Becoming a Stronger Man with Pastor David Lindell

0:00 Hello, I'm Stephen Strang and welcome to the special edition of the Strang Report podcast. But today, my guest is David Lindell of Springfield, Missouri, and we're going to talk about the condition of men in our country and how important it is that men are godly men, stronger men if you please. And last year, I had the privilege of attending a conference. If you can call it that, it was really much more than just a men's conference as we'll discuss.

0:40 And I think you're going to find this very interesting. We have some interesting things to show you. And my motivation is to get as many of you as can excited about this to either go in person or I presume it's a streamed live if you can't be there, but the place was full last year and I was so excited about it. I actually did a podcast and as it was rolling around this year, it's called the Stronger Men's Conferences April 12th and 13th. And I don't push a lot of conferences because when podcasts go online, they're there long after the event is over and it kind of dates them. But I felt this was important enough and it gave me a reason, an excuse if you like, to discuss this very important thing about what the Bible says about men, what our culture is doing to men and really some of the problems we have.

1:35 So let me start by introducing my guest, David. You are the one that made it possible for me to go last year. I happened to be in Springfield around that time and when I found out about the conference, I actually arranged, I had other business travel and as I was telling you before we went on camera, I was blown away and I have been to more men's events than I can count on one hand and I've actually sponsored a few back in the day, but they were nothing like yours. So tell us first of all, in case people don't watch all the way to the end and we'll tell you this at the end of the program and we want you to stay tuned.

2:16 Tell us about the stronger men's conference is April 12th and 13th at the Great Southern Bank Arena. That's right. That's right. And first and foremost, Steve, I want to say thank you for having me on the podcast and I appreciate you tackling such an important topic. You know, a lot of people don't want to talk about the state of manhood in America and I don't know how that got controversial, but it is. And not only controversial, but people get canceled over this sort of thing. And so you thank you for your courageous stance and your willingness to have a conversation about something that is desperately important for the future of America. And so the men's conference and you said, you know, in case people don't watch till the end, I just want to say to everybody who's watching this, watch till the end.

3:04 Like this is going to be a great conversation. It is. And you need to watch every one of Steve's podcasts till the end. Oh, thank you. You say that just like I told you. He actually didn't tell me to say that you just need to a lot of great information. But like Steve said, we are at the great Southern Bank arena in Springfield, Missouri. And what's cool about that is we're on a secular university campus, Missouri State University, one of the biggest universities in the Midwest, certainly one of the biggest in the state of Missouri. So you've got tens of thousands of college students, undergrad students walking the campus while we're hosting one of the largest. It is actually the largest men's conference in America currently.

3:45 And so I just think it's cool. God has decided to embed this conference in the middle of a state school campus. And so, you know, I'm pretty pumped about it. I loved having you there last year and loved our conversation after the fact. You got to see a tank crush cars. You got to see things blow up and then here's some incredible preaching as well. So from Pastor Craig Groschelle and Levi Lascaux and man, what a great time we had. And Senator Josh Holly, Josh Holly, who I had never met before. And then I later did a podcast with him. Yeah. About his book on manhood. Man, powerful book. Yes, wonderful, wonderful.

4:26 And he did a great session on manhood at the event and we were so thankful for that. So just, you know, what we're about honestly, in terms of the stronger men's conference is seeing men step into their God given calling and assignment as men. So whatever age they're at, whatever demographic they find themselves in, it really doesn't matter at the end of the day in this sense that God created them on purpose for a purpose. And it's unique. And I know that, you know, there's a lot of talk about gender and, you know, and human sexuality, but the fact is that God made men as men and there is a specific assignment on them on the earth, this side of eternity, that if men don't do the aside, don't step into the calling, don't step into the assignment that God has given them, it not only is problematic for them.

5:26 It actually hurts culture. It degrades society and it's a key ingredient into a healthy society, healthy culture and a thriving nation. And we see, you know, you're no stranger to the stats on this, but, you know, they now say upwards of 70% of Gen Zers are growing up in single parent homes and most of those are with single moms. So we have, we're raising a generation without dads and it's because nobody's taught them to be a dad. Our culture devalues the role of the father, the role of the husband and even the idea of manhood.

6:06 So it's a real problem. And for us as leaders and you're, you're a leader in Christendom and we have to be more bold. We have to be more targeted in what we say about the state of the nation, the state of the world and the importance of raising up godly, bold, courageous men, stronger men who will stand for truth and will push back darkness. And so the stronger men's conference is all about equipping men to do that, but we have a lot of fun along the way as you experienced. We have a lot of fun. Well, I'm glad that you mentioned that about the fatherlessness, which I believe is one of the most serious problems in our country.

6:47 It's not barely talked about, a lot of people just hand think that it's just the normal thing. But for thousands of years, men have been the protectors, the breadwinners. Men as a group are stronger than women and not every man is bigger than every woman. But the smallest man is bigger than the smallest woman. The biggest woman is smaller than the biggest man. You know what I'm saying? And in an earlier era, the men went out and worked, the women worked as hard too, taking care of the kid and doing everything else. It wasn't a matter about working or not working.

7:29 In more recent times, a lot of our jobs, especially with office jobs, I mean, I'm in a profession, journalism, where a woman can do as good a job as a man. There's really no advantage to be a male. And then there's been the rise of the women's movement and there have been abuses. A lot of men have been irresponsible. They drink. Absolutely. They make, I know families for the woman, the wife is really the breadwinner and has to do everything else. And the husband has some almost like part-time job, if a job at all. A lot of these marriages end in divorce or they never, you know, they cohabit and never get married to start with.

8:10 And this has become almost a cultural norm. So when you teach the word of God about biblical manhood, there are a lot of people that just rejected it. Some of it is because their own father was so bad. They used their children and everything else. Of course, this is an antithema to what the Bible teaches and what we, in the body of Christ, try to teach. And so there's a lot of good teaching, but it's hard to get men to do what they want to. And being in the media, I mean, it's mostly the women who buy the books and the magazines and the different things. And so you almost have to, it's like fishing. You were talking about fishing earlier.

8:52 There was, you have to do something to get the men to come and some, and also to say it's okay to have testosterone is okay to get excited. We don't, you know, and I think part of it is the school, you know, little boys, if you ever had a little boy or got three of them. Or bend little boys, you know, that, you know, when you're seven, eight, nine, 10 years old, all you do is wiggle and the teachers are always, and your mother's always saying, sit down, you know, and that's where the dad comes in. This is no, it's okay to go out and climb trees and play catch or whatever. Anyway, we're all popping. We're talking about cultural things.

9:33 And I admire what you guys are doing there. It's sponsored by James River Church, which is one of the biggest churches in the country. And your dad, John Lindell, is a friend of mine and he's, you know, you're blessed as I was to have a godly dad. And a lot of people didn't have that. So when they come to an event like this, even younger men, there can be bonds and they can get excited and they can feel accepted in a way that they may not in their day to day life. What do you think? That's true and you're talking also part of what you're referencing is the pain that people carry out of that relationship with a dad who was derelict in his duty as a father.

10:15 You know, he didn't set a good example. He was either lazy or he was distracted or he was unkind and he mistreated his wife, you know, and his kids and or he was just absentee. And so, you know, unfortunately, the fact of the matter is dads are so influential in the lives of their sons and in the lives of their daughters. But when we're talking about men, a lot of men are carrying into adulthood father wounds. And what has happened is the view of their dad, the view their dad fostered through his attitude, through his perspective, through his harshness, through his abuse, through his absenteeism, what he did.

11:03 And he didn't perhaps even realize he was doing it. I hope he didn't. But what he was doing is he was wounding his son and he was creating a filter through which that boy was going to walk into manhood and he was going to see life through the lens of the wound that his dad left him. And so for a lot of pastors and leaders, a big part of our job is helping that wound heal, bringing wholeness, bringing healing and helping guys understand that the problem isn't masculinity. That's not the problem. The problem isn't strong men, you know, because I think this is, you know, we get a lot of pushback just on the title of the conference because, oh, yeah, that's not what we do.

11:46 We don't need strong men. We've had we've had enough of, you know, strong men. Well, abuse isn't strength. Abuse is weakness. Predatory behavior isn't strength. That's weakness. And so our culture has it all upside down, all backwards. We desperately need strong men. We need them now more than ever before. Yet we live in a day, but we're every, you know, evil is considered good and good is considered evil and morality has taken a backseat to what is expedient in the moment. And so we have, sadly, society has flipped the script on what actually is valuable and creates a future that our children can inhabit that is filled with healthy relationships and flourishing and all that God desires and design them to experience with men in crisis.

12:41 They're inhabiting a world where there's an absence of godly leadership because that's part of the mantle of men, scripturally, they're meant to be spiritual leaders. They're meant to be leaders in every realm of society. And yet you find that men are less willing to step into areas of responsibility. More men are choosing not to marry and simply to cohabitate. So they're wanting to have sex with a woman who's not their wife and have kids that they don't really care for, provide for and create legacy for. And therefore it creates a lot of problems. So every federal, listen to this, Steve, every federal indicator shows that Gen Z is more depressed and more anxious than any generation ever studied.

13:31 Like, wow. So we are raising a generation that has depression and anxiety and epidemic levels. And that's not, I don't, you know, we're not surprised by that. You and I are not surprised by that because we understand what they're walking through and what they're dealing with. Gen Z abuses drugs and alcohol at a greater rate than any other generation alive. So you know, it's just the drug abuse is unreal. It's off the charts. So it's just in their dealing, you know, here's what they're also dealing with, the issue of suicide. You know, so if you study suicide trends, Gen Z is just plagued by suicide.

14:16 And all of these things go back, honestly, to some very simple things that our culture has rejected. And one of those is the place of the father, the place of the husband, and the idea of manhood. So I wouldn't want anybody to hear this podcast and go, oh, you know what, they're just, they're pushing a toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity does exist. But the way that the media has defined it is not accurate. Innocent masculinity is not a dad who goes out and works hard and loves his wife and kids and leads them to Jesus and is a spiritual leader in his home and pays the bills and takes responsibility.

14:56 I don't think there's anything toxic about that. We could use a lot more of that. And the men's conference is all about helping guys, equipping guys. There are some guys they've walked with Jesus for decades. There are some, and they're just trying to figure this thing out. And maybe they're like, they're not even a dad yet. They're like, they're a college student. You know, the great news about the conference is it's multi-generational. You saw that. So you've got dads with their sons. Like my seven-year-old son will be there and he looks forward to it all year. But then I have guys who, you know, we have guys who are registering for it in their 80s and they're coming and they're investing. These are great grandpas. You know, so my great grandpa will be at the men's conference. He's 86, or not my great-grandpa, my grandpa, but my kid's great-grandpa, you know, 86 years old.

15:40 And so you've got four generations in the room. It's just cool because all of them are benefiting from it. And it's real talk. You heard Levi Laska's talk last year. It was on sex. And he didn't pull any punches. He walked guys through the biblical view of sexuality and how to view sex, how to steward that in a relationship. But then Josh Hawley, you know, walking guys through the truth about manhood and his incredible book and then, you know, Craig Rochelle getting up and talking about, you know, responsibility and what God wants to do through your life. And it was just, the whole thing was just powerful. And so we're trying to get guys in a room where they recognize, I'm not alone.

16:21 There's nothing like standing in an arena with over 9,000 guys. Plus, we've got guys who are joining in. Right now for this year, we already have guys registered from 24 countries across the world. You know, men are registered from 36 states. So I mean, this is a, it's a, it's a people from all over the nation are coming, people from around the world are coming. And I just can't encourage whatever, like for the pastors who are watching this or men's leaders or, you know, maybe you, you're a business owner and get the guys in your world in a room where they can go, Hey, it's, it is manly to serve Jesus, love Jesus and walk in God's calling and purpose on your life.

17:03 There's nothing more manly than that. So it's just powerful. So well said. And you know, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So let's show people what to expect. Oh, when I went last year, I didn't know that.

18:03 And I went last year, I didn't really know what to expect. I guess I expected it to be more like promise keepers, which was a, which were great events. But they were kind of revival meetings in a football stadium. Yours was had elements of that, but it was a lot more. So I'm guessing that that's probably the biggest venue in Springfield. It's a very nice venue. I believe you'd call it a basketball court. And I'm not sure what it seats, but probably 15,000 more or less, and it was filled to the rafters and I walked in and here was an army tank. And here were some old cars sitting on the floor and I'm going, what in the world?

18:45 Well I found out before long, you kind of cleared it away because people were around it and that army tank crushed those cars while everybody just went crazy. Yeah. And then you had acrobats doing stuff that was frightening to me. Yeah. No, it was. If I tried it, I would have, yeah, you're right. I would have died. And people yelling and cheering and you know, there are a lot of men that are walking with the Lord and they've really blown it in their lives. They have a lot of guilt and shame. And in an environment like that, there is a feeling, yes, I can make it.

19:26 There are other men who are going through the same thing I can. Jesus is the answer. The Bible does have the answer. And I think that events like that encourage people and life is more than going to great conferences. Yeah. But I think it's a very important part of life and I encourage people to come and you mentioned other groups around the country. I presume that they're going to live stream it. Tell us about that. Yeah, we have some places that are going to be extension sites for the conference. You can also purchase an individual live stream link. Although I would encourage you, if you're watching this, you want to do this with other dudes.

20:06 So you don't want to do this. Like I just don't think it's a great thing to buy the live stream link and watch this by yourself. One, it's a lot less fun. So you need it. You need, you know, so we have churches who are extension sites, but we have a lot of churches who bring like large groups of guys. We have a church in Kansas City. They're bringing 200 guys. So they're written buses and they're bringing them all down. We've got a church locally. They're bringing 60 guys. So we have groups of 250, 60, 70 guys and they're coming. So a lot of pastors are using this to kind of bolster their ministry to men. So they're already doing men's groups. They do things for men throughout the year, but this is kind of an anchor event for them.

20:48 And so, you know, it's not a, it's not James River Church men's conference. It's the stronger men's conference put on by James River Church, but we want it to be a resource to churches around the country because we recognize men's conferences are hard to put on their heart. It's difficult and expensive. I mean, you, it's not cheap bringing in an army tank. No, it requires a lot, but here's the thing. I think sometimes things are difficult because Satan hates them so much. And I really think that especially with conferences where people are coming into a space where tens of thousands of worshipers are filling the room with praise to Jesus.

21:30 And then the Bible's being clearly taught and men are being called to accountability and men are being called to put their faith in Jesus. You know, we'll see hundreds of guys come to faith in Christ, which is so exciting. You got to believe hell hates that Satan hates that. And so there's going to be opposition. We're never surprised by the opposition, Steve. Like last year we had articles written about like, how come you got to have a tank at a men's conference? Well, one, because we wanted to, you know, like, would Jesus have a tank at a men's conference? I don't know, but I think he might have. Like, you know, it's, it's fun. Like God invented, I think some people have forgotten that God invented fun. So we have a lot of fun. We do things that guys are going to love, you know, like Harrison Butcher from the Kansas City Chiefs, like he basically carried that team.

22:16 I love Patrick Mahomes. I love Travis Kelsey, but man without Harrison Butcher kicking some of those field goals. I mean, he had, he now holds the Super Bowl record for the longest field goal in a Super Bowl. So like he's going to be there. He loves Jesus, but he's going to be on that stage talking about his faith. Josh Hawley is going to be back at the event. Little, that's a surprise. Don't tell anybody that guys. But we love him. And tell us about some of the others like Mark Driscoll and some of the other speakers. I mean, Pastor Mark Driscoll, if you've, if you've not followed him, like the guy pulls no punches. So I know he's published several books with charisma. The guy's a dynamic communicator.

22:57 He's written a book called New Days, Old Demons. And he's just talking about how what we're dealing with in culture is really nothing new. If you look at the text of scripture, it really reminds you of the book of judges. There's a, there's a, everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. You know, they were defunding the police, you know, the borders were breaking down. You know, Israel was in a real state of crisis. And so Mark is going to be speaking to the, to the parallels we see in our culture and then what we see in the book of judges and Old Testament Israel and what they're dealing. So that's going to be powerful. But then you're going to have Tim Timberlake. Tim Timberlake is a powerhouse communicator. He's got to be one of the best preachers on the planet.

23:37 And he's coming in. That's going to be amazing. He'll actually be staying for conference Sunday, which is always an amazing end to the weekend. And then Jay Ben Chavez pastors in one of the darkest cities in America, Las Vegas, and God is blowing up his church. I mean, they're in the middle of a building project. They're growing like crazy. Why? Because in darkness, light shines really bright. And so in the middle of Las Vegas, he's driven a stake in the ground. He's preaching Jesus. And I can't wait to see what God does through his ministry, but the whole thing is going to be really spectacular. And as you can tell, I'm just a little bit excited about it.

24:19 And you should be. And you've been doing this now for a number of years and it's continued to grow. And that's an impressive statistic, largest in the country. And tell us a little bit more about your background and James River in the couple of minutes we have left. Sure. Yeah. James River is a multi-site church. We're affiliated with the symbolists of God in Springfield, Missouri, but really we are a community church in this sense. I mean, and you've been in the room, Steve, we have a lot of people from different church backgrounds, but mainly from no church background. So, you know, Tim, I can't remember who I think it was Flannery O'Connor called the South Christ haunted area of our country.

25:03 And so there's all these people who have kind of lingering. They grew up around the things of God. They grew up in a Christian environment. Maybe they identified as a Christian, but they've never known the Savior. And so James River has been, you know, we're committed, God raised James River up to reach the lost. That's what we're about. We love seeing people come to know Jesus. And so by the grace of God, we've seen tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of people at this point, and come to know Christ in the church, through the church. And so what we're passionate about is seeing people come to know Jesus. And so this year, we've seen hundreds of people come to faith in Christ already.

25:46 And you know, we're in the middle of a leadership transition right now. My dad was the first full-time pastor of the church. It was started by four families in the very early 90s. And he came along. They had a retired guy who was preaching for them. And he came nine months after the church was started with four families and has pastored, you know, for three decades, over three decades here. And now my brother Brandon and I are taking the baton of leadership. And so we're in a leadership transition right now where he's passing the baton to us to be co-lead pastors. And we're so excited about this season because God is really accelerating so many of the things that he's doing, not just through one location.

26:32 We've got multiple locations and then, you know, a big online church family as part of James Shriver. So we're just excited about what God's doing. But we've got, you know, we do a couple of conferences through the year because we are passionate not only about raising up men, but also women. So we've got a women's conference that's actually back-to-back weekends because the arena can't even accommodate it. It's just too big. And that happens in the fall. But, you know, God is just, he's accelerating things in the life of the church. The wind of the spirit is blowing. We're seeing a lot of miracles happen right now. And, you know, in the last three years, we've seen over 4,000 people healed. And I'm talking physical healing.

27:12 So, you know, cancer healed, tumors dissolving, metal plates dissolving. We had a lady whose toes grew back. They had been amputated. They grew back, like, in a service in front of one of our team members. So it's just been, God is doing really extraordinary things in the life of the church. And so we're just, honestly, we're just hanging onto the Holy Spirit and saying, guide us, lead us, direct us. We only want what God wants. But honestly, we're just so committed to following His lead, more committed than ever before, to just saying, only the Lord knows where we're going. And so we've got to stick close to Him. So, boy, that's exciting. And it sounds like we need to do an article in Charisma online about these miracles or have a separate podcast about that because it's just so incredible and we're always looking for things that can be documented.

28:02 Yes. And so as we close, as a final word, I want you to tell people again how they can register. Well. Of course, you can always Google stronger men's conference and find it that way. But tell people the cost, the deadline for registering, all that good stuff. Yeah. Well, we would love it. We'd love for you to come. April 12th and 13th, it starts on a Friday afternoon. We've got some pre-conference entertainment that guys love. It's just we've got like swap raids and golf simulators and all this stuff down by the arena. And then the conference kicks off officially at 7 p.m. on Friday night. It is a power packed. We're going to have professional boxing, Steve.

28:43 Literally we're going to have a title fight on site. So somebody's going to like walk away with it's a sanctioned professional boxing title fight. Like it's going to be crazy. Because of these guys are undefeated. So somebody's walking away with their first loss. They are professional. Like they bring in their whole crew. It's crazy. It'll be in the middle of the, the place will be electric. So that's, you know, once again, all the fun. And then on Saturday, it'll be great. We're done by about noon. So it starts in the morning at eight and it goes till noon. That way guys who have, who have traveled in can get back and, you know, if you still want some of your Saturday, you can have it. But it's an incredible time. The onsite rate is $199, but right now you can get it for $169.

29:26 So $30 off the onsite rate. And if you're bringing a group, there's group discounts. So strongermen.org is where you go. And we would love to connect with you. And if you've got questions, you can always call us, you know, here at the church, just Google Steve's right. Use Google, Google James River Church. You can talk to our real person if you have any questions. But here's the thing. We are passionate about investing in men and seeing them step into their God given calling and assignment. And I'm so thankful for Steve because Steve is passionate about this or I wouldn't even be on this podcast. So Steve, thank you for making space to talk about this. And thank you. And congratulations on this new position that you're moving into you and your brother.

30:12 We're excited. So God bless you both. And thank you to my viewers and listeners. If you haven't subscribed to the strength report, be sure to do so and hit the little bell so you know when we're live every Tuesday and Thursday, 4pm Eastern time and share this with others, especially those who you believe would be interested in the stronger men's conference. Thank you for watching. God bless you.