Welcome And Interview Setup

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Welcome to the Wallboulder Show where we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barden. And today we're going to jump back in with Tim interviewing Josh McPherson on The American Story, which by the way you can get on YouTube and there at wallboulders.com. But it's a it's a great conversation about what we can do to raise up men that will lead patriotically but biblically as well. And uh Josh, of course, has gotten on fire and and really state of Washington is gonna benefit greatly from this, but also the entire nation. Uh Gray City Church and that whole story got part of it yesterday. We're gonna get more today and tomorrow. So today we'll be diving right back in in the interview with Tim Barton and Josh McPherson. And then tomorrow we'll get the conclusion. So not our normal Foundations of Freedom Thursday tomorrow, but go ahead and send in your questions. We'll get to those next week or the other week after you do that by emailing radio at wallboulders.com. That's radio at wallbuilders.com. But uh for now, actually, let's take a break early in the program today. And when we come back from the break, we'll pick up where we left off yesterday with Tim Barton and Josh McPherson. Stay with us. You're listening to the Wall Boulders Show.

The Leadership Void And Training Leaders

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Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We're looking around for leaders of principle to step up, and too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They're crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need. Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress, in business, in the film industry, in the pulpit, and every area of the culture. They're leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation, and now's your chance to experience this life-changing week that trains champions to change the world. Visit PatriotAcademy.com for dates and locations. Our core program is still for young leaders, 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a Citizen Track for Adults. So visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in training champions to change the world at Patriotacademy.com. Welcome back to the Wall Boiler Show. Thanks for staying with us, jumping right back in from where we left off yesterday. This will be Tim Barton and Josh McPherson on the American Story.

A Pledge For Sacrificial Strength

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To be a stronger man means you have to die to yourself, die to your desire to be comfortable, die to your desire to be served. It is a sacrificial so we say like this as a stronger man, I will be as a choice of my will, ready, willing, and able to do my job in the service of others no matter the cost of myself. And so that that's that's like the strong imagination pledge. And so we unpack that as I will be as a choice of my will, ready of mind, I've thought it through, willing of heart, I want to, and able of hands, I am capable of doing my job as a soldier, farmer, athlete, son. These are these are categories that Paul gives us in Timothy, or protector, provider, leader, lover, doing my job in the service of others. So it's not about wielding my power for me, but wielding it for the good of others. And that's a huge part of our movement because we believe God made men powerful. So this whole Marxist kind of push in our culture where power is bad. No, no, power God's powerful. We've been made in his image. We've been we've been made powerful. Women have a kind of power, and they and the oldest trade in the book, they use it all the time to topple kingdoms and men. Men have a kind of power, and we often abuse it by flexing it or abandon it by abdicating our role. So when men abuse their power or abdicate their power, everyone suffers. So strong iman nation is a call to men of God to submit their will to God and then wield their power for good. So I will, as a choice of my as a choice of my will, um, be ready of mind, willing of heart, able of hands, to do my job as a protector, provider, leader, lover, in the service of others, no matter the cost of myself, and there's no nobility of it. I would rather die doing my job than live as a coward. Right. And so Well, I was gonna this resonates so deeply too, because when when I was growing up as a kid, born in the 80s of the 90s, I mean the heroes, every boy wanted to be a Maximus Decimus Meridius, right? We we wanted to be William Wallace. It resonated with us because it speaks to the things you're talking about right now. We we wanted to do something of consequence for the good and service of others. And and and I mean again, backing up, we want to kill the dragon and and win the girl. That's that's the epitome. And when culture has been teaching that men are bad, that masculinity is bad, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, culture has been speaking. I mean, really, it's kind of a demonic thought that you should not be who God made you to be because the devil doesn't want warriors he has to fight. And so if he can take you off the field, he's already winning. So so how how did you come up with this stronger man nation idea? Where was this birth?

Pastors, Put Family Before Platform

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So the here here's what I tell pastors, and and this may not be the answer you're looking for, but but I uh here's what I tell pastors your job is not to be the best pastor your people know. Your first job is to be the best husband your wife knows and the best father your kids know. And so many pastors run past their family to do the sexy work of ministry, and it was just built into my bones for my parents that if you run around your family to go to ministry, you're avoiding the training ground, qualifying ground, and ongoing uh uh um equipping ground for ministry. So it was really popular. Um I'm gonna go take a long answer. I'll get I'll get back to your question. It was very popular when I was growing up for pastors' kids to like gripe about being a pastor's kid. You could write a book about it and make, you know, oh my life is so hard. I live I live in a glass bubble and nobody knows me. And I thought that was stupid because I thought being Greg McPherson's son was the best thing in the world. I loved my dad. I adored my dad. I still want to be like him when I grew up. He was my hero. And I and as I've reflected on why that is, I think I put my finger on it with this explanation. For the sons who felt like their dads sacrificed them for the sake of ministry, they were bitter. They were bitter. My brother and I never felt like our parents sacrificed us for ministry. But what my parents did do in a very brilliant way is they brought us along so that we together as a family could make sacrifices for ministry. Those are entirely two different experiences. Yes. Yes. So it's it wasn't that we weren't on the field making sacrifices, working 50 hours a week. My parents just did it in such a way that we felt felt a part of it. Another break today, guys. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show. Hi, friends. This is Tim Barton of Wall Builders. This is a time when most Americans don't know much about American history or even heroes of the faith. And I know oftentimes for parents, we're trying to find good content for our kids to read. And if you remember back to the Bible, to the book of Hebrews, that has the Faith Hall of Fame where they outlined the leaders of faith that had gone before them. Well, this is something that as Americans, we really want to go back and outline some of these heroes, not just of American history, but heroes of Christianity and our faith as well. I want to let you know about some biographical sketches we have available on our website. The one that's called the Courageous Leaders Collection, and this collection includes people like Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Gott Key, George Washington Carver, Susanna Wesley, even the Wright brothers. And there's a second collection called Heroes of History. In this collection, you'll read about people like Benjamin Franklin or Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Harriet Tubman. Friends, the list goes on and on. This is a great collection for your young person to have and read, and it's a providential view of American and Christian history. This is available at wallbuilders.com. That's www.wallbuilders.com. Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us, jumping back in with Tim Barton and Josh McPherson. When my parents were gone all weekend to at marriage seminars and we were home alone, and they'd come home and share about the victories that God had won, we felt like we were a part of that. And we didn't feel like we were missing out. We felt like we contributed it to it. And so my my parents um brought us along in that. And so I would, I just never grew up bitter or jaded uh towards ministry. I wanted to give my life to ministry. Now I say all that to say when I tell parents or pastors, if you sacrifice your family for ministry, you'll lose both. But if you invite your children to make sacrifices together for ministry, you'll be more effective in both places. So I tell pastors this your family is your resume. And I've talked, bro, with megachurch pastors whose names people would recognize in massive churches across the country whose kids don't even want to go to church and listen to him preach. And I've I've sat in their home and they've sat in mine and I've said, bro, I don't mean this to be harsh, but if your son doesn't want to go listen to hear what you have to say, why should I care about what you have to say? Because, bro, it's easier to be impressive to the masses who don't know you than it is to be respected by those who do. And so I tell pastors, make it your life's aim to be respected most by those who know you best. And if a pastor does that, he's well on his way to being a success, no matter what happens out in the world. Because, bro, I think God anoints and blesses integrity. And so many times we see good intention men because bro, it it's sexy. It can it can attract that in your heart, like that's right. I'm I'm I I'm gonna go be Superman. It takes a man who knows his priorities to say a fire emergency on your end does not necessitate uh emergency on my end, and I'm gonna be home with my family tonight because they're my priority. And so for me, this is long answer where Stronger Man Nation came from, Stronger Man Nation was birthed out of the heart of a dad who was trying to figure out how in the world he was gonna help his sons understand biblical manhood. And so for me, uh, you know, my son's eight years old, and I'm looking around, I'm looking at how my grandpa raised my dad, and my dad raised me, and how I want to take an amount, I wanna I want to take um a combination of my grandpa, my dad, and prepare to bring them to my son. I asked myself, how will I answer the question, Dad, what is a man? And then I realized to him that it's my job to answer that question, and I thought, what if I get hit by a bus? I still want to be able to answer that question for my son, so I started writing it down. And I started our articulating so that I could answer for my son the question, Dad, what does it mean to be a man? And I could have that answer for him if I died before he was ready to hear

Rites Of Passage Done The Gospel Way

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it. And then the second step was I realized that, you know, throughout the entire history of humanity, cultures and tribes have always noted the the the necessity of them getting boys into manhood, otherwise they won't survive. Like that's been the story of humanity up until about well, you could probably help me in history, maybe a hundred years ago, 150 years ago. It's like up until then, if we don't get these boys into manhood so they can hunt and kill and defend and walk the perimeter, if we don't get these boys disconnected from their moms and dangerous in the field, our tribe is toast. Because when we talk about the four roles of a man, protector, provider, leader, lover, they go in that order. You have to be a protector, otherwise, it won't matter if you can provide because the bad guys will come in and kill your family. So if you can't protect your family, you have no one to provide for. If you protect them but don't provide for them, you're worse than an unbeliever, Paul says, and you're not doing your job. And then you have to lead them so that they're going somewhere. But those first three uh leadership traits are also true of mob bosses. They protect, they provide, they leave. It's that last piece, that lover piece where we say lover of God, lover of our children, love of other people. That's what sets us apart. And so as I began thinking about how to get my sons from boyhood into manhood, I realized that most tribes in human history have had rites of passages, and and we don't have rites of passages anymore in our culture. And then I changed my thinking on that when I realized, no, actually, we do, they're just all the wrong ones. Right. And so I I developed this thing called Project Mann Card, where it was my attempt to build a framework to help dads raise boys to be men through structuring a series of rites of passages they would walk their sons through. And I realized most historic rites of passages were separate from your mom, be tested, pass the test, receive the approval of the tribe. And I realized there's something a little backwards about that because the gospel isn't prove you're worthy and then I'll love you. The gospel is I love you, and then you live into that with a worthy life. That's that's the father with the dove on the shoulder of Jesus. Here is my son in whom I'm well pleased. That was a father blessing. Question Was that before Jesus did ministry or after? It was before. It was giving him the fatherly blessing in that this is the affirmation of my son, whom I'm proud of. And it was from that place of affirmation that Jesus walked into his life of ministry. And so for me, the rite of passage process is a father bestowing his blessing on his son, presenting challenges his son can overcome, reflecting on the lessons learned and the skills gained, and then going to the next challenge. So for me, I told my sons, look, um, I wake up and face a rite of passage every day because I could stop being a stronger man tomorrow. I could roll over, I could break my vows, I could stop protecting, I could stop fighting the sin in my heart. I could stop being a man, which means we need to see manhood, Tim, less as a destination we arrive at, and more of a starting line we we arrive at every day with new tests. So every test you pass as a man is a rite of passage into more responsibility, more influence, more opportunity to play the man for the sake of the kingdom. And every time we fail that test, we could we could go back and take it again. So as I began building this rite of passage process through our Project Man Car, we wrote a documentary on it. I'll send it to you, you can watch it. It's this four-day, three-night experience with the best men I know running these boys through a 15-mile, 8,000-foot survival course with military special ops checkpoints. They have to endeavor and problem solving challenges. Because if you ask my sons, what do men do, my 13-year-old son would say we challenge ourselves to do hard things that matter for Jesus' sake. Come on. And so it's just building into the uh a family and then and then a church family, a culture of challenging young men to do hard things for Jesus' sake. And so Stronger Man Nation was not a ministry I started to wake up the men of America. Stronger Man Nation was me trying to be faithful as a dad to answer my son's questions when they would ask me, Dad, what does it mean to be a man? And from there it grew to my church. Our folks, last interruption of the day. Gotta take another quick break. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show. Hey, this is Tim Barton with Wall Builders. And as you've had the opportunity to listen to Wall Builders Live, you've probably heard the wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, about all the things that makes America exceptional. And you might be thinking, as incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the wall builders' guys to come to my area and share with my group, whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school or public school or some political event or activity. If you're interested in having a wall builder speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.wallbuilders.com and there's a tab for scheduling. And if you'll click on that tab, you'll notice there's a list of information from speakers' bios to events that are already going on. And there's a section where you can request an event to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties and freedoms. Go to the wall builders website and bring a speaker to your area. Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. We got Josh McPherson and Tim Barton. We're going to get one more segment with them today, and then we'll get to the conclusion of the interview tomorrow. But here's Tim Barton interviewing Josh McPherson on the American Story. Stronger Man Nation was just me trying to help the men of my local church be stronger men. And from there begin resonating with other men. And so through writings and books and conferences and things, it began to grow. But the point I want to make is to encourage pastors, don't run past your family to ministry because God wants to use your family to both increase your credibility for ministry and birth potentially your most important ministry. So that's how Stronger Man Nation got started, me trying to be a dad. It's so good. I I know there's people that are going to want to find out. And so we can probably put a link to Stronger Man Nation uh in our notes. But as you did this, what what's happened in your church? Uh when you started, obviously there's a few of you in the living room. Uh, what's it like now? What is God doing in your church?

Revival And A Bold Church Vision

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Yeah. Well, it's an incredible story. It's it's a story of grace and mercy and power and vision. Um, our church, I could you have to really watch the time because I could brag on our our church a long time. We have some of the most remarkable men, the most remarkable women. Uh, what we're seeing God do in our youth, in our college students, in our children. Um, we're sitting in a season of revival right now, and I don't say that lightly. Um, John Tyson defined revival for me as a concentrated, uh a concentrated work of the normal ministry of the Holy Spirit. And so we're just seeing the Holy Spirit do an accelerated work right now, Tim. We've kind of stopped all of our um all of our normally scheduled programming. We're doing Sunday services and Wednesday night sacred assemblies, and we're gathering with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in the presence of God for hours on end. God's giving visions, revelations, uh uh prophetic words. And this is from a reformed homeschool kid who doesn't move in charismatic circles very often. I'm like, I believe, I believe it's all real. But we're having incredible experiences in the presence of God, and we believe revival is given for reformation, and we believe that God wants to bring reformation to our state and to our nation. And so we see the end to which God is reviving our soul. So we're, you know, we're a couple thousand uh folks uh in a church of a town of about 35,000 people. Um, our people have given over 65 million dollars in the last 10 years to build out a 14-acre, 125,000 square foot campus that God gave us a vision to be a hub of ministry. So people come here as a regional church. We just bought 50 acres to build a university. We're calling Vector West University. It's a university that will stand as the kind of the counterpart to West Point Academy, in that West Point Academy raises generals to lead our military to victory. Um, Vector West University will raise generals to lead Christendom to save the West. It is not summer camp for Christian foot soldiers, it is boot camp training for generals to lead Christendom to save the West. It is rigorous, it is physical, it is intellectual, it is challenging, it is difficult, it is hard. We have a school of Bible, a ministry, a school of business, and a school of politics that I'm hoping to get you connected with, which we talked about. And so the Lord's just doing crazy things. 50 acres purchased, $5 million came in in an amount of a very, uh very short amount of time. Uh oh, I'm all over the place here. We're just seeing miracles, financial miracles, supernatural miracles, God saving men, saving families. Um, we have a lot of people leaving Washington because of the the tyrannical, terrible policies of our state. What's crazy is as a church, we're seeing people move to Gray City from Idaho, from literally from Arizona. I had someone who goes to a buddy's church in Texas, and they're and they're like, we love our church, but God kind of built us for a fight, and and it's pretty it's pretty calm down here. So we're moving to Washington. I'm like, wow, okay. So it's it's our endeavor to build the family capital of the world. That's what we're calling it. So we started a Christian school two years ago. You'll love this. Um never been done in the history of the state. We stood up a Christian school, K through 12, all grades full, three or four sports offered, I forget. Never been done in the history of state. And ask yourself, is it because no Christians ever want to start a Christian school in our state? Or the government has made it so difficult and so impossible nobody could do it. It's the latter. And so we're trying to kind of break the mold and see if we can kind of um move the overton window, you know, into the breach, you know, whatever you want to say. So that school is two years in, thriving, three year and 12 kids, something like that, K through 12. Um, our our two-year college is up and running. We're gonna turn it into a four-year university this year. Bro, we're just trying to put points on the board, man. Trying to do whatever we can to get the word out. Jesus is alive, the family is amazing. Men need to lead. Women are worth loving and serving. Let's call youth to do hard things and see what might happen. And and Josh, man, I love I love all of it. It's so great what's happening. But I I I do, as we're kind of wrapping up some of the thoughts, I do want to point out that that God has has also laid some other things in your heart. There's some big things happening where God's given you some unique opportunities to connect at the highest levels in our nation. And I say this so for people that follow us, we uh uh at Wallbuilders will talk often about some of the incredible, godly people that serve in Congress that that uh are around President Trump. We highlight some of this. But one of the things that is different for you is this isn't me telling people, God. God has some amazing people around President Trump. You're literally somebody that has talked to President Trump about matters of faith. And God has just opened some incredible doors. So if you would for just a minute, if you'd speak to that. But then also, there's a really big event happening this summer that I'm excited about. And I would love for you to tell us about that some as well.

Faith Office Insights And Trump Meeting

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Okay. Uh, dude, you're asking all these great questions to get me all excited. Um, yeah, so that was just a fortuitous event. I I was I was building my chicken coop in Monitor, Washington, population 238. Um, invite to the White House, not even quite sure how I got it. I attended a White House briefing with the White House Faith Office, was overwhelmed, as you have been in these meetings, with how many sincere, genuine, spirit-filled, Jesus-loving Christians are in the administration doing really wonderful work. Um, and and uh President Trump in uh starting the Faith Office, a historic uh act, and then he appointed the head of Faith Office, Paula White, and then brought her into the West Wing, essentially uh functionally putting her at a cabinet level, meaning proximity is power. And before, you know, the faith office was across the street in some you know ambiguous federal building, bringing the faith office into the West Wing was Trump's way to say, I value pastors, I value churches, I value religious liberty and freedom. And we're going to prioritize policies that allow the church to be the church. When you get to hear and see all of the incredible work that Paula White, Jenny Korn, and their team have done for religious liberties, it's emotional. When you realize how much, how uh much our rights and liberties had come under attack, quite frankly, under the Biden and Obama administration, how many um wicked and evil things were being done in terms of um wickedness being prioritized with federal dollars and Christian charities being starved to death and really uh you know discriminated with through the federal government. President Trump, and I'll say this to my dying breath, uh, I think he is a good man. He just has um intuitive instincts that are righteous. And of course, that just always screws people up when I say that. But having had a chance to be around many of the people he's appointed, he doesn't appoint charlatans. He doesn't appoint uh uh uh slick political, he appoints genuine, hardworking believers. And um uh I think he has a, I think he he understands intuitively Romans 13 better than most pastors that took it out of context during COVID and just butchered it. He understands righteous, um, the role of government in punishing evil and rewarding good and protecting a nation's boundaries. And so it's just been wildly encouraging to be close uh to the white uh to the White House faith office, just relationally. I'm there's no official uh relationship at all. But it uh people need to hear that there are good, Jesus-loving, God-fearing men and women in the White House working hard to restore the foundations of our distinctly Christian nation. Uh they understand it, they see it, and then they want pastors at the table shaping policies, speaking into these things. I've experienced President Trump to be a um, well, he's he's a workhorse. I've probably heard, I've probably had a chance to meet with or listen to uh 20, 30 different um people that are close to him from cabinet members to chief uh uh to chief of staffs and deputy chief of staff, and to the man and to the woman, they respect his integrity, they respect his worth work ethic, and they speak highly of him as a man they're honored to work for because he works harder and runs harder than anyone else on his team, and he's and he's doing objectively righteous things in his policy, which I admire and respect deeply. So I just had a brief chance to speak with him, as you mentioned in the Oval Office a couple weeks ago. And I just told him, God sees your humility. Uh, we observe the fear of God on your life, and we honor you, and you you have our sword. Do all that God has put on your heart, and we'll we want to support how you however we can.

Tomorrow’s Conclusion And Send Questions

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All right, folks, we're gonna take uh have to take a long break. In other words, we're ending the program for today, and then tomorrow we'll get the conclusion of Tim Barton's interview with Josh McPherson. And of course, tomorrow's normally Foundations of Freedom Thursday, as I mentioned at the top of the program today. You can still send in your questions, we'll just have to get to them next week, but those are sent to radio at wallbuilders.com. Radio at wallbuilders.com. And uh tomorrow we'll get the conclusion of this interview with Josh McPherson, then be back on our regular schedule on Friday for Good News Friday. Thanks so much for listening today to the WallBuilder Show.