In this Q&A video, Pastor Bill discusses the impact of his parents encouragement on his life, and what he Learnt about the value of believing in people, and following the convictions God lays on our hearts.
i’m just folks interested in just uh you
know how your parents
uh any principles that took happened in
your family at times past we’ve talked
about how you
raise your kids i imagine there’s a lot
of coral area there between those
principles but
anything your parents did in particular
um that you take from them
to apply and raise in your family that
just want to talk about right now
um yeah that might both of my parents
uh are just huge encouragers my dad was
was just really the biggest
encouragement of my life he always
you know the overriding thing was he
always believed in me
just no matter what he just always did
and my mom too they both
they both they both have stated over and
over again
you know throughout my life you can
accomplish anything you want to
accomplish and
and uh one day i was i was talking with
my dad i was i was in my 20s or so and
so i’m kind of
i said i think i might pick up the
violin and play that because yeah
that’ll never work that’s the first time
in my life
i ever ever heard him say that i
couldn’t accomplish it was a it was a
it was a very funny but it struck you in
the moment yes yes absolutely
it’s do that because i’ve never heard
that before but it was you know it was
it was a very funny family moment
absolutely an inside joke but uh
yeah but he he just he just always
believed in people
and uh and it applied first at home
which is really cool because i
i run into people still that will say
i’m in the mission field i’m pastoring
i’m doing whatever
because of your dad’s encouragement he
believed me when nobody else around him
believed in me
yeah and he stood up for me and this
organization that group whatever was not
going to allow me in
yeah and but your dad stood up for me
and now they’re world changers you know
wow
well the cool thing is that was at home
before it was out there yeah
so that was that was the big deal yeah
the natural extension of who he was
was living everywhere yeah both of them
were yeah it strikes me i have two
questions hopefully
you’ll remember them but uh did um did
that like put any weird performance
thing on you ever you know because
sometimes we can talk
like sometimes we’ll say hey you guys
are world changers and we’ll have
people come back after two or three
years ago i’m a failure i haven’t
changed the world
yet it’s just like i don’t that’s not
quite we met you know and
did you have a sense of that uh uh it
creating performance or was it was it
was it good or the way it was given it
was like no it didn’t have a lot of
strings attached to it or yeah it wasn’t
it wasn’t attached to a requirement
you know it wasn’t attached to a
behavior
or something i mean i wasn’t i wasn’t
that good at school
i mean my grades were fine because i i
could pull it out but
[Music]
but it was just a it was an overall
encouragement it if if there was any
performance attached to it i never
caught it because i was never good at
that
i never i never went oh no i’ve got to
earn more favor
yes i mean i i don’t ever remember that
if if i went through that season
you know i i forgot but
but no i was never i never that i recall
i don’t ever remember
attached to where i felt like i had to
somehow perform
that you know i i sometimes did because
i was a pastor’s kid
yeah and that was in a real time of
change today
you know pastors kids don’t face at
least in our culture they don’t face the
same pressure
they probably feel like they do but it
does seem like it’s a different pressure
no you don’t you’re 40 years ago
no you don’t trust me oh yeah
it was a different culture i remember
the the pastors that kind of i was
raised up under
they were going to go on a missions trip
to europe but they sent a publicity
photo
and she had earrings on cancelled the
whole trip
for the publicity photo yeah different
level
no they really don’t i mean and it
happened for my kids in weberville i
mean there’s always pressure because
yeah because of ministry and whatever
yeah but uh
our the church in weberville were were
so gracious
so graceful towards my kids they were
not public property they were my kids
yeah
my wife was not public property didn’t
matter what anybody thought about
how she should dress or what she should
do she’s my wife yeah
and that was the approach and the church
really honored that and i think that’s
spreading
it it’s certainly not like it used to be
yeah i think so as well
my my dad wanted to play sports and
and that was a big deal i play sports in
high school you know and so my
grandmother
a big deal how like a big deal like
we’re not so sure this is good yeah yeah
no you don’t you don’t involve yourself
in that stuff okay it was the church was
against it yeah
and she she just cried out to god she
got along with the lord
and she came out and said i forget her
language because it was
it’s it would be
minnesotan yeah you know okay kind of
approach
uh old old style you know swedish
norwegian background
but she said athletes athletes is okay
she came out with a conclusion that he
could play and that was just a big deal
and she took a lot of heat for the fact
that he was involved in high school
sports so
back then it was a lot different than
now yeah
in some ways better yeah
absolutely but the other thing that
occurred to me is that uh maybe your
parents didn’t face this but is there a
time you know when you give just belief
in people
sometimes people are both are they’re
wanting to play the violin when they
have no aptitude for it
you know you can’t play yeah just
that’ll never happen so yeah but in a
real sense does that happen to you
you know in a way that you’re like oh
there’s sometimes you can’t just give
that belief unconditionally in something
or
or do you just figure let’s sort that
out later you know i’ll just i’m just
going to believe in them the person are
you asking about
me i guess you know i guess i’m kind of
whichever one
whichever one is like applicable you
know and maybe maybe we just stick with
your parents if you want but uh
but you already told me that he believed
in you just regularly and consistently
so i’m not i’m not sure you have a story
where he’s able to go you know son
yeah i i also didn’t challenge him i
didn’t come home and say you know i’m
going to be an astronaut he might have
gone yeah son
you’re going to happen no he he really
believed i could do
i could do anything i mean if i were to
say i was going to go into politics or
practice law or whatever
he would be right there so as far as my
approach to people
oftentimes people have a dream let’s say
they want to be an actress
yeah okay um whether or not
the aptitude for that has yet to be
proven but
there’s a desire in them that is
manifesting in their desire bene
to be an actress that dream
is still alive even if they don’t become
an actress because
it takes on an expression somewhere else
in other words there’s a gifting there’s
a desire a passion in them
that uh you know the way they identify
it is i want to be an actress or a
baseball player or i want to be a
politician or whatever
um but that they’ve got a drive in them
that may find fulfillment somewhere else
you know if the lord yeah if the lord
turns this away that same passion
it’s a weird example but i remember some
some of the great missionaries in the
assemblies of god went to lebanon
many many years ago to start a tv
ministry they’re friends of our family
and when they got there everything that
brought them there fell apart
and they ended up starting this other
little ministry called book of life
and it’s this massive world-changing
incredible ministry of the assemblies
that actually started
you know their dream took them here to
crash and burn
yeah and it looked like it wasn’t
fulfilled yeah but it was
it was fulfilled greater here so we have
the person who’s wanting to be the
politician
and it doesn’t work but they end up
being incredibly successful in business
and having more influence in this role
than they would have here
yeah and so it’s the that drive god
protection preserves
we try our best with language this is
what it is
and he says i see it and i’ll protect it
but this is what it is
oh yeah and you know so it’s it’s it’s
like these things are
god-given to us so by giving that belief
in some ways this is a person might not
be heading
to where they think they’re heading but
they are they’re taking the risks into
the places that maybe perhaps the lord
wants them to
exactly you talked about your dad what
about your mom and that whole set
was was she the same level of belief or
was she
okay she really was she she’s
such a incredible they were both were
just
such people of excellence yeah you know
i mean just with everything yeah
yeah i mean that was intimidating
[Laughter]
and inspiring too you know i mean they
were such people of excellence and
she was always she never flaunted it she
never
she never you know so look at my
handwriting now compare it to yours she
would never do that
you know she spoke for itself
it’s obvious that i have the physician’s
handwriting
yeah but um no it was always i don’t
remember
any time where it wasn’t encouragement
you know there was always the incur
there were
challenges along the way of course that
were always brought on by me but
but uh but no it’s always encouraging
always just overall confidence and faith
and
yeah in each child for what they were
born to do
you know so