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American Reformation
We believe the American church needs reformation. To go forward we must go back. This podcast will explore the theology and practices of the early church and other eras of discipleship multiplication and apply those learnings to our post-Christian/secular American culture. American Reformation is a podcast of the Unite Leadership Collective. Follow us at uniteleadership.org. We consult, bring together cohorts of congregations for peer to peer learning, and certify leaders for work in the church and world.
American Reformation
The Rose Bowl Parade: Building a Legacy of Faith and Service with Lynn and Richard Gast
Discover the inspirational journey of Richard and Lynn Gast, leaders of the Pedal Pushers at the Rose Bowl Parade and devoted servants of Lutheran Hour Ministries for over three decades. With a remarkable team of 4,000 volunteers, they masterfully orchestrate the creation of eight stunning floats, spreading the message of Jesus to millions worldwide. Listen as they share their secrets to successful event coordination, emphasizing the power of a servant attitude and strategic organization, while reflecting on their mission’s profound impact.
Uncover the magic behind the Lutheran Hour Ministries' live nativity float, a testament to creativity, dedication, and community spirit. This self-funded project not only brings the gospel to life but also strengthens family bonds and instills values of service and faith in future generations. The Gasts passionately discuss the joy found in spreading the gospel and encourage others to tap into their unique callings in sharing their faith, highlighting the vibrant spirit of volunteerism that unites people across the nation.
Finally, explore the significance of nurturing young people within the church, as Richard and Lynn emphasize the importance of youth engagement and community involvement. They share insights into how initiatives like the Pedal Pushers inspire the next generation to find purpose in their faith, while also reflecting on the importance of long-lasting marriages and shared spiritual journeys. Join us for a heartwarming conversation that celebrates a life centered on service, faith, and the joy of spreading the transformative power of the gospel.
Welcome to the American Reformation Podcast, tim Allman here. Pray, the joy of Jesus is your strength. As today I get to learn with Richard and Lynn Gast. Let me tell you a little bit about them. They have been serving through Lutheran Hour Ministries, a part of Lutheran Hour Ministries called the Pedal Pushers at the Rose Bowl Parade. If you've ever seen the Lutheran Hour ministry float it's decked out. It is amazing. And they have been serving that mission for 34 years. Richard just said you know you get a three-year assignment and then often in the church it turns into 34 years. Well, thank you for being faithful. They're also faithful members at Promise Lutheran in Marietta, california, and honored to be partners with them in Florida Georgia, I think. Florida Georgia, I think Marietta, georgia. I was thinking we're in the Pacific Southwest District of the Lutheran Church, missouri Synod, not Florida Georgia. Shout out to the Florida Georgia folks. Thank you for your generosity of time today. Richard and Lynn, how are you?
Speaker 2:Doing great. We're awesome. It's been an exciting time for getting ready and get this float going.
Speaker 1:There we go, there we go. It's the standard opening question in the American Reformation podcast. As you look at the broader Christian church, you're going to work with lots of different types of churches, specifically Lutheran. But how are you praying for Reformation today, richard and Lynn?
Speaker 3:Well, we feel that we have the opportunity to share this ministry with a lot of people, millions of people, not only on the road on Colorado Boulevard, but also over the TV stations, and we have a chance to share Jesus with those people over the TV stations and we have a chance to share Jesus with those people.
Speaker 2:Additionally. Well, there's a million people on the parade route, so that's pretty exciting. The Tournament of Roses indicates that there's a worldwide broadcast that's seen by about 450 million people worldwide because it is a feed that goes around. And then one of the other exciting things and we'll get into a little bit later is we've infiltrated the parade with 4,000 volunteers. Yeah, we ask our volunteers to leave their Bibles at home, but come with a servant attitude and that song in their heart that they'll know we are Christians by our love.
Speaker 2:We're probably one of the largest LCMS servant events, if you will, and we are excited to have this volunteer team come in and decorate eight floats. We're in nobody's budget, we're a self-funded project. Decorate eight floats we're in nobody's budget, we're a self-funded project. So one of our fundraisers is called Pedal Pushers decorating eight floats. So there's a lot of commercial floats that want to write a large check to the Tournament of Roses and the float builder. But how do they get it decorated? So we run a crew, traditionally between 350 and 400 people per shift, two shifts a day during the decorating week from December 26th through the morning of the 31st.
Speaker 3:We decorate eight floats and we run the flower prep tent. Last year we vialed 226,000 roses. Put them in little vials of water.
Speaker 1:That's an incredible project. I have not been blessed. I got to get out there to come be a part of that boat.
Speaker 1:I know, I know I will. I just live six hours away and I need to make it a priority. So let's, man, there's so many areas that I want to go into right now. Eight different floats, so tell me how you manage that many people. What are your systems? This is a leadership, one of the leaders. Most of this is theology, but let's get into leadership too, Like what are your best practices for managing that amount of people? That's extraordinary, Richard Lynn.
Speaker 3:Well, I sign them in when they come in in the morning and each float has a crew chief that actually teaches them what they need to do and assigns them a task. So my job, or our job, is to get them the people standing next to the float ready to go with a servant art. So we have eight floats flower tent. Like I say, we get them assigned in and the crew chiefs start out and if they have any questions or any problems or concerns, they come back and see us.
Speaker 2:I think one of the starting points is we have an online registration system and we've been signing up volunteers already, so individuals can sign up at pedalpushersorg and sign up for a shift. All we ask them to do is to work a minimum of one eight-hour shift. They can work multiple shifts if they choose, but not on the same day. The quality of their work goes down the longer, so we don't want individuals working 16 hours a day.
Speaker 3:And we have people that come from all over the country. I have a group that comes out of North Carolina every year. We have New Mexico, florida, texas they come out every year Iowa Iowa comes out with 35 people every year and so we try to, you know, get them assigned and working and those people obviously want to work more than one eight-hour shift if they've traveled that far. A lot of the Southern California people work one or two shifts and they're done for the year and we're blessed by them as well.
Speaker 2:So we have a welcoming team. So, to go with your question, this is not just the Dick and Lynn show. We're in an interesting situation that I know. A lot of church committees have been shrinking over the past few years, especially after COVID. We have a committee of about 34 people that run the decorating week, so we have the pedal pusher volunteer team that Lynn leads up. I happen to be general chairman of the Lutheran Hour Float, so I'm in charge of the whole project. Lynn's in charge of the volunteer aspect of the project and we have a team that when you show up, you sign in, she and her team assign you a float, you get escorted to your assignment and then, as Lynn mentioned, we turn the individuals over to a crew chief. So all we do is provide the volunteers. We don't do any. They won't allow me to decorate.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't know. I don't know about that. So I'm curious about what it takes to make a float look as fantastic as they do. So talk to me and our listeners, based on us having no idea what it takes, from start to finish, to put together such a beautiful float to honor Jesus.
Speaker 3:Well, we start out with a chassis, and the chassis live 15 to 18 years. They're torn down from the previous year's float and down to chassis, and when you look at the chassis, we're talking about a driver's seat and metal around it with an engine and transmission. That's it. From there on, it is a welding shop where they weld the shape of the float with pencil steel, they cocoon it in with a type of meshing and then they spray it with a liquid styrofoam that adheres to that meshing and that gives you the shaping of the float. And on the areas that you need to walk on the decks, they put a second coating on it. So it's hard enough that you don't fall through Useful.
Speaker 3:Then we start decorating. Oh, and then it's painted. I'm sorry, it's painted the exact color of what it's going to be. So if it's going to have a red rose on it, the area underneath is painted red. It does two things. If a flower falls off in the middle of the parade, you don't get an ugly blotch. And secondly, if I ask you to put red flowers on, you don't have to get artistic as to where the red flowers should go. You can just put them on where the red spot is.
Speaker 2:I think one additional thing to your question is the January 15th, the Tournament of Roses president for the upcoming parade gives us his theme for the whole parade. So this year the parade theme is called Best Day Ever. Then our committee meets and starts working on design concepts of how we are going to have a Christian message that fits Best Day Ever. So this year we lucked out because we didn't have to do much thinking. We're doing a live, we're doing a nativity in front of the church and, if you're aware, and the theme of our float is behold, jesus the Savior is born. So we feel that's probably the best day ever is when God sent his son, as a child born by Virgin Mary, to be our savior.
Speaker 3:So we want to make sure that when it goes down the road you don't have to scratch your head and say, I wonder what message they're trying to give me. So our messages are clear concise. Concise clear to the point that we may only get 30 seconds on TV or going past the crowd on Colorado Boulevard, so they have to get the picture really quick. So that's our goal when we start picking a theme, and we do that before there's ever any construction. Our float this year was built in April and then painted, and so it's been out for two test drives already. They do a fire drill to make sure they can get all the riders off in so many seconds. They make sure all the mechanics work, that everything is running as it can. Right now it's sitting in storage waiting for us to start decorating.
Speaker 2:I think the other thing, as we explain the concept of the float, we're doing a live nativity in front of a church. The mission statement of Lutheran Hour Ministries is bringing Christ to the nations and the nations to the church. So we've gone with a live nativity in front of a church and then we were able to use the stained glass windows of the church to address other best days. So we have a baptism window, we have an Easter window, we have the ascending Christ window, the returning king window, so we have Jesus with the children window. So we want the float to have multiple messages and so a lot of thought and preparation goes into how we have a Christian float in the parade. The standing comment when I was in sales earlier in my career was if it will sell in Milwaukee, it'll sell anywhere. So that's kind of the mentality that we take, that we need a in-your-face message that nobody's going to question that we are a Christian float.
Speaker 3:We are the only Christian float in the parade Wow, and it's our 74th year of being there.
Speaker 1:This is extraordinary. So, people, I heard you say eight, we had eight floats, but then you just talked about the one float. So we have eight. Well, that's the.
Speaker 2:Lutheran float Right, okay, so there's one Lutheran float, but to pay for the one Lutheran float, as I mentioned earlier, we're nobody's budget. Everybody thinks St Louis sends us money. Unfortunately, they don't.
Speaker 3:Not in their budget.
Speaker 2:We're not in their budget. We are considered a self-funded project of the Southern California District Lutheran Layman's League. Self-funded project of the Southern California District Lutheran Layman's League. So in order to help pay for the float, we run five fundraisers, and Pedal Pushers is one of our fundraisers in the fact that we are able to get a discount off of the Lutheran float by decorating ours plus seven others and run the flower tent. So we don't have to raise as much money in donations to pay for the float because it's paid for in part by the volunteerism. So our volunteerism is pretty cool because it saves us money, but it also provides 4,000 people a non-threatening Christian witnessing opportunity where they're coming with their labor of love.
Speaker 2:I tease people that when my pastor says, dick, will you canvass your neighborhood, I'm like that's not really one of my gifts. But put a float in the parade, recruit 4,000 volunteers. Yeah, we can do that and you've probably seen them before. But we have these pedal pusher shirts with the rendering of the float on the back, lynn, and I kind of wear them everywhere all year long and the poor guy behind us this year is going to see, behold, jesus the Savior is born, whether we're at Costco or Walmart or whatever, and where I may not be the door knocker. When somebody says what is the Luthenower float or who are the pedal pushers, it's a door opening question that we joyfully entertain.
Speaker 1:I say this with all respect, lynn, and I want to get your comment, but you both are obsessed about pedal pushers and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, yes, a little a general. More people young, older, whatever need to discover their obsession. Hopefully it's centered in some aspect around their gifting and then their gifting to proclaim the gospel through word and deed and lean into that. I want to be a part of churches where there are people that are obsessed about whatever the entrepreneurial, new ministry opportunity, kingdom, expanding evangelistic opportunity. Have we thought about this? Have we engaged in this? I'm all in on this and I'm not going to stop with whatever this is, because I see it's eternal ramifications. We need more obsessed Christians around various causes today, and your cause of the pedal pushers and the impact, the reach that it can have is so, so compelling, so compelling. I just wanted to draw a note about how strange you both are and how beautiful your strangeness is your obsession. You're extraordinary, lynn, I'm sorry to cut you off, I just had to get that in.
Speaker 3:I love your obsession.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we, we, the family is involved, I involved, but it's been a blessing to our whole family. Our girls have grown up decorating floats. As they got old enough they became crew chiefs on floats, so they've run floats. Our oldest daughter has been the crew chief on Lutheran almost 25 years now, has been the crew chief on Lutheran almost 25 years now, and her sisters have done the same. Right now they now have little kids, so now the three girls are rotating who's in charge which day so they can take care of their families as well. But it's drawn our whole families into it and their marriage partners, which it's been neat. You know what a, what an opportunity, what a blessing.
Speaker 1:Let's talk, it sure is. Let's talk about service. What service does? Because, as I've interacted with you over the years, I mean you both exude so much joy, so much hope. The love of Jesus just rests on you both and it's you know, it's centered, it's above your pedal pusher passion, but it definitely is like, hey, we can all do this together. What is it about? Service that just awakens the human heart, dick or Lynn?
Speaker 3:Well, if you don't feel that you need to serve, that passion is dead. You have to be willing to give something as well as receive. Obviously, we've received a lot from Jesus, a lot. Now it's our turn to give back. It's something we felt we needed to teach our children. It's something we needed to teach our children. It's something we needed to teach.
Speaker 3:You know our volunteers and, as Dick said, we tell them. You know we're not coming here to hit somebody over the head with a Bible, but we do have a service to provide, and Tournament has even said your volunteers are just different than a lot of our other volunteers. Yeah, they have Jesus in their heart and we've had the opportunity. I know we say we don't hit people over the head, but we have had opportunities to witness. We do have a witness table there with a team in the building with a pastor there that if people have questions, we have handouts, we have all kinds of things, people to talk with.
Speaker 3:We had a crew chief a couple years ago. We walked past, dick walked past and she's crying and he said okay, what happened here? My boyfriend and she was an older woman, my boyfriend, they just called me and said he died. And so we had the opportunity to I was the first person to so we had time to spend with her. We called our pastor advisor. He came every day that week, spent time with her, talked about the resurrection, talked about Jesus. I mean we didn't hit anybody over the head with the Bible, but we were there when we needed to be over the head with the Bible, but we were there when we needed to be. That's the issue. You know, the float builder originally did not have a faith base and eventually, before he and his wife passed, they were church going people. Their children had the grandchildren baptized. So we've got generations now three generations straight, that have come to Jesus, kind of, you want to say accidentally, but there is no accident with Jesus, but it happened, amen, it just happens.
Speaker 1:Anything to add, Dick?
Speaker 2:Also, in addition to having the witness booth in the float decorating building, we have our witnessing team in the formation area in the parade where the floats are formed up, and then there's a festival called Float Fest where the floats are on display for a day and a half out in Victory Park, and so we put a witness team out there. There's about 75,000, 80,000 people that will come through there and look at the floats, and last year we had 12 individuals out there witnessing to individuals, answering questions. You know, a lot of times they'll say why do you have a float in the parade, or what is the message of the float, or what is the symbolism of the float, and so we look at this as being more than a two-hour event one day a year. One of the other things that we noticed a couple years ago is that the younger people are not as much into the parade as we are. As kids, I mean, lynn and I grew up.
Speaker 2:The standing joke in our household we lived in Wisconsin was on New Year's Day you couldn't leave the TV until the Lutheran float went by. Once the Lutheran float went by, you could wander off and do whatever you wanted to do. But we've noticed that with all the different cable channels and streaming devices that there's not as much enthusiasm. So to bring awareness we set up a coloring contest where we have kids all over the country coloring the rendering of the float, and I think last year we had about 836 kids and the fun part about it is not only do the kids color it, but the parents have to sign it and the teacher has to sign it. So we're trying to figure out different ways we can incorporate our message to the world and utilize the efforts of our committee and the fabulous design that we've been blessed with in a float design. Then we also went into the Christmas card business. So this year we have Christmas cards that are going to be crisscrossing the country with the message behold, jesus the Savior is born.
Speaker 3:And the back of the card says Lutheran Art Ministries. It doesn't say Hallmark.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. Hey, let's talk about the change in American culture. This is American Reformation Podcast, and so we talk about culture. What is it about? I'd love to get the history of the Rose Bowl parade from your perspective and the kind of decline in in, uh, parade culture. You know, I think there used to be I'm going to sound like a older guy now, right but there used to be. Like in small town communities, like everybody comes out for the parade, and even here we got Gilbert days. I live in Gilbert and there's a, there's a parade, but I I don't. I don't see a lot of, maybe as much community pride today. And I think the Rose Bowl parade kind of symbolizes, in some respects, kind of American United States of America, kind of this godly sense of pride I'm proud to be a Christian first but then proud to be an American here and I think the Rose, rose Bowl parade and and the St Patty or no with the Thanksgiving parade See I'm, I'm. What is the Thanksgiving day parade Is that's in.
Speaker 2:New York right.
Speaker 1:Macy's.
Speaker 3:Thank you, macy's. Yeah, all sorts of balloons. They're the balloon parade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're the float parade, so what?
Speaker 3:is it about? I mean just thinking flower parade.
Speaker 1:There we go. What is it that's changing in culture? Maybe that makes the next generation not be as kind of prone to the parade culture.
Speaker 3:I think this generation has so much else to do and they've got the internet and they've got their phones and they've got so much social media that they don't direct their attention this way. But if they can come and decorate, we have a lot of young people coming and decorating, it's not just the older folks, so I think that's kind of a neat option. Why don't?
Speaker 2:you maybe quickly explain some of the groups that come in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have groups that come from all over the country. We do have some adult groups. Like we mentioned, that Iowa group comes in every year with 35 people. We do have families that come from all around. However, we have youth groups. We have I have a Girl Scout troop that has come in for years. In fact they're now in their twenties and they still that's their get together every year to come back and decorate floats. You know we have other youth groups from churches, from boy scouts, girl scouts. National Charity League is a group that does charity type work and they bring their girls in. It's a mother daughter, uh type group. So they come in. You know, I think if you have a youth group you can send in, we're gonna have to dick for sure yeah yeah, yeah our church.
Speaker 3:our church loads up a bus and pastor drives the bus in and brings in 25, 30 people. I love it, I love it.
Speaker 1:So it's. It's that week, if people want it. We're going to start talking about Lutheran hour. Now we'll kind of land the plane with pedal pushers, but it's if people want to volunteer and serve that week. Is it the week between Christmas and new year's that everybody kind of descends there to help you get it done.
Speaker 3:We do the Saturdays of December an 8 to 4 or a 4 to 8. So they can pick a shift. Sign up on pedalpushersorg there's a sign up there and then we start the morning of the 26th. We run two 8-hour shifts a day an 8 to 4, a 4 to 11. And we are done on the 31st in the morning because judging's then we better be done and we are, we are.
Speaker 1:That's excellent. That's excellent. Let's talk about Lutheran Hour Ministries. This ministry is a part of a broader thing called the Lutheran Hour and the Lutheran Hour, from my perspective as a multi-generation pastor in the LCMS, is one of the greatest partners, evangelical tools to get the gospel into the hearts and ears of many people internationally. So what makes you most proud of being a part of Lutheran Hour Ministries, dick or Lynn?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's been fabulous. I mean they have that mission statement bringing Christ to the nations, to the nations to the church, so they look at the Lutheran ministry as a broader perspective than just your local community available and have a really talented pool of staff that are creating and media. They have just done a fabulous job. I was blessed to be on the national board for eight years. Unfortunately, I turned out so I am now the president of the Southern California District Lutheran Layman's League. But Kurt Buchholz has done just a fabulous job. I don't know if you've interacted with Kurt. He's done a fabulous job in having a vision of taking the word of Jesus to the whole world and they've done a great job of infiltrating some third world countries Very exciting times we had the opportunity to go to Kenya.
Speaker 3:There's a big ministry from Lutheran our ministries there. We have a granddaughter from Uganda that we brought home to America.
Speaker 2:No, becky brought her, my daughter brought home let's clarify that, yes, please.
Speaker 3:But yeah, lutheran Hour Ministries has ministries all over the world and the opportunity, I mean it is amazing in some of these other countries. As I say, we did a couple of weeks in Kenya and the faith base in some of those people, the one that impressed me was we were going in a Jeep out to a church service under a mango tree and I said, since you don't have an address, how do we know when we get there? And the driver said, we'll know. Okay, so we drive and we drive, and we drive and all of a sudden we find this giant. I didn't even know what a mango tree looked like, but it's a big tree and there's 200 people under the mango tree and there's a minister that is going to do a church service. He isn't even there yet. The people are waiting for him. They baptized 37 people that day. Come on.
Speaker 3:So Lutheran Hour Ministries is taking the opportunity in all different parts of the world to teach people. We went to a church service and the first service was in English. Okay, we understood that and I said well, I'm going to go to the second service, which was in Swahili. I have no idea what they said, but I have never seen such a joyous group of people to praise God, to come to Jesus, to take communion communion. They come up to the altar to bring their gifts whatever that is, like a conga line coming up and leave their gift at the altar. Wow, you know we need to have that kind of joy, but this is what Lutheran Art Ministries is helping bring to other parts of the world.
Speaker 1:Amen, Amen. Hey, a couple more questions. You both are awesome. You've been in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod for many years your whole lives. Have you been part of the LCMS?
Speaker 3:Yes, both of us.
Speaker 1:Yeah same. So as you look at the broader LCMS, what are the best parts of what the Lord is doing and where do you think we still need to grow collectively as a church body?
Speaker 3:I think we need to keep our young people in the church. That's probably the most important thing right now. Some of us will remain in the church till the day we die, just because we will, but our young people need to grow up in the church, need to go to college if that's where they're going and have campus ministries in the church. That's where Dick and I met.
Speaker 2:We met at Calvary Lutheran Student Center at the University of Wisconsin.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:So I think that's the thing that the church needs to focus on is youth group and helping our young people stay in the church, because there's a lot of other distractions going in a lot of other directions. But I think if we can keep them that direction and dating within the church which I'm not saying we shouldn't bring other people in, but it sure helps. If you're marrying somebody within your faith base, you're equally yoked.
Speaker 1:Yes, Can you read more Dick anything else?
Speaker 2:I think she nailed it.
Speaker 1:We need to care for our young people. Man, that's been a resounding theme with many, many folks that I'm talking about. Human beings are hardwired for community and we're hardwired actually to care beyond just our life today and in the American culture today, where it's hyper-consumer, hyper-individualistic, hyper-entertainment, give it to me. Now the church gets to operate in a different sphere. We get to center ourselves, by word and sacrament, on the promises of God, signed, sealed and delivered through the person and work of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins that flows from his cross and empty tomb given to us through the waters of baptism. And we need, then, to care deeply about the next generation and do whatever it takes to present. And I'd love to get your take on this.
Speaker 1:A lot of times, I think, in the church, we struggle with attraction. We don't want to be seen as attractional, and, as I think about even the pedal pushers mission, like you want, you want because Jesus is right. He's a stumbling stone, to be sure, for many, because he's very narrow in his understanding. I am the way, the truth and the life. And yet, when you come to Jesus, there's in the spirit, draws you to Jesus, there's this immense freedom, there's this new mission, there's a new identity.
Speaker 1:Jesus is very attractional and I think one of the ways today that the church can work to improve is I'm not afraid of the attractiveness of Christ. He compels me, he gives me purpose and passion and meaning for life and I think if young people saw that in our younger adults, in our parents, in our grandparents, I think if they saw the joy of Jesus on us in a life that's well lived, maybe that would help them move through the difficulty of growing up and then starting their own kind of journey as they get married and have kids and those types of things. Talk to the attractiveness of Christ or anything that the Holy Spirit kind of put in your heart as you. Let me go off there a bit, leonard Dick.
Speaker 3:Well, I think the fact that we have had an exceedingly blessed life, a very joyous life in service, in our faith to God, joyous life in service, in our faith to God, I think we need to teach our children that we can have fun being Christians. It's not all serious and you know, we can have a good time and still be Christian. Have that faith base. Have that servant base. Help them learn to serve in our churches. Help them learn to serve outside the church, in places like the pedal pushers.
Speaker 2:I think that'll help bring them along If we have the kids in through confirmation. Once confirmation is over, we ignore them until adulthood and we need to find a purpose and an activity and an engagement for them. And that's one of the things we're excited about with the Pedal Pushers is we're not asking people, teenagers, to be Christian witnesses by Bible thumping, but just by having a servant attitude. Come down and witness through your labor of love, if you will. And I think the interesting thing is to watch their reaction after they've been there, because they'll say oh, did you see that part on the float? That's what I decorated, the pride and ownership that they have. And we had a couple from our car club come down to decorate and at the next car club meeting he couldn't stop talking about his working on the Lutheran float to the whole group. And that's the part that I decorated. Did you see it? So it's been a lot of fun providing people opportunities to engage.
Speaker 2:I don't think there's enough engagement. I think too many individuals are just on their cell phones. So you know, it's too easy to avoid contact with people because you're always on your phone. If you don't want to talk to somebody, just hold your phone. Pretend you're on the phone.
Speaker 3:Well, and, as you mentioned, you know they get confirmed and all of a sudden we say well, you know, when you get to be an adult, you can help serve in the church. Well, by then you've lost them. So you know in, I know, in our church we have them acolyting, we have them doing all kinds of things serving in the church, we have them in the choir. We had a soloist yesterday that was 17 years old. You know we need to keep them activated. If we don't keep them activated, they're gone. They're gone.
Speaker 1:Hey, I love that call for the church to engage young people. It's so good and we need to learn from those who have walked this life, through the ups and downs of life. I just look at you. How many years have you been married?
Speaker 3:53.
Speaker 1:53. Wow, praise God. What would you?
Speaker 3:say she was only a child Right.
Speaker 1:What would you say are the top two or three keys for a marriage that lasts into the 50s and 60s, god willing going on mission to make Jesus known, because marriage I mean Ephesians 5, it's a mirror of Christ's love for the church, as a husband loves a wife, wife respects her husband. So what are some of those keys to a beautiful, long-lasting marriage? Dicker Lynn.
Speaker 2:Well, I was lucky because we were best friends before we even dated, so that was, that helps.
Speaker 3:That helps Definitely To this day he'll say hey, I'm going to the store, you want to come along? Sure, you know. I think being best friends makes a big difference. The other thing, I think, is that we met at church. We have a common faith base. It's important to both of us when we had children and we struggled to have children, but when we had them, we brought them up in the church. That is the center of your marriage. I think that's important.
Speaker 2:Probably one of the other things on a personal side, because we were best friends, we had a policy or I had a policy that I want to continue to date my wife, so we had Saturday night date nights to keep that relationship going. I think too often people fall into a rut and lose that connection of why you got married in the first place right now, or a country right now with plus 50% divorce rates, and so we we we allowed our daughters to help pick out the babysitter for the Saturday night. But I'm taking mom on a date and love. It taught them the dating culture.
Speaker 1:That's so good. So, friendship, faith, follow through. There's three F words for you.
Speaker 1:In terms of staying connected to one another. We host in our congregation every other week date nights and we provide babysitting services and moms and dads can either do the parents can either do the thing that we're doing together as a church, or they can just use the babysitting and go go out to eat, go to movie, whatever. You've got to continue to pursue one another. It's not set it and forget it. Uh, she has to. She's like a puddle you got to keep. There's multiple layers, guys, as you're engaging, your, your wife, and uh, and it takes a lifetime to get to know her. That's the way. I'm 20 years right now, married to my wife Alexa. It takes a lifetime to get to know her as we evolve together, as we grow up together, and it's a beautiful journey but, my goodness, you cannot set it and forget it.
Speaker 1:One of my biggest I guess tragedies struggles, my biggest I guess tragedies struggles, pain points, is watching marriages. I don't know what happens in 40s, like I'm 43 right now. A lot of guys really, really struggle and implode, and it can be women too. We struggle and implode in those middle years. You know the 40s. We struggle and implode in those middle years, you know the 40s. Or maybe it's when the kids go off to college and our identity has been found in that relationship. So any word of wisdom to those that are in the thick of it right now, like for me, 40s and 50s, and just trying to make it. We're grinding right now. You know every single day you got to get going and it's easy for you to grow apart in love for your spouse. So any words of wisdom for those in my season of life.
Speaker 3:I think when your kids leave home, you have spent at least we did spent our whole life around our kids and all of a sudden you had that hole and I used to tease Dick the first couple months that they'd go back to school I'd walk around the house, I had so many plans of things I was going to do and I'd start something and no, that's not right, no, maybe I'll. No, that's not right. I was empty and I had to pull myself back together again. But I think as the kids are growing up and getting more independent or off to school again, you need to reconnect with that spouse. There was a reason you married him to begin with. Find that again.
Speaker 2:I think, going back to the pedal pushes in Lutheran Hour, float pushes and looses in our float is the fact that we have a common goal, so it keeps us together. We probably talk about the float several times a day.
Speaker 3:At least, at least Love it so we'll come up with an idea.
Speaker 2:So we're partners in something, so that it isn't my project or it isn't just her or isn't just her project, it's our project. And then, as we said, we've engaged our kids. We have a presentation tomorrow at Redeemer by the Sea in Carlsbad and they wanted a PowerPoint and I'm like that's above my pay grade. So my daughter came over yesterday and pulled together our PowerPoint, took her a couple of hours, me I'd still be reading the directions. So anyhow, I do have some technological challenges.
Speaker 3:No, you're good.
Speaker 2:You know, I think the common goal we, we love travel, we love cruises, we love we have an rv, we love going on rv trips. So having those common interests that keep you bound together, but so good.
Speaker 1:It's so evident that you're in love and you're obsessed with the love of Christ and the love of pedal pushers and the mission. You're both an amazing treasure to the church.
Speaker 3:Nick and.
Speaker 1:Lynn for sure. Last question what do you love most about Jesus? Just look at the person and work of Jesus. What do you love most about him?
Speaker 3:That he has forgiven me, and that's something our church talks about every Sunday morning. No matter what has gone on, no matter what I've thought, no matter what I've done, I am forgiven and I am saved. No matter what. It's not what I do, it's what he did.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think he did a little more than we're doing. I mean, dying on the cross is a little harder than putting a float in the parade.
Speaker 3:So we serve because he served us first. It's a response it's not a I will do to get something.
Speaker 1:Nope, it's all been done. It's all been done and now we get to live in the, in the overflow, the, the freedom, the grace of Jesus, the mercy that he's shown to us. We now extend out horizontally to our neighbors and we just want our ultimate goal is that more and more people would come to Jesus. The mercy that he's shown to us we now extend out horizontally to our neighbors and we just want our ultimate goal is that more and more people would come to know the joy of Jesus, the freedom of Jesus, and and live the Jesus life with us. And it's always. It's always in community.
Speaker 1:You know, Jesus did life together and he came for the world together and it came for the world and he just wants us to have a relationship with the God of the universe and then to share that divine love story that's centered in the scriptures. So this has been so much fun. Declan, thank you for your generosity of time and for sharing your obsession with Pedal Pushers. We've talked a little bit about how folks can get connected there, but if they just wanted to get to know you both individually, how could people connect with you?
Speaker 3:You can connect with us either through the again. The website is pedalpushersorg. Dick's phone number is on there.
Speaker 2:I have an email address chairman at pedalpushersorg.
Speaker 1:There it is, chairman at pedalpushersorg.
Speaker 1:They are Dick and Lynn Gast, leaders of Pedal Pushers. I'm Tim Allman. This is the American Reformation Podcast. Thanks for hanging out with us today. If this conversation blessed you, you got the joy juice of Jesus from this conversation. Please share, like, subscribe, comment. Wherever it is you take these conversations in. This is the podcast of the Unite Leadership Collective and we simply are praying for the joy of Jesus to spread from, yes, the Lutheran Church, missouri Synod, but out to the wider church that the world would know. There is a good, good God who sent his son to redeem us as his children, lost, wayward, rebellious, and invite us into a life which is truly worth living, a life centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a good day. Go and make it a great day. Wonderful work, dick and Lynn. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you.