[00:00:00] JimBo Stewart: Here we are back at the boot camp. Hope you’re ready for the next episode. We’re here back at it again, and I’m excited the special guest for this week. Is last year’s re Planter of the year. My favorite replant trucker. You know, we do the replant trucker hats, but this is a legit trucker re planter.

Pastor Ryan Durham, welcome to the bootcamp,

[00:00:21] Ryan Durham: Thank you for having me,

[00:00:23] JimBo Stewart: man. I’m excited to have you. I, I’ve enjoyed getting to, watch and see how God has used you and brandy, in this journey. And last year at the Replant Summit, we were able to bring you guys down and announce you as replant of the year. tell us just a little bit about.

The church that you’re replanting and how you ended up there.

[00:00:40] Ryan Durham: Sure. well the church is in Loop City, Nebraska, which is about 45 minutes north of I 80, in central Nebraska, a farming rural town, farm and ranch town, about a thousand folks, excuse me, a thousand folks, they’re not pokes, about a thousand folks, Um, like I said, farming ranch community, real small, close knit, generational.

And the church was dying, hadn’t had a pastor in two to three years by the time that they reached out to us. And I met them in June of 22 and they were really just asking if I’d come out for, once a month for the summer on a rotation. And so my wife and I went out to meet with them and just talking to them.

We fell in love. I almost started crying just talking to them that it ended up in a job interview that I didn’t expect. And, one of the first questions I asked them was why this church, you know, why are you guys fighting so hard to keep this church, you know, alive when there’s so many other churches in the community?

You could just go to and some of their answers just blew me away. I expected it to be. Well, we used to be this and we used to be that and the building and, you know, all the, all the things that I thought they would say. And all they talked about was the gospel and their love for Jesus and their love for their community.

And they didn’t believe any of the other churches were preaching the gospel. and so my heart just broke for them. And before we made it back to Kearney, which is where we lived at the time, about 45 minutes away, I looked over at my wife and she said, I know I didn’t even say anything . I just looked at her and she goes, I know we’re never leaving.

and we haven’t, we haven’t, we have fallen in love with that community. it’s taken us two years to be able to move there, but we finally got moved into town and, so that’s where we’re at. So,

[00:02:18] JimBo Stewart: And so prior to that, you were preparing for,

[00:02:22] Ryan Durham: replanting

[00:02:23] JimBo Stewart: replanting pastoral ministry with the Calvary Family of Churches. Tell us a little bit about that experience.

[00:02:28] Ryan Durham: we joined Calvary in 2015. and I was started seminary shortly after that. And, got to know Mark Halleck with the CFC and Jeff and some of the other pastors. And got invited to join the CFC cohort, the internship that they do with some of the pastors.

And, really that’s where I first started hearing about replanting. I had never really heard about it before. And, The first book I was given was actually Mark Clifton’s book, reclaiming glory and how it gave me that and said, Hey, just read this. Let me know what you think. And then I think the second one was, am I a replanter?

And my world changed. cause just thinking over the questions and just thinking about all the reality of it and just having never thought about that. and so, yeah, that, that became our passion really. and we were blessed to be led to Calvary where that was also their passion and just on mission and, got to spend time with, with Mark and some of the different cohorts.

And we began listening to podcasts like this one and some others and, yeah, just trying to do the best we could, to prepare and train never knowing where the Lord was going to send us. We had a couple of ideas, or at least my wife did of where she’d like to go. I didn’t care. I figured, you know, the Lord has people everywhere and like I’m ready.

we’d never expected it to be Nebraska. We left Englewood, Colorado in 2019. and it basically came down to finances. I, like you said, I’ve drove truck my whole life and trying to do the cohort and the internship, prepare for ministry, but drive a truck 70, 80 hours a week. it just got to be too much, but we couldn’t afford to live in Denver if I didn’t work that much.

And so I went to one of the elders at the church and I just said, Hey bud, let’s do it. I need to leave the metro. So if we can find a church that’s in the family outside of the metro that maybe I could go serve at and finish the internship. And he never looked up from the pews. He was picking up communion cups and he never even turned around and looked at me.

He sticks his hand in the air and he says, you’re going to go to Kearney.

[00:04:26] JimBo Stewart: and I,

[00:04:26] Ryan Durham: And I knew where Carney was and I was like, yeah, we could talk about that. You know? And he’s like, yeah, no, I already, I already figured it out. We’re going to, you know, Spencer, who’s the pastor at Carney, he’s like, their church is growing.

He’s a great leader. He’s needing some help. You need some experience. You’re moving to Carney.

[00:04:40] JimBo Stewart: Excellent.

[00:04:40] Ryan Durham: Okay, great. We’ll talk about it. That’s all I’m thinking. And this was in like in June. I think, early June of 2019 and by September of 19, we had moved to Kearney, like here we were, and so started serving there and that’s how we ended up in Nebraska.

And so we were serving in, Calvary Kearney and just trying to grow and, so thankful for the time that I’ve spent with the CFC and especially with Spencer, quite frankly, because he is such a great leader and he just loves people so well. Thank you.

And it’s most of all you guys know how many of us were prepared to lead a church through COVID.

Um, and so I was able to kind to kind of be under him and with him as he’s going through these thought processes. And, just how do we love people? Well, you know, and not just the COVID that kind of the world went crazy during that whole, that whole time. And so just, you know, being trained on not just how to serve people and preach, But just really how to love people well and some of the thought processes that I’d never even thought about as a pastor but the one that one of the greatest things that I Got was we never went through any of that alone, and so just being able to learn under some of these guys has been an incredible incredible deal and

Honestly when we first got to Nebraska We actually started wondering if we were ever gonna replant my wife and I had made, she’s got notebooks full of different dreams and ideas of things we were going to do when we replanted.

And when we got there, it just seemed like the Lord was closing every door. it was the first time I had not drove truck in 25 years. Um, but then COVID hit and I got laid off and it was like, well, I have to get a job. Well, the only, only industry that was hiring was trucks because they didn’t stop, you know?

And so I started driving truck again and, and I don’t know, it just seemed like every time we turned around, there was something going on. There was a church we fell in love with that we thought we were going to replant, but the congregation said no. Um, and so our hearts were broke. and so just all these things, well then I thought, well, you know what, Calvary Kearney has this huge college ministry.

Maybe, maybe I’m not, maybe I was, maybe I’m misinformed. Maybe I wasn’t called to be a replanter. Maybe the Lord’s leading me to help train up and raise some of these younger men to be replanters. And so I’m not replanting one church, but I’m helping effect. 10, 12, 15 replants. and I had just really kind of come to terms with that when I was introduced to the church in Loop City.

And so it was like, okay, Lord, what are we doing?

[00:07:08] JimBo Stewart: It seems like, man, I would echo in my own life, it seems like that’s often how God works. Like when I have my own idea and plan of exactly how something’s going to play out.

It’s like, God’s waiting for me to just let go. And once I let go, then he takes me, to where he was, leading me. So you got the blessing of being prepared under CFC, both in Englewood and at Kearney. And, and then, From there, you end up at Loop City. You’ve been there a little over two years now, right?

And so, um, what have been some of the biggest wins that you have experienced over the last two years in your ministry?

[00:07:51] Ryan Durham: Um, there’s two that jump in my mind immediately, probably three, but I’ll, I’ll give you two. Um, one was our first baptism. Um, and he’s young and I know there’s going to be some people that give him, you know, how long he’s, he’s, he’s nine. Um, but his name is, uh, Paxton and His family, his dad is an amazing, the story behind this family to me is just amazing.

And, um, just getting to walk with him for a year and just make sure you’re like, Hey, do you really understand the gospel? Do you, you know, are you really ready? And just even, even just sitting with him and hearing this nine year old little boy tell you the gospel, you know, it was, so that was one of the biggest moments for me.

Um, Not only because I got to baptize him, but one of my dreams is like generational ministry, right? And so me and my wife have had this this idea in our head and who knows, right? you know, you never know what what will happen but you know being able to walk with and raise up and baptize this young man and then what happens when he gets older and starts dating and now he’s Performing his marriage ceremony and then you know baptizing his kids down the road and just you know So now it’s like I was like, oh that began You know, um, so that was kind of really neat.

And, and, and that kid is, is really neat all the way around, but his, so is his brother and his dad. The other one I would have to say, and I’m just going to say, her name’s Ms. Megan. and this was early on when we first started. And, again, fairly new to being a pastor, especially a full time pastor. This was my first full time position.

We hadn’t been there very long, but, but she had some severe. Health issues and, needed a, we’re in transplant, but didn’t know if she was going to have enough people to take care of her if she had this transplant. And so we hadn’t even been there, but a few weeks, and she comes to me and she says, Hey, I need this transplant or I’m going to die, but I don’t have anybody to take care of me, so I’m not going to get it.

[00:09:46] JimBo Stewart: it.

[00:09:48] Ryan Durham: we just sat down and we had a conversation. And I tried to love her on her the best I could. And one of the things we told her and my wife and I just kind of looked at each other. It was one of those silent, we understood it. And, you know, I never asked her, but we knew. And I just looked at her. I said, I said, Miss Megan, if my wife’s got to quit her job to come take care of you for a few weeks, like that’s what we’ll do.

Like, if that’s the only thing keeping you from doing this transplant, like, don’t worry about it. And, she’s new Christian, new believer, struggles with a lot of tragedy. In her life. and so she just wasn’t sure. but she was like, you know what? I really believe the gospel. I don’t understand everything, but I believe that you love me and I’m going to believe you.

And so I’m going to just trust you.

[00:10:29] JimBo Stewart: Wow.

[00:10:30] Ryan Durham: And again, we’ve only been there a couple of weeks. I walked out of the church that morning and I looked at my wife and I was, this is going to sound bad, I guess. But I looked at my wife and I was like, this just got real. You know, and it, it should have been real before that, you know, but that just that moment where somebody was literally placing their life in my hands and saying, I have to make a life and death decision.

And basically how you care for me in this moment is going to make that decision for me was really an eye opener. Um, but praise the Lord. One year later, less than a year later on Easter weekend, miss Megan, I picked her up to go do our first church outreach event. I picked her up to take her with us and she looks at me and she says, can I tell you something that I haven’t told anyone?

And I said, well, what’s that? And she said, my doctor called me last night and I was like, okay. And at first my heart sank and she says, my kidneys and my liver, have regenerated, not kidneys, her liver, have regenerated to the point that I’m so healthy. They’re taking me off the list, you know, like just, and just watching her discipleship and her growth and knowledge of the Lord and love of the Lord grow over the last two years has been amazing.

So, I would say those, those two in particular have just been, um, And in some moments when I struggle, I remember those two conversations or the moments with them, individuals, and sometimes it’s enough to say, okay, this is worth it.

[00:12:04] JimBo Stewart: That’s one of the things I love about. The way that you and Brandy lead is you both, one, you lead very much as a unit together, and two, you lead very sacrificially, very generously, very open handed, and kind of, hey, we, we really are laying our lives down as a living sacrifice for the good of the Kingdom of God and the good of Loop City.

And you guys have really embedded your lives, even though you’ve just recently been able to move to Loop City, I’ve heard you share about how you guys really have embedded yourself into the life of Loop City, the church into the life of Loop City, you even got a job with the city. Talk to us a little bit about, the, the importance of knowing and loving your community well.

[00:12:47] Ryan Durham: one of the things that I learned and, I’m not trying to over pump the CFCs at all, you know, because, because everybody, I think this is a solid model, right? But I learned it from the CFC.

I learned it from Mark. And one of the things he’s always talking about is that shepherding model and the four main responsibilities of shepherd being to know your sheep, lead your sheep, feed your sheep and protect your sheep. I can’t do any of those if I’m not there. Right. And then the other, and it’s probably cliche, right?

But 90 percent of ministry is showing up when I’m driving truck or I’m doing this or I’m doing that again, I’ve got to be there. and so that was really kind of my motivation for a lot of that is how can I show up and speak into your life? How can I talk to you about the sin in your life and this and that if I’m not there at the moment to show you that I love you.

Right. If I can’t show up to your kid’s ball game, if I can’t show up to your hospital room, if I can’t just stop by and have lunch with you, those types of things, you know, and, and just live life together. It’s one of my favorite stories about loop city. My wife said to somebody early on, she’s like, I can’t wait till we get moved here and we can live life together.

And one of the individuals looked at her and said, what do you mean? And she’s like, well, you know, just kind of hang out or do a birthday party or, you know, Just have dinner at somebody’s house or a game night, and they quite literally physically cross their arms. We don’t do that here, And I love my wife so much because she’s so introverted and I, this, this blew me away.

The Lord just using her in this way because it’s just not her. She literally wraps her arms around this man and she goes, honey, we

[00:14:23] JimBo Stewart: And you

[00:14:26] Ryan Durham: you know what we do? And they love it and they, they love the Lord. And so, yeah, just things like that. We have to be there, right? We have to become a family. And that’s the thing.

I just, I say all the time, like, we’re family, right? And so that’s the good and the bad and everything else. And so,

[00:14:42] JimBo Stewart: Speaking of the good and the bad, so you’ve shared some of the wins.

What have been some lessons that you have learned that if we could travel back in time and day one, we could go back and tell Ryan and Brandy on day one, Hey, here’s some things that I’ve learned that would be good for you to know. Yeah.

[00:15:01] Ryan Durham: Nancy Reagan said, just say no, right? And here’s the truth. I have a very hard time with that because I do want to love people and I want them to know that. And sometimes, and you mentioned this and I do think it’s a good part of our ministry, but it can also be a negative.

Sometimes is I do want to just give all the time and what happens is, is I give too much. to the point where it’s not necessarily helpful, because now I’m just kind of enabling some behaviors, but even more than that, we’re finite. We’re finite individuals and no matter how much energy I have, and I tell myself all the time, well, it’s fine.

I’m a trucker. I used to do this many hours a day and, leading ministry and everybody says this, but leading ministry is tough and it’s draining. And I want to say yes to everything. Whether it’s a community activity, a, something somebody needs in the church. and I just can’t. And what I found over the first year to year and a half is I was trying to find a way to do everything.

not because I was trying to be the hero, or at least that’s what I told myself, right, was I’m not trying to be the hero. Jesus is the hero, but the Lord’s called me here, so I have to go. I have to go, go, go, go. Because that’s what he called me here to do. And what happened was a lot of the things that I was trying to do were falling apart because I just couldn’t do them well.

and I kept telling myself, well, I don’t have anybody else to help do it. Well, the reality is I didn’t have anybody else to help do it the way that I would have done

[00:16:32] JimBo Stewart: I

[00:16:33] Ryan Durham: plenty of people around me that would do it in their own way. and so I had to learn how to say no, I really did. and I had to, and this came really from Spencer.

Spencer is actually the one that kind of instilled this in me, especially the last six months or so I had to learn to take a break.

[00:16:51] JimBo Stewart: Yeah.

[00:16:52] Ryan Durham: and those two kind of go hand in hand. but you know, it’s going to be hard. Everybody says it’s going to be hard. And we didn’t go into it with rose colored glasses. We really didn’t.

And I have to say that the Lord’s been really kind to us because it’s been pretty easy so far. We haven’t had any major difficulties, but it’s constant. Right. Like the phone’s always ringing and, and somebody always needs something. And we’ve grown quite a lot. And I don’t normally talk about how much we grow in numbers because it’s more important that we’re growing in depth, but we have grown a lot in numbers.

And so when we started with 10 or 12 people and that’s grown to the point that it is now, it’s also that much more work. Right. And so one of my prayers recently, I’ve been praying it all along, but more intentionally recently, is that the Lord would help me to raise up other leaders. and the guys that I have, maybe they’re not spiritually mature yet enough to do X, Y, and Z.

And that’s fine. They’re spiritually mature to do a, B, and C like, let’s start somewhere. We don’t have to wait until they’re polished. And so getting, getting that into my head,

[00:17:59] JimBo Stewart: I

[00:17:59] Ryan Durham: knew it, but I wasn’t doing it. Yeah. You know, and so yeah. Now, now I’m trying to do it.

[00:18:04] JimBo Stewart: Yeah, so one of the, one of the traps of what we call being a resourceful generalist is, is as a resourceful generalist, and you are with high initiative, which you have, and good work ethic, um, It’s easy to just get in and just do the stuff and get it done and grit through and make it happen.

But we have to remind ourselves that a resourceful generalist isn’t just willing to do anything. They have to be wise enough to not do everything. And I mean, it’s in Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, our role as the leaders is to actually not do it, but to equip the saints to do the work of ministry, to have some shared leadership and to recognize that, you know, when you look at the body of Christ in scripture, in Ephesians 4, in Romans 12, in 1 Corinthians 12, in other passages you’ll see, you can’t be every part of the body. and it’s not healthy for you to try to be those parts of the body, but that made it especially early on in a replant when you don’t have the, the horses in the stall to really get the work done. It makes sense at first to just do the stuff, but, we have to get to a place where we can really, pour into others and help them do it.

And, or else you will burn out, and the enemy, he’ll use that. and he’ll, he’ll take you down. And, so, all right. So what are any other lessons you’d say that you’ve had, have learned that you would want to go back and tell yourself or tell somebody else that they’re saying, I’m starting day one.

What, what, what advice would you give to somebody starting day one?

[00:19:45] Ryan Durham: This is going to sound super simple.

[00:19:47] JimBo Stewart: Most of the wisest truth really is super simple. Celebrate everything.

[00:19:54] Ryan Durham: Honestly, celebrate everything. And I started this when we first started at the church, I had a notebook and I’ll be honest, I got away from it. I’ve had to make myself get back to it. I write down everything good that happens. and it can be the smallest little things. anniversaries, All of that stuff.

I write, I write every one of them down. me. My wife’s helping me be better about remembering some of these things and a phone call, a text message to, you know, we’ve got, we’ve got a couple of widows in our church and like, I give them a call on their anniversary.

Hey, we love you. What can we do for you today? If there’s something simple, positive that happened at the church or in the community. celebrating that with our congregation and just creating that culture of just positive encouragement over everything. and people feel loved by that. Right. And they’re drawn to that.

and so I would just say, it doesn’t matter how small the thing might seem. And you might even seem silly at first, but like, go over the top celebrating it because That energy and that passion really is contagious. And it’s given my people when I, when I’m able to do that, even remotely, well, it gives them this energy that they just want to, they just want to storm the community with the love of Jesus.

Right. And it’s just like, you’re just feeding them this, this it’s like nitro, like here, go, go, go, you know? And so, you know, when I say go over the top, I don’t mean you have to go spend a bunch of money and be crazy. Right. But like, We sing Happy Birthday to everybody, we do a family dinner every month and we always try to find something to celebrate during that month, like something that’s happened in the community or in somebody’s life and bring ’em up front and talk about it and, just make a thing, you know, make everybody feel special.

[00:21:41] JimBo Stewart: I love the family dinner thing. I love the being living life together aspect of it. I think so often we think that ministry is just about what we do on the platform. and more often than that, It’s what we do sitting around tables and being in each other’s houses and each other’s lives.

And so, man, I thank you for sharing. And, as you guys continue, how can the Replant Bootcamp listeners be praying for you guys in your ministry?

[00:22:09] Ryan Durham: for me personally, I would say this, I would ask, I would ask for people to pray that I would continue to not only serve our community well, but that I would serve my wife well. My wife serves me incredibly well. She serves our church incredibly well. Sometimes, especially being bival, I get caught up in, okay, I have to do this for work and now I kind of come home and do studies and then I got to go meet this guy and I got, and it might be two or three weeks go by, especially when we were traveling or we live far away from town.

It might be two or three weeks gone by and she’s mowed the yard every time and she, she hasn’t had any help with the dishes or even a thank you sometimes. Cause I just, I forgot to say it, you know, so just that I would serve and love her well, because she does that for us, and for me, and then as a ministry as a whole, man, we’re, we’re coming into a busy season, but, just that the Lord would continue to bless, the church and in the, in the efforts that are being made there, there’s, a lot of people that haven’t given their life to Christ yet, but they’re, they’re beginning, um, To actually sit and listen and, and call me and have those conversations.

And just that the Lord would allow me to, to, to serve him well and love them. Well, I’ve got a guy I’ve been witnessing to for 10 years that it’s been like talking to a brick wall, but I know, I guess he’s getting baptized,

[00:23:23] JimBo Stewart: getting baptized,

[00:23:24] Ryan Durham: you know, and it’s just like things like that, you know? the, the church is beginning to grow.

The community is taking notice. and so. I just pray that we would continue to do what we’ve been doing and not allow the growth to distract us.

[00:23:38] JimBo Stewart: That’s one of the great things about being in a small town, I think, is you really get to become, more a part of the fabric of the community as you get embedded into

[00:23:46] Ryan Durham: my goal, to be the community’s church. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:49] JimBo Stewart: Alright, as we close, would you be willing to pray for our listeners?

[00:23:53] Ryan Durham: Yeah,

[00:23:53] JimBo Stewart: they would, one, serve their churches and communities well, but also their wives.

I think it’s a good reminder, and be faithful to the gospel.

[00:24:01] Ryan Durham: Absolutely. Father, Lord, we, bow before you right now, Lord, and we just admit that, first of all, Lord, we have nothing to offer you, nothing to bring to you.

You’ve given everything to us, Lord. All we have is our love for you. And we only have that because you’ve given it to us as a gift. Lord, I just pray for every church replanting family, Lord, that, that, that can hear this or that you would be with each of these men as they try to faithfully serve you and love their churches and their communities and in all of the hard and difficult situations and conversations that, that have to be, had all of the difficult decisions that need to be made, the busyness, especially, For those guys that are having to be by vote, Lord, and just the plate is so full and the schedule is so full.

And sometimes it’s just hard to know, how to divide up your time. Lord, I just pray that you would be with these men, that you would help them to make wise decisions, that you would give them peace and rest Lord, and that you would just lead them. With their help, help them to lead rather with grace and with love and with kindness, Lord, that you would be with their wives, Lord, and that you would help them, help the men even to remember their wives and to love and to serve them well,

Lord, and to protect them.

And then I would ask pray that Lord that you would give strength and encouragement to the wives as well as they are in this together with their husbands and as we know so many times the wives are asked to do things that They never were expected to do or maybe didn’t feel like they were called to do but Lord, you know that the pressures and the anxieties that come with being a Pastor’s wife.

And so we just pray that you would be with each one of them, that you would help them to feel your love and your grace, Lord, and just wrap each and one of them, husbands and wives later, and just protect their marriages, protect their ministries, Lord, and keep us all, from being able, or excuse me, having the mentality of looking and saying, look at what we have done and look at what we are doing, but help everything that we do Lord to be, to bring your name, glory.

to point everyone to your son, not so that anyone will remember us, but so that they will come to know you. Father, we pray all of this, through the spirit and in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

[00:26:11] JimBo Stewart: Amen. Thanks for coming on.