Say it! Tell It! Live It! Bishop Sheard Joins Stephen Strang

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Hello everyone, I'm Stephen Strang and welcome to this very special edition of the Strang

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Report podcast. It is my honor to interview today the presiding bishop of one of the

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nation's largest Pentecostal denominations called the Church of God in Christ. His name

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is Bishop J. Drew Sheard and he's from Detroit, Michigan. And I've known several of his predecessors.

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I have experienced with the Church of God in Christ going back to the 1980s and it's

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a great denomination with a great history. In fact, it was founded in the late 1800s

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by Bishop Charles Harrison Mason and he actually received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

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At the Azusa Street revival, 10 years after the denomination was formed and actually brought

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the whole movement into Pentecost. I think it's a very fascinating story. I had the privilege

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of meeting and interviewing his widow just a few years before she died. And so I'm, I

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love the Church of God in Christ. Some of the best preachers, some of the best musicians

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on the planet are in the Church of God in Christ or a few slipped out and went on to

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greater things. But I mean, it's just influenced the body of Christ so much. So I want to just

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introduce a Bishop Sheard and just welcome you to the Strang Report. Thank you for taking

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time to be on the podcast. I want you to give us an update a little bit on your odyssey

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on how you became presiding Bishop a year or so ago and also what's happening now with

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this great denomination. Well, thank you, Brother Strang, for even having me on this.

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And we certainly praise God for you and the work that you're doing in the body of Christ.

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Back in November of 2020, we were slated to have our annual Holy Convocation, but due

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to COVID, we couldn't have it in that year. In that Convocation, we were to elect a presiding

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Bishop. Of course, our leader, the presiding Bishop, the Emeritus, Bishop Charles Edward

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Blake had decided that he would retire. And we were slated to have an election in November

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of 2020. But due to the fact that we did not meet, we decided to have a virtual General

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Assembly where the election would be held. And that happened in March of 2021.

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What would Bishop Mason have thought of that? Do you think he could have imagined that? Of

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course, the Church of God in Christ was long before the radio, the television, everything

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else. I mean, it's amazing what technology allows us to do now.

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Not only do I think that Bishop Mason never conceptualized that, there were a lot of members

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of the Church of God in Christ presently who couldn't conceptualize that. So it was a matter

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of growing. And sometimes growing causes some real pain. I was a victim of growing too fast

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and had pain in my knees as a youngster. So our growth caused us to merge and forge ourselves

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into the future of technology.

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While I was just making a comment on back in that day, something like a virtual thing

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was impossible. No American would have imagined it. I mean, airplanes weren't invented, none

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of that stuff. And now we're able to use that to spread the gospel. And I'm not a historian,

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but I love history. I've studied history. I've studied the history of the Church of

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God in Christ. And if I'm not careful, we'll spend the whole time we have together on history.

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But let me just mention this one. This one comment, we remember that Dr. Martin Luther

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King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. And Memphis is the headquarters of the Church

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of God in Christ. And there's a great auditorium sanctuary called Mason Temple. And it was

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there that Martin Luther King, Jr. preached his famous sermon about how he'd looked over

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to the Promised Land. And it was the night before he was assassinated. Nobody would have

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known he was there for other reasons. It wasn't an official Church of God in Christ function.

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But someone allowed him to use that. And so that's a footnote in history that I think

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is something you can be very proud of. That's probably his second most famous speech after

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the one he gave in Washington, D.C. about having a dream. But anyway, enough history.

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We'll be back. Why this happening? I know that you've got many great churches. We've

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mentioned Bishop Charles Blake, his Church, West Angeles Church of God in Christ, in the

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Western Los Angeles area. I've been to it many times. I've been his friend. I've been

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in his home since the early 1980s. And the last time I checked, and these numbers change

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all the time, they had about 25,000 members, which makes it one of the largest in the nation.

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Sure. And there are a lot of great Church of God in Christ congregations all over the

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country. What's happening with your denomination now? And why do you think that Kojic is growing

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when so many denominations seem to be losing members?

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Well, to say that Bishop Charles Edward Blake was a phenomenal leader, of course, I'm one

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of his protégés, if you will. I never, it was just amazing to me the type of ministry

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that he had built. And of course, I went to Los Angeles and stood in line to get in West

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Angeles to just observe what was going on. At that time, I had a very small congregation

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in Detroit, well, it's actually in Highland Park, Michigan. And I went home and changed

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the structure of my church and the structure of the service and mimic to Bishop Charles

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Edward Blake's service. And my church took off. It has grown exponentially. But the Church

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of God in Christ, because of what we advocate, advocate that we're led by the Holy Spirit

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and lifting up Jesus. And you know, of course, the Bible says that Jesus said, if I be lifted

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up, I will draw men unto me. There's a certain thing that which I want to commend you, Brother

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String, charisma, you know, that what is that emanates from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

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that's that drawing power. And so I'm so thankful that the Church of God in Christ is led by

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the Spirit and we are trying our best to mimic exactly the footprint or the blueprint that

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Jesus Christ would have for his church. And so people are attracted to the Church of God

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in Christ because of that charismatic services that we have and the charismatic preaching

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and singing and and and just the foundation of the word of God that we preach. And I believe

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that Church of God in Christ continues to grow. We're in over 113 countries now and

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we're still growing. Congregations are growing. Jurisdictions are being planted over the nation

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and throughout the world. And so I believe the Lord's favor is upon our church. And we're

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trying to provide at this particular time, leadership that will invite that kind of growth.

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And so God has blessed us and we're doing extremely well. And I'm just thankful and I feel humbled

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that God would allow me to be at the helm of such a great church as the Church of God

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in Christ. You know, you mentioned the music and I have never been to a Church of God in

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Christ event or service where the music has disappointed never. It's just powerful. Yes.

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And a lot as I kind of mentioned earlier, a lot of great musicians. Andre Crouch is

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the one who comes to mind. His his father was a Kojic preacher. And I guess Andre was too.

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And there's so many other examples. I don't want to rattle off names. I'll get something

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wrong. But I wanted to mention your wife, Karen Clark, the youngest of the Clark sisters,

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some of those most powerful singers in gospel music for years. Yeah. And I don't want to

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put you on the spot too much. But how in the world did you get such a famous wife? Very

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carefully. My, of course, my, my, my wife and I'm next year, we will be married 40 years.

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Wow. Congratulations. Thank you. My, my dear wife, her mother, Dr. Maddie Moss Clark was

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the music president for the Church of God in Christ and really revolutionize the music

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for the Church of God in Christ. And then, of course, I like to have fun by saying that

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my mother-in-law will say, these are my girls, you know, these are my girls. And she would

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bring them up to sing. And of course, my wife, who is the youngest of the Clark sisters,

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just turned into this phenomenal vocalist. I'm, I'm sorry if I sound a little partial,

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but to me, she's the greatest gospel voice, you know, as far as singing is concerned.

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She is, she's a part of that group. She has her own singing solo career. And then, of

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course, she has given birth to my daughter, Chiara, who is a tremendous gospel artist

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as well. My son is a producer. So my mother-in-law has this great lineage in music. And of course,

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our daughters are carrying it on. And the Church of God in Christ has a unique sound

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because of Dr. Maddie Moss Clark. And because you're anointing of the Holy Spirit, too.

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I will do that. Thank God. Yes. Well, you know, I'm a publisher, and so I'm always interested

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in people's books. And you've written three books, including a new one that is appropriate

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for the new year. And it is called, Say it, Tell it, Live it. It's an inspiring and uplifting

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52 week devotional. And this is a good time of year. In fact, I'm going to get your book

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and use it. I try to do something different to so that my quiet time with the Lord doesn't

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become routine. And of course, I study the word, but I always like a good devotional.

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So why did you write this? What led to it? And what do you hope to what do you hope people

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will get out of it? Well, coming out of the pandemic, there were

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so many broken and despondent individuals, you know, the COVID did a job on a lot of

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people in the body of Christ. And and I, of course, going through myself with the loss

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of my mom during COVID and then eventually my dad, I was one of those wounded individuals.

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And a lot of times we as people who are in ministry try to act like there's nothing wrong

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when we're really hurting very deeply inside. And I began the Say it, Tell it, Live it is

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a consortium of sermons that I have preached. And they're just taking the subjects and then

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we just kind of expounded on those subjects in a very brief way. But we wanted to uplift

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the body of Christ, we wanted to give them hope in what seemed to be a hopeless time.

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And so I was writing and we were pulling things together. And we wanted to just inspire the

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body of Christ, inspire those outside of the body of Christ to know that they could make

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it with the help of the Lord. And that's the that's the impetus of why this book came about.

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And then to do it on a weekly basis, you know, your walk with God cannot just be done on

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a once a month thing, it's got to be a continuous walk, you need continuous strength, you need

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continuous inspiration. And so that's what this is all about to keep us walking and help

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us to get stronger and become greater soldiers. And then as we as we start saying this, internalizing

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the word of God in ourselves, then let's start speaking it to people around us. So we're

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supposed to be a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it moves further than that,

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because a lot of times people can't hear what we say for seeing what we do. And so we admonish

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them to live it. So say it, tell it and live it. And so that that was how that came about.

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Well, that's a wonderful philosophy. And I just encourage people to get the book, we'll

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put it up on the screen, you can go to Amazon.com. That's probably the easiest way. But you also

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wrote two other books. So why don't you just briefly, when you're on Amazon, you can get

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all three. And notice how I just kind of enjoy pushing books. Tell us about your other two

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books as well. Well, my first book, which is called Hang In There. And that was that's

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my, that's my, my line, my tagline. And whenever I talk to people on the phone, or I end up

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saying hang in there, or if I text somebody, I end up with hang in there. And hang in there

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was I was going through some challenges and, and, and, and, and, and, and the Lord spoke

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into my spirit saying, you're not the only one going through. And so I began to think

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that, you know, I was on my way, I guess up the escalator in my religious life. And, and

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a friend of mine said to me, he said, you know, turbulence is the price you pay for

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flying high, you know, and that stuck with me. And so Hang In There is a key is a book

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about keys to becoming empowered, resilient and successful during turbulence. And it's

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some great things in that book. And then I had a situation where I almost lost my wife

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in I believe was 2000, and maybe one, one or two. My wife had a blood clot that threatened

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her life. And I was, I was going through, I was writing a sermon out of, out of Micah,

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I believe it was. And I was talking about having how Micah said, how long, oh Lord,

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and, and I was having an issue with, with, with, with doubt. And I called that next book

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about with doubt. And, and this is resisting the temptation of silent disbelief, because

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I couldn't get up publicly and say, Lord, what are you doing? Da da da da da. I had

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to fight that thing on the inside because after all, I'm this preacher, there's a large church

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and I can't seem like I'm having doubts. So it was a silent bout with doubt. And so I,

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I wrote it because I know that there are many people who have those issues with, with, about,

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I mean, with doubt as well.

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Well, as all of us do, as far as the human experience, I know I'm going to get those

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books. They seem very valuable and very important and very timely. So go to Amazon.com and

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check out Jay, if you just put in his name, in fact, I've done this, Jay drew she shared

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yeah, and sh e a r d.

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Yeah, they pop right up. Yeah, but we have a few more minutes. And I want to talk about

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one of the very most important subjects, especially when I talk to leaders such as yourself. And

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that's the issue of vision. And you mentioned earlier that you were you considered Charles

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Blake, a mentor. And I would say it's in, in a distant kind of way, I considered him

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a mentor too. He and we were celebrating our anniversary of charisma, which happened to

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be August 5 1975. Can't believe it was that long ago, but it was. And I found out because

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I was with Charles Blake, that he was 40 years old on that day. So it's easy for me to remember

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how old he is. So he's a few years in front of me. And I just admired him because he's

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a major leader. So let's say that you're mentoring men, which you do, and you're sharing them

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about vision, the vision you have for Kojic, the vision you have for your own ministry,

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for your own life, for your own family. And as people begin the new year in which we tend

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to set resolutions and think about goals and things that we should think about all year

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long, but we don't, what advice would you give them about vision?

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Well, you know, I believe and I sincerely believe this, that every individual has to

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come to a point where you acknowledge that God will be first in your life. And your main

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objective should be not to do anything purposely that would cause God to be displeased with

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you. And so as you live that life, you go through life and you're paying close attention

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to dotting the eyes, crossing the T's and making sure there's a proper punctuation

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mark at the end of every sentence. Then I believe that God will honor that kind of life

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and God will begin to speak to you about things that you can be a part of in the future that

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will be for the upbuilding of the kingdom and not only that, but for the upbuilding

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of individual lives. I think that we as leaders must first take an interest if we don't have

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an interest in people and in people being better than we're not really leaders. And

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if people are not following us, if we look around and there's nobody following us, we're

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no longer leading, but we're just taking a walk. So we have to be very careful that

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we look at- That's a good expression.

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Yes, we have to be- Taking a walk, not leading.

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Yeah, you know, a lot of people, they call themselves leaders, but nobody's following.

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And you're not leading, you're just taking a walk. We've got to be able to inspire people.

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Godly leaders must inspire people with a godly life. I'm not saying that everybody that's

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in leadership is going to be perfect. I'm not saying that at all. But there must be

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a spirit of humility that will say, even if I mess up, I want to get back on track in

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a hurry. I don't want to stay where I am. I want to get right with God. And then God

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speaks to us to speak to the people of how they can do. I believe that when people come

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to church and Brother Strain, if it sounds like I'm getting the carry away, please stop

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me.

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Oh, listen, preach. Go ahead and preach.

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I believe that when people come to church, that it should be an opportunity to inspire

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them to get better. I'm not in favor of people coming to church getting beat up. They get

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beat up on their jobs. Some people are getting beat up in their homes. But when they come

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to church, we must inspire them to be better, to be better. First of all, better children

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of God, better husbands, better wives, better sons and better daughters and just better

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human beings. And so I believe that's the work of the ministry. I often give my definition

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of ministry. And my definition of ministry is meeting the needs of people. If I'm not

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meeting the needs of people, I'm not really doing ministry. So thank God that he equips

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me to meet their needs. And their needs are vast, you know, because sometimes, you know,

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I'm sorry, sometimes we got to pay rent, you know, sometimes we got to buy groceries, sometimes

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we got to buy clothes for those who are following us. And then sometimes we just got to give

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an encouraging word. But whatever we do, we must meet the needs of people if we will do

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ministry. That's what Christ has called us to be. I'm sorry, I went, I kind of got off

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on my porch over there.

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Well, that's important. And it's good to be reminded of that. And I just appreciate so

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much you taking time for your very, very busy schedule running this denomination with six

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million members, I can barely imagine what that's like. And it's one of your key people

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told me that there was a certain amount of debt and you paid off all the debt. You know,

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that's very important. It's, you know, even not only for denominations, but each of us

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needs to try to be debt free. We tend to buy into the what the world says about you need

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to buy, buy, buy. And it's easy to buy on credit and who, you know, you don't have to

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pay it off until a long time from now. But no, especially as a new year's coming.

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Yeah.

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One of the goals people need to make is, is getting out of debt. And, and you're right,

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leaders need to lead the way. And you certainly have led the way in, in so many ways there

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in the church of God and Christ.

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I want to encourage people to share this, especially if you know someone who is interested

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in this ministry, they of course want to see this, this interview. But also there's a lot

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of people who don't know about the church of God and Christ to it, who need to. So I

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encourage people to share it. If you don't already subscribe to the Strang report, I

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encourage you to do it. Hit the little bell so you'll be notified when we're on live on

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Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4pm Eastern time. We want to make a connection. The subscriptions

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are continuing to grow, go up and the Strang report, we cover everything from controversies

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like what's happening in Kansas City right now with the International House of Prayer

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to ministries like this. I recently interviewed another denominational leader, but also authors

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once in a while a celebrity. I had Dennis Prager on not long ago and Glenn Beck. So

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really you need to subscribe so you don't miss any of our Strang report podcast. And

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in the minute we have left, I want to give the last word to Bishop Shearer to just encourages.

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Well, thank you, Brother strain and thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of

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this. I consider it a high honor and I just want to say to the people as we're coming

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to the end of this year and especially to those in ministry. I want you to know that

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God is calling us to do ministry on a much more intense scale than perhaps we've done.

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We're coming through this pandemic and the thing for the church of God in Christ that

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I have given the church for the coming year is we've got work to do. We've got work to

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do because we need to work on our churches. We need to work at getting more souls in to

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the kingdom of God and we need to make sure that we're doing all we can to be a light

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in the communities that we're in. Let your light so shine so that men may see your good

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works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Thank you again, Brother strains. God bless

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you and thank you for the work you do to the body of Christ.

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And thank you. And I'll just say amen to what you said is so important. I thank my viewers

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and listeners for tuning in tuning in again for another episode of the Strang report on

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the charisma podcast network. God bless you.

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Welcome back. Do you ever feel discouraged? Do you need hope? The world is so upside down

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