“FORWARD PROGRESSION” | SE. 3 EP. 5 FT. ANDREW MORRELL

Growth isn't just about moving; it's about moving with intent. In this inspiring episode, Mayor Ronald Morrell Jr. sits down with Andrew Morrell to explore the true meaning of "Forward Progression" and what it takes to build real personal and community momentum.

Andrew shares his unique perspective on what drives positive change, navigating the inevitable challenges that come with growth, and the importance of staying grounded along the way. This conversation is a powerful look at how purposeful leadership, vision, and a dedication to service can spark meaningful development and lift up those around us. Tune in for a motivating and insightful discussion on keeping the momentum going and shaping a brighter future!

The "MAYOR MORRELL SPEAKS" podcast is produced by Frequency Canvas, LLC. All Audio Production (Recording, Editing, Mixing, & Mastering) is done by: Kyren Monteiro of Frequency Canvas, LLC.

Contact Frequency Canvas at: Office@FrequencyCanvas.com | https://www.FrequencyCanvas.com/ | 765-506-3380

Transcript

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Welcome to season three, episode number five of the Men Morell Speaks Podcast. I'm so excited today because I have a very, very special guest who's doing amazing things in our community, in our city, and beyond. He has an amazing story. And he's special to me because we're actually related, man. So why don't you give a round of applause for a special guest, Pastor Andrew Morrell? I love it. Oh man. So tell us who is Andrew. Yeah, who's Andrew? I'm not sure I have enough time right now to tell you who's Andrew, but I think in short, uh, who is Andrew? Andrew is someone that uh values people, that values truth and righteousness, that values mercy and justice. Um Andrew is someone who um it took a long time in my life uh to come to love who I am and to appreciate uh all of the challenges in my life um that created uh who I am today and yet who I'm still becoming. And so uh there's a lot of things that have happened in my life throughout my life that cause me to question my identity, who I am, uh what life is about, uh who is God, and why are we here. And I think that uh through challenges and through hopes and and trials that um and grace that I've come to a place in my life where I accept what is and um I also can accept what is not and trying to figure out where my place is in the journey of life is, uh and so I'm here, and so ensure all of that to say that I have come to realize that I am a beloved child of God before I am anything else, before I'm a father, before I'm a pastor, before I'm a friend, um a son, I am a beloved child of God. And uh that's who I always want to be. And I try to see every other area of my life through that lens. Yeah. Oh well, okay. So this is gonna take me off my normal script. So identity. Yeah. A lot of people struggle with that. Um not just here, but you know, um worldwide. So how were you able to arrive at the identity you just described? Yeah. I think uh, you know, my early childhood, um, I think that was the question. I I grew up in a single-parent home, and my father was absent from my life um working through his own challenges, and I had a young mother uh whose mother um died when she was I think six years old. And so I had a young mom, and and uh I just had a lot of experiences early on that were there were some good things, and yet there was a lot of trauma early in my life. And I thought that there was something wrong with me. Um and I think part of what happens in trauma early on in life is that you can be you can internalize early trauma as if I'm bad or there's something wrong with me. And so I spent a lot of time alone as a kid by myself thinking I had family, but there was just so much going on, and I think so many people in my family were working through so much trauma that um they were just trying to do the best that they could with me. And so, in that, um I was by myself a lot as a kid. And um, I would go outside and I lay down on the ground and I look up at the sky. And I just remember looking up at the clouds and and um recognizing that there was something bigger than me. Um there was a lady who lived next door to my grandmother or my grandfather. Um her name was Annie Uptograph. She took me to church when I was like five or six years old. I remember my mom they put me in a suit and they sent me to Sunday school with her at St. Chris Baptist Church. And uh I remember some experiences of going to Hills Chapel and Allen Temple as a kid, um, and then having challenges in in elementary school. Um, and yet God would send people into my life. I'm saying God now because I realize the whole time I'm internalizing these things, I realize now as I look back, God was showing me through other people that I'm loved. Janice Adams, early on in life. Uh, I was a kid in kindergarten or first grade, and she seen me, and she could see that I was a uh a young, traumatized young man that had a lot of gifts and a lot of there was so much more to my story that she was trying to pull out of me. And she would come and I remember Francis Logan Elementary School, she'd come get me out of the classroom and help me set goals. Um, I had a young mother, right? And so my mom was trying to navigate life, early childhood, early motherhood, um, and trying to figure things out herself. And I and I love my mom. I had a good mother, and she did a phenomenal job given the hand that she was dealt on life. And so um, so Mrs. Adams, so so God would send me other people, right? Uh along the journey. Um, my grandfather was there, and um he was uh still to this day, my grandfather is um probably my the favorite human in my life, yeah, except my mother, right? And so my grandfather early on, um, he loved me. He was very gentle and patient and kind. And what I realized is even in listening to my own mother's story and her siblings, like he was just he was in fight or flight mode trying to survive. And so they didn't get the most present version of my grandfather. I got a more present version of my grandfather because of that, and and and because of that, like that helped form and develop me in different kinds of ways. And and my grandfather got with a woman named Dolores Betts at the time, uh Dolores Weatherly Betts, and then my grandfather, I was about nine years old, and uh I spent a lot of time at my grandpa's house. I remember um Dolores coming to the house, and uh we were hanging out, eating. I think there was something happening in the kitchen dishes, and I remember cooking or something, and I remember going to her and saying, Um you're gonna be my grandmother. And from there, uh we developed this bond, and and uh she really helped me to understand faith, and I started going to Christ Temple Church as a kid, and some of my early faith experiences and faith encounters were at Christ Temple Church. And it was it was through that where I began to be opened to the reality that there is a there is a God and that there is someone who's been pursuing me my whole life, even through all the pain that has been showing me that I am beloved, in spite of all these things that I've gone through, all the pain, and there's so many other things I can talk about, but I'm not. Uh, there was this God who was pursuing me through it all. And it although I didn't feel like it at times, I can look back on these moments in my life and say God showed up through people, through situations and circumstances, um, through friendships and through strangers. And still to this day, this is still happening in my life, where God sends people into my life to love me and to and to bless me and to remind me that I am his own. And so I say that, Ronnie, to say that like I've been on this journey all to realize that I'm a beloved child of God, just like everybody else. And I think that um when we don't understand that belovedness or we we've allowed things to hinder us from seeing that we're loved, there's so many things that we have to overcome to even get to a place to just say, accept the fact that, man, in spite of humanity and humans' errors, God loves me, man. Yeah. And I think for me, uh I've come to this place where I can accept that. And I can accept the dysfunctional patterns I also learned along the way and the things that I'm still unraveling and still trying to work through and still finding healing through, right? I'm able to accept the fact that I am beloved. Yeah. And yet there were decisions and there were things done to me that I had no control over, and there were things that I done that I also did that uh that caused me to question whether or not I was loved and came out in unhealthy ways. And so I'm able to hold the tension of the fact that no matter what I've done, I'm beloved, and the fact that I'm still working through these things doesn't change the fact that I'm still beloved. Yeah. So on this journey, well, I'm that's an incredible story, man. So on this journey to where you are now, so we see, you know, Pastor Engine Morel that everyone looks up to, and you know, all the all these amazing things that you've been able to accomplish in your life, how let's just do two things with that. Yeah. One, what would you say is somebody else that wants to maybe that were grew up like you or wants to become what you've done? And how did how did you how did you get there? Yeah. Um, so I wasn't looking, I never ever imagined myself as a kid or that of being a pastor. Like this, I wanted to be a U.S. Marshal. Yeah. Like I went to school to Ball State University, Rambling State University for criminal justice, ball state. I wanted to be a U.S. Marshal. Like I thought, I was just infatuated with like the criminal justice system and and the way things worked and operated. And I thought I wanted to be a U.S. Marshal. And so I didn't choose this path. Uh, this path was chosen for me. And I think part of what I had to do was get to a pay, get to a place and slow down enough to begin to see what God was always doing in my life. And so I think if you if if you're someone who's discerning a call to ministry or a call to be a pastor, I think what one of the things you have to do is you got to slow down. And you have to slow down and get into a place to where you can hear and you can make sense of your own life story. Now, that's my story, right? Now, my story was informed by a lot of trauma, a lot of pain, um, uh, a lot of dysfunction, and yet a lot of goodness and a lot of God's grace through it all, right? And so that might be different for someone who grew up in more stability as a kid and had maybe and maybe they they they had more space as a kid not to have to carry so many burdens to be able to process and think earlier, right? But for me in my situation, I needed to get to a place where I could just sit still for a moment and try to make sense out of my whole life, right? And so I think there's just there's different paths for different people, is what I'm saying, right? I don't think there's a one size fits all model. But I would say that in any case, I think you have to get to a place where you can slow down. Yeah, wow. And especially in, you know, this society today, everything is fast. Yeah. You know, so being able to slow down is counterculture. Yeah. So that's, I mean, it's great advice. It's it's challenging to do, but if you can figure it out, like you just said, man, that's it can it be life-changing to be able to slow down. Yeah. With your um church, okay, let's do this. Because what I want to highlight about um real community is you guys do a lot of things more than just Sunday. Oh, yeah. So let's talk about Yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about the um your vision for becoming the pastor and your vision for setting up and running the church the way you do. Yeah, yeah. Good question. Um, so yeah, so my early formation uh in church, beginnings in church, went to uh Christ Temple Apostolic Pentecostal church, right? Right there on the corner, Caddy Corner, of where we're at today. And um, and so I I got baptized there when I was about 12 years old. And I remember this time. Now, this stuff comes to me as I get older. And I remember um when I was 12 years old, I remember Elder Burchette was the pastor when I was a kid. I remember him saying from the pulpit, he used to prophesy and speak into what he believed God was saying. And I remember him saying, one day God is going to give us that building across the street, speaking to the building that we're in now, the ESC building, the Marion Community Schools Administration Building, which was originally Clayton Brownley Elementary School, that was built in in the mid-50s. And so uh I don't know why I remembered that. And so I just thought that's that's pretty bold for him to say that. Yeah, I remember him even saying, I think he said that there'll be a bridge that goes from our church across Adam Street over there, right? So uh and so I'm grateful for that. And so as I continue to journey in life, um, I begin, I want I've always been fascinated with history. Uh I like history. I think history tells us where we're at and where we're going. Yeah. If we pay attention to history, also history, history can tell us what we don't want to do to become better. Yeah. And so uh, you know, you think about the history of Israel, God told Israel multiple times to remember, right? There's this, and so I always try to remember, and I always I love information, I love learning about my own stories. And so as I continue to grow, I had a heart for God. I got baptized, and I tried to go to Bible study. I went to Bible study, you know, Christ Temple, you went to church six hours a day. You know what I mean? Yeah, people don't know the Bible study, and you get a little break, go down to the basement, get you some breakfast, get you a little donut or something, go back up to school, go back upstairs for a service. Yeah, uh, you know, Sunday school, um uh uh Brother Davis. I remember this stuff, right? Then you you know worship service start 11, 11:30. You don't get done sometimes till sometimes 2:33 o'clock. And then you go home, uh, we go to Gen G's first. Yeah, we walk over to Gen G's, get something to eat. Yeah, some some some some good and hot chips. I remember, and then we go back to my grandmother and grandpa's house and hang out, and then come back for evening service. Yeah. So I remember them days. So uh so I had this, and there was just, you know, you've seen people have these encounters with God and crying and yelling and screaming and dancing and praising, and uh, you know, there was a lot of things out after another conversation that, you know, the spirit moving, and yet I think it was also just good emotional regulation. Yeah, right? It's just good emotional regulation for people who are oppressed and traumatized and finding hope in Jesus through all the challenges, right? Yeah, and so one of the things that I think about is like the tenderness and the heart that I had towards God, even in the midst of not knowing what it meant to be a disciple. So I got baptized, but I didn't know what it meant to follow Jesus, right? And I remember like slogans, church slogans, souls, souls, souls, and like souls are important, very important, because souls are part of what influence our desires, you know, and yet these souls are inside of bodies, yeah. Right? This is a body, I this is something you touch and see, and so uh we need souls and bodies saved, right? And salvation, and you see people struggling and people not being able to get over some things and yet come up for prayer and just fall out speaking tongues again, and you're okay. And it's like, no, people need some some discipleship, yeah, people need some therapy, people need some economic opportunity, economic development. People need access to education, people need some other things that are also part of salvation. And so in Luke's gospel, uh Luke's gospel, when you see the word salvation, the word actually means deliverance from oppression now. It's not just this idea of like God saving your soul for one day later. Yeah, it has implications of right now being delivered, uh being liberated from oppression. Yeah, right. And so this these things kind of form me. So you grow up and you see people in church, and yet you still people still still still see people struggling, right? And like if God is this good, why are we still struggling economically, emotionally, finding, you know, all these things, opportunities. Why does racism and sexism and class, you know, if God is this good, then why are we not, why are we dealing with the real tangible physical things that we see every single day, right? And so those were questions that I was asked at an early age, like this is perplexing to me. This is confusing to me, right? Yeah, and I, you know, I believe in prayer and I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. And yet, there's something that I think that we have to recover. And so as I continue to grow and mature, I look back to some of the roots of the AME church, which are part of my roots out there in Weaver, where our ancestors come from, first African Americans to marry in 1840. Um, and they moved to a place because they cannot live in the town limits or city limits of Marion because they were black and all those. This wasn't a slave state, very racist, right? Yeah. And so had to live in this community. Quakers, we came up with Quakers from North Carolina and brought property out in what's called Weaver today, and there's churches that form. And the many of the members were part of the Prince Hall Masons. They built homes for black Civil War veterans. Um, they have a cemetery out there for black folks that died, right? You look you look at the history of John Henry Weaver, and like you look at the post office, you look at homes being built. They had a horse track race out there where people from Marion were going out there to watch the horse tracks. They developed a community that was very much flourishing, even at the even at the apex of slavery. Wow. Right? And also you had uh you had white Christians and Quakers and Wesleans who also were very instrumental in work walking alongside of this free black settlement who were Christians that were very instrumental in the Underground Railroad. So they understood that salvation wasn't just the wasn't just our soul being saved, right, but it was our bodies also being liberated from the things that oppressed us here and now in the earth. Not one day later, but now, right? And so those, as I began to understand more and more of my own history on that, on that side of me, it's like there's there have we we need to recover some things. And so now when I think about ministry, I think about holistic ministry, right? Yeah, it's not just that Jesus wants to save your soul. Matter of fact, some people they they need a job. Yeah, yeah. They need a job, and then they might believe that Jesus cares about them. They need to get into a position to be able to even think about salvation, and they got bills to pay, right? They're stressed, they're overwhelmed, right? And and so what happens is it's like we've we've got this like split, and like you know, the body and soul split. And historical Hebrew thinking would have never ever separated the mind from the body from the soul. It was always together. When Jesus returns, if we're Christians, yeah, we believe that Jesus returns. What's Jesus coming back for? Our bodies. Yes. He raises, he's raising our bodies out of the grave. Yeah. So then what does that actually mean for a Christian today? Well, guess what? In in the in the in the 1800s, uh for Christians in that period of time, white and black, that meant that black people who were being oppressed by slavery were not supposed to be enslaved, and that meant black and white folks working together to help black folks get out of the oppression and the bondage of slavery in the South, yeah, and to get black folks up to North or these free black settlements or somewhere in Canada, right? Like very tangible. It's not, hey, thoughts and prayers, you stay in your bondage, keep praying, your soul says that's no, no, no. It's a real practical deliverance. Right. So then, as I think about these things, as I think about ministry, we our churches are big, these big buildings and these big properties. Again, pulling on the history of Hill's Chapel and abolitionist movement, like these are Christians. What does that mean for us today? As we think about our communities, as we think about like real ministry, it means that if people are hungry, yeah, feed them, but we have a lot of food programs. It ain't changing nothing. Oh, yeah, I want to cut you off. Let's let's let's dig into that more. So when you so when we so so let's get into that, right? So there the difference in just giving away and actually giving people a uh putting people in a situation where they can do for themselves. Yes. So um what you've been doing at your church and in opportunities has actually been giving people the opportunity to no longer need giveaways. Yes. Because we do a lot of giveaway, I mean I've done them everybody, but they're horrible. Yeah, we do a lot of giveaways in our community, but I think the answer, and I think where you're going with this, is the answer is how do we get people in positions where they don't need to be at the giveaway anymore? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so so you know, this is it, and then this is the people of God's story throughout history. Israel and the church, right? You go back to Israel, uh, what happens? Israel uh gets greedy and they become selfish and self centered, and they begin oppressing people, right? They start worshiping the pagan idols around them, start participating in the pagan, the pagan practices around them, and they begin to oppress people. This is Isaiah 58. Uh, and and God Yahweh tells Israel uh true worship is not to sit there and look holy. Right? Pay people fair wages. You know what I mean? It's not a day to look somber, right? Matter of fact, don't even do that, right? And then in Isaiah 61, he says, he tells the same group of people, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me and has anointed me to preach good news for the poor. And he goes on to talk about setting captives free and liberating the blind see, right? He's talking about physical, practical realities that people are living in being undelivered. And so, so then what does that mean for us? Yes, if somebody's hungry, by all means, feed them. Right. But Matthew 25 causes us to go upstream. Matthew 25 causes us to look at systems, right? Now, what are systems? Well, if we're sinners and we know that if we're sinners, we're we're prone to do something wrong. What happens when you get a lot of sinners making decisions for a lot of people? Yeah, I get it. Yeah, yeah. It's a system of sin, right? And this is what God, Yahweh's calling Israel to repent from this system and now to do it to love mercy, to do justice. Micah 6, 8, to walk humbly with God, right? There's over 2,000 verses in the Bible that talk about poverty. Why is that? Or justice? Well, because what happens is that when people begin to get greedy, they we create systems of selfishness and systems of injustice that perpetuate poverty and oppression upon other groups of people. This is throughout the whole world. Yeah. Right? It's it is here, but it's other places. And so the people of God, if we're going to be, you know, blessed are the peacemakers, not false peacekeepers. Yeah. So then if somebody's hungry, feed them. But when you see the same group of people hungry, we got to get upstream and begin to ask some questions. Why is the same group of people hungry? Why is the same group of people being redlined? Why is this same group of people being displaced from having access to economic development, economic empowerment? Why is this? Well, we got to get upstream. Right. That's an issue of justice. Justice, when I'm talking about justice, I'm speaking from a biblical lens, not an American secular criminal justice lens. Right. I get it. I'm talking about script, biblical justice is about restoring relationships back to God's original intent, back to Genesis 1 and 2. Yeah. I'm not talking about punishment. That's God's work, not mine. I'm talking about rightly restored relationships with God and each other, which means that we have to get upstream and say what is going on here that is causing this group of people to continue to have these problems for many, many years. That's what we got to talk about that thing. And then you got people that say, oh, let's just pray, and you know, people are sinners. No, no, no. We need a more robust and a bigger understanding of God. Yeah. And I think that this this there's this idea of you you don't have to have any action. Yeah. And I mean, that that that that that falls into the church and that falls onto the people in general. We think that we can just hope and believe and pray if followed by no action, then you'd be stuck in the same spot over and over. So a couple things that you're doing that I definitely want you to talk about and to highlight is this the preschool thing that I feel like is really speaking to all that speech you gave there, as well as some of the other job placement things and being able to get people to whether or not in a repetitive cycle over and over again. Jeremiah 29, Israel is uh headed into exile. And we love the passage. I mean, college, Christian universities, churches use it as a three. God plan to prosper, you give you hope in the future, right? As if that's well, right before that, he says, you're actually going to be in exile for 60, 70 years. Yeah. But don't worry, Jeremiah, your grandkids will see it. You won't, but your grandkids will probably see it, right? Yeah. And so when we think about that passage, God's telling Israel to, even in your exile, seek the good of the city that you're part of, because if it prospers, you too prosper. Yeah. Right? So if that's the case, then today, as a church, we have to think about what are the things that actually help beyond just our church? What are the things that are causing people to flourish that would make our community a better place? Well, education. Yeah. Right? 12% of the people in our county don't have a high school diploma. Wow. Does God have something to say about that? Does God care about that? Wow. Right? 12% of people in Grant County don't have a high school diploma. Over 40% of people here are in some form of assistance, some form of poverty, right? Right now, you have people who are the working poor, and you have people who, at the end of the day, they work, they still can't rub two wooden nickels together, right? Right? There's different forms of poverty, right? And so uh what how do we address these things, right? Well, guess what? We're gonna pray for people, but we're also gonna think about what it means to partner and collaborate. The church, sometimes we do things we ain't got no business doing. We just we need to learn how to collaborate and work with and be humble. Yeah. And so, so in our building, we have the Grant, we have the Grant County Family Resource Center. Christina Chandler does a phenomenal job of helping families with children uh weekly. And so we partner with them on many different occasions, on many different things. We talk weekly about the challenges. How do we help each other? How do we support each other? How do we work together? They're doing phenomenal work. The Grant County Regional, the Grant Regional Career Center, which is Marion Community School's Adult Education Program, it's in our building, right? Yeah. And they're doing a phenomenal, they just had another had had a grand opening, they've been there for eight, seven years, eight years, and they're helping address the issues of adult education, right? And the stories. They're not, these are not people who are just lazy. No, they're not. And we have to get beyond the biases and actually get close to people. These are stories of people who something happened to them in their life. As a child, somebody died, somebody was on drugs, some something, some tragedy happened, and a child had to become an adult. This is my mom's story. And her siblings, their mom died when they were six. Well, my mom was six. So the older siblings, my Aunt Kathy became mama. Yeah. And she she she prepared meals at 13 years old for my grandfather who had to pick up a second job, who had to work all the time. And when he was home, he was asleep. So he went, he took them to church, but he didn't go. Why? Because he needed some rest. Yeah. Right. And so we have to begin to open up our minds to say, people, not lazy. Ain't nothing lazy about my grandfather working two jobs, still trying to make ends meet, right? There's nothing lazy about a 14-year-old girl whose dad died, mom's on drugs, she's got three younger siblings, and she's got a walk with. And if she doesn't do something, they're going to suffer. Right. There's nothing lazy about her. And so we have to reframe uh the questions and our perspective about things. And so they're doing a phenomenal job, uh, the Family Resource Center with not just adult education, but but also in helping people with CNA certifications, CDL licenses, and partnering with others. We have a preschool, the I Have a Dream Preschool Academy. We started it in 2020, 2020, in the fall of 2020, in COVID. It's a language immersion preschool. Spanish language immersion preschool led by native Latinos. Wow. Why is that? Well, cultural competence is important. Some of the challenges that we have is that we just don't understand different people. We haven't been exposed to people. But one of the things that we have to recognize, particularly for everybody, and for particularly people who've been traumatized or been through things, but this is for everybody, but there is a gift in language. You go to, I've been to, I've been to Kenya, I've been to uh other places, Honduras, I've been to other places, Mexico. We Americans are some of the only people in the world that speak one language. It's to our detriment. When you speak, when you learn to speak another, this is this is facts. You can look this up recently. When children learn a second language at an early age in life, it is proven that developmentally and intellectually, intellectual development, they become better at math. They begin to use parts of their brain that they would never otherwise otherwise use, right? It makes them smarter, right? It also makes them more understanding of different cultures. Because when you learn a language from the people, you're also learning the people. Yeah. So then you're you're building empathy and compassion towards other people. So then when other people begin to say things about other people, no, they not that's that's a lie. Yeah. I know these people, right? You need to open up your horizons and spend time with people. So these are the park that we that was a partnership with Hope House and College Wrestling Church. And uh uh and so we put a park. Why? Because our neighborhood used to have three parks. And at some point, well, I can tell you, you know, there's you can statistically across America, there's a time in American history called the second great migration. Over five million African Americans migrate to the North because of opportunity. Dr. King and then marched civil rights, right? Now they had to pay people fair wages. And then we had all of these factories here, Anaconda, and you know, these these you know, RCA. You know, we've had these factories here, people come up at GM. People come up for opportunity to get jobs, left the South, and when they came, they now had to be paid fair wages. So then they moved into Marion. Where they moved to Central Marion was one of the places that we call it down central. Yeah. And so when they moved in there, that neighborhood 60 years ago was predominantly white. People who had money, those houses that are down those on up in Washington and Adams. Yeah. And what happens is when they move in, black folks from the South move in. A lot of white people moved out. And then you'll see the development of some of these, these, these divisions out 15. Like look in Marion. Here, here's what you ought to do: look at the churches that are in my in my community right now, in our neighborhood right now, and go do uh a research on when those churches founded, what was the name of that church, what denomination were they, and where are they today? And you'll see that they are still in Marion. Well, it's always interesting to me that when you drive in this area down Central Man, these are some mansions, houses. Yes. And then it's always perplexing as to why are these mansions down here in my life of 30, so I'm 33, my whole life they've been abandoned big houses. So I couldn't figure out why we would have mansions in what I would classify as to be the hood. Well, I grew up in them. I mean, why are these houses so big? Yeah. Yeah, that would make us. So that historical building right there, uh-huh, and we do a prayer walk. So my are the prayer walks that I do are prayer walks to help people to understand the geography of our neighborhood. It's not just we're praying for our neighborhood and we need to understand history here too. And so, I mean, right across the street, this this this building that's being restored, or preservation, that big old church right there, right next to Christ Temple, just down from Christ Temple, right? That's the first French Church of Marion. Right? Okay, yeah. First French Church of Marion. These are, and these were people who were abolitionists at one point in time. Yeah. Right? But let's do the math. Bill Henry and I used to talk about this because he was a member of the church. His mother played the piano there. Okay. He told me a lot about this. So the house next door to it, where the Davis family lives, that was the parsonage. Okay. All right. The apartments that we called Brewster's Place growing up. Yeah, right now, yeah, okay. I went to Christ Temple, we went there, and most of my life, black folks have always lived there, right? Well, that was, those were for the parishioners. Those were owned by the church. Really? They were doing community development back then. And then on 17th Street, they built that park called Friends Park. They did away with it. Why? Where are they at? They went out 15. New development. Not only did the churches move, but members moved and they went out. So these new communities that were formed were typically done by Christians who left the neighborhood because the color changes a little bit. And we had a we had a service a few years ago and we talked about this, and I preached about this. That for whatever reason the gospel wasn't big enough to hold black and white folks together in one in one church, in one in one neighborhood. Interesting. And so they moved out. Well, guess what? You know, you think about the building the cornerstone owned down on 8th or 9th and Boots? Yes. Okay. All right. Where are they at? That's the that's the disciples of Christ Church. They're right across the street on 15, right there by First Friends on the other side. That Noah's Ark? Yeah. That's that. That's them. They were right there. So when the neighborhood demographics changed, apparently the mission of the church has changed. So then with the mission of your church specifically, with this preschool, um, and all the other things you listed that are going on in the church, what is your hope comes from that? So, what is our hope? For one, our is to live into our vision. Yeah. Our vision is to be healthy, which that's a whole word in itself. Healthy, multi-ethnic, multi-class church, um seeking to reflect heaven on earth as we are reflecting heaven on earth as we seek to transform our community and beyond with the love of Jesus Christ. Yeah, okay. So heaven on earth, and what does that mean for flourishing? What does that mean for being good neighbors? What's that mean for community development? What's that mean for racial reconciliation, right? We're here in this time right now. I'm here for a season. Um, and I want to be as faithful as I can in that season to see and to be faithful to Jesus, to build bridges that require also mercy, truth-telling, and grace, right? And to see our community become a better place, right? I think everyone desires the flourishing of our community. How we get there might look different, but ultimately everybody desires the same thing. We want to see a better community in a better world. Yeah. But how we get there sometimes is different in how we do it, right? And so does and I think this is the question uh for the church to answer. Uh, do our name if if our churches were to leave our neighborhoods, would the people be able to tell the difference? Wow. Yeah. Are you so that means are you actually making an impact for real? Yeah. Yeah. So um you mentioned this a word a lot of the time, and it's people, right? People. Um serving people is one of the greatest things in the world, right? But it's also one of the most challenging. So what do you what do you do as a servant, right? A servant until obviously unto God, but serving people, what is what do you do to keep that balance and what advice would you give somebody else who wants to be in service? I think you never ever ever fool yourself. Like you have to understand, you I think you have to be in tune with yourself. You have to be in tune with your own beauty and your own brokenness, your own deception, your own uh error and your own capability, your own hope. Yeah. The goodness that does exist. You gotta be you have to deal with both of those and hold those together. And the same mercy that you need, other people need. Yeah. Right? So then when you're dealing with people, even if you get the worst version of who they are, understand that there's still so much more than that. Yeah. And that's just where they're at in that time to what they have to offer you. But there's still so much more there to them, and you can't force people. Right. And so you have to meet people where they're at, not where you hope them to be. Yeah. Right? The hope allows you to hold on and be patient. But there's also times where you have to also, there's a pause and there might be a period of silence because you're not ready or they're not ready for it yet, right? And so then you just can't fool yourself with people, right? And and and be gracious and merciful with them. I think this is Jesus in Luke, his summary of the Beatitudes, he says, be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful. Yeah. And I think mercy is what mercy, being merciful to people is what actually frees me from resenting or hating them. Yeah. Because you can go, you can get into that easily, right? Yeah, you can. You can get, I mean, I've seen me in in this, you know, my short time in life, I've seen people in different sectors, whether it's church, whether it's uh public service, whether it's private sector. When you're lean with people, it's very easy to become callous and actually start hating the people. Yeah. You know, um, and so it's always, you know, I pray, I literally pray every day, no lie. God don't let me hate people today. Yeah, yeah. You know, because you have to come with that posture, otherwise, somebody's gonna, it's a natural, yeah, it's a natural human response to act like that, but the only way is for for me is for is for God to intervene. Yeah, you gotta be merciful. Um last one, man, Marion Indiana, born and raised here. At this point in life, you're grown, you can be anywhere you want to be. Yeah. What? Why? Yeah, Marion. Yeah, I think um, Marion, for me, there is uh the more you understand your history, the more you understand your now. Um, I think my story connected to the to our ancestors. I mean, they came here for opportunity to leave the South during a very um terrible time in American history, the antebellum period. And so they came here for opportunity and um now many stayed too and and remained in the South and and found ways to flourish even in the midst of that, too. And so coming here in 1840, and um I came here with hope. I came here with a sense of justice and purpose and a desire to see um people set free and uh people liberated to be all that God created them to be. That's what keeps me here. That same history, that same hope in 1840 when they come here, um, is is the same thing the more that I understand the more I look back, the more I understand. Yeah. And like I and so I really believe this is the sovereignty of God, and I just continue to listen. Um, you know, I mean 1930, right? 1930. Um, the pastor of Hills Chapel out there in Weaver, which our church, real community covenant church, is legally Hills Chapel. I was the last person, I was the last pastor of Hills Chapel. So I didn't even know that. I didn't know that. Okay. So if you look up the if you go into the county, you'll look at our property, Hills Chapel. Yep, I didn't know that. Okay. This is that church from Weaver, right? I was the last pastor there in 2011. And so um, I think for me, like, I mean, here's just some things. I look back, I think about the prophecy I shared with you earlier coming to fruition. When we bought the building for $10 from the school system after it caught fire, I remembered that that that prophecy I went and told Elder Bachette, and I bought the and he was like, He said, I remember that. He says, you know, sometimes you just speak what you believe God's telling you, but you don't know how it's gonna happen. Yeah, and I said, I think that part of how this is happening is I I'm I I'm a son of this church, and I believe that this is part of how this is happening. And he he affirmed that. But I also look back to like our ancestors, Ronnie, and like their their commitment to justice and perseverance and resilience and hope and a desire for a better future. Um 1930, also back to 1930, Milton, Reverend Milton Mayhew Morrel was the pastor of Hills Chapel 1930. I didn't know that. Yeah, was the pastor there. Um, I think about where I live now, I live in the Drake's old house. Ronnie and Virginia Drake lived in this neighborhood for 20 years, over 20-something years in that house, built the court, loved children, loved youth and children in the court. But before they did that, before they bought that house, there was a pastor named James Gilbert. He was the pastor of Hills Chapel AME Church in Weaver, and he lived in that house and he had a heart for children and youth in the neighborhood. He would take kids out there. There's, I mean, there was there's several kids who remember him taking them out to Weaver. Yeah. And so for me, I just look at history, I look at where I'm at, and I say, Oh, God is weaving this together. I just continue to say I do. That's amazing. So I that's a whole bunch of information I had no idea. And you learn something new every day. Yeah. So I got listeners from all over, man, locally, statewide, nationally, internationally. If someone is wanting to move to Marion, yeah, what would you what's a couple of encouraging things you would give them to why they should be here? Man, Marion, um, Marion, one reason why is if you're looking to go to a place uh where there's a lot of resilience, this is your place. The people here in Marion from all walks of life are a resilient group of people. They've seen a lot, been through a lot, and they're still standing, still hoping, and they're still here. Some of them want to be here, some of them is just where they're at, right? And so I think here's a place of resilience. I I think this is a place of hope. I think throughout all the challenges and whatever people might say, I think that people are here because they still hope for a better place, a hope for a better future. I'm not looking to return back to something. I'm not going back to purple rain, man. This oh man, let them sink in for a second. I'm not going back. We're not going back to industry. Yeah, yeah. Man, these companies aren't coming, these you know, but what does that mean for us in our time to move towards a better future while also understanding that we have to become, we have to contextualize it upon the circumstances of what we have to work with and where we're at and what does flourishing look like? And three, man, there's some good people here, man. Yeah, man, there are some good people here. And so I think I wouldn't be where I'm at. I'm not who I am without the people from this community. So if this is what you want, this ain't perfect, but no community's perfect. You're gonna deal with some real people, you're gonna deal with some people who are hurt, you're gonna deal with some people who have no clue about hurt. I mean, you're gonna deal with lots of different people depending upon where they're at. But man, there's some good folks here, and there's some people who will listen. Yeah. Well, that's good, man. Again, thanks for having you uh coming on the show. This is um season three, episode five of the Memorial Speaks Podcast. We have a very special guest, um, Andrew Pastor Andrew Monero came on today. You can find this on all major streaming platforms from YouTube to um Apple um podcast and Spotify to everywhere. So please give us a listen. Thank you so much for tuning in.