About This Episode - 

In this episode, IMPACT National Director Warren Mainard introduces Jon Beazley, the new IMPACT Players podcast host as they discuss what it looks like to trust God in transition, what it means to lament, and the future of IMPACT as the movMENt grows across the country.

Jon Beazley is the owner of Mind and Body and the new host of the IMPACT Players Podcast and the host of the Mind and Body Podcast! Jon has served as a church planter and pastor and now an entrepreneur and small business owner.

To find out more about IMPACT Players, visit www.impactplayers.org.

Listen: Apple | Spotify | Google 

Show Notes:

• Center Church by Tim Keller

Transcript -

Warren Mainard: Hello everybody and welcome to the IMPACT Players Linking Shields podcast. My name is Warren Mainard. I am the National Director of IMPACT Players. The vision of IMPACT is inspiring men to be great husbands, fathers, and leaders by equipping them to thrive in the relationships that matter most. And with me today is a good friend, Jon Beasley, who is indeed an IMPACT Player. And let me just get the cat out of the bag. Jon is gonna be joining our team, taking over this podcast as well as a couple of other areas in the IMPACT Players national efforts. And so Jon, welcome to the show, and as we continue the show, we'll kind of turn the tables a little bit and I'll move from podcast host to podcast guest, and you'll move from podcast guest to podcast host. And, we'll have a lot of fun in the process. So, Jon, thank you for joining us and being a part of this.

Jon Beazley: Thank you so much for having me on, man. This is like a dream come true. I love what IMPACT Players does, really not just locally, like it's been in Seattle, but what we're seeking to do nationally. There's just so much happening, happening really fast. I'm so, I'm super excited to be a part. And this is, like you said, a very unique episode 'cause we're kind of doing, you start as the host and then we're gonna kind of switch. This will be kind of fun, kind of unique.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: But I'm looking forward to, all that's in store when it comes to developing men to becoming good leaders, husbands, fathers. So this is gonna be a fun time. So thanks for having me on.

Warren Mainard: Absolutely. You know, some of us are athletes and some of us are former athletes. Probably more in the second category. But, I love sports analogies and I think in many ways, what we're doing in this particular episode is we're running besides one another. And I'm handing off the baton of this podcast to you. And that doesn't mean that I won't be a part of it moving forward. But it's great to be able to pass on responsibility and leadership to other faithful men. And that's a big part of our vision with IMPACT is, we believe that there is a model for expanding our impact with men and that's by entrusting, the things that we've learned and the leadership that we've been given to other men who will be able to pass on to faithful men who can teach others also. That's second Timothy chapter two, verse two in a nutshell. And it's a proven method that has worked for centuries and centuries. But let's talk a little bit, Jon, about you, your story, your passion and your calling. You're a husband. You've got a amazing wife named Bethany, and I'd love you to talk a little bit about that. You're a father, you've got three boys and you've had some unique journeys in fatherhood. You're a leader. You run a company. You've got an incredible podcast that you host called Mind and Body. So you're doing a lot of things. You've been an evangelist, a speaker, a pastor, and a ministry leader, as well as worked in the business realm as well. So tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and how all this has kind of culminated in you coming to the forefront of the IMPACT Players podcast.

Jon Beazley: Yeah, yeah. Well, you just sharing all of that, I was just like, oh man, it's... Have you ever heard somebody describe things that you've done, you almost felt like a little tired after, like wow, that's a lot of stuff that, a lot of places where the Lord had led us, but I'd be glad to share some of my background. So when... starting back, just going back to when I was a young child, I came to faith in Jesus. When I was a teenager, though, young teen, I was really passionate about sports. Which using the sports analogy is awesome because I was really into football, actually wanted to, I doubt I was good enough, but in my mind I was, I wanted to play in the NFL really passionate about it. But right around that time, I really was sensing God leading me into something that would be more like the ministry, like vocationally, pastoral ministry of some kind. And, so I ended up, stop pursuing football. I mean, I did play some more, but I wasn't using that as my career path. And I just started pursuing, teaching the Word and I started thinking more deeply about what it means to follow Jesus, what it means to just give my life to him. And that's been... it was a really interesting time. Lots of spiritual formation taking place. Then I went, I ended up going to Bible college studying theology. And after that I launched into, as you said, a an itinerant evangelistic ministry. So where I met my wife, Bethany, she was definitely the best part of our ministry for sure. And, most people invited me the first time to come speak, because of me 'cause they heard me or whatever. They invited me to come back the second time 'cause they liked Bethany. They're like, Jon's okay, Bethany, she's awesome. And, but we traveled around the, all around the United States, a little overseas, but mostly the United States. I think I preached in 45 states.

Warren Mainard: Wow.

Jon Beazley: And it was just, really enjoyed our time there. During that time, we really sensed that the Lord was moving us into more of like a church planting idea. Because I mean, I love speaking in churches, but I just had this longing to see like gospel multiplication take place like in a city. I also had read Tim Keller's book called "Center Church." Are you familiar with that book?

Warren Mainard: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Jon Beazley: That book wrecked me, Warren, it just wrecked me 'cause he, not only was laying out Gospel ministry, but just like, why we should probably think about cities and reaching cities for the Gospel.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: And then it kind of all lined up. Yeah, it all lined up for us to end up in Seattle. And we did church planting for some time. And we can get into some more details, maybe even other podcasts as well. But basically, the Lord kind of led us out of that church planting mode and then into a realm that I didn't expect. I expected to be actually more in ministry context, like for the rest of my life. But the Lord led me into the corporate world. And, long story short, I've started two businesses. And so I'm a business owner kind of juggling these two things. And I absolutely love it. And this kind of ties into the leadership idea real quick because, I was thinking like, why start businesses? Why do business? What's the point? A lot of times we're thinking we need money, and that's true.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And that's a good, good reason for sure. But I thought, I want my business to be oriented differently. I wanted to have like a, an actual why beyond just monetary gains, but why am I doing this? And there was an early church father, Irenaeus, was a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of the Apostle John. So this, he goes way back in early in the church, and he made a statement that really just has stuck with me through the years. He says, "The glory of God is man fully alive." And I thought, man, that that last phrase, "man fully alive" is what everybody wants.

Warren Mainard: Yes.

Jon Beazley: Like, whether you're a Christian or non-Christian, everybody wants to be fully animated. And I'm thinking, why would you go to the gym? Why do you dial in your nutrition? Which is one of the companies that I own is Mind and Body. And it's all about online coaching. And I help a lot of people dial in their health, but why would they wanna do that? They wanna feel fully alive.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: When it comes to some of the other companies or the company that I own, why do we do those things? Well, we're trying to come and meet a particular need that leads people toward feeling fully alive. And so having that drive and it's really helped me to have that particular type of focus. And so I've been moving into that and I'm thinking this is a means to an end. And that end is on man's side, helping them feel fully alive on God's side. It's all to the glory of God. And I want to... when it ties into me being a part of IMPACT Players, I wanna see more men experience being fully alive.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: And there's ways that we can do that, that could definitely help us. It could be health related, it could be mental health related. There's also that spiritual component. There's also, you mentioned this before, it's also that community point, of being with other people. We've been made for community. And I think that's some of the things that IMPACT Players hits on that I'm excited to be a part. So hopefully it gives you a little synopsis of....

Warren Mainard: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, one expression that I use a lot is, "firing on all cylinders." And I think that idea of being fully alive, and what that really means in my perspective is it means that in all the areas of life that truly matter, are you thriving? Are you really experiencing a fullness of life? A healthiness? And so typically I think if we're being honest, most men, and let's be honest, most human beings, they can tend to do well in two or three areas., but oftentimes it comes at the expense of one of those other areas. And so you've got a guy that's really thriving at work, and he's killing it. He is getting promotions, he's making good money, but things in his marriage are struggling or things with his kids are struggling. Or he's doing really well staying physically healthy, but he's not investing in his spiritual health or spiritual growth. For a lot of guys in the tribe that I live and work with, it's like, okay yeah, I'm doing really well spiritually, but I'm not doing enough to take care of my body physically.

Jon Beazley: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And so I think for IMPACT Players, it's kind of that recognition that: hey, we're all coming into this thing doing well in certain areas, and then really struggling in other areas. And how can we learn from one another, grow together, encourage each other, hold each other accountable, not feel any shame about the areas in which we're failing, and also not feel any pride for the areas in which we're succeeding, but ultimately like hey, we're all coming into this thing together. Whether we're pastors or ministry leaders, business executives or a young guy who's just trying to get rolling in his career. We all have something to bring to the table and we all have something to learn from one another.

Jon Beazley: Oh, that was so well put, Warren. I really love that. And the, I think you talked about it the other day, audacious authenticity.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And how that actually may initially lead us into a bit of fear, like, oh I gotta be open and honest. But actually how it leads us to freedom, it really does, when you can be fully yourself and identify like hey, here's generally where I'm doing well, but here's where I'm falling behind. I might need some help on. It's a path to freedom.

Warren Mainard: Yeah, absolutely.

Jon Beazley: If it's, if you approach it right, man, that's, that's good stuff. And

Warren Mainard: Man, let's talk about that for just a little bit because I feel like if people are gonna get to know you, there's kind of the, what I like to refer to as the LinkedIn bio, right? And I've never seen anybody on LinkedIn that doesn't have an impressive bio. Like every LinkedIn bio is impressive because it highlights nothing but accomplishments, nothing but achievements, nothing but titles, but it really doesn't say anything about the battles that people are facing. It doesn't say anything about their losses. It doesn't say anything about their struggles. So let's dive into a little bit of that, because we know the reason why audacious authenticity is so powerful is because when men can get into a circle with other men, and they can open up and realize that hey, I'm not the only one fighting a battle right now. I'm not the only one maybe in a pit right now or in a foxhole right now. That opens up their hearts to be able to find unity and comradery with those men, because it's really in our struggles that we find our ability to cling to one another. So Jon, you've had a lot of successes, you've preached all over the country, you've built businesses, you've started churches. Share a little bit about, like a couple of the battles that you've had to work through and that you are working through as a man. And we all have them, but how have those battles really kind of shaped you? And how have those battles maybe kind of propelled you into doing some of the work that you're doing now?

Jon Beazley: Man, that's a great question. So, when you first said this, you're gonna laugh at me, Warren. I thought my first pain is I need to go clean up my LinkedIn profile because you said it looked perfect. If you looked at mine, I'm just like, oh goodness. I am so far back. I'm not very good with LinkedIn.

Warren Mainard: That's all good.

Jon Beazley: That's like my...outta all of my social medias, that is the one that's least dialed in. I just never been much on LinkedIn. But so you were just saying everything's perfect. It's like, wait till he sees mine.

Warren Mainard: Oh, right, right.

Jon Beazley: So all those who're listening in, just know that my LinkedIn is really bad, but maybe the time you hear this, I'll be in that good profile. Warren will be like...

Warren Mainard: There you go. There you go.

Jon Beazley: ...this looks great. I'll send it to you and you could let me know if it actually looks good. You'll be the, be able to check that. But in all seriousness, that was funny. But in all seriousness, the last couple of years have been some of the hardest years of my life. Warren, you've been a church planter. You've faced transition. We had a difficult time 'cause just prior to church planning, we discovered that our second son was gonna be born with medical complexity. And in short, he was born with Golden Heart Syndrome. And there's a lot that I could explain there. But basically he was born with half of his face was not formed fully. So he has one eye, one ear. He, his upper airway wasn't developed as well. So he has a trach and there's a number of anomalies that he struggles with. But we've been... it's just been a mystery. I don't know if you men who are listening in have ever been in a season where, you really wanted answers, but you just didn't have them. And you had to learn to live without the answers. That's been really hard. Now, Warren, I am a solution oriented person. And, so what I like to do is like, what's the problem. Okay, great. Let's not complain. Let's figure out our options. Okay, here's the three best option. Which one's the best? This one. Let's go and let's pull the trigger. I'm just, I like to, I like to move, I like action. That's the type of person I am. The Lord had put me, for whatever reason, probably for my own spiritual maturity and growth, had put me in a place where I couldn't come up with solutions. I, there was no, there wasn't even a plan A or a plan B, there was just like, all I could do is sit and wait.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And what that led me to was praying a ton, which is a great spiritual discipline. But those prayers ended up making me very angry.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: I can't tell you. In Seattle, I had a prayer walk and I had a very angry prayer walk for a while. And I was thinking I don't, this is probably not faithful prayers. I'm not praying right. Then I looked up at some of the Psaltery, the Psalms and the book, the Psaltery that we have.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: And I was reading through some of those and thinking, well, I don't know, they said some pretty harsh things towards God as well.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: Maybe I'm in good company here. And I just remember just struggling so much because in the midst of everything that was going on with Will, we had just launched a church and it was going well, and then we had a global pandemic.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And that really threw us for a loop. So the combination of those two things ended up causing us, because our sons airway and all that kind of stuff was, we had to be really sensitive. So if he would've gotten COVID or experienced something like that, it could have been life threatening. So we had to be even more careful about gatherings, about being around people. Which really threw a wrench in church planning. So anyways I think some big things...

Warren Mainard: Yeah. I mean, that was such a tough time for leaders in every sphere of life, but certainly trying to start a new church that really depends on people meeting in person and building relationships and you can't meet in person and you can't build relationships. And I totally understand and get what you're talking about, like those angry prayers towards God. And I think it's worth just saying to any men that are listening, God is big enough to handle those anger prayers.

Jon Beazley: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And encourage you to read Psalm chapter 55 and let that be a guide for you as far as how you process those things. But Jon, what happens for a lot of us men, especially someone like you or me who has a position and a reputation as a spiritual leader is, there's still a sense where you have to, you still have to like project a picture of spiritual strength even while you may be experiencing internally some real spiritual weakness and doubt and struggle and internal conflict. So how do you process, how did you process kind of that almost that internal conflict, that divide between Jon, the confident spiritual leader, and then Jon, the child of God who is struggling to understand what God is doing in his personal life?

Jon Beazley: Yeah. So I don't know if I would have that dynamic completely figured out, but the thing that I had to reframe, Warren, in my mind was that like, for instance, here's a biblical concept: the biblical concept of lament. Lament is an act of faith. So it's not like, if I lament, I'm just not really believing in God.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: No, the reason why you're lamenting is that you're living within the tension of what you know to be true about God, but what you're experiencing right now doesn't seem to line up. And you're crying out of a heart of desperation. I want to see this hope, I wanna see this reality in my experience, and you're crying out. And I had to realize that's not me coming to God in like fundamentally unbelief as it is. Like hey, I believe that you can do this, and this is why I'm so adamant, this is why I'm so passionate. This is why I'm pouring up my heart. And I, you said something along the lines that God is big enough to take these, these prayers on. And it's actually, there's a Psalm in, Psalm 68 where it says, "Trust in the Lord at all times, pour out your hearts to him, God is a refuge for us." Now, I'm sure you're familiar with Hebrew poetry and how the Psalms lay out, but this is a type of Hebrew poetry that's designed to say hey, in order to trust God, you actually have to pour out your heart.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And when you pour out your heart, you're making use of God being your refuge. So if you don't pour out your heart to God, then you're not actually using him as your refuge as you should. So this is an act of faith. This is what it looks like to trust God at all times. It doesn't mean you're always like, I'm happy, everything's great. Sometimes my trust looks like, God, I don't know how I can do this. I'm pouring up my heart to you. I'm frustrated, I'm angry.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: That's actually an act of faith as well. And when I was able to reframe how I view faith, I was able to say, hey, you know what, this is actually acceptable to God. Now, obviously, I'm sure in the context there could be some things debatable. There might've been some times where I did have unbelief there or I was speaking in fear, but there was something about it. You have like a soda all filled up, pressure, and you just pop that and all the pressure goes out. Well, sometimes when we vent to God, it's not, obviously we're imperfect humans. It's not gonna be perfect. But there's an exchange that takes place. God takes all my imperfections in my venting.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And he replaces it with his peace and his serenity and his, and you sense the love of God, even though you're in the midst of a season that feels like God is absent.

Warren Mainard: Yeah. Man, that's so good. And I think for men, like typically I think in most relationships, especially in most marriages, there's usually one person who's kind of the, the steadying presence. And then there's like another person that's more of like, maybe the more volatile in terms of like, feeling their feelings more and up and down and that kind of thing. And that's totally normal and natural. And what I love about the scriptures is that it makes it clear that one is not better than the other, right? So, like...

Jon Beazley: That's a really good point.

Warren Mainard: David, in my opinion, had a very volatile, emotional spectrum. And nobody would look at David and go, wow, he was such a bad follower of God. They would say no, he was a man after God's own heart. But what I've found, kind of just tying in what you're talking a little bit to marriage is that for many, many years in my marriage, I thought because I was this stoic, even keeled personality that that made me more spiritually mature than my wife, who feels her emotions more deeply than I do. And what I also thought was that my response was always to take whatever feelings she was having and say, "Calm it down." Which any husband who's been married for more than like 10 seconds knows, don't ever tell your wife to calm down. That's a death sentence right there. But here's what I've learned over the last few years, Jon. And, and it's been profoundly impactful. And it goes back to this idea of lamentation. I've learned that sometimes the best thing that I can say to somebody who's going through a season of hardship or feeling great distress in their relationship with God or others, is to just simply say, "I'm sorry, that really sucks."

Jon Beazley: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And like, that doesn't sound very spiritual. It doesn't sound like something that you would hear from a pastor or a professional counselor. But I think there's something powerful about just being able to say what you're experiencing right now is hard and it's okay to be sad and upset and angry about that. And just to acknowledge that. And then to allow time for that to settle, and then to be able to say, what does the Lord say to us about this? Where is our hope? How do we find joy in the midst of this? But I think I was too quick in many instances to run straight to the verse that I thought my wife needed to hear or that I thought somebody that I was counseling needed to hear. Or let's be honest that I thought that I needed to preach to myself when I was dealing with my own issues. But to be able to just sit in this is hard and this is difficult and I don't like this. And just to be real with that is...

Jon Beazley: Yes.

Warren Mainard: ...I think a part of that lamentation process.

Jon Beazley: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: So you've had to through go that a little bit with your son, with the loss of the church vision and plant that you had. There's a stripping away of identity that takes place when something that you do gets taken away from you.

Jon Beazley: Yes.

Warren Mainard: But now here you are, you're a couple years removed from moving away from Seattle, stepping away from the church plant. Where are you at now? What is the journey looking like for you and Bethany and your kids these days?

Jon Beazley: Well, on a kind of starting with the spiritual note, I've definitely have seen, there's still a mystery to some of what God is doing. We're following one step at a time, and they're still like, this is not how I would've written my story.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: If I was writing it, I would've written it different. I've been like, okay.

Warren Mainard: Totally

Jon Beazley: But what I'm finding is every time I look back on a season, I'm like, okay, I could see God's goodness. While I'm in it, sometimes I don't.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And you think about this, Warren, when did God, when it comes to like his relationship to humanity, what was the biggest act of God on the earth? I think we would probably say a combination of the incarnation as well as Christ's death and resurrection. Right?

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: But particularly at his death or the atonement of Christ, that from Christ's perspective, that was when God was most silent.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: Because from the garden to the cross, Christ heard nothing from the Father.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: It was in the garden, let this cup pass for me. And he didn't hear anything back from the Father. As far as we know, there was no interaction there, just Jesus speaking.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And I've been there, I'm like, I'm talking to God and am I just talking to the roof or the air or whatever.

Warren Mainard: Right, right.

Jon Beazley: And then on the cross, he cries out Psalm 22. Right? "My God, my God, why thou forsaken me?" And I'm thinking, hey, Jesus is the perfect son of God, but yet he could be in a spot like that.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And still be faithful to the end.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: And that's been helpful for me. And so as I've kind of looked back and I saw, hey, God has taken care of me in the past, and even though my future is still kind of like, I'm still seeing it developed, it's not even where I'd like to be. And for those who are listening in, when we transitioned out of church planting, like ministry was everything I knew. So I was thinking, I have some skills. I enjoyed leadership. I can build things, but what am I supposed to do? And I had a really hard time finding where that would be. And then eventually I just took a step and started companies, you know, type of a thing. Which has been a great growth time. I mean, I have not, in the last two years, I've grown more than any other time in my life. I'm just seriously have developed as a person. But one thing I think that God has taught me, if I could just bring it down to where I'm at now, is exactly what you said. I've hurt so deeply so that when other people are hurting, I've learned, I'm not gonna try to pull them out of that hurt 'cause that just hurts more.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: I'm basically saying, "Hey, ignore your current situation and let me try to distract you." But rather to sit with them in the mud. I think it's Simon Sinek that says like, one of the best things you could do is just, instead of trying to pull someone up outta the mud, is sit down with them and let them talk and hear them out. And I become so much more of a sympathetic person. When I see someone hurt, I hurt for them in a way. But I also wanna say, you know what, but the thing I need to do is not just say, "Oh, let me tell you what's gonna happen. You just hang in there."

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: "Keep your chin up." Which I'm not against those statements necessarily, but sitting with them and caring for them and really caring for people has been something that I think God has done tremendous in my heart. But as far as just practical where I'm at, I really love being able to, I never thought I would be a business owner, but being able to build something that works, that helps other families, serving other families like employees, but also, being able to say, "Hey, the Gospel doesn't lead us just to go to church on Sunday, sing a couple of songs, say a couple of verses, say a couple of, 'hey, that's right Preacher.'" or whatever.

Warren Mainard: Right, right. Yeah.

Jon Beazley: God's kingdom has, is here and it's supposed to be played out in the world. And one of the greatest ways, I heard somebody recently say that entrepreneurs change the world. And I'm thinking, what would that look like for Christian entrepreneurs?

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: How much should that be inflamed with Gospel passion?

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: And that's one of the things that God is leading me into. And more and more I'm just like, I love this. I love being able to take the truth of the Gospel and applying it to business and impacting other people, people's lives, maybe indirectly at first, but also pointing to, hey, why are we doing what we're doing? We're doing this to glorify God.

Warren Mainard: Absolutely. And you talked about that illustration of the bottle, shaking it up and then it kind of explodes and it's like, there is a real sense that what's inside of you when shaken will come out. And there's definitely something beautiful about when somebody sees us go through a season and what comes out is a faith, a trust in God that's resilient, that is authentic and honest, and yet it's raw and real as well. And I think you've demonstrated that. I've been able to walk with you over the last several years and to see how you've navigated some of those twists and turns over the last few years. And now you're kind of pioneering this new work. And we're gonna change seats in just a moment, and talk a little bit about you stepping into the role of hosting this podcast. But this is not the only podcast you host. You also have a business called Mind and Body and a podcast by the same name. And those two things both really reflect a lot of who you are. You are, in my opinion, you're a very intellectual thinker. You're well read, you've got a ability to really express deep thoughts. And so you've got a tremendous mind and you're also somebody who really thrives in the gym. And physical fitness is a huge component of your life as well. So to see those two things come together, I think is a really cool expression of who you are. So just tell us a little bit about Mind and Body, the Mind and Body podcast, and then we'll switch seats.

Jon Beazley: Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that. And thank you for the kind words. I really do appreciate that. So Mind and Body was kind of birthed out of, remember I... going back to what I said, "The glory of God is man, fully alive." And one of the things that had just saved me with my own mental health during all these transition was sometimes I was like, I can't fix anything that's going around me. This is really hard, but I can go throw some weights around.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: It's a great outlet. And, some people, and you could read this actually in some of the psychological literature, they'll talk about the anchor of healthy distractions. And there's certainly, like when you get depressed and discouraged, you might run to like, I'm gonna go get a cake and I'm gonna go binge watch Netflix or whatever.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: I'm not against Netflix and I'm not against cake people. Like, that's great. But, if the knee jerk reaction is I'm going to go indulge myself in these ways, it ends up becoming something that's detrimental to your health and life.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And actually, so what happens is you're anxious, you're depressed, you're discouraged, and it leads to a behavior. And that behavior either can help you overcome that discouragement and anxiety, or it could feed into a deeper level of it. And one thing, the one of the fundamental things that we want to do at Mind and Body is we wanna help people in this space. They're not feeling fully alive.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: They're struggling, and we wanna help them and deal with these pressure points with something that's more healthy and active, so that when they do it, it's gonna release the dopamine, the endorphins, all that kind of stuff that's gonna lead them to more of a creative, productive mindset. And the science is really clear. There is a direct connection between your psychology and your physiology. And so if you can work on your physiology and your, like through exercise and training the body, it's going to actually work at training your mind. And the more you train your mind and you work on your own mental performance and toughness, you're gonna become better at training your body.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And before you know it, you begin to see instead of a cycle of being reactive towards things that happen to you, you become proactive and you're like, okay, I'm not gonna just react to things. I'm going to take control of what I can take control of. Now, obviously from a Christian perspective, we anchor our hope ultimately in God, but he has set up things in this universe and when we decide to move towards order rather than disorder then we're gonna, we're stepping into God's design.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And even though somebody may be a non-Christian, when we can help them step into how to think right...

Warren Mainard: Yes.

Jon Beazley: ...and how to move their body in such a way that's gonna promote healthy thinking, but also just a healthy body. We're helping them step into order...

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: ...as opposed to disorder. And it's beginning to set them free and I love it. It, it's hard for me to even communicate like how passionate I am because a lot of times, these conversations about mental health and fitness like bleed into something deeper.

Warren Mainard: Oh, absolutely.

Jon Beazley: Something that we would say the spiritual aspect of things.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And so that's where the, I guess my, like my pastoral side of me comes out. But what's interesting though is I get to, when you're a pastor, Warren, you can write with this, when you're a pastor, people expect you to pastor.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: People expect you to have the words to say, and maybe even you feel obligated to offer something. But now that I'm not a pastor, I just feel that my words of encouragement, people take them as like, oh, he's not just trying to be a pastor, this is his vocation. Jon cares for me.

Warren Mainard: Right, right.

Jon Beazley: And that, that's exciting. Not that I didn't care for people when I was a pastor, but you get what I'm saying?

Warren Mainard: Sure. I mean, what's so cool about that, in fact, one of my favorite things I love anytime I see this, is when quote unquote new science affirms old biblical truth.

Jon Beazley: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And, I mean, things like several years ago when everybody started talking about the importance of practicing gratitude, and you're like, dude, Paul said, "Rejoice always pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." Gratitude has been a part of mental health and emotional wellbeing for thousands of years before the new science revealed that to be the case as well. And when Jesus was asked by the religious leaders of his time, "What's the most important thing that you can do in this life?" And he answered, "Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." AKA, your body. Jesus was laying out a framework for what it means to be holistically integrated into a life that is fully alive, like you were talking about earlier, a life that is fully in tune with the life that God created for us to experience. And so, as men and as humans, if I'm thriving in my heart and my soul, but not in my mind and my body, then there's gonna be synergy and there's gonna be consequences there because we're holistic beings. And as a result, all of those things interact. So it's no surprise to me at all that when you find yourself talking to men or women about, their mind and their body, that the conversation turns to their spirit and their soul, because that's how we're wired. That's how we're created. But let's talk a little bit about kind of the podcast. And what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna take off the host hat. I'm gonna give it to you and let you kind of take control. And let's take maybe about 12, 15 more minutes to interact before we wrap this up.

Jon Beazley: No, that sounds great. Well recently, IMPACT Players just announced the expansion that we're trying to do when it comes to reaching, or expanding our influence nationally. And I was wondering if you could provide maybe a like a glimpse of what this is gonna look like in the coming months to a year. What is the future? We're just talking about several, some of the things that we want to implement with like leader, obviously the fundamentals of developing leaders, developing husbands and fathers, all that sort of thing. How do, what does this look like to take this ministry that's birthed out of the Seattle context now nationally?

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: What does it look like in the coming months?

Warren Mainard: Yeah. You know, Jon, you've spent time living in Seattle. If you walk down the hill of Pike Place and take a right at the Pike Place Market, you can walk to the very first, the quote unquote, the very first Starbucks. Right? And now Starbucks is ubiquitous all over the world because, they found a system to offer something to people that they're already wanting and looking for. And in many ways, I think what we believe that God has given us with IMPACT Players is he's given us a system and a method and a message that is resonating with men all over the country. And so, the way I like to say it is, if it can work in Seattle, it can work anywhere.

Jon Beazley: Good statement.

Warren Mainard: And so, Seattle is not a place that is known for a lot of spiritual vibrancy or vitality or ministry success. We both planted churches in the Seattle area. We know how difficult that can be. But there's something about what we're doing with IMPACT Players that has legs and that we believe can travel. What we're trying to do is to take the model that we've created in the greater Seattle area and say, how can we help men, men's ministry leaders, Christian business leaders, churches and organizations that are trying to figure out how to reach and equip men and inspire them to be great husbands, fathers, and leaders? How can we give them some of those tools and resources and a framework that will allow them to do that more successfully? And, so we've located, or we've identified a new leader to take over the work that's happening here in the Seattle area, and now I'm transitioning into a role of trying to take this and expand it across the country. And so over the next year or so, we'll be really focused on building that out. I think this podcast is a part of that. We want to begin to speak to a wider audience with the podcast. But, we've got an online platform for men to find community. We've got over 15 unique studies for men's groups to go through that are kind of fine tuned to really reach the man who is maybe open to God, but is not really ready to jump into a local church right now. Even if a man is a nonbeliever or a strong Christian, there's something about the way that we've been able to merge the discipleship of men with those key relationships of being a better husband, father, and leader that seems to be really, impacting men on a deep, deep level.

Jon Beazley: Yeah. So this is a great, inroad to this question. And I know we only have a few minutes left before we'll land this podcast, but I'm curious, so if a pastor is listening into this and they're like, Hmm I really probably should be more intentional about men's discipleship in my church, leadership development and so forth. Like, why IMPACT Players? What makes this unique? Why should I look into it more? What would you say to that if a pastor asked?

Warren Mainard: Yeah. I think a lot of men feel like they've been sidelined in the church. They don't really see how they fit in. They don't really know how they can use their gifts. Maybe they feel like their wives have a better grasp on the Bible or spiritual knowledge. And so there's a little bit of an intimidation factor there and so what we are able to do is we're able to say, hey, here is a starting point that anybody can jump in on, whether they're a believer, a new believer, non-believer. But we'll, we start with the basics and we build the men up from there. But in the process, the men learn how to study the scriptures. They learn to memorize the scriptures. And then I would say, Jon, that the secret sauce, this is the thing that I think really makes what IMPACT Players do pop. And it's this idea that we're helping men to connect the truths of the Bible with the relationships in their lives that matter most. And so you've got men who, maybe they've gone to church for years, but they're not praying with their wives. They're not leading their family spiritually. They don't know how, they haven't been challenged to do that. They don't feel equipped to do that. They're not taking the truths of scripture and bringing it into the workplace. They're not letting it define the way that they think about the business that they run. And so, what we're doing is we're really helping those men to bring those things together and to ask a lot of the questions that men are asking, and to provide a safe space with a biblical foundation that allows them to answer those questions in a way that makes sense to them.

Jon Beazley: That's awesome. So it sounds like to me, like IMPACT Players is a great bridge where it does hit on discipleship, so, but it's specified to like these key relationships that you mentioned to themselves, self-leadership leading others, to being a godly husband and a godly father. So it's really specified, which sometimes, men need some help. They get the general idea, if you ask them what should a Christian man do? They could live for the glory of God, but what does that look like in the home?

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: What does that look like in a marriage? What does that look like when I'm at work or leading a company? Or whatever it may be. I think that's really good. And but it also bridges to evangelism, and really trying to reach those who, maybe had a bad experience in church.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: But what we're showing them is like, can we, let's look at the way a little bit deeper. Which when you show somebody, I was just talking to a business Christian businessman, I was like, when we show people the way of Christianity, it actually points to the way maker Jesus.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Jon Beazley: And, but sometimes we try to say, well, you don't need the, you don't need to learn the way yet. You just need to know Jesus. Well, that's true. They need to know Jesus. But for them to see, well, actually, the Gospel can radically change every aspect of my life. It's not just something I affirm. Iit actually radically reorients me in every aspect.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: And it like going back to what we originally talked about, the fullness of life. Jesus has come, that they may have life and life more abundantly

Warren Mainard: Abundant, yeah.

Jon Beazley: And I think that's what IMPACT Players does. It's like, it hits on that discipleship, but there's also a awesome bridge to bringing people in who may not be interested in Jesus, but they begin to interact with the truth of God's Word that could change their life.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Jon Beazley: Well, we need to wrap this episode up for sure. But man, I've really enjoyed this, Warren. And for those who are listening in just a quick, snapshot of what to expect, we plan with this podcast to interview leaders in all different sorts, different arenas. It could be business leaders, be athletes, it could be pastors, it could be, and it doesn't have to be in any of those categories, but we're gonna look at people who are leading in different ways in different capacities to bring them in to speak to how we can be better leaders, husbands, and fathers. And so we're gonna, you can expect to see an episode drop every single week, and we're so excited to bring that to you. And we hope that it'll bring not only spiritual formation, but just true life change. So be expecting that. So, Warren, thank you again for hosting this with me today.

Warren Mainard: Yeah. It's fun.

Jon Beazley: I'm excited about many more times together, talking about God's truth. Have a great day. Thanks guys.