TFB 25th Anniversary! What We've Learned After 25 Years of Family Business | S4 E1

Intro to Szn 4 Ep 1

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Family Business with the Alessis, and I'm Steve Alesi here with my wife, Mary Alesi. And I didn't even step out of the podcast booth to change my shirt. Didn't either. Didn't either, because we're sitting here today and we're like, you know what? We need to go ahead and hammer out this 25th

Early Memories from The Beginning of TFB

SPEAKER_03 0:30

church anniversary celebration podcast where the business that we are a part of, we founded, uh, started 25 years ago, and in September we celebrate an anniversary, and it's our 25th, which is our silver anniversary. Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

That's very cool. As a church. As a church.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

As a business.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Do you remember what it took 25 years ago?

SPEAKER_00 0:57

I do.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I remember what it took to step out in faith and look for a building. And several, just a handful of the families and couples. We all had little kids that went with us and said we'd help you start and launch, and we just start in a hotel. Now that I look back with all that God has given us, it's just so hard to believe that we did that.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

It's pretty amazing that we did that, but it's still just such a dreamy blur, you know. But it was, it was an incredible experience. It was difficult. Right. But it was pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Well, we are pastors, and uh, we try to use our podcast to um not be uh speak the Christian ease all the time. So we try our best to just speak regularly, and it's hard to do that for us in this episode without bringing God into the picture because so much of uh what we have, everything that we have today is a testament to what a person can enjoy in their life if they keep God at the helm.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

Now I worked with my parents. I came out of college in '84, started working here in Miami with my dad at his church, my dad and mom, for I worked for 13 years. You came in the picture within those 13 years, you like walked into the church where I was working, and uh you and I got married. And then uh a few years after that, we got married 87. A few years after that, uh we found ourselves walking through a challenging period season uh with the ministry, and we stayed at it. Uh, my parents took a couple years off to get some things recalibrated. And then they came back to the city. That's our word, just for anyone who's listening. That's our word recalibrate for the day.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

And then they came back in and we stayed there another three years. Yeah. But after that third year or so, I felt like, okay, um, it's time to go. And that was '97. It was right after Easter, April of '97. And I went and told my dad it's time for me to move on. That went over like a ton of bricks because he didn't appreciate that too well, which I understood because we were doing the good things together, but I just needed to take this next step. And um, thankfully, a couple of years went by and he and I got back on the same page, and life was great with him, and he was so honoring and uh made this new season beautiful because he and I got on the same page about it as well as my mom. But I can remember that was like May. We said we're leaving and got up that Sunday, said our goodbyes, and then from June, July, and August, we were prepping to then launch our church on September the 12th. It was a Friday night of 1997. And uh, geez, Mary, do you realize? I mean, we had to restart our entire career.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Everything. Everything we had basically uh developed the skills, the relationships, everything. We had to leave with after 10 years, a decade of that, and start over. Over without our own uh church building, no staff, just us.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

No money.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

No money, that's the most important thing. No money.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

No money.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

But but we did have some pretty amazing um because I because we didn't provisions. We we did, which is pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

But not, I mean, just enough to get us through. Nothing that was a huge in no big sponsor came and helped us from the outside. It was us and the four or five families we started with that believed enough in what God was doing that that they just we pulled our resources. We sure did, and we made it happen.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

They were so good, those couples that started. We went and first started having meetings in their living rooms.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Our house was not uh big or cool or nice enough to have anybody at our place. Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

And we were far. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

We lived far from and and we started to um uh meet in their homes. Yeah, and we had a little Bible study and then strategy session. And I remember after the first meeting, people won't believe this, but I remember after the first meeting that we had in the home, that uh we were done with the meeting, and I was ready to dismiss and pray. And we were about to leave, and somebody, one of the guys, stopped and said, Wait, Pastor Steve, you didn't take an offering.

unknown 5:47

That's right. I forgot that.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

And at that point, all the guys were like, Man, we're holding on to our tithes. We hadn't been going to church. What do we do? We're like, okay, well, let's take our first offering. But imagine that the church was started, the very first meeting on the foundation of the not taking an offering.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Incredible.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

Boy, have we broken that cycle over the years, right? We always get it in.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

We don't, we didn't, we've never forgotten it.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

We've never forgotten.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

It's something we forget again. I will say my one of my earliest memories are there's so many when we rented here in Durral the uh I think it's the Durral Country Club.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Is that the one?

SPEAKER_03 6:25

First we met at the Marisuites.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

We were at the hotel, which we had to get out of there because our our second child, Stephanie, was destroying all the hotel rooms where the kids were staying. That's a whole nother podcast.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Um, and we moved out of there, plus we grew out of it so fast.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

We did. We grew out of it.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

And we went over to the Durell Country Club.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

I wanted it to be um I the reason I wanted to shift really was because I wanted it to be fresh and new and so high, high class going into the country club, having church service in the country club.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

You didn't like telling people we were at the Ameris Hotel.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

No, it had to be Dural Country Club.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

We didn't want to be a hotel church. But we we did we had to get services. And one whole side of the building in the meeting room, the beautiful, gorgeous atrium where they let us have our services, but it was right off the golf course. And the whole side of that building was just glass that you could look out.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

And the pool.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

And the pool in the pool. So a lot of uh ladies from other South American countries, which will remain linked nameless, were uh sunbathing with uh not the respectful attire as we do. So in America. Um, and so we're trying to have service and watching the uh, can I say it, the fanny parade? And uh even that many years ago, this was the style back then with that particular group of women.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

I was clueless because my back was to it and I'm trying to preach. And the guys are all checked out.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

And we're like, oh my, do not turn around. You will lose your salvation. So that didn't work.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

No, I think we were there for two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah, but we couldn't stay there. Because they didn't well, no, they moved us into a little small space. I don't know if you remember that, where we had the first baby dedication. And then we were like, nah, this is not gonna work. Yeah. Because I was trying to lead worship, playing the piano, and the first row was we could spit on each other.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

That was actually that was the holiday in we moved into.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

See, look at your memory.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Yeah. So we went to the holiday inn and then there went to the Durral Park Country Club, couldn't stay there. We had to find something else because of the fanny parades, and we went over to the holiday inn and we had Easter at the Holiday Inn, and we had an egg uh uh egg hunt out in their parking lot, and so we couldn't do that much longer because the kids were running around in the parking lot with cars off of 87th Avenue zooming by, but we made made a go of it. We did.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Gosh, we we had some pretty big ideas back then. Do you remember when we rented out the firehouse? It's still here in Durham. Oh, yeah. Remember when we did that? I found pictures recently.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Because we wanted to explain.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

It's anniversary, I think.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

And it no, I think it was Easter.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

It was Easter.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

You're right.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

And we had, I mean, we just had so many people come to that service and it gave us a snapshot of what our future would be. And I think we had about maybe 250, 300 people there at the time, but it felt so huge. It was huge, which it was for a startup ministry. Yeah. Now we look back and what we thought was small because we had come from such a large church starting over. Now we see that was amazing.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

That was an amazing uh growth that we didn't really realize.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

You know, I think this is funny because some of the stress uh that it caused on you and I and our relationship. I mean, we walked away from the comfort of a paycheck.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Uh we we didn't have that when we left the old church. Uh, so we had to start again. So now we're dependent on um ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

We didn't have a boss.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

No.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

That was stressful because you're stepping into the unknown.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

And who are you gonna bet on? Nobody better than yourself. That's right. And that's what we had to do.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

We did.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

We knew I had the communication

What It Took to Start The Family Business

SPEAKER_03 10:18

going and you had the music going. We knew we were a great team. We knew we could pull something off there as a couple.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

That we didn't have to get into any arguments over because we both we'd had those years to develop our working together and your ministering and me singing, and we had that. Yeah, we were in tandem there.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Yeah, it took so it took when we stepped out, it took a lot of faith in God.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Because we had to know for sure that he was telling us to do this.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

And you didn't agree at first. Right?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Well, remember, I did, and then you said not now, and then we got settled in for those three years, and I changed my mind. I was like, you know, we're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

When we went to go, oh yeah, you were not crazy about it at all.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

No, no, I I was we're locked in here now. We've got two kids here that are making friends here at the old church. And I was like, I don't know. I I I think we can we can overcome any little issue we're having here. Let's just stick it out. And you you just had this go from God. We have to we have got to do it now.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

So we so it took an incredible belief in God that He was telling us to do it, but it also took belief in ourselves. Yeah, that was a big step. And then it took this is what I love about our our business and our church work we've done from the from to this day. Everything's so relationship oriented, which is the reason we even do this podcast is to build relationships. But we have married to this day many of the same people that were there day one staying with us, which is unheard of. That gives me one of my greatest joys.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

It does. And what's been so cool is different guests we've had that come throughout the years that that come to minister or speak, they will make that comment. You know, every time I come here, it's the same group of people that greet me here in this green room, or your staff, it's the same people. And we didn't think that that was uncommon because it's been our what we know, it's our world. But when we'd have different guests come in and say, guys, you what what you have here, people don't have this. The turnover is dramatic in other churches. And because we have been all about relationship and loyalty and working things out, and God has sent us some amazing people, but but our core value has been one of we don't quit on each other. We're gonna get through these seasons together, we're gonna get through these difficult times relationally. It has paid off huge blessings, not only for you and I and for us, but now for their children and their children's children. Yeah. And that scripture verse is true.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

Yeah. And we're seeing those older ones, the younger ones now, older ones, stepping into great leadership. Yeah. I can I looked over my shoulder not too long ago, which I'll do on occasion and look at some of the people sitting right behind me, which are some of our dearest friends that have uh stayed right along with us from day one. And I look at that guy and I think to myself, my gosh, he's willing to sit not in one service, but sometimes two services, to hear me preach the same message.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

After how many years? After 25 years. How are you saying this? And I'm like, are you kidding me? It's amazing. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Wow, that's just a testament to the good, solid people that we have. And I wish each of you that are listening to this would just recognize that value of long-term relationships. And we've had plenty of opportunities along the way to step off relationally from one another. Sure. But nobody did. No. A few. We lost a few. But along the way, man, those many of those people that were with us in that first Friday night have have come back into our world or are around.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

But I also want to say, I don't think we have any bad blood. Maybe I've forgotten somebody, but we don't have any bad blood with people that have left our church. And you and I both were raised in church. So we're talking about our own personal experiences growing up, that you factor in the fact that somebody's gonna burn a bridge with you, and you, if you see them in the mall, you can't say hi because they used to go to your church and now they don't, and there was a church split.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

We did not, we have never had a church split. We've never came close to a church split. And that's not just cross your fingers, hope to not die or to not have a church split. We have really worked hard to create a culture of you're not gonna split. Yeah. We're gonna work out this relationship with you. And if there's something good here, then God will birth something out of it. But that hasn't even happened. We've really had stickability, people that were called to stay.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

See, babe, what I wish people can pick up on is sometimes if you just do things right.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Do them right. Every time.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

You just do them right. That's it. You know, I used to say to Christopher growing up when he was a kid, son, you can never go wrong by doing right.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

You can't.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

But the flip side of that is true. You can never go right by doing wrong.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

And there's some people when it comes to building family, business, church, whatever it is, they think they can do wrong and it not have long-term consequences. It's gonna nip you, man.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

It's or fix it later in the future. Yeah. Kick it down.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

No. No, I always knew, okay, I wanted it to grow faster. Remember when you used to get so frustrated that it was the church wasn't growing numerically faster? You would be so upset. What are you doing wrong, Steve? We're not doing this, we're not doing that. We got to go to this conference.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Well, hold on.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Hold

Revealing Some (Funny) Growing Pains

SPEAKER_00 15:39

on a minute. You would preach an hour, and I would want to sing for an hour. So let's just be honest here. You would preach three sermons in one.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

And right when I would be like, okay, good, this is a perfect place for him to close. He has nailed it today. You'd start a whole new sermon. So remember how mad I would you I would get? And I couldn't tell you because you were so sensitive.

SPEAKER_04 15:59

Yes, I was.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Then I wanted to sing for 45 minutes to an hour. And you would go, You're wearing the people out. Oh my God. You're leaving me with nothing.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

He'd take all the energy out of the room, and then I got to resurrect him. So I'd preach for an hour just to keep them, raise them from the dead.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

So let's just let's just tell the people the real Hollywood true story. Oh we did not always have it together. We are grateful for those early days, the people that loved us to love us through.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

You know, it's funny.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Um I was gonna say one more thing.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Go.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

We didn't have any problems getting serving people to serve in the kids' ministry. Maybe that was why.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

They loved us, they just hated the sermon. Oh no, no, I'll serve every Sunday. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

I'm just speculating. Just speculating. We gotta bring in some of the old timers and ask them.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Oh man, what it is kind of funny today. Um our kids, Gabby asked me the other day, she said, Dad, that sermon you're preaching now, uh, is that all new? Wow. Or did you preach that before? And I said, uh, you know, Gabby, the truth is it's new from a fresh perspective, but it's also my old sermon that I've shortened out. And she says, Dad, actually, she prefaced all that by saying, You're you and mom are preaching some of your best sermons ever right now.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

It's like, yeah, you're right. We uh we had to cut out a lot of the fat.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

Oh my gosh. Gosh, I can remember learning that lesson. No, I gotta tell them, I gotta tell them. They gotta hear it, they gotta hear it.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Because we're all dying tomorrow. If I don't say it today, they're not gonna get it. And you would spike that, and I'd go, he's right, he's right. What kind of a pastor's wife am I? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

I remember when um, I remember when we started, and I hated to go out to the beginning of the service. And I I I felt bad for you.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Tell the truth because you would have to start the service with me on the keyboards at the time. So we got Alan Paul here who's on our keyboards today, and Marcus's son. But that was you back when we started.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

I was like that monkey at the circus.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

Clay, Clayton, I clicked the little digital drum. Tink tink playing. So I you would go out there with your backup singers, and you'd be the leader. Meanwhile, we're in a group of like uh a room that seats. I guess it was close to 200 back then, but um, nobody, there's too crowded.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Oh, there were more people on the platform singing.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Oh, at that point.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Then there were nobody'd be in the room.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Nobody'd be in the room, and I would not go out because I was not going to subject myself to that kind of that that that pressure. It was terrible. And I used to think, thank God I'm not married at this point. And then my buddy comes to town, and we're like talking before the service, and you have to go out and leave to start. And he's like, Alessie, what are you doing? I said, Well, I'm waiting my time. I can't wait. He says, No, man, you can't wait your time. You gotta get out there and lead, dude. You gotta lead. And if you're gonna lead as the pastor, you gotta lead and be out there before the praise and worship service starts.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

And I'm like, That's a good imitation of him. That's exactly how he talked about.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

That's exactly how he talked. I'm like, so I listened to him for like a month, and I'm like, no way. I'm sorry. Mary gets paid a paycheck too. Let her handle that. I'll be there when I'm I'm ready.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

And you know why I didn't mind? Because it was the only area you couldn't tell me what to do. Because you were always so bossy. And I was like, I'm glad he's not out here. I can sing whatever I want to sing. He can't tell me what to sing. And we did. And we, hey, what's crazy, Steve, is that God used us and we did it.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

I think. And we did it in a way that our kids watched us from a distance and loved what we were doing enough to the point that we all work together today.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Everybody 25 years later. And two brand new in-laws that are right up alongside of us. It's God.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Our our dear daughter-in-law, Rochelle, she was was here seven years before she and Chris started dating. She was already part of our spirit. She's in the DNA. She loves the church.

SPEAKER_04 20:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

How cool is that? And today, give this kind of date this. We just opened up our school, kindergarten, and first grade. And one day, in about three or four or five years, our granddaughter will be going to that school.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

That's unbelievable. That's cool. And and here's the caveat.

How Being Faithful and Consistent Brings Rewards

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Caveat's not a good word. Here is the uh resounding truth that faithfulness and consistency pays off.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Because that school is at the campus. I could cry. That we walked away from. How good is God? We started a school with our grandkids today that our grandchildren will go to, that our kids went to, and that we sacrificed and walked away. And that was a painful decision because it wasn't our plan A at all.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

But yet God allowed us to do that and step away, and we just got a whole lot more family and church people that are now part of the big picture of both campuses.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

It was about 2012. Dad and I had the conversation, and we officially stepped in in 2013. Left him and had let him and mom retire. Right. And we st took over the leadership of that campus. So we're We're in Durral and we're in Daideland. And uh you're right. Shows you the importance of leaving a season of your life the right way.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

No bad blood.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

Because you never know when you'll be required to go back and cross that bridge again.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:16

That's why they say don't burn your bridges.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Because you might have an opportunity to go back and buy the bridge and everything it leads to.

SPEAKER_03 22:24

It wasn't always easy, no doubt. There was stress on our marriage and our our relationship. I always appreciated the fact, though, that we did demonstrate, maybe, a team approach to this.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

And I recognized that. I liked it. And there was nobody better that I would want to be doing this with because you were easy and not always easy, but in the long run, we uh we just knew we needed to work together at it.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

It wasn't my church, it wasn't your worship ministry, or you know, we always had a uh our.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

This is our matter of fact, to this day, I have to correct certain people on occasion that want to say, well, my team or my ministry or no, and even Gabby, she's like, she's got that verbiage down, great. She goes, you know, our team, our youth ministry, our uh we've always promoted a team approach to what we do.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

Always. Always. And even with you over the years, when here I was the main communicator, and you were the worship person, the singer. And usually you put those in two different categories, and the worship person does their job and the communicator does his job. But I remembered as time was going on that you had a role to play communicating.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

Because I'm talking to the men. Right. And the women were listening. A lot of women go to church without men. So women are always there and they're able to receive from a man uh as he communicates. But I'm thinking one day, gosh, these women, they need a woman's voice. Yeah. And that's when said, Mary, you you got to start coming over here and sharing this platform to communicate with me as well, because I knew the value of the team approach. I can reach some people, but I can reach more people with you by my side as we share in these responsibilities together.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

And so was there an ego check? Sometimes, you know, because I'm so accustomed, a man's accustomed to that was my platform, my job. This is what I knew I was, that was what I wanted to be good at. Uh, but it was always worth saying, wait, wait, back off. I need her up there. She needs to be up there. The church needs her up there. It was, it was a real good team approach.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

So well, it was I it we never had an issue where I felt like I wasn't hurt or I wasn't, I didn't have a position. You were you always pushed me. Now the music was like my thing, and I was thrilled to just stay in that lane. I didn't care about teaching. But if you are the one who finally said, that's you we need to hear your voice. You need to come out of there and develop this communication gift. And that that's to that's really to your um what's the word? Credit. Credit, thank you. Vision, yes, awesomeness, awesomeness, just keep going. Not mine, but I'm grateful. But I'm grateful that you were you've always been that way.

SPEAKER_03 25:19

Yeah. And now we're at this season and our family comes up alongside of us, which is very rare. Yeah, and that's why we have our podcast because we want people to know it's possible to work together and live together and be a family together.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Uh, because the priority is our family and relationship in the home. And uh I know church on Sunday is so fun, it's beautiful. After church is over and we love on everybody and you know, hug on them and leave, we get just as excited about the lunches that we get to have as a family. Those are highlights.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

100%. That's when you can sit back and say, We we did it right, not perfect. We did more right than we did wrong, and we stayed faithful to the field that God gave us to sow seeds in, and now we're reaping a harvest.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Yeah. And we sit around the table and we ask everybody, hey, how did it go for you today? How did it go for you today? How was the kids' ministry? Or you know, how was the leadership? Who'd you talk to? We ask specific questions. We like to hear from everybody, and of course, they're so kind to always tell us how good we do. And so it's a great family time. But 25 years is uh a real, it's a real magic mark marking moment there. You you have to slow down a minute and honor it, honor it. And that's why we're gonna celebrate as we do every year and bring some friends around and uh just talk about the good things of life and the good things of God because none of this would have been possible without us being called into this.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

That's right. That's right. 100% we answered the call. We did, and it's been worth the journey every difficult day. Every Sunday we'd get to church and would not know if anybody other than the 10 of us would show up. Um we had Sunday after Sunday like that. We'd we'd have Sundays where service would start and there'd be 15 people in the room, and then 30 minutes in, there'd be 150. And I I I look back in those days where we just really had to say, God, this is this is your house, this is your church. We're just facilitating what you've called us to do. And we've had to continually sacrifice that over to Him daily, and we still do. But I think what's pretty amazing is when you don't give up and you stay with your hand to the plow, because the Bible says those who put their hand to the plow and look back aren't worthy of the kingdom. And that was something that kept driving us all the time. We're not gonna start something we're not gonna finish, but we're gonna keep our hand to the plow. The blessing of sitting around those lunches on Sunday is to know that throughout the Chris has been with us now for 10 years on staff, Stephanie's going on four or five years, the other two are on three and four years, and then our our our new in-laws are with us about a year almost. Well, our son-in-law just started, but it's incredible how the Lord did it. But to have seen Christopher over the years build a young adult ministry to several hundred and a youth group, and then to see Gabby, our youngest, yeah, have a camp last week that had more kids than we had in our first three years of a church is just, I mean, it's a pivotal moment when you stop and realize at the 25-year mark, look what the Lord has done.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

Some people would say, man, it's nepotism, you're hiring from within. Well, that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

It's a great thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

I think, in terms of what we do, as long as they're called to it, that's right, gifted to it. Every one of our kids, Mary.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:57

And the in-laws have college educations. Yes.

Should You Hire Your Own Family?

SPEAKER_03 29:00

They've prepared themselves for this.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

They could work anywhere.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

They're looking, even they have continuing education, go into higher levels of education. They could get a job anywhere. I just happen to believe they share our same DNA, which means we're going to have a commonality in working together. Yeah. If we have to address something and build somebody, there's nobody better to be able to address it to than our own kids. Right. Uh, and if there's anybody that we want to pour into for the future, it's our own kids. So it's a healthy nepotism that I think is really needed when it comes to our type of business. If you've got the people behind you, which is your kids following you. If we didn't have our kids, there'd be other people we'd be raising up. But our our goal is in our family business is we know we've brought it for 25 years. We also know there's 25 more years ahead of us. What do those next 25 years look like? Yeah. We're setting up the next generation for those next 25 years. And it's gonna be even greater. Yes. We've laid a healthy groundwork.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Good foundation.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

The best is yet to come.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

The best is yet to come. You've done good. And your lighter will be greater.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

There you go. Thanks for joining us today on another episode of The Family Business with Steve and Mary Aleste.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Thanks for listening to the Family Business Podcast with the Aleste. We appreciate you listening and learning with us as we just shared more about the family business. You know, I bet there's someone you know who can use this kind of advice, encouragement. So make sure to share this episode with them and their family because let's face it, family is everyone's business. If you want to be a part of our family, subscribe to the show right now on your favorite app and make sure to download the episodes so you can hear them at any time. Oh, and one more thing one of the best ways to help us spread the word about the family business with the Alesssies is by reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts or your favorite app. So help us out, write a review, and join us next time at the Family Business Podcast with the Alesssies.