#123: Jeff Cartwright: A New Hope
One of my dear friends, Jeff Cartwright, is on the podcast this week. Jeff and I talk about recovery, hearing from God, and doing urban ministry.
If you don't love Jeff, I don't know if you are breathing!
LINKS:
EP. 123
Tony: [00:00:00] Hey everybody welcome back to the Reclamation Podcast, where our goal is to help you reclaim good practices for faith and life. I'm Tony and I get to host the podcast. Today is episode 1 23, and I sit down with my dear friend ministry partner and well, just an incredible guy, pastor Jeff. Jeff and I get into a dialogue about what it means to pastor in the urban church about recovery, about gut checks, about all the things that we do to stay obedient to God.
You're going to love Jeff. You're going to love his heart. You're going to love his ministry. God is doing some incredible things with new hope church on Xenia avenue. And if you like this conversation, do me a favor. Hit that subscribe button, wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a rating or review on iTunes.
It does help people find the podcast on our platform. And Hey, maybe even share this episode with a friend, [00:01:00] a referral is one of the best gifts that you can give us because it lets people know one person at a time about what God is doing through this platform. Also, if you didn't know we're okay.
Ministry of spirit and truth, spirit and truth is a revival ministry. For the local church. And we believe in bringing the kingdom of God right here, right now, for more information and to get connected to spirit and truth, check them out spirit and truth.life. Now without any further ado. Here's my conversation with pastor Jeff Cartwright.
Everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm excited today. One of my dearest friends in the entire planet with me in person. The good Reverend Jeffrey Cartwright. Jeff, how are you? My friend?
Jeff: I'm great. I'm better when you don't call me the good reference, please never used that phrase to describe me ever again,.
Tony: But you are back to good Reverend you're a pastor and maybe more importantly, you are a pastor to a [00:02:00] city block, and I was wondering if you could kind of talk to us about the difference between the way some people pastor.
It churches in a traditional model and kind of what you've done for the last. What is it? 20, some odd years on zingy avenue. Yeah.
Jeff: So man, that's, that's a big question. So I moved to Dayton from Oklahoma as a missionary to the inner city back in 1994. And not as a pastor, when I moved here, I was working with teens and children and, and what I learned.
I don't think I knew coming in, but what I learned coming in was that it's all about relationships and that becomes more and more true every minute of every day of every year in ministry is that it's all about relationships. It never changes, never changed from the beginning. It's always been about that, but I think we get caught up in lots of different things, right.
The beautiful thing about the way I had to start was that it, that it just became naturally about relationships. [00:03:00] I didn't know anybody. I didn't know the neighborhood. And so I was in the neighborhood walking around, talking to people, building relationships, starting to build circles of people to connect.
For events and activities, but then giving, being given opportunities to grow deeper, which led to lasting relationships that have led into the start of a, of a new church back in 2007. And then. I can tell you more about that as you want to know, but, well.
Tony: Let's do this first because as a native Daytona and I have I have a depth of knowledge about Xenia avenue that I think most people who are listening may not.
And so maybe could you, could you paint a picture on why somebody from Oklahoma would, would travel across the country to, to go and do ministry? What is it a five block radius?
Jeff: 15 block radius. Yeah. So the, the neighborhood is in the heart of a, of a zip code. That's I mean, it's, it's [00:04:00] an urban community, but the neighborhood itself is in the heart of.
Of a zip code. That's probably low median income for the city, but it's one of the lowest income places in the entire city. The, the, the neighborhood itself ravaged with drugs and addiction issues ravaged. Poverty and low education low. Even prior to COVID, lots of people were unemployed because they couldn't get jobs because they didn't have the education and get the job, you know, and then keeping a job once you have it in a community that has just been in cycles of poverty for years and years and years.
I mean, so it was everything. Think about in the inner city was all the stuff that was taking place on zany avenue when I moved to.
Tony: Yeah. And at one point in time, not too long ago, it was designated as the heart of the heroin epidemic. Is that right country?
Jeff: Not just, not just in Ohio, but over the, throughout the country, it was, it was national news.
Drive area.
Tony: Yeah. So one of the questions that I love [00:05:00] to ask people on the podcast is how they hear God's voice and write it. And the idea of moving from Oklahoma to Dayton seems like this big, enormous, scary task. How did you know that it was God that was calling you and not just you know, a young man.
Foolish pride.
Jeff: So I knew what I didn't know clearly was that I was called to Dayton. Okay. What I knew clearly was that I was called to ministry. When I was a junior, late junior in high school or in college, I was called the full-time ministry and I knew I didn't want to finish. I wanted to finish my degree as fast as I can.
And I didn't want to go back to school. So the question was, God, how can I do both of those things? And the answer was this program called the U S to program through the United Methodist church. And so ended up going to the interview weekend in New York. And they laid in front of us, 50 locations throughout the country where we could potentially go.
And our one afternoon's event was basically to go through all of these applications to pray over them. And then to [00:06:00] rank our top three, my top three were Tacoma, Washington at a college ministry. And I picked that solely because. Tacoma Washington right there in their great area. It is a great area. I, the second one was Tallahassee, Florida, which I would never pick normally, but the job sounded cool.
And then this place called Dayton, Ohio. I'd never heard of it before was on the top of my list. I felt like God was pointing me there. And it was partially because I had some experience doing youth ministry didn't know how different urban youth ministry was going to be. And so, and then from there, the United Methodist church and led by God's spirit brought me to Dayton.
Tony: And so you show up in Dayton and you didn't show up to plant a church, but rather the church grew out of the relationships that you had. Now, there's this incredible story that you I've heard you tell. And I was hoping, you'd tell it for us here about your prayer time. And as you began. Pray for God to kind of start this church and how long [00:07:00] that took.
And, you know, if, if that process of how you felt like, man, God is not answering my prayers. And I don't know if this church thing's really going to work and I'll let you tell the story. You're better at it than I am.
Jeff: So actually a mutual friend of ours. Is married to the guy who I was having this conversation with that chaplain Terry Jones.
Tony: She has, she's been on the podcast.
Jeff: I know she's been on the podcast. Well, her husband, Richard and I were good friends in seminary and he was up for a week. She was I think she was deployed at the time.
Tony: We were deployed together. That's the ironic part about that? This was oh four to oh five. Right.
Jeff: Richard came up and the United Methodist church had come to me and asked me to plant a church and I'd been dabbling in this. Right? So like, what I mean by that is we were, we were meeting every week and we were praying about what God wanted us to do, but, but like, I wasn't, I never thought I was. Wired to plant a church, never thought it was ever going to happen, even when I agreed to try it.
So I [00:08:00] certainly didn't think it was going to fund my life. So I, I I was doing it on the side, very part-time, but then I was working my full-time job, which was as a director of youth development at a secular organization. So he came up and we were spending the week together and I was telling him about the church and I remember him.
It was a Saturday night, one of those dumb Saturday night, two in the morning conversations, and we're sitting there and we're talking through the fact that I was still working this other job. And I was frustrated about the church and, and it kept asking me all these pointed questions what's led us back to here was the question that kind of threw me over the edge.
He said, what if the church isn't experiencing the growth that you feel like God wants it to experience because you don't trust him. Trust him, trust him being God. Yes. And I said, Richard, I hate your guts, but I knew he was right. Which is why he just got so much. Right. And so that very following week I went into the office of my, of my director and I said, I have to resign because I'm called to do something else.
And I'm holding onto [00:09:00] this as a security blanket. And I believe that God's telling me if I don't trust him, that this is never going to work. And the following week. Two big things happened that led to breakthrough in the church. The first one was we didn't have any music at that point. And a guitar player came to me and said, Hey, I heard you're trying to plant a church.
I knew this guy, but, and he knew loosely that I was trying to plant a church, but I had like the thought he would ever come along and help us was amazing. Here he is coming and asking if he could help. The second thing that happened is our first community contact. Became a regular connection to the church.
And from there, God started to grow it and it all happened ironically the week after I said, okay, I guess it's time to give it.
Tony: So, so w as you're pastoring people now, and you're thinking about your own walk with Christ, how much do you feel like? Our ability to let go of control dictates how much God will trust us.
Jeff: Yeah. Well, I [00:10:00] think they're completely related, right? I mean, like, God gives us a piece of something to do. It's the talents, right? It's the, it's the parable of the talents. Right. I can trust you with this so I can give you more of it. We, we go through seasons in ministry. This has been my experience.
Anyway, you go through seasons in ministry where God has to push you. He has to push you as to push you to get not just you, but, but everything he's entrusted you with to the next place. And in order for you to get there, you have to take that leap of faith. You've got to step out of the boat and walk on the water and keep your eyes on him.
And, and so I think they're completely relieved. And I it's been my life experience over and over and over again. I'm a slow learner in case you didn't pick up on that.
Tony: So that resonates. That's why we're good friends.
Jeff: I think that's right.
Tony: When you think about 20 years doing ministry in an urban setting first of all, Mo most pastors don't survive that let's just, you know, if I can be honest to the people who are listening, [00:11:00] like it it's It's transient.
Like it's hard ministry. It's, it's watching people who went to your church on Sunday, overdose on Monday or Tuesday. Yeah. W what, and this is probably a really big question. So what have you learned about God doing urban ministry that you think may be somebody who's always been in the suburbs or in rural ministry?
May not know. Hm.
Jeff: Well, I can, I guess I can let me frame that in this, in this way. I can tell you what I didn't know until I came into the city. And may, this probably has as much to do with me. As it does with the city environment than I'm in. And that is, I, I learned of the profound love that God has for people in general.
Yeah. And for me specifically, by the way I went into this thing pretty broken and pretty scarred personally in ways that I didn't really realize. And I'm still working through that today, even, but yeah. [00:12:00] CA I came in with a very legalistic idea of how God works, that his his love and his faithfulness are based on my love and my faithfulness.
And so I'm going to work as hard as I can to be everything he wants me to be. And that's, by the way, the expectation he has of everybody. And so guess what, no wonder the city is going to hell in a hand basket, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all of these things and what I've come to understand and realize in a really profound way is that God loves.
God loves those people. And he loves me and he has a grace for me that is greater than all of my sin as the song says. And so that's been profound for me and I don't, I, I'm not going to pretend for one second that somebody in the suburbs hasn't experienced that too sure. But I can just tell you that I didn't have that experience in 20 years prior to my ministry.
It was very legalistic and very, very dogged meant of documented data. That's probably not even a word, but we're going with it. This was life and, and then I started to [00:13:00] see. God's love is bigger than anything. I pictured it. He broke, he broke out of, he helped me to break out of a box that was pretty small and I'm still breaking boxes.
I'm still trying to get through. I don't think we ever capture the depth of his love in reality here, but but he's constantly pushing me beyond any boundary that I thought thought was comfortable for sure. And really was even possible.
Tony: That's that's beautiful. And, and so. You and I have obviously we've, I think we've been meeting just about every Friday.
We meet for lunch and for a band meeting, we talk about our sins. We talk about how awful we are as husbands and pastors. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man.
Jeff: In fathers, how we still have a job in a marriage. It's unbelievable. Miracle.
Tony: And so. So I, I have, I've had a front row seat at the way that God has, has continues to refine your rough edges and the last I don't know, probably five or six years.
One of the things that you've wrestled with and [00:14:00] that you've given me permission to talk about today. Is is your own personal journey of recovery. Now, your recovery church, you have to be to do this kind of urban ministry. And I think somewhere along the way, it, it latched onto your heart and you realize some things about your health and your life.
And I wonder if you would take us into that journey when you realize I really do have a problem.
Jeff: Yeah. So as you pointed out, being in a, an urban setting, recovery is a big deal. And so you, if you're not paying attention to that as the church, I think in this culture in general, then you probably need to take a second look, but specifically in an urban setting like that, it's.
If you're not zeroing in, on addiction and recovery issues, then you're, then you're not being the church in that place. So, so I've been preaching about the step, the 12 steps and the power of God to work through those and, and, you know, recognizing your [00:15:00] powerlessness and all of those things. I've been preaching about it for years, years, and every year, gaining weight, gaining weight, gaining weight, gaining.
To the point where I remember about it's been about six years ago now, maybe seven years ago. I didn't can't remember exactly. Remember laying in bed one night and trying to go to sleep. And all of a sudden I had this chest pain. It was like an elephant sitting on my chest and I rolled over and I woke my wife up and my wife hates this part of the story, but I rolled over and I woke her up and I said, honey, I, I think I'm having a heart attack.
And she was. She w she kind of nodded at me and rolled back over with the sleep. And I'm like, I guess I'm in this all by myself. Now, what I, what I forget to tell all the time is that my wife is on this medication that makes it hard for her to wake up. And so, anyway.
Tony: She doesn't care. Let's be honest here.
Your wife is one of the most caring people that I've ever met. Amazing.
Jeff: She has a ginormous heart amazing woman, but it's way more fun to tell that story without that part. Well, I'll be here to protect Sharon. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. So, anyway.[00:16:00] I'm laying there. And I remember praying the prayer that probably many of you have prayed and that definitely many of the people that I serve have prayed, which has God, if you will rescue me, I will change my behavior.
Yeah. And within five minutes, I'm not, this is no exaggeration. Within five minutes, the chest pain went away. Oh, wow. And I think. He did it. Oh, wow. He rescued me. So I got up the next morning and got ready for work and got my car and drove to McDonald's and picked up my two egg McMuffins and my diet Coke.
And I'm eating the second egg muffin. And I thought to myself, what am I doing? Yeah. I mean, I just prayed that this prayer last night, God, if you rescue me, then I'll change it. So I started searching for what it meant to change the way I was living my life. And it occurred to me. I think I have a problem.
That's more than just more than just I eat too much. It's more than just health and yeah. Yeah. I think I have, I think I might have an addiction problem. So I started exploring [00:17:00] that and long story short, I started a program connected Overeaters anonymous called gray shooters. Lost 180 pounds and kept it off until COVID hit and then fell back into some old habits and have gained some of it back.
I still have kept most of it off, but I have a lot of work to do to get back on track. But point is, I recognize that addiction. Addiction is a bigger problem than, than, than the ways that we think about it. So often drugs, alcohol pornography, guess what? We all have addiction in our life to something. And, and I would think of it in terms of, of anything that distracts us from God and keeps us hiding the truth from ourselves.
Could, you could possibly define it as addictive behavior and we need recovery from that. And so. Anyway, it started me on a journey, not only of, of weight loss, but of trying to discover what is it. That's keeping me, that's keeping me from [00:18:00] complete, completely, fully committing myself to the journey God's sent me on.
And so I'm still trying to figure that out. In fact, some of that includes counseling. One of the, one of those things includes a sponsor that I'm reporting to on a regular basis, what I'm eating and meeting with them on a regular basis, walking through the 12 steps, going to meetings, which I don't do very well, but when my friend Tony has been pushing me about this.
Tony: I wasn't going to say anything about your meeting attendance.
Jeff: That's okay. I didn't think you were, but I'm confessing to the podcast.
Tony: And the podcasts appreciates it because I think I actually, I just think that there are so many of us who who do well for a season and then a new season hits. Yeah. And, and then we fall backwards. Yeah. And we forget what, what, what did we do to do well the first time?
Right. And if COVID has taught us anything, it's that what we, what we once held sacred can be quickly ripped away from us. That's exactly right. How have you seen COVID impact? [00:19:00] Xenia avenue. And, and how was that different than, I mean, I'll be honest, most of my community here and, you know, warm and cheerful, cheerful, Centerville has, has kept them jobs.
Yeah. Most of them have, have done pretty well. And, you know, aside for some isolation and some you know, I mean some additional drinking From some people as a coping mechanism, I would say that most of our, our life here didn't change much. Yeah. What's it look like on, on your side of the street?
Jeff: So one of the things we wrestled with early on was, is, you know, in the church world, there was a lot of talk about you know, focus on doing what you do well online and.
In our community. That's a language that people don't speak. They're they're online. They most, everybody has a smartphone today, but when they're on their smartphone, the last thing they're seeking out is educational. Self-help certainly not [00:20:00] churches. They're not looking to, they're not looking for a church online to attend.
That's not how they're using their time and their energy and their focus. And so we knew right away that it was going to be really hard to connect to our community online. And so we've been trying to figure out what are some creative ways to do that. We spent a lot of time still going out into the community, dropping off gift bags, doing whatever we could to keep connected to people.
And then. Rethinking what, well, what does outreach look like in this season? Cause you almost can't do it, right. It's really hard to do in a, in what seemed like a meaningful way. And so I wouldn't say that we figured any of this out. In fact, here we are today, still trying to figure out how do we, how do we get connected again with people who have sort of disconnected for lots of reasons for.
It's I've, I'm not in the habit anymore. I'm still afraid for lots of reasons. It's still not connected back to our church or any local church, really. That's been the biggest impact. Maybe people lost jobs, but [00:21:00] the, the stimulus packages that have been flying around have, have more than supported people, whether that's healthy or unhealthy is, is not for me to decide to stay.
But but those, those things have, have led to people being fairly stable. Economically financially in there or as stable as they were at least. But the big thing is connecting in community and I feel like that's where we lost the most because you know, if I'm in, if I'm in a place where I have a fairly healthy family network then I maybe don't lose a lot by not being in community.
If I don't have that, then I lose. And that's what we've experienced, probably more than anything on zany avenue.
Tony: So when you pray for your community, do you pray for a stronger sense of community? I mean, how, how, how do we begin to build that back?
Jeff: Yeah. Well, it's a very good question. And we're, it's a, it's a question that we're asking internally is how do we, how do we define who we are and then how do we live into that in a way.
That [00:22:00] meets the need that is really present in our community. And so we're asking a lot of questions that we didn't think to ask before that this has forced us to ask, like, again, as simple as who are we really? Who are we supposed to be in a community like ours? And then how do we, how do we connect to people in a, in a meaningful way that's gonna, that's gonna impact them in a way that that's meaningful to them.
Tony: So you know, as a pastor, I know it and you know that that's, it's a lot of things to carry. Right. It's a lot of burdens. Yeah. You know, in addition to all of the pastoral work that you do, you also do quite a bit of fundraising for zing avenue because the resources aren't there for the buildings and the spaces, and you even raise part of your own salary in order to serve there.
And I know you don't like to talk about that kind of stuff. But what I'm getting at is what, what do you do to keep yourself. In a healthy place with God.[00:23:00] What, what are those, what are those D don't smile at me like that I'm not trapped.
Jeff: This is such a leading question.
Tony: Just asking what are, what are your, what are your routines and discipline?
Jeff: So what Tony knows about me, And that anybody who knows me well knows about me is that boundaries and rhythms are a struggle of my life. I wasn't gonna say that Jeffery or you weren't going to say it. I'm just saying, you know me well enough. Have to know that that's the answer to the question. So guess what, apparently this is the confession broadcast and podcast.
And so just as, as far as confessing is concerned, is I, I struggle with boundaries and rhythm. In healthy ways in my life. And so one of the most important pieces is having people like you in my life, people who are holding me accountable, who are challenging me, constantly reminding me of the importance of, of getting those boundaries and rhythms pulling me out of my shell, you know, inviting me to go.
Water skiing or do a baseball game or finding healthy things that separate my, my heart and [00:24:00] my mind from those things that are weighing me down every day. Sometimes my wife, who is this woman is a woman of God. If there ever was one and she prays for me on a regular basis, but she also reminds me constantly that, that I have a family that.
Tony: And you guys do you guys do a date day once a week?
Jeff: When we're faithful to that, we do that. But she's, she's been integral in helping me make sure that a Sabbath is happening every week. Pushing me to, to close the close the computer to turn off the phone, to. Those things that are really hard sometimes to do when you're, when you just don't know where to stop.
Tony: You also spend, and you're not giving yourself enough credit, I think, which is another common Jeff trait, but like you, you also spend time in the word every day, every day, you're discipling you know, four to six guys at any given time, you've got to disciple makers, heart, you know, and, and so you're, you're pouring into those people and all of that is life-giving as well.
Jeff: Sure. Absolutely. Most of the time [00:25:00] it's at least life checking. Yeah. Right. So what is it? What's the difference? Well, so life, life giving. I mean, like, I feel like immediately breathes life into you. There's that would be how I define it. When I say life checking. That comes with a lot of pain, even though it probably also comes with a lot of growth.
Yeah. And so I, I find that my time in the word and my time, especially with my, with the guys, I disciple can be very life checking for me, which sometimes really painful, but ultimately I know leads to good.
Tony: So, let me ask you this, let's say that you're being checked. What's the, what's the next thing that you do after you've been checked by a, maybe a piece of scripture or somebody you're discipling?
Like, I think that, you know, another word for it is conviction probably right. Being convicted. Yeah. And I think there are probably a lot of people listening who maybe they're hearing. The ways that you've stepped out in faith, maybe they're hearing about their own walk in, in your story and they're feeling [00:26:00] convicted.
What do we do the day after we feel convicted or the, the hour after, what do you want to do? Or what do you do? I know, I know what I do.
Jeff: I find ice cream pizza is my favorite. No. Well, so I was telling you the story yesterday about you know, Had some trouble with boundaries and rhythms over the last few weeks.
And, and that's led to. Come and do a day off and not spending that well with my family. So my wife calls me on this. Sure. A little life check yesterday check. And so I'm in the shower after our, after our life check moment, which she didn't recognize his life check. She was just like, what is the problem?
And you're just not in a good space. And I didn't know the answer to that question. So I'm in the shower and I'm thinking through this and a million thoughts are coming to my head and I landed at this that I. The struggle is I'm not content. Hmm. And how do I become content in every circumstance? And I thought of, you know, I'm [00:27:00] kind of eating in a boring pattern right now.
And my, the part of my job that I hate most is what I'm spending the most time doing right now. And I'm S which means I'm squeezing out things that I really enjoy doing a lot of times. And, and so all of these things led me back to, okay, there are seasons like that in your life. How do you, how do you recognize.
You don't necessarily have to settle for that, but you do need to learn how to be content in every circumstance. And the thing that came specifically to mind was we, our church participated with 20 of our folks in a, in a rice packing event, back with a partner church earlier this month. And we packed 9,000 rice meals for a family, for families in Africa.
And I remembered in the shower, as I was thinking about the boring food that I have to eat. What would it be like to eat a rice pack every day for the rest of your life? And I thought. I bet they're not complaining about the rice pack that they get to eat because it means they get to eat. Yeah. And [00:28:00] so it was super, super challenging to me to start thinking about, okay.
So God's given you a great ministry, a great job and incredible family food to eat at all. What are you complaining? And man, once that fi that was, those felt like the longest shower in history. And it was probably in a 10 minute season where God just says, Hey, get it together, man. And it changed my day.
So it was, it was a process of stepping back. You can go on. Okay. What am I hearing right now? And how do I live into whatever. Or live out of if I need to get out of it.
Tony: Sure. So, I mean, that sounds said another way, right? Like it sounds like a gratitude check. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so maybe the key to contentment is to find what you're thankful for.
Jeff: In this case, in, in every case you, yeah.
In this case, it was, it led to gratitude. Yeah. That was the that's what needed to happen in order for me to get to a new place. [00:29:00]
Tony: And so w you know, we're, you and I have been very honest with each other, as we always are about how rough this season has been in ministry. When you think about like, Man just coming out of COVID if, if we ever come out of COVID and w what the next season of ministry looks like, w what is the vision do you think that God has for, for new hope church and for zing avenue?
Jeff: So we're, as we're, it's funny, you asked that question. We had a conversation this week with an organization who asked us the question, who are you? And we were pretty sure we knew who we were. Especially pre COVID. Yeah. And even up until the last couple of months, we've we felt like, yeah, we're still, we're still heading the right direction, but man, all of these barriers and struggles and COVID and COVID, and COVID, and.
It's forced us to start asking different questions. And then of course, this question comes up, who [00:30:00] are you really? Who are you going to be in this next season? And I think we're so w we, our mission statement is restoring hope one life at a time through Jesus Christ. That can mean lots of things. And I think what we're asking now is we thought we had a picture of what that was.
And now we're saying maybe we need to dig a little deeper. And so. Stay tuned. And I can answer that question a little bit. They're down the road, maybe.
Tony: So does that mean that when you figure out the answer to that question, you're going to come back on the panel.
Jeff: That's what you need me to do.
Tony: I just I'll do I feel like I would need closure and.
You know, the 10 people that are listening to this was my friend.
Jeff: Joseph would say, stop leaving Zacchaeus in the tree.
Yeah. Okay. I'll do that.
Tony: Okay. Good. Good, good, good. And so let me, let me ask you this. If there are people who are listening right now and they are like, they're moved by what God is doing on, on Zeny [00:31:00] avenue, through new hope church. And they are ready to like, say, Hey, how can I help? What's the best way.
You know, for them to help to get involved. If, if maybe somebody out there feels led to, to make a monetary donation, how can they support the ministry of what God is calling you you and your community to? Cause you're not doing it by yourself. You got it. You got a great team of people around you. How can they support you?
All of that on Xenia avenue, where's the best place for them to start.
Jeff: Best place to start would just be to reach out to us. You can go to new hope, dayton.org and check out our website. And it's kind of under construction now, but soon we'll be up to date with the latest information, a video that talks a little bit about our story.
And then through the website, you can, you can get Via email new hope dayton@gmail.com. You can email me personally@pastorjeffcartwrightatgmail.com. And those are all good ways to start the ball rolling into setting up a conversation for maybe next [00:32:00] steps. Whether you, whether you have some expertise in an area of helping us build some things that need to be built, or you, you want to, you want to offer some advice.
You want to send a check? Any of those things can happen starting with one of those, one of those three things.
Tony: And you're also doing a ton of ministry on your Facebook page. Yeah. And you do daily devotionals there. If people want to join and be a part and that's, that's new hope Dayton on Facebook. Yes, that's right.
And we'll link to all of those in the show notes. What about you personally? Any way that people can connect with you? Are you on social media? That's kind of a joke cause I know you're not well I'm on Facebook.
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. I'm on Facebook sort of, and I I'm on there probably once a day, just to, just to check in with people and make sure that I'm not getting messages and things like that.
Or, or if I am, I'm responding to them. But yeah, so you can check with me on Facebook. My email address is a great way to connect to me and that's a good place to start to sound out. I love face-to-face conversations with people. I love to tell the story love to give people a tour of our [00:33:00] facility. What God's doing, help them to see the neighborhood, maybe meet some people that God has changed because of the work that God's doing on Xenia avenue.
Yes.
Tony: Pretty, it's pretty incredible. I tell people all the time that if Jesus won earth, he's going to church at new hope. And I'm so thankful for you and for your ministry now you know, this, the last question I always love to ask people. It's an advice question, except I get to take you back to a very specific moment in your life.
Shocking and So, so this is, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take you back to the day after you step foot on Xenia avenue for the very first time, right? And, and 20, some odd years ago, you go back and you talk to that younger version of Jeff Cartwright. What's the one piece of advice you're going to give him as he gets ready to start on this journey.
Jeff: Wow. I think, I think what I would say.[00:34:00]
That's a really good question.
I think maybe I would say pay attention and don't miss don't miss the opportunities. I think the busier I get the longer I'm there, the easier it becomes to miss the moments where God is doing something incredible. That he is inviting you to participate in that you will absolutely pass by if you're not paying attention happens to me all the time, driving up and down the street.
I see something that I see somebody sitting on the sidewalk and I get so used to seeing people sitting on the sidewalk that I don't bother to stop. Hmm. I wonder what God encounter was waiting for me there that early on, I would've just stopped. Life wasn't quite as busy. It wasn't so crazy. There were so many, there weren't so many other things that were clouding [00:35:00] my thought process.
And so I don't always miss those opportunities, but I wonder how many I do miss because. So busy that I've stopped, always paying attention, always being available, always looking for opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And so I think younger me would say, don't ever stop paying attention to where God's moving and, and be available so that he can use you in a way that you didn't expect.
Tony: Amen. Amen. And praise God, bro. I'm so thankful for you and your friendship. And this was a lot of fun. I hope it wasn't too painful for you.
Jeff: Way better than I expected. Thank you brother.
Tony: Jeff says that at the end of all of our meetings, that was way better than I expected. I thought that was going to be a soup sandwich.
Jeff: Thank you.
Tony: Don't you just love Jeff's heart, man. I get I do love talking to that guy so much. He's such a heart for the kingdom of God. He's got such a heart for [00:36:00] Jesus. Do me a favor, follow new hope on all the socials. Get connected. If there's a way that you want to serve and we could facilitate that, let them know that you heard about it on the reclamation podcast.
Also, don't forget to hit that subscribe button, leave a rating or review and share this episode with a friend. We appreciate you guys so much. I'm so thankful to be a part of this community with you, with Jeff, with so many others. And remember if you want, I follow Jesus, you must be willing to move.
