Briefing Trip, Equipping Pastors to Understand Our Faith Filled Heritage: In today’s episode, we talk about the pastors only briefing trip to D.C.  You can come and learn more about the spiritual heritage of our nation. Not just seeing the sights but understanding the significance of what they are and what they represent. It’s just so encouraging to know you’ve got these Godly men and women that are there serving in our country and doing all they can to turn the country back. It just gives you hope that you’re not alone and that there are others that care and that God is using. Tune in now to hear more about this Briefing Trip to D.C.

Air Date: 06/19/2017

Guests: Pastor Steve Friskup, David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast.  However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers.  Additionally, names may be misspelled because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Welcome

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture, this is WallBuilders Live! Where we”€™re discussing today”€™s  hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture, always looking at it from Biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Use those three perspectives and you”€™re going to get the right answer on any question of the day. And then we talk about how to apply it to the culture.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premiere historian and our founder here at WallBuilders. Also, Tim Barton, president of WallBuilders, national speaker, and pastor. And my name’s Rick Green. I’m a former Texas state rep, national speaker, and author.

The Bible Is Culturally Relevant

Guys, when we say, “€œthe intersection of faith and the culture,”€ that certainly happens in the pulpit or at least it should. It certainly did in early American history.

Tim:

That’s right, historically if you look back to early pastors, you saw how they were trying to address culture. And that was part of what pastors thought their job was, to help equip Christians for the culture they’re dealing with. “€œThis is what you see in culture and this is what you should do.”€

And by the way, that’s historically the precedent they were shown by the apostle Paul. You read the Pauline Epistles and every epistle written to whichever church it was written to was to address the issues that church was dealing with. The whole Bible is culturally relevant.

I remember doing a deal at a church, I was talking to the pastor afterward and I was encouraging the staff, “€œHey, you need to address culture.”€ And the pastor said, “€œBut I never saw Jesus address culture. I just want to be like Jesus, I just want to preach what Jesus does.”€

Well, I can totally get on board with, “€œI want to be like Jesus. I want to live like Jesus.”€ Absolutely, but either you believe what the Bible says, that it is the inspired word of God, or you don’t. If it is the inspired word of God then everything in the Bible was put there for our benefit to equip us for what God has called us to do. And what Paul did was-

David:

And by the way, I want to throw something out real quick. If you want to be like Jesus then you need to specifically address divorce in Matthew 19. You also need to address the definition of marriage in Matthew 19. You also need to address judicial process in John 8 like Jesus did. You also need to talk about employer-employee relationships as Jesus did in Matthew 20. And you need to talk about things like capital gains tax for taxation systems, which Jesus did in two passages. And then just talk like he did to Peter about who should get taxed, which person should get taxed. Is it the foreigners or is it those citizens?  Jesus covered all sorts of cultural issues.

Rick

And he spoke directly to political leaders.

Tim:

He did, He covered a lot more than most pastors think. And Rick you’re right, He addressed political leaders. But, the point is that we have pastors that ultimately are looking for a way out or they’ve been trained with such a limited and poor theology that they don’t see the application of the Bible to the context of all of life. Which is really a very sad and even mistaken or foolish position to be.

The Bible really does address every area of our life. It addresses how we are employers and employees, how we are to handle our finances, and our relationships, to raise our kids, the Bible addresses every aspect of life. Even how we should run a nation, how we should do a government, and how we should vote when it comes to political areas. And this is where pastors used to speak to every one of those issues and today pastors just don’t really do a good job of touching all those issues.

The West Texas Lifestyle

David:

We’re going to have a guest on today who does touch those issues, Pastor Steve Friskup. When you hear his voice you’re going to say, “€œThis is a country guy.”€ Yeah, he is. He’s from West Texas, he’s from the town of Muleshoe, Texas.  And Muleshoe is out in west Texas.

Rick:

Not Horse Shoe.

David:

Not Horse Shoe, Muleshoe. And as you can imagine Muleshoe has the National Mule Memorial in Muleshoe, Texas, to show you how important the mule was. And Muleshoe is a town that commemorates West Texas ranching life.  And for people who don’t know what West Texas ranching life is, before we go to break let me kind of set this up.

In Texas, particularly in West Texas, life is really really different. Let’s just take a county out there in West Texas, Brewster County.  You ready for this? Brewster County in West Texas has sixty-one hundred square miles in the county and 9,000 people.

Now, people don’t know what that means, so let me put it in perspective. Brewster County has sixty-one hundred square miles, the entire state of Rhode Island is only twelve hundred square miles. So Brewster County is five times the size of the state of Rhode Island. It’s got 9,000 people and Rhode Island, one fifth the size, has one million people. It’s one hundred eleven times more population and one-fifth of the land there. Now, sixty-one hundred miles is Brewster County. Delaware is twenty-four hundred ninety-one square miles with one million population. Again, 40 percent the size but a hundred and eleven times the population.

Connecticut is only 5,543 square miles which still is not as big as this entire county is. So when you’re talking West Texas life, it”€™s very different from what most people think. That one county in West Texas is bigger than three states and the United States and that’s one of our 254 counties. So Pastor Steve Friskup, we’re going to talk to him in a little bit. He”€™s a really great guy, he recently had a great experience in Washington, D.C. and he’s going to share that with us.

Rick:

We’ll be back in a moment. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live!

Moment From America”€™s History

David:

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. Federal courts have made several amazing rulings recently. Ordering the removal of a cross from a cemetery, banning religious holiday displays, removing the Ten Commandments from public view, prohibiting student prayers whether verbal or silent, and numerous other similar restrictive rulings.

As one current justices noted, “€œThe Supreme Court has now become, “a national board of theology.”€ Our Founding Fathers would be astounded. They designed the First Amendment to keep the federal courts completely out of this issue.

As Thomas Jefferson forcefully declared, “€œI consider the federal government as prohibited by the Constitution from meddling with religious exercises. The first amendment was designed to keep decisions on religious expression out of the federal courts and in the hands of the local communities.”€ For more information on God’s hand in American history contact WallBuilders at 1 800 8 REBUILD.

About The Pastor’s Briefing Trip In D.C.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live! Thanks for staying with us. As we were going to break David you mentioned that Pastor Friskup will be with us later in the program. But you also mentioned he was on a passer’s briefing recently, tell us what those are.

David:

Yeah, what happens is twice a year in D.C we hold pastor briefings. WallBuilders invite pastors and ministry leaders to come. It’s a Tuesday night and a Wednesday program. On Tuesday night we take a private tour of the U.S. Capitol.

A representative, U.S. congressman, or U.S. senator, or whoever will take the Senate, the Capitol. And we go in rooms that are generally closed to the public as well as public rooms and see all thanks to the Capitol. It’s a spiritual heritage tour. It’s what people do not get it in their textbooks.

We just simply take you to the Capitol and show you all the spiritual stuff that’s in there that nobody ever hears about. Which is revolutionary for pastors because again, they often think, “€œWell, I don’t get involved in cultural stuff because that’s not spiritual.”€ No, not at all. You need to see the background.

So we do that, and then the next day we’ll bring in anywhere from 12 to 15 members of Congress, senators and representatives who talk to these pastors, share whatever is on their heart, and they are strong Biblical guys.

And what happens is most folks look at TV and what they see of Washington, D.C. is on TV. There are 535 members of the House and Senate combined. And you’ll never see more than 10 or 15 of the faces on TV over the course of the year.

So you base your impression on D.C. on the 10 or 15 faces you see, not the 400-500 you don’t see. And what we do is introduce you to folks that you don’t see that represent a whole lot of what is believed in Congress and it”€™s very encouraging.

Tim, when is the next pastors’ briefing?

Tim:

September 12th and 13th is the one coming up this fall.

David:

That’s right. So if you’re interested, if you’re a pastor, or if you’re some kind of a ministry leader, spiritual leader, or if you want your pastor or know about this, we will limit the number of people who can come because the rooms we go into in the U.S. Capitol aren’t huge rooms. So we have to limit it but it’s an opportunity for those who want to be part of it.

Emboldening Pastors  

Tim:

And part of what we do too is help the pastors see the historical example of early pastors. To show the impact that the clergy used to have, the pulpit used to have. And one of the things that was widely understood is that the pulpit is what shape the culture.

If the culture was in disrepair, if the culture was in trouble, we had no one to blame except what was behind the pew. That”€™s the way that early church leaders used to- and by “€œearly church leaders,”€ American church leaders. That’s the way they used to consider it. Because they were the most influential group of individuals.  Arguably more so than even the politicians on a lot of levels because they were the ones influencing the people that were choosing the politicians, influence the politicians once they were elected.

But pastors have just kind of lost some of this understanding. And so by helping them see historically that position, helping them see some of the congressional people that are there fighting for the values of the Word of God, it is such an inspiring turning thing for them that it really does embolden them.

So many of them are going back. We hear so many testimonies, so many positive reports from these pastors that have come to these briefings, and it’s really revolutionized the way they communicate Biblical truth in their pulpit.

Rick:

So pastors briefings happening throughout the year. You can find out dates so that you can attend and more about it at WallBuilders.com. There’s a tab right at the top for initiatives and pastoral briefings.

The Legislative Conferences is also on there, another opportunity to get involved. But for pastors, we’d love to have you come to D.C. with us. It’s an incredible experience, there’s nothing like being in the room when you hear the stories, and you hear us talk about it on the air, but to be in the room in the Capital, whether it’s Statuary Hall, in the Old House Chamber, in the rotunda, or the old Senate chamber, or the old Supreme Court, there’s just so many things that happened there. And to have David or Tim take those documents and actually show them to you in the room where it happened, I’m telling you, it will absolutely change your world. It’s a phenomenal opportunity.

Go check out those pastors briefings and get there to D.C. and have a chance to visit with some of those Godly men and women that are leading for us in D.C.  Stay with us, Steve Friskup is going to be with us when we come back. He”€™s going to share his experience.  You’re listening to WallBuilders Live!

Constitution Alive

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the United States Constitution but just felt like, man, the classes are boring or it’s just that old language from 200 years ago or I don’t know where to start? People want to know. But it gets frustrating because you don’t know where to look for truth about the Constitution either.

Well, we’ve got a special program for you available now called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. It’s actually a teaching done on the Constitution at Independence Hall in the very room where the Constitution was framed. We take you both to Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty and Independence Hall and to the WallBuilders”€™ library where David Barton brings the history to life to teach the original intent of our Founding Fathers.

We call it the QuickStart Guide to the Constitution because in just a few hours through these videos you will learn the Citizen’s Guide to America’s Constitution.  You’ll learn what you need to do to help save our Constitutional Republic. It’s fun! It’s entertaining! And it’s going to inspire you to do your part to preserve freedom for future generations. It’s called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more information on our website now at WallBuilders.com.

Reaffirming Our Beliefs

Rick:

Welcome back, thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live! Pastor Steve Friskup is with us from Cowboy Fellowship in Muleshoe, Texas. He just got back from going to a pastor’s briefing with us there in D.C. and had a great time. Pastor, thanks for coming on, Sir.

Steve:

Yes Sir, thank you for asking.

Steve:

Hey, so we’ve been doing these pastoral briefings and pastors from all over the country come into D.C. and get a day of briefings from congressmen and others. And David takes you through the through the Capitol there.  How did you enjoy it?

Steve:

Oh man, it was awesome. It was really awesome. I saw and learned a lot of things that we had never seen and didn”€™t know.

Rick:

Even as even as a pastor there are things about our Godly heritage that you don’t know, right?

Steve:

There’s a lot being covered up. So if you don’t go digging around, you don’t go look, you’re not ever gonna know, and that’s what happened. We got up there and we just realized how much we didn”€™t know and how much of it lined up was how we believed.

And when it begins to line up with how you believe and how you believe you ought to be doing for your country and how we ought to be doing as pastors, and that was the most encouraging thing. You know, just like in the last presidential election and it’s almost like society, and our belief system and everything else is taking pastors out of the fight. It’s like we”€™re nonexistent.

So then when you’re one of the few who says, “€œNo, that’s is not right. We were supposed to be engaged.”€ And then you go up there and you walk through Statuary Hall, and you see all the history, and you visit, and the next thing you know we’re listening to David and reading the history. We are right, it is men of God who brought this country to fruition. And as a man of God, we’ve got to bring it back. So when you believe that and you go over there with David and you come home ready to roll. Now you’re ready to be part black robe regiment and just do it.

Pastors Were Instrumental In The History Of The United States

Rick:

No doubt. Did it surprise you as a pastor, as a minister of the gospel, to see how many statues, and quotes, and paintings, and just how many pastors how many ministers of the Gospel were so instrumental in the history of the United States?

Steve:

Absolutely. I wasn”€™t just totally ignorant to it all. I’d dug around the names and I had read some David”€™s stuff. So I knew some but not the overwhelming amount of how this country came to fruition.

We walked around there and enjoyed the history. And then to come home and dive into some more history and just keep uncovering. God bless guys like David and Tim that have made this easy for us to discover.

We brought it home and we just started sharing the documentaries and the literature with our church. And just re-affirming in them that, “€œHey, we’re citizens of America too. I don’t care how they preach this, we’re citizens of America and we”€™ve got skin in the game.”€ And so it was really good.

And the foundational part of it, if you don’t have a foundation to stand on you’re never going to last to fight any country. We”€™re so founded in the Bible. It sent us on a mission. I don’t know how it all works, but we want to be part of it.

Revealing The Truth To Our Communities

Rick:

How important was it to you and how much of an impact did it have just seeing also so many other pastors from around the country coming in with the same experience you had? Eyes I open and when you’re in the room where it happened and you’re learning that history there are so many “€œaha moments,”€ right?

Steve:

Yes, Sir. Through all this, we’ve joined, no not really joined forces, but began to fellowship with another church from a different town and now it’s kind of spread. In fact, I just got done with the conference in Brownwood. And it was not set up to be a patriotic thing of any kind. But we saw God revealing the foundations of generations, and nations with borders, and the Constitution, the institution of government, and all those things came out in just a spiritual conference. And people’s eyes were being opened.

And I was one of the few guys that brought some of that history to the table because that trip to Washington just changed my whole life. Now I’m not interested in anything else now.

Rick:

That’s awesome.

Steve:

That’s it. And we”€™ve got to do this for, who knows, a thousand generations.

Leading A Congregation To Be Unified In Mission

Rick:

How did your how did your fellowship respond? When you came back I’m assuming you talked about some of that in some of your messages.  How did they respond to it?

Steve:

They are all in. They just sat there licking their lips. And we didn’t just come back and share something, it rerouted our whole church. We we are just intentional about, you know, I’m all for getting people saved for Heaven, that’s great. But probably most of us aren’t going to get lucky enough to die today. So while you’re here, we need that gospel message. And the teachings of the Bible which totally line up with everything the United States originally stood for. We need to recapture that back.

So my theme when I came home was that no matter about our theology and all that stuff, I believe we can be unified in mission. To be unified in our assignment. And to have that heart of our forefathers.

Rick:

That”€™s good.

Steve:

To lay a nation out for those who come behind us. And so our fellowship- of course, we were all in. I love Donald Trump and I love the way this country is starting to turn. And I’m not bashful about it and neither is our church. I tell it behind my pulpit and at any other pulpit that wants to invite me. My story don’t change.

We”€™ve Got To Come Together Despite Our Differences  

Rick:

Unified in mission. I like that. So even with other fellowships other churches in your community where theology may be different but you’re saying, “€œLook, the impact on the community and the country, we’re at a point where we’ve got to come together.”€

Steve:

Yeah. Don’t tell me you love Jesus and love your kids and you won”€™t get in this fight. That won”€™t work, somebody is lying here. That’s just pretty point blank and so when we got to Washington, and we will be going back.  We’ve got David come to our church here pretty soon and we want to learn how to pray, we want to learn how to pray along with Jesus, we want to be in partnership with God to sustain our nation.

Rick:

Is the is the D.C. experience going on the pastors briefing like that? Being with other pastors and doing the tour with David, and Tim, and hearing from the Congressman? I mean, is that something you recommend other pastors to do as well?

Steve:

Absolutely. Yes. I don’t know what else you would do with your time.

Rick:

That would have as much of an impact.

Having Hope Again In Our Nation And Our Leaders

Steve:

I mean honestly, you know the best part about it, Rick? It was to go up there- and one of the best parts for me was to listen to the legislators and the different speakers that came on the second day. And you realize, what you heard in their voice is you heard the heart of America and the heart of Jesus working together.

And people who went there not to make a name but to make a difference, people who are strong in their faith, they’re not a bunch of cheaters, they’re not a bunch of liars, they’re not lazy, they’re not scabbing off the country, you know?

Christians are the best in the world from ganging up on Sunday and yick yacking on Monday, and that’s not them. But man, we heard from a lot of people who they mean what they say. And that’s awesome.

Rick:

That’s the way I always feel when I go. It’s just so encouraging to know you’ve got these Godly men and women that are there serving in our country and doing all they can to turn the country back. It just gives you hope that you’re not alone and that there are others that care and that God is using. It’s just super encouraging.

Pastor, we”€™re so glad you went. Glad that you brought it back to your community and encouraging others to do the same thing. Keep up the great work and may your church be a beacon of hope there in Muleshoe and across Texas and across the country.

Steve:

Alright, well thank you very much. Appreciate the visit.

Rick:

We appreciate you coming on! Folks, stay with us, we’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Pastors Only Briefing Trip

Tim:

Hi, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders and I want to encourage all the pastors out there with a unique opportunity that we’re presenting it WallBuilders. We’re doing a special tour just for pastors that you can come and learn more about the spiritual heritage of our nation. Not just seeing the sights but understanding the significance of what they are and what they represent.

We get to go to the Capitol at night.  And we get to see the spiritual heritage of our Founding Fathers, who we are as a nation, where we came from. We bring in congressman that will tell you about current legislation, about our religious liberties and freedom, and what’s going on in Washington, D.C.

If you’re a pastor or if you want to recommend your pastor for this trip, you can go to our website at www.WallBuilders.com. And there’s a link that’s for scheduling.  If you click on that link there’s a section for pastor”€™s briefing. There’s more information about the dates, when it’s going, and how it’s going to happen. If you want to know more about our nation, our religious liberties, our freedom, our spiritual heritage, this is a trip you want to be a part of.

Pastors Used To Be Involved In Every Area Of Culture

Rick:

Welcome back, thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live! Thanks to Pastor Steve Friskup for joining us as well. We’re back with David and Tim Barton now. Obviously, it was important to him and it had an impact on even what he’s preaching now as a result of going to that pastors’ briefing.

David:

He’s a great pastor and like most West Texas guys he doesn’t get real fired up with his words and when you hear what he said, that’s a really fired up guy for West Texas. Because they don”€™t show emotions much.

One of the things you see when you go to the Capitol and you see all the statues and artwork and everything else, you find, “€œHey, pastors were involved in everything.”€ They were involved in politics and government, they were involved in education, and media, and the military. All the statues across the Capitol of these pastors and you find, “€œMan, we were involved in every aspect of life. What happened to us?:

I was really struck by two or three things that Steve said. One was, “€œBeing saved is great. But while you’re here you got things to do.”€

Tim:

Which by the way, I love what he tagged on the end of that where he said, “€œMost of us won’t get lucky enough to die today. So while we’re here we need to know what the Bible says and how to apply it to our life.”€ Which is that thought of, “€œWe have things to do. We can’t just sit back and watch.”€

But I love the cowboy thought of, “€œHey, we’re going to be lucky enough to die today.”€ Like that would be the lucky thing, if we could just die today. Because obviously, eternal perspective, but because we’re alive God’s got something for us to do so we need to get out of our tail ends and get it done.

Why God Created Us

David:

Well, the traditional religious answer to this question, the question is, “€œWhy did God create you? Why are you here?”€ And the attritional religious answer is, “€œWell, to glorify God.”€ Well, that’s not the Biblical answer. The Biblical answer is back in Genesis when God created Adam. And why did he get created? Because he said, “€œI need someone to tend the garden.”€

Tim:

Because there was no one to tend the garden so God made Adam.

David:

So you’re put here to tend the garden. You’re put here to take care of the stuff on this earth that God has placed here. You need to be a steward over it and that’s what he’s saying. You’re not lucky enough to die today, you got things to do.

I love too, “€œHey, don’t tell me you love Jesus and you love your kids if you won’t get in the fight. That won”€™t work. Something is wrong here.”€

Tim:

Yeah, that was powerful.

David:

If you won’t get in the fight don’t tell me you love Jesus or love the kids. That was really good.

Tim:

And by the way, let me let me unfold that for a second. Because obviously to love Jesus do what God has called us to do, but even the thought of loving your kids. Because this is a transgenerational thing. What you do is going to impact the future. And so if you love your kids you ought to be thinking about their future. So don’t sit back watching this thing unfold and deteriorate. No, if you love Jesus and if you love your kids you’ve got to do something.

David:

He had another great- here’s another cowboy-ism if you will, “€œChristians are the best in the world ganging up on Sunday and yik yaking on Monday.”€ It”€™s exactly right. We’re talking big on Sunday but we do nothing but talk on Monday. We’ve got to get in there and do something.

His church there and Muleshoe, that’s a town of 5,000 people, there’s only 9,000 in that whole area. The town’s got half of them there. And so he’s having an impact. And by the way, for people who want to know more about the tour, we’ve got a DVD that is a spiritual heritage tour of the Capitol. A DVD and a book.

Tim:

So maybe they’re not a pastor and they think, “€œ I want to go on the tour. I don’t get to go.”€ Well, they can check out the DVD and actually we were the only individuals that had a film crew with congressional approval to go in at night-

David:

The Speaker of the House let us do that, special permission.

Tim:

And we got to film all these rooms and tell the stories behind them. So really cool stuff. But this is an example of a pastor, came to the pastor’s briefing and it’s really revolutionized his understanding of the Bible, of history, and his responsibility here in culture.

Rick:

I met somebody just the other day who said they were headed to D.C. going to do a tour and asked what should they go see? And I said, “€œThe first thing you do is watch David’s tour of the Capitol on DVD, the spiritual heritage tour of the U.S. Capitol. And then get the book and then when you go on the actual tour there physically take the book with you and you will remember all the cool stuff you saw in the video.”€

So especially if you’re going to D.C. get that. But even if you’re not getting included in any kind of your family study of where we came from as a nation, it’s a great way to learn so much about who we are as Americans. Thanks for listening today to WallBuilders Live!