Let's Connect
The Official Podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you live a life that matters; one that is both on mission and has a purpose to know Jesus and make disciples.
Let's Connect
Episode 1 - Discipleship: Fostering Faith Beyond Sunday
Welcome to the inaugural episode of “Let’s Connect”, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas. Today, Bill Whitmire and Pastor Ken Ansel dive into what it truly means to build a meaningful relationship with Christ and one another. This episode emphasizes that the journey of faith doesn’t end with salvation; rather, it marks the beginning of a deeply enriching experience that includes discipleship, community, and a lifelong commitment to spiritual growth.
This episode invites listeners to reconsider their faith journey by nurturing relationships with God and each other. We hope to inspire you to not only think about salvation as a goal but as a first step in a lifelong journey of faith that’s filled with purpose and connection. Join us each week as we continue this conversation! Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share your thoughts with us.
Welcome to let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church in Rockdale, Texas, where we want to help you to live a life that matters, one that is both on mission and has a purpose to follow Jesus and make disciples. So let's get started.
Speaker 3:All right, welcome in to the inaugural episode of let's Connect, the official podcast of Connect Church here in Rockdale, texas. I'm Bill Whitmire and I'm here, as I will be always, with our pastor, ken Ansel Ken. How are you doing today? I'm great, bill. How are you doing? Oh, and I'm here, as I will be always, with our pastor, ken Ansell Ken, how are you doing today?
Speaker 1:I'm great Bill. How are you doing?
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm doing great man. It's been in a little bit of cold time right now, but it's warm in here and we're ready to go yeah let's go, I'm excited. So I thought, when we this is our initial podcast and just thought we'd start with a little bit of an introduction as to who both of us are and what we do inside the church. Obviously you're the pastor, and so I figured I'd let you start it off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I'm the church planting pastor of a new church here in Rockdale. Man, it's going beyond Rockdale, though. We reach all of Milam County and even have some people from Taylor that have come over and like to hang out with us. And so, yeah, my name's Ken. I'm the church planning pastor at Connect Church. That's cool and your lovely wife, jennifer.
Speaker 3:You know you want to keep going. No, that's fine. No, y'all are both from Rockdale. I happen to be originally from Giddings, down south of here, but after I retired from the Navy I moved back to Milam County and my wife and I she's a nurse practitioner and I work for the government and we came along, I guess about the third Sunday we were out of town.
Speaker 3:those first three Sundays, but we came along on that third Sunday and it's been a great time. The church is just a—it's really done a lot here in town already. I mean, we've got a lot of folks that have come out and it's—well, I mean, tell me about your vision for what Connect Church was going to do here.
Speaker 1:Wow, well, really, just what the podcast is about is making disciples. You know you've you talk a lot about like what does that look like for us to live out our faith, live a life that matters? What is a disciple? It's a student, learner, it's somebody that isn't just made a decision for Christ and now they're good to go, but someone that's actually doing. That's what Jesus did with his disciples was. You know, they had what we used to call OJT, on-the-job training, and so he not only taught them what to do, but then he showed them what to do, and then his instructions to them were now go and do what you've seen me do, what you've heard me teach you.
Speaker 1:And so you know, it seems like not to sound critical, but maybe sometimes as a church we don't do a real good job of sharing that vision, and so that's what we want is we want to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people and then teach those people that acknowledge Him as their Lord and Savior what it means to follow Him, and that's what a disciple is, a Christian is. I mean those are synonymous with each other. Right? A disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ, a Christian is.
Speaker 3:I mean those are synonymous with each other right, a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ, a Christian, and what it really looks like to follow Him and not just go to church on Sunday and tick the box, and you know that's kind of the big deal is a lot of people, a lot of churches, a lot of people see that I'm saved, I'm baptized, I've become a member of a church, as is that ultimate victory, that ultimate goal and don't get me wrong, being reborn as a Christian is a huge, huge— I mean that's it you have to have that in your life.
Speaker 3:But it's what happens afterwards. Some people do that. We talked about it in church a few weeks ago when I said that it had been 45 years since the day I'd been baptized, and some folks are baptized when they're 10. Some don't come to Christ until they're in their 40s or their 50s or something, and then, when you get there, you have that period. What are you going to do?
Speaker 1:the rest of your life and it's that relationship afterwards.
Speaker 3:So many churches, just like you said, so many organizations. They're so focused on the saving part and I think you said this next week we're looking to have a couple of baptisms and it's so important. But what's next?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's next? You know?
Speaker 3:what's that next part? What's the next thing? It looks like I know that you told us one time. You know the name Connect Church was about connecting with folks, yeah, that's right. And you and I wrestled for a while for the name on this podcast and Chris just came up with it that one night after a Bible study, and you told me about it, I'm like well there it is after a Bible study and you told me about it.
Speaker 1:I'm like well, there it is, that's it, let's connect, let's connect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but when we connect with it, we've connected with a lot of people. I look at the folks that come to church with us on Sunday and it's such a cross section of our community yeah. Not saying the community, just Rockdale.
Speaker 3:But just like you said this whole area, and I live in Milano and we've got folks from all over the place that come to this church. When I've been in other churches in the area and I look at it, it's A lot of the same kind of people in each one of them and then when I look at ours, it's like wow, this is from all walks of life and that's really what Jesus had. When you look at all the folks that followed him. We always think about the 12 apostles, but we forget that there was a large group of people that followed him and they were a cross-section.
Speaker 3:He didn't go and say, well, I need a lawyer, I need a doctor, there's nothing wrong with these professions. But he didn't say I need all these white-collar people. He went and got fishermen and he did have a tax collector with him, which at that time meant you were a terrible person. And so when I look at our church and I see on Sundays, when I get up there and I open it up for you and I around and I'm like man, it's just amazing to me, all these people that two years ago probably didn't know each other and wouldn't even have been around each other. We had Bible study the other night. We have 12 guys in there and.
Speaker 3:I was looking at that too when we were sitting there and I was like, wow, I knew two of those guys, and one of them was my longtime friend and the other one I knew because I did the probate for his father's will.
Speaker 3:Otherwise I didn't know any of those other guys and God's brought us together and we've done really tremendous things and it's that just building that relationship going forward. And it's that just building that relationship going forward. But when we talk about Connect Church and we talk about what we're doing, we wanted to create this podcast to get it out past, to give it to our people that we go to church with and the people in our community. But this is going to go out everywhere and so we wanted to put that message out to everyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we want to connect people to God right and connect people to God's people, knowing that community is imperative as well. And yeah, you said so much. When you talk about a relationship, I mean Jesus is alive today and he's a very real person. Even though he's all God, he's also all man, and at Christmas we recognize the term Emmanuel, god with us, and God's gone to a lot of work to be with us and it's a very real relationship that needs to be thought of as just that. The same way, you and I have a relationship and we have relationships with other people.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what we're supposed to be doing and building building that relationship, not settling into our salvation that, yeah, I've got my ticket punched, I'm good to go whenever that day comes, but that we've got a relationship with Christ, that when we see him, he's glad to see us, we're glad to see Him Scripture talks about we don't want to be shrinking back from Him when we see Him and so, yeah, it's. You know, are you hanging out with Him and getting to know Him? And Scripture says he's our friend, and is that how you see Him? All those things are important.
Speaker 3:And is that how you see him. All those things are important. Yeah, just the. You know, you said it just a second ago. Are we doing what we need to do to have that relationship?
Speaker 1:with.
Speaker 3:God, Because if you do have a real relationship with God, the other things aren't going to matter a whole lot. You know, we have this group that we text with in our men's Bible study and I had two or three other text groups that took up a lot of my time a lot of my texting time Not that.
Speaker 3:I'm texting all the time. But that was who I went, that was my go-to group and now I still love those guys and I talk to them and I tell them what's going on in my life, in the hopes that they'll come along. But this group that we have, this is the group I go to now, and a big reason why is because God's there. You can feel—I mean God's there all the time but you can really feel the Holy Spirit moving in that group and we talked about this the other night in our Bible study and I think it's really important for a lot of people to hear as we move forward, and it is something that I used to tell my children too.
Speaker 3:When you're out there doing things, and during the day you're not with your church buddies, you're at work or just doing whatever, and people will do things. I know you talk about being in traffic and I mean, in reality I should probably never drive again, you know. First of all, you know my wife tells me I'm the worst driver there is so that would probably save a lot of people a lot of heartache.
Speaker 3:But you know driving and drivers around me. Nothing tests my faith more than those people in those other automobiles out there who are just quite frankly not doing it right. But when you're having those issues, when you're having those things, and it could be anything for a lot of people People get annoyed with other people all the time, for minor things and you always have to remember God's there.
Speaker 3:God's right there with you, he sees it, and you always have to remember God's there. God's right there with you, he sees it, and you have to understand that, not from the oh, he caught me standpoint, but from the you know, rely on him to get through that work with him to get through that work with him to overcome those things that are bothering you.
Speaker 3:That's part of that relationship. You know I've used this analogy with you before and you've heard it from me several times. But the getting saved, the getting baptized, the joining the church, for a lot of people is their touchdown if they were playing football, and it really should just be the first down that puts you at the 30-yard line and you've still got 70 yards to go because there's so much more in a Christian life and a relationship with God than just that moment that you're saved.
Speaker 3:Like I said, that is your rebirth. It's one of the most important things that can ever happen to you on this earth. Now, what, what's next? What's that next thing that you go to? And you have to keep doing that. You have to keep moving that way. You have to have that relationship with God. You have to keep moving that way. You have to have that relationship with God. You have to stay in your Bible, you have to pray.
Speaker 3:And so many people miss that mark and I feel like a lot of them do not because they don't want to be close to Jesus, not because they don't want to have a relationship with God, but, quite honestly, I feel a lot of people do because they don't get that instruction, be it from reading the Bible or be it from having a strong church community. You know one thing about Connect Church we've been in four different buildings now as we've progressed through this church plant of ours, and it's really driven home the fact that the church is not a building. It's that group of people that I talked about earlier, that diverse group of people sitting there and getting to know each other and loving on each other and being a part of each other's lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, that's so true, and earlier when you were talking, it made me think about. You know, we're really a multi-generational church and if you read much about church planning, it's like that's one of the things that a lot of church planners want is a multi-generational, multicultural too. But you know you really can't plan that.
Speaker 1:I mean that's the Holy Spirit that's drawing those people. And then, yeah, when you're doing pop-up worship and you're serving together, working together, setting up chairs together, taking down chairs and taking apart sound systems, there's something really good about that. As you, you know, teamwork is dream work, I guess. And to do it with I mean people that are 82 years old all the way down to you know, some young people that help. What a blessing to see the church be what I think God intends it to be.
Speaker 3:I told you this. The other day I was at an event and a pastor at a different church who I've known for a long time he's actually my father's pastor and he turned and he asked me and he said well, how are y'all doing on Sundays? And I said I told him. Well, on this date we had this number of people and we're getting a good group of people from a cross section and it wasn't him, but it was somebody that was in that group and they said man, y'all are doing amazing work there.
Speaker 1:And I just said, it's not us, this is all God. God's doing amazing work. He gets all the credit. He's just working through us.
Speaker 3:And I have to tell you, as a part of that relationship with God, when you feel God working through you to do something, I don't know how you want anything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, wow, that's so true. And a guy told me the other day that he's been coming to Connect Church and he said it's the first time in 30 years that he ever has felt full when he leaves the worship service. And I thought, wow, I mean, that's a win for Jesus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it is. It really is. That's a great way to put it. So I mean, we're going to keep this first introduction introductory podcast kind of short, right, but in the future, look for us, we're going to do this every week and get it out every week and it'll be a little longer. We're not going to make it too long because we know a lot of people listen to this on a drive and they don't want to break it up. For some reason, my wife loves two-hour podcasts.
Speaker 1:That's a long time, I mean she gives them to me.
Speaker 3:She says you need to listen to this.
Speaker 1:I'm like when. To this I'm like when, when am I going to listen to?
Speaker 3:two hours worth of podcasts.
Speaker 1:To take a vacation day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Don't tell her I said that. Well, let's see, president's Day is coming up.
Speaker 1:I'll just take a little time then.
Speaker 3:But you know, and I told her, I said you know that 15 to 30 minutes that's what you want. So folks give a chance to listen to it and really digest it and if they, want to go back, can listen to it as many times as they want to, but we're going to do this really once a week and they'll be a little bit longer in the future probably, but we just want to make sure that folks are getting what you need to have that relationship with God, to understand what that means and to, like we said at the beginning, to know Him and to make disciples and to, like we said at the beginning, to know Him and to make disciples.
Speaker 1:That's right and, as we close out, we really want to encourage people to not just survive in their relationship with Christ, but to thrive. Yeah we definitely do.
Speaker 3:Why don't you pray, bill? All right, we'll close it out with a little bit of prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this wonderful opportunity to speak to people and to bring you to them and to hopefully bring them closer to you and to understand what it is to not just be saved and not just to be a Christian, but to have a relationship with you. Father, we thank you for all that you do and we praise your name and we ask you to watch out for us all, for it's in Christ's name. We pray, amen, amen. All right, well, that'll take care of this episode and we'll be back next week with another episode. God bless everybody and we'll talk to you later.