and some of these guys, they were like kingpins. RL rolls up. I'm like walking up this driveway. And RL rolls up in his Porsche, you know, like, whoa, how cool, with his sunglasses. Just ridiculous. Rolls his window down. Hey, kid, do you want to be sponsored? You know, it was just like that. And I'm like, uh, yeah. And so I started getting sponsored by all these guys that I looked up to. And so it was just like Vision Streetwear and Airwalk and Hammer was like the pad company and all this stuff. So it was just like dream come true kind of stuff for me. In five months, I was in, you know, top five pro contests, magazines, all that stuff just started happening. And I was just living the dream. And I guess there's not much more to it than that, because from that point forward for every athlete, all you can do from that point forward is just perform. Like that's all you. Once you reach a level where you're known, you're in the top 10, you're getting magazine coverage, you're making friends with the magazine guys, the video guys, then it's just maintain. And there's nothing really more. How much glory can I heap upon myself? You can try and make money, but you're just there. So you've already reached it. And so, you know, I was going fine. I was making really good money. I worked construction and I traveled working construction. And so I operated heavy equipment and made, I was A-list union operator at 19 and just killed it. Just made, I would just have stacks of checks on my dresser, nothing to spend them on. And I used that money to start a company called Dirt Bros. And our company was just anti-establishment, anti-BMX, tried to be more like a skateboard company. And that helped our, it definitely helped our street cred and our grassroots movement stuff, even to this day, like the kind of like a cult brand. And so I just used the money to do that. And then just making money, maintaining, riding, partying, doing all our things. And what would happen, and everybody knows this, it's been in that action sports culture especially, but it's in every culture. You're partying, you're sitting around at night, you know, people are, you know, drinking and doing different drugs and things. And you start talking about religion and philosophy and who's right, who's wrong, what, you know, all these different things. I came from a monkey and now I shaved and I'm a man. All these, just, it's, I always say it's like an Oprah show. It's like a bunch of fools talking about stuff they don't even know what they're talking about. And drunken fools at that. But I was always annoyed by it because I knew we were fools. I knew we didn't know. And so I was, I was 22 years old. I'm up in Coos Bay, Oregon, and I'm working. I would work like three, four months away from home and then come back and ride and travel and then go back on the jobs. And we're up in Coos Bay. I'm in a grocery store and there's a Christian book with a dragon on the cover with fire coming out its mouth. And it was about the last days. And I saw this book and was like, that book looks cool. Like that's what caught my attention, this dragon. I can look like a tattoo. I'm like, that's a sweet book. So my brilliant idea was to get the book, read it about Jesus. And then when I went back home, I'd be able to argue better with my buddies. That's my, I highly suggest that strategy to everyone. So I get this book. I come back to where I was staying. It was like an Airbnb kind of place. I begin to read it within two pages. I mean, I believe, I've thought about this story so many times. Within two pages, I was born again. I started reading. This guy knew exactly what he was doing. And he busted through the gospel. He's like, God made us. We've rejected, rebelled and fallen from grace from his relationship with him. We are sinful to their death. But Jesus came, conquered death for us, will give us life if we follow him, you know. Just whatever, however he wrote it. I immediately was going, this is it. And it brought me right back to eight years old. Like, I felt like I was eight years old sitting there listening to my grandma try and share the gospel with me. And there was a Bible, a Gideons had left the Bible in this place I was staying. And so I got this Bible and I got, I started reading and I'm reading. I wanted to read what Jesus himself said. Because I had spent my life listening to what everybody said about church and religions and Jesus. But I'm like, I'm going to go to these words in red and see what Jesus said. And so I'm reading. And just the thing that changed me so radically was that, like, and you would think that people would catch this. And this is what I preach all around the world. Is that Jesus said, when you pray, pray like this, heavenly Father. And not having a father that was there for me every day of my life. When Jesus said heavenly Father, I mean, it stirred in me like nothing else. And I just realized, like, God is our Father. He is there for us. He has been there for me. I just rejected it. And I went outside. This all happened in one night. I went outside and I prayed the first real prayer I'd ever prayed. I didn't know how to pray. I just cried out to the Lord in a field, you know, I want you to be my father. Forgive me. I'm going to live for you. And that's where my whole life changed. In John 3, Jesus said, you must be born again. And he basically said, you cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are. And that's how it felt for me. I always thought about that seeing the kingdom of God. I always thought it was like, oh, when I die, I get to see the kingdom. But for this is my experience with being born again. I woke up and literally the world was different. Like I literally saw it as, wow, God made this. He is the king of it. He is in control of it and he rules. And I just, it changed my whole worldview. And it was just a wild time. I mean, I went back to my, to San Diego to these, you know, argument, these little late night party arguments, religious debates. And I'm like, you guys are all going to hell. You need Jesus. It was the worst evangelistic strategy of all time. That's what I, yeah, I was just like, and I wasn't necessarily like living in much differently. I just knew now Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. And I'm telling you, idiots, that's the truth. And then surprisingly, it worked. Like a lot of my friends, they're still walking with the Lord. That's awesome. You know, some did it. But then I went through about 10 years of kind of career change and still riding, but kind of got out of it a little bit, but just kind of in there a little, but started doing, started doing automotive stuff, body and paint and street rod cars and customizing cars, which is a whole nother sport, really. But really got deep into that. And then, and this is another part of just learning, is I learned what it is to be a Christian, to be born again, but still have that one foot in the world. Just not surrendering your life and your Christ for what he wants. And so I was living that kind of life. I'm, I'm doing what I want to do. Definitely born again, staying away from a lot of stuff, learning, being sanctified, always. I love sermons. I mean, every night, even now I go to bed, listen to the sermon. Even then I love reading. I was growing in knowledge, but I hadn't surrendered my life completely. I mean, never do, but I

I was hanging onto a lot and uh... And so, I went through about 10 years of that. We grew our company pretty, pretty well. Like, you know, I, I, it started to really grow again, um, in my, my late twenties, and we started, you know, I really focused on it more, even though I, I was doing cars and things, I started growing this bike company again. And then, um... I was, I think I was 31, 32 years old, and we were having a bunch of pro riders. We're at our house. We're jumping, have a bunch of ramps and stuff in our backyard, and it was so out of character for me. And we had a, like a punk kid Bible study at our house. So all these kids that hated going to church, but they weren't Christian kids, we would have a Wednesday night study. So they would come over. It was like skate ministry type stuff. And these kids are like destroying the house, and we try and call them down and tell them about Jesus. And um, out of character though, Saturday night, everyone's over there, and I'm like, I'm, I'm going to church. I'm, I'm going to church. Just no reason that I should, um, but I'm like, I don't know, I don't want to ride a knob. I'm just going to go check out church. I go to church. The pastor's there. Um, it was in San Diego, Mike McIntosh. I don't know if you ever heard of Mike McIntosh, but fantastic. He's part of the Calvary Chapel movement. Um, he was basically Greg Glory's best buddy. And so he had a mega church in San Diego and just, he should have been an evangelist. Like he was a pastor, but he shouldn't have been. He should have been an evangelist. He was one of the best I've ever seen. And he's up there preaching, and it was one of those nights where it's right at you. And he, he's saying like, you are living your life for yourself. You're making all these plans for yourself. You're not asking the Lord what he wants. You're just figuring out what you want. And at the time I was coming up with this, this video thing where we were going to fly to the, all the seven wonders of the world and like ride our bike in front of it and make a video. It was a stupid idea, but that's what we were thinking about. Like, let's get sponsored for this and it could have been cool. But now I've pretty much been there because of Jesus, not because of bikes. But um... But he's going, you're making plans. You're not asking the Lord. You've been living your life. You're a Christian. And he's like, when are you going to surrender? And I'm just like, is he talking to me? We'll have this, uh, school of evangelism that I'd always wanted to go to. And a lot of my friends had went through it. And um... And it was a five-month thing. And then one month, uh, you, you go on a mission field, on the mission field. And so... The uh... After that service, I went straight out to the, you know, the front and I signed my name up. It was Monday morning. I'm showing up. And so I had no idea what I'm doing. And at the time, we were head, neck deep in BMX, just full bore. My hair's just sticking up. My romper dirty. Like we're playing in the park for sure. We're living in the park. I show up to this like Bible class thing, and I'm sitting there like, oh, it's like 7 in the morning. I'm like... And they go around the, they go around the circle asking like why you're here. And these people have these amazing answers, you know, like, the Lord has brought me here to reach the little people, all this stuff. And they come to me, and I'm like, I have no idea why I'm here. I'm like, but I don't wake up till noon anyway, so here I am. I had the free time in the morning. And they're just like, what in the world? But uh, it was just accelerated sanctification. I mean, just God started ripping my heart out, like almost immediately. And um... And so during that time, I mean, we got to the end of that. I met my wife in that school, which people always make fun of that. I'm like, meet your wife at a school of evangelism. Trust me, guys. If you're listening today, trust me. That's where you wanna find them, you know? Uh, so I, I met her there, and that's a whole nother story. That was so great, just because, just we did not have intentions to be married. And God just brought us together as partners, and she is my greatest partner. I mean, just It's exactly how I would have imagined it knowing her and what she desired to do in life. She was like, I desire to support my husband in evangelism. And she's done it for 21 years. That's awesome. And yeah, it's just crazy that that's how we met. But that was a life turn, because... Because then through that school, I literally said, God, I'm gonna say yes to you, and I will say no to everything else. And it was just wild to watch it. And so I got a call one day. My, my pastor that I just, I knew him, and he would always try to rope me into doing stuff at church. And I'm like, I'm gonna do a little bit, but never committed. He asked me if I wanted to do some type of teaching thing on a, on a Saturday night, like a, a service type situation. Just, we were in downtown San Diego, real rough crowd. And I go, yeah, I would do that. And the dude just like straight handed me the keys. I was like, Oh, good. Good luck. And so here, me and my little like college Orange County, you know, wife got sent right into the belly of the beast with all these homeless dudes and just wild street people and just the, the best time, but the wildest time. And um, just for, for years, that's what we did. And, It was a training for evangelism because I mean, guys would be flipping me off as I'm preaching. Uh, one guy one time was strangling his girlfriend, like in the church while I'm preaching. Um, just people would be yelling at us like they were, you know, rich people. And I'm like, rich people, I don't know what you're talking about. But just, it was just a crazy scene and it really prepared me for what we've been doing the last 20 years. Like just wild stuff happening and I don't even notice it anymore. I'm like, whatever. Um, but we did that. And then I got a, a call from, I don't know if you guys have any questions. I'm just rolling through this stuff. Well, dude, no, I mean, I, I think I have a couple, but I wanna, I want you to finish your story. Um, but I do have a couple I want to circle back to, so yeah, go for it. Just keep going. I'm just, I'm just, I'm trying to get to my, my turning points. So we got some turning points. We got, I got saved, you know, I kind of went to the school of evangelism and really got saved again. And then I'm teaching, and I'm doing, we're, I was busy. I mean, I, in one year, I had preached 120 different times, different messages. Like, so I'm doing a, a foster care program, new alternatives on Sunday afternoons. I'm doing a homeless dinner on Wednesday nights. I was doing a Saturday night service and a Sunday morning church plant down on Mission Bay. And I'm just grinding. No idea, just going through the Bible verse by verse, Calvary Chapel style. It was a Calvary Chapel thing and that was the only thing they care about. It's funny looking back now. It's like, they didn't ask me about theology or anything. It's just, are you going verse by verse? I'm like, yes, we got that. I'm making a topical message out of every verse. OK, but I'm going through it and just going through books and learning a lot, like just personally. But nobody even really knew I was a bike rider. Like at the church, they're just like Pastor Vic. They didn't know I was a bike rider, really. Until what, you know, years went by and somebody asked me to do some tricks for the kids for a Halloween, you know, outreach thing. And I brought my bike and was doing some tricks. And they're like, you ride BMX? Like, so that was cool because I had lost, I was riding bikes at the time. They just didn't know it. I was just committed to serving the church and wasn't really mixing the two. Right. But my friend Ivan Van Vuren, I don't know if you guys ever saw that TV show XL TV. Yeah, I do, yeah. And so he called me and he said, hey, we're gonna do this event in a NASCAR up in Fontana, California. And he said, would you come up, bring your bikes and share the gospel? And so, and that, that you guys, I've seen you guys that video and it was actually scenes, you know, there's clips from that event. And so I shared the gospel and, and the funny thing about that story, and it was a life-changing day, is my wife and I, we loaded up the truck. I loaded up the ramps and the PA, all the stuff. We

And that's my favorite thing about the Calvary Chapel movement, is they really emphasize the Word of God. They're always, it's the Word of God. They may believe this or that, that you could disagree with, but they definitely are like the Word of God. And so everyone's getting the Bible, they're praying. I'm going, that was, that was cool, but I'm still going, let's get out of here. And then this guy comes up to me and he's like, hey, this lady wants to talk to you. And I look over and the lady's crying. And I had been teaching and preaching long enough in various places to know, like, I can get pretty wild, and I can hurt people's feelings, and they may not like me. And I saw this lady, I'm like, oh no, what did I say to her? What is this lady want? And so I go, yeah, I can talk to her. She comes over and she's crying. She goes, I want to thank you so much. She's like, my son raised his hand when you, when you did the altar call thing. And where I stand on the raise your hand altar call is God is the God who saves. That prayer doesn't save you. Raising your hand doesn't save you. But what I always offer is, if this is you, the only thing I can ask for an act of faith right now is you say, yes, Jesus, raise your hand, and I'll pray for you. And I just pray for them, you know, and that's all I can do. And she goes, he raised his hand. And I, and I thought, well, that's cool. And the kid was, I think, I think he was eight years old. He was definitely eight or nine, but I think he was eight. And I'm like, okay, that's cool, but that happens all the time. And I go, do you guys go to church? And she goes, yeah, we go to church every week. Like we're always at church. And she goes, he doesn't ever listen. He doesn't care at all. And she goes, when you guys are doing your bikes and your skateboards, we have motorcycles there. She goes, he loved it. And then when you were sharing the message, there was these older kids cussing and making noise behind him. He turned around and said, can you guys please be quiet as I'm sharing? And she's telling me this. Wow. Yeah. And then, yeah. And then when, when you said, if this is you, if you want to follow Christ, receive this gift that God has given us, raise your hand. He raised his hand. And she says, and he was crying as he raised his hand. And I'm sitting there, Mr. Complainer guy. And I'm like, all right. Okay. I'm humbled. I'm humbled now. And we got packed up, my wife and I, and we started back home. And I realized what the day actually looked like, you know, outside my grumbling, what God is doing in that situation and what he was showing us. And, and what I came away with was, we're always trying to get people into the church and they're, all the people are out of the church that need to hear the gospel, which seems so obvious. I've been on church staffs now for 15 of the last 20 years. So I know what's happening. We're sitting there coming up with strategies to get people to come in when what we need is the strategy to go out and then bring them in. And so that's what I kind of came away with. I go, man, There's 32 NASCAR events in the country every year. And these, these kinds of people that have never heard the gospel, even in the South, like they don't even know what the Bible is. And I said, we could just pack up and we could go out and share the gospel at these events. And we don't have to make a flyer or anything. We just show up and there they are. And, and so I went back, we talked through that, went back to my pastor and I just, I told him, I'm like, something's brewing. Uh, we will probably be making some kind of move on this. I don't know when, I don't know how, but that's, that's kind of what I, what I'm feeling that we need to do. And that was the big term for us is God did it. Watch what you ask for. Um, and it was funny too, because, and that is my background is, is, was Calvary Chapel and I'm ordained through Calvary Chapel. And, you know, Chuck Smith, his big saying was always where God guides, God provides. And, um, I don't necessarily agree with all that, but I totally agree with the concept, but it is good to have some type of plan, but we just, we rolled on that and I'm thankful we did because we just went. We did not have a fundraising strategy. We did not have a, we just said, we're going to go. And we got our big trailer. We got our ramps and we let it rip. And, uh, and it was a big, a big faith walk for us, you know, step out in faith. But, um, God was just, just did the most incredible thing. So that's my story all the way up to, I feel like we're in that next phase. Like we've just been living it. We've been to 50 countries and a lot of those countries we've visited four or five times. And we've been all around the United States. Um, probably, I would say probably 45 of the different states we've hit with some kind of evangelism. Yeah. Um, and so that's, that's a summary. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. That's, it's an awesome story. I will say I, I'm going to go all the way back. Kind of the beginning where you started. You, you called the bikes freedom machines. And so one of the things, uh, so I used to, I was an academic Dean and I oversaw an aviation department. They did aviation flight and maintenance training. And one of the things they told me was that they were having trouble finding kids who understood when they came in exactly how to use tools. 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. 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And so, you know, there's something about it, you know, when I think back on my childhood and I think about what I used to do on my bike, you know, I'd be gone all day and nobody'd know where I was. There was no cell phone. There was no nothing. You just show up for dinner and it's like, go, good, you're still alive. That's fantastic. You know, they really were freedom machines. And I'm wondering as you go around and sort of see these folks who are involved in action sports and, or even just interested in action sports, how does that play in? Are you seeing things change, right, over the years that you've done this, that kids are just less interested in the action sports and they're more interested in the action sports? Like how is, how is that culture shift sort of impacted the way people are interacting with BMX, with skateboarding, with some of those other action sports? Well, that's a great thing to think about because it's, it's probably a lot of different opinions on that. But definitely the BMX side, the sport of BMX is, is very small and it's not necessarily growing. It's almost probably shrinking just because it was, it's being replaced with so many other sports. So scooters, as much as we resisted the scooter movement, it's just taking over. And these like adults, they love scooters. And that took a big chunk out of skateboarding and BMX. And then what really was the nail in the coffin for BMX growing was the mountain bike movement. And so now most kids, even my own son, son, what are you doing? You've lost him. Yeah. He's riding, you know, he likes this little hardtail mountain bike that, you know, the little hardtails. And he likes riding that and his friends all come over with these hardtail mountain bikes. I'm like, oh, it's a disgrace to the family name. But I think, um, in general, these things have now become cultures. Whereas, you know, like the basketball culture, you can put on your Kobe jersey and your baggy shorts and your Jordans and walk around and you're a basketball kid. And I think action sports, just like surfing was really the model for that. It's become, you don't really have to be an all in, give life and blood for it. You can kind of just be part of the culture and enjoy it.

It's just kind of like, it's kind of in our fabric now that you do those things and you're a basketball guy or BMX. And so I don't know if that answers any questions, but it's interesting. It's interesting to see it. I think it's a shame the Freedom Machine thing is gone from what I see because my kids, they're not even allowed to leave the yard. I mean, I think that's how most parents are nowadays. We're so much more tethered now. And I guess my, some of my follow-up question to that is, if you're seeing that, and I tend to agree. I mean, that's sort of what I see in a lot of different domains, right? And even the people we've talked to on the show, like they sort of articulate this too. I think the scary part is, you know, a guy who developed the talent that you developed, the deep expertise in BMX and being able to go out and really showcase those skills in order to share the gospel. We're losing that too. Right? Because people aren't developing that skill set. And so nobody's going to show up to watch somebody mediocre ride a scooter. Right? Like, like it's just not that compelling. Right. But, you know, that deep expertise, that sort of, that sort of, you know, all in on one thing. I think is compelling for a number of different reasons. And then when people share the gospel alongside that, you're like, Oh, it almost offers a picture of, in my mind, what it looks like to be all in on the gospel, right? That expertise in the one domain is sort of a picture of what it looks like to be an expert Christian, if you know what I'm saying. And so do you see that sort of interplay, the same sort of malaise or mixed interest that you see in action sports? Are you seeing that as a difficulty in the evangelism and discipleship space too? Well, one thing I always try and say is that we are missionaries, and we operate as missionaries, basically. I mean, I don't consider myself a missionary. I'm an evangelist. And it took me a long time to even understand what that is, but we operate as missionaries. Like we're supported, you know, by the church to go out and share the gospel. But the church isn't the, doesn't hold the sole rights to that because we see ourselves as, especially our ministry, as coming out of the BMX community to the world to share the gospel. So where a lot of action sports ministries are actually going, they are, they're in skateboarding, they're in BMX. They're going into those cultures to share the gospel. Whereas we're different in that we're a proclamation evangelism ministry. So I'm not trying to focus on action sports. I'm using action sports for, for just the normal kid and they never see it. The normal person who's just, whoa, I want to see this show. And so we share the gospel. So that's another piece to it that's different. Like, cause there's a lot of great ministries that are focusing on the action sports community and we are not doing that. We are, we're using it as a tool for the gospel. So, so there is, so I think it's easier in that regard as far as, um, yeah, I think it's still interesting to the common person that has no ties to action sports. Right. But on the flip side for us, trying to get BMX guys to serve alongside of us and to actually go out, like you're saying, and do the work, they're good enough at riding to put on a show, but also serious enough about the gospel to make it effective. It's, it's very difficult. Especially with BMX, it's such a small community of people already to find a guy that can actually ride good and is a Christian. It's It's a much smaller niche than like skateboarding for sure. Absolutely. And then to find guys that have committed their life to it to have the freedom to go, it's, it's, we're talking, it's a handful and we, we're all friends. It's a handful. You know them all. Yeah. I mean, we're using them all. And sometimes we have so many events that we cannot find enough guys to do them. And we're talking great adventures, great gospel opportunity, but just not enough people to do it. And Jesus said, you know, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And that's the truth for us. Yeah. There's plenty of stuff to do. It is hard for us to find guys to do it. So it's just a challenge. Right. You do have a few other pros that are currently riding like Morgan Wade and You're talking about a guy that is going to be doing the Olympics. Yeah. Dustin Oram. Yep. Yeah. Um, so that's awesome that he gets that platform to be able to, you know, be a light to the other writers at that level. That's awesome. Yeah. He's been, he's been pouring into that. He pours into the BMX community and he has been for 15 years. Um, he's even got awards from vans. You know, they give those big checks away at the Huntington pro. Um, they've given Dustin one of those things just for being a sweet dude. That's you talk about a ministry, a guy going to serve people in Jesus' name. I mean, he is, you know, that dude is living for Jesus. He's like, praise the Lord, man. Praise the Lord. Yeah. God is good. I mean, nonstop. And van shoes hands him an award just for serving. That's pretty, a pretty awesome testimony to be in a life in the world. Yeah. I didn't know about that. I have seen those checks and seen those awards. We actually had Josh Harmony on not too long ago and he's a great friend of mine, um, works for vans now, but I love that. That's so cool to hear that. Um, I didn't know that they did an award like that. That's really cool. Yeah. So. Yeah, it's interesting. So the cultures of, of action sports, that's a long, crazy topic right there. It's a people group. Yeah. Well, let me ask this, because, I mean, you started the NASCAR events, you know, obviously you're going around the, the countries, right? You're not necessarily going to a NASCAR event. Yeah. Right. Um, but what's the response to the gospel like, man? I mean, I think a lot of us, you know, we're rooted in America. Um, we're rooted in the United States. We kind of understand where we sit or we think we understand where we sit. Um, and, uh, but I've had a few people on the show, like this one dude who did the movie, um, multiplied. Um, I don't know whether you're familiar with it, but it's, it's coming out pretty soon. It's, it was a really cool story, but he talked about his experience in like, let's say Africa or South America. And that was completely different than what he generally sees in the States. Um, do you have that same sort of response where there's just a whole different vibe depending on what country you go to and the response to the gospel is completely different? Yes. Um, again, it's a, that is just such a topic, right? I mean, we could, we could write a book just today on it, on the different cultures and the way they receive truth and the way in their context, what it is. And it's funny because I'm just a BMX dude. I'm just a BMX kid that grew up. I got saved. I do put a lot of time into studying and reading and I love theology in the sense of, uh, but in different ways. So as an evangelist, if you're familiar with Luis Palau, the, um, he, I would consider him a mentor and I've done, you know, I'm pushing 50 festivals with just the Palau association and really good friends with them. And the thing I think Luis did a great job of what Paul said. I preach Christ and him crucified. And it is so easy for us to get caught up in eschatology debates, which I love in all these every debate there is any ology, there's going to be a debate. Right, right. Literally spin the rest of your life on it. Yeah. I heard a story about Kobe Bryant and there was a basketball camp. This guy who's a basketball trainer, he heard about Kobe Bryant waking up at three in the morning so he could get two extra workouts in before everyone else. So he goes down to the gym at four o'clock in the morning and there's Kobe Bryant working out at this conference. Yeah. And, um, he said he watched it and he was like, oh man, I'm going to get all these great tips on how to, you know, do this awesome training. I'm going to bring it back to my kids, my students. And it's gonna be awesome. And he's watching Kobe Bryant work out. And he said, Kobe is doing the same drills as he's teaching eight year olds. Like he's doing the same exact moves. And then he's just going, this is a boring workout. This is, I already do this with my eight year old kids and this is the best basketball player in the world. Yeah. But that afternoon he finds Kobe and he goes, what's up with your, this morning I saw you, you're doing this, this nothing. And he goes, he goes, I'm going to tell you one thing. Never get bored with the basics. And, and I heard that story and I, I, I kind of, I went, that is exactly myAlmost like a pet peeve for so many missionaries, for so many ministries, for so much that I, for so much gospel proclamation. That's just, it's not even the gospel. It's built on emotionalism, like what you need, all the hurts and

And this gospel, that's, I just believe it needs to be dwindled down to Christ crucified. We're separated from God. God has made a way through the peacemaker, Jesus Christ. Look to him and be saved. And just every which way that you can come at that message to make it the most refined that you could possibly make it to deliver it so it's not tainted by any other thing. And I think that's, so for me, I think in every culture, you can share this simple message that God made everything, the world and everything in it, and he made man, and man rebelled against him and brought spiritual death. But in his justice and mercy and love and grace, he sent Jesus to take the punishment that we deserve, to live a perfect life for us, to conquer death and will give us life as a gift if you repent and receive it by faith. The repent part is a tricky one. You know, it gets tricky, but it's that whole change of mind, like go, oh, just like I did. I'm walking this way, and now I'm following Jesus. And it's a gift. You receive it. And so there it is. And then we sit, and then what happens is you're in ministry for a few years, and you start going, you know, that's kind of boring. Let's start adding some stuff to that. Let's debate last days. Let's debate, like, was it God or was it me? Let's debate. I mean, you just go on and on and on. And so I think around the world, we got to keep it basic, and we got to stay in love with the basics. And I see, I also see a lot of missionaries. I was a missions pastor for a while and dealing with, you know, relationships with different missionaries, and I'm friends with a lot of them. And when they get away from those basics and start focusing on cultural issues in the country they're in, they get burnt out. You're not going to change these people, but you can keep delivering the same message to them. God loves you. He died for you. He'll give you life. Absolutely. I would say, man, I mean, it's really encouraging to hear you say it, and it comes up a lot when we're having these conversations because I think there's something about just doing the little things, like those basic little things that if we just do them, it's like, you know, as Denzel Washington, I think in The Titans movie. I can't remember the name of that one. Remember the Titans. Yeah, I remember The Titans. And he says, you know, I run the veer. It's like Novocaine. You just keep doing it, and eventually it'll work, right? And I think that's sort of our approach. It's if we just keep doing these little things, and I've found even after 12 years of theological education and, you know, like getting involved in the ologies and all the geek stuff and doing all the debates, more and more what I keep coming back to is this is about obedience. This is about discipleship. This is about surrender. And almost any topic we want to address, it has to come back to those as the solutions. Like this is what we're doing. You know, so within the church, it comes back to that. On the evangelistic front, it does. It comes back to Christ crucified, like that simple, basic gospel message. Is there more to explore? Sure. But it has to almost grow out of those simple, basic ideas. And when it gets decoupled from those, we're off in the ether, and we have no idea how to get back. Like that's kind of how it feels. We just sort of lose ourselves in the weeds, and we don't notice that we're disconnected. I've been totally... I really appreciate that. Yeah, I've been really stretched the last year or so working with James and his team just because I relate to you, Vic. Like doing skate ministry, like I couldn't get hung up on the heavy, like deep, big stuff. I was just trying to keep the kids' attention for 15, 20 minutes at a public skate park. And, you know, just getting them to understand a lot of them don't have a dad, you know, that's around like you were mentioning. I don't know, James and I have talked about that a bunch in skate ministry. It felt like a lot of kids just, you know, come from broken homes or didn't have both of their parents around all the time. So just getting them to understand that there's a God that loves them, that there's a better example of a heavenly father. How to just camp on those basic things for 20 years. And so now, like I just did a Bible study at my church, and I have to always kind of say that, like I come from, you know, doing skate ministry. So we're going to talk about the basics. I mean, that's kind of where you always have to stay. So I totally relate to that 100%. Yeah. Well, Vic, oh, go ahead. Sorry. No, go ahead. That's... I was just going to say, I mean, I know we're coming up on time here. It's been about an hour. And so I don't want to keep you. But I also don't want to kick you out. So it's been awesome to talk to you. But where can folks find what you're doing? Like where can we find, where can we send people to find more information about what you're doing around the world and even in the U.S.? You know, website actionsportsoutreach.com. And then we go under the name Stunt Dudes. So we are dudes who do stunts. So if you go to Instagram and Facebook, it's the Stunt Dudes. And yeah, you know, personal stuff, Vic Murphy on Instagram. If you're listening to this out there, folks, if your church is looking to do something different in your community that's going to, like Vic was talking about, that's going to attract, you know, a kid that maybe wouldn't want to come to church. If you have a nephew or a grandson or if you're hearing this, like, look into this because I promise it makes a huge impact in the community. I've seen it firsthand. I've seen it all over the country and outside of the country with skateboarding and BMX. So if you're interested in this, talk to your pastor, talk to someone. I would highly recommend bringing out the Stunt Dudes. Yeah. And then, you know, just talking even about that, one thing I would encourage people as well is partnerships are key. It's just, and saying that from every aspect of life, but the church doesn't do the greatest job of partnerships all the time. And just even personally, we don't do a great job of partnering with people. And our organization only runs from partnerships with other organizations. And I mean, we are not the best organizers, so we partner with people who are. But, you know, when it comes to the church, that's who we're partnering with. It's the churches just to reach people with the gospel and different people, the people that they can't, or maybe the people they won't. And that's just another huge powerful thing that I've learned in this type of ministry is just, if you're not an evangelist, invite one in. And they will do that for you. And that's how we work together. You know, and if we're any of the pieces of the body that you aren't, there's always someone who is. And so that's just, man, I can't emphasize how important and what a learning thing it's been for me for the last 20 years. Just how crucial partnerships are in everything we do. Absolutely. Very cool, man. Well, like I said, we're kind of up on time. I don't want to keep you, but really appreciate you being here. It's been awesome to hear your story and just talk with you about, you know, kind of what's going on around the world. And I think, you know, what I'm taking away from it is just, number one, focus on the basics. Number two, you know, get to that point where you're surrendering your life to Jesus. Don't be half in and half out because God will do great things with us if we're just all in with him. Like, it's sort of amazing. Every time I've decided to just trust God with everything I am and have, he's done way better with it than I have. And so, yeah, awesome story, bro. Any last words you want to have before we close it out? No, I covered it. I can talk. Basically, yeah, just, yeah, let's go. I mean, I just would encourage anybody that's listening. The harvest is definitely ripe there. We, even in the States, we're proclaiming the truth and all we're hearing is a bunch of lies. And it's lies from the pit of hell, lies from the devil himself. This world needs Jesus. And we have him, and let's share him. And let's not stop. So that's my encouragement. Let's go. This is not the time to retreat. This is the time to get going. It's go time out there, and it's a great time. Let's go. That's great. Thank you, Tom. Appreciate it. Well, folks, you can find, we'll put the links to everything that Vic shared in the show notes. And I just really appreciate him being here. And we will catch everybody on the next episode of Thinking Christian. Take care. 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. Many of us feel hurried. Did you know that being in a hurry is costing us more than