4/4/23 - PowerPod: Stuck in a Rut

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the iWork4Him PowerPod. I'm Michael Miracle producer for iWork4Him, the voice of the faith and work movement. We are on mission to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. Each quick listening PowerPod is designed with you in mind and jam packed with Kingdom resources to help you connect your faith and work.

How will this impact your work? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Hey, the following show is brought to you in part because of a partnership between iWork4Him and one of our board members, Don Hoover from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Don's the owner and CEO of Binkley and Hurst, a farm implement dealer and really a cool place. Cuz it's like having a car dealership and everything works to harvest food.

And he is the local leader of the Business Community Network. online at BCNlife.org. Don Hoover, you've got a guest for us today. Bryce Taylor. Why? Why did you want Bryce Taylor to be on with us today?

Don Hoover: Bryce Taylor is one of those people that really gives me hope in the future of the church. The body of Christ is alive [00:01:00] and well. And some of the younger folks, the guy is, what is he, 25 years younger than I am, and has a tremendous heart for God, a heart for people. Knew of him. He's had a real influence on my sons and many, many other young people in the region.

And so yeah, when we had a need here, God knew, and Bryce came and we had actually kind of a, you might call it almost a chance encounter of meeting at my house when he was out there with his seven sons and his wife and parents-in-law fishing.

And talked a little bit about where he's at on his journey and I said, maybe we should have this conversation about you coming to work in this role. And he said, maybe we should. And so we talked and we prayed and we prayed and we talked. And it's just been really amazing to have him here and have the gifts that Gods entrusted to him being used to work here side by side with him in the business as ministry endeavor.

Jim: Today we talk with Bryce Taylor, husband to Christina and father to seven [00:02:00] boys, God isn't done with him yet. I can't wait for you to hear his story. Bryce Taylor, welcome to iWork4Him. What is the path the Lord used to move you from New Zealand to Lancaster, Pennsylvania?

Bryce Taylor: Yeah. I was helping a church plant in my hometown and a pastor started this church plant and needed a worship leader and youth guy, and that's what I was doing. So I jumped in to help out. In the two years with them as a family he was discipling me. And one day he mentioned ministry. If I was thinking of being in ministry, I should check out Elam. And he was a graduate of Elam and Regent University.

And so they end up paying for my first semester at Elam in Lima, New York. And my second year at Elam, we were in New York City serving with different missions there and with the homeless and that's where I met my wife Christina. While we were out there on my days off, sitting in the stairwell, I was leading a team, [00:03:00] wasn't supposed to be talking to the girls. But this one, I, I could not get off my mind. And we were hanging out just chatting, talking about life and and yeah, we hit it off.

A year later we got married and her grandparents are from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And so we've been to New Zealand and North Carolina and Virginia. Ended up in Lancaster County back with her, where her family roots are.

Martha: So tell us about The Living Room. Where did that idea come from and, and tell our listeners what it actually is.

Bryce Taylor: Yeah. When we got to Lancaster County, not dissimilar from anywhere else where we moved, we were coming back from New Zealand from working with Christian camping and we knew we wanted to be in Lancaster with her folks. We were just about to have our third and we wanted help, you know. Raising kids, takes a village.

Jim: Especially when you have - that's when you only have three now you got seven, it's gonna take an entire county.

Bryce Taylor: Exactly. But we were just getting them, you know, warmed up and ready for the seven. So I was in construction working on what we call a deck. I think that's what you [00:04:00] call it here. So I was working on that with a bunch of young adults, and one of them asked me like, what are you gonna do while you're here in Lancaster? You know, I thought you were a pastor.

And so as we were talking, I was actually asking them, well, what's needed? And as they were talking that's when the idea birthed in me. And what the need was there was for them to experience. They were all going away to YWAM. And experiencing this great thing, coming back and, and then not going to church.

And so I started asking them why. And out of that I realized, man, our young kingdom people who are talented, gifted, and want to be in ministry or want to do ministry wherever they are , these guys are construction workers, right? They wanted to put that to work, but the church was not a place they could find that like experience or growing in that.

And so I said, Hey man, we need a place that grows up leaders in the faith. A place where you don't have to go away to learn that stuff, but it's right at home. It's happening in the church. So that's where the idea for The Living Room came.

Martha: And what [00:05:00] did The Living Room look like? I mean, what is it?

Bryce Taylor: We started, well, I interviewed for the church, at the church. And , there was I think 35 to 40 young adults when we started. And it grew to over 500 in four years.

Jim: But you didn't meet on Sunday?

Bryce Taylor: No. Tuesday nights. Yeah.

Jim: You can't have church on a Tuesday night. That can't possibly work.

Bryce Taylor: Exactly.

Martha: Does God come on Tuesdays?

Bryce Taylor: He doesn't really have partiality. I think that's in James, but he, you know, he really blessed something that I think was sidelined. You know, like young adults felt sidelined. And so we kind of went with that, you know, and we said, Hey, welcome to The Living Room.

You know, when people would show up and we'd say like, relax, let's talk about whatever needs to be talked about. And people are coming from, from work. And we had in this area, what's unique is the you know, Amish Mennonites, that for the young people they were exploring, a lot of them exploring.

So we experienced, I would say a revival of sorts because people are exploring faith in a place they were comfortable being. And they [00:06:00] would come in their Amish garb and their, you know, whatever. It didn't matter because they were welcome. And so we would talk about the things that they wouldn't normally talk about in a large group setting.

So it wasn't threatening. And so that was intentional because we wanted to just break down those walls and that's what we trained in leaders. So before Living Room happened on a 7:00 PM on Tuesday night, we would do 6:00 PM leadership development.

And we would welcome in the ones, the hundred that would reach the rest. And we started with 10 that would reach the rest and we'd grow it to a hundred leaders. And the, the idea being that once we're done with the service we would create an environment or a living room sitting that they would relax and we served coffee. Can you believe it? At 8:00 PM at night. And they would just sit down and drink coffee.

And the leaders, the hundred leaders did this thing called the vitals throughout the room, around the room. They just walk around and go, so who, you know, who is God to you? And it opened up this great thing. And so people were coming to Jesus and it wasn't from the pastor. It was from the young adults, yeah. They were doing the ministry. [00:07:00]

Jim: So you, you come to a foreign country, you get trained up as a pastor, and all of a sudden you're living outside the box. You started a church service on a Tuesday night to young people who weren't going to church to have a conversation about the practical nature of connecting faith into their lives. Really whole life discipleship kind of stuff. And this was wildly successful. And then you needed a break. I mean, there's a sabbatical in there. You needed a break. I mean, I'm reading your bio. You needed a break, you took your family back home.

Bryce Taylor: Yep. That's kind of what came out of that was we can't be saying no to these ideas and adventures and we can't get stuck in a rut. And what came out of that was, are you in a rut? You know, are you stuck? Are you not thinking outside the box anymore when it comes to ministry? So we started rethinking, you know, what is it that we are doing, what is a ministry?

And we realized a lot of our ministry was coming out of our home, through hospitality, through relationships, through community. We were doing what I was teaching in The Living Room, the vitals, you know, we were doing that [00:08:00] outside of the ministry, maybe even more because I was in the leadership role now in our church.

I'd already raised up a young guy to take over The Living Room. Shannon Khan, who is an incredible leader, and he was running with it. And so I was pouring myself more into leadership stuff anyway. And so what was I doing? What was my leverage? What was my vantage point? How are we doing it as a family became even more important because I was no longer with the young adults.

I was no longer the guy preaching or leading those meetings. I had already raised up somebody else to do that. So as I took a back step, I realized, you know, it's so important that we're doing this. We've been preaching it, where are we doing it? And we realized we were doing it, but where was the intentionality? How are we doing it? And that was what came out of that was we wanna be more intentional.

Martha: So what changed? What did the Lord lead you to do next?

Bryce Taylor: Just to be more intentional. You know, what weeks are going by that somebody isn't in our home, receiving a meal with us? Are we breaking bread with people?

Jim: That'd be an experience for anybody going to a house with seven boys, that's for [00:09:00] sure. So the Lord has led you through a pathway that involved actually going to another church, but he led you here to Binkley and Hurst. As you're like COO, you're in charge of operations. I can't remember if it's VP of Operations. That's a big stretch from The Living Room. Well, what's it look like for you today?

Bryce Taylor: Well, it's, it's much of the same. People are people. People are people. And so I work with, you know, the operations, but it's leaders leading people. And so people coming to this company, they have gifts and talents and strengths, and they know how to do this better than I do, but much of the time they're looking for how do I prioritize what's needed? What strengths do I need to bring to the surface? And so what are we doing? And so I'm helping. I'm just asking questions. I'm really coaching and doing what I was doing before.

Martha: You almost took my next question cause I was gonna ask you, how did then your experience at The Living Room really help prepare you for, for what you're doing now at Binkley and Hurst?

Bryce Taylor: Well, it was a great set up. You know, I feel like [00:10:00] God's just been in that and leading me through this. I didn't know at the time but it was preparing me and that's often the case.

Martha: I was just gonna say, you know, I think our listeners need to hear that. I know, I need to hear that. Sometimes when you're learning maybe a really hard task or you're just in a place that you, you know, a lot of your giftings are being used or whatever, you're like, what are you doing, Lord? What's going on? And then you can look back and say, he was preparing me for this. How cool is that?

Jim: You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.

Outro: Thank you for listening to the iWork4Him PowerPod with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Want more? Hear the full broadcast@iworkforhim.com. Stay connected and receive power pack content when you sign up for our blog@iworkforhim.com or follow us on social media at iWork4Him.

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