Lead Time
Lead Time
Is There Demand for New Ordination Paths in the LCMS? with Ty Schommer
Ever wonder how everyday believers can shape the future of their church without heading down the path of pastoral ordination? Meet Ty Schommer, a devoted deacon and co-vocational leader from Alaska, who shares his compelling journey within the Lutheran Church. Ty's story is a testament to the power of laity, revealing how congregations can cultivate spiritual growth and leadership among their members. Through his experiences at Zion Lutheran Church, Ty illustrates the importance of shared ministry and how confessional conservative Lutheranism's rich scriptural foundation has drawn him deeper into his faith. Discover how influential texts like Luther's "Freedom of a Christian" and "Bondage of the Will" have guided his understanding of faith and service.
In our conversation, we explore innovative paths to ministry that cater to those pursuing their spiritual calling alongside professional careers. Ty discusses the transformative impact of accessible online theological education, such as the Institute for Lutheran Theology's MA program, and its role in addressing the growing demand for clergy in today's church. As younger generations gravitate toward authenticity, the need for new ordination pathways becomes more crucial. We also delve into the intricacies of Lutheran worship within the LCMS context, highlighting how theological hospitality and educational efforts can bridge the ever-widening gap between traditional liturgical practices and our increasingly secular culture. Join us to uncover fresh perspectives on ministry that honor the deep, resonant beauty of Lutheran liturgy.
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this is lead time welcome to lead time.
Speaker 2:Hot topic friday. I pray. The joy of the lord is your strength as we lean into a wonderful conversation today with a brother in christ, a deacon, a uh, bivocational, really a co-vocational leader in the church up in Alaska and his name is Ty Shomer. Let me tell you a little bit about Ty before we get going. He has gone through all of the Mission Training Center courses and, as he told me he goes, I just wanted more and didn't want to be a pastor per se, just wanted to continue in his Lutheran formation, and so he found the per se. Just wanted to continue in his Lutheran formation, and so he found the Lutheran Institute of not technology, the Institute for Lutheran Theology that has many LCMC, nalc and LCMS students who are a part of it. And he says I'm taking a class right now with an LCMS academic, not a pastor, but an LCMS academic, dr Jack Kilcrease.
Speaker 2:We'll have to have him on and his story. What you're going to hear today from Ty is just a man that wants to serve at the local level and recognizes that the church needs leaders. And we're praying for a new day of leadership development in the Lutheran Church, missouri Synod, for the sake of our existing churches and, more than that, for the sake of the churches that need to be started to reach those who do not know Jesus. So, before we get into it, ty, how are you doing, brother?
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for hanging with me Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:And he also is the owner of Arbor Capital Management and so serving co-vocationally. You help people manage their money and make money by doing that. That's awesome, brother, and thank you for serving with the ultimate moneymaker, which is Jesus. He owns it all and he wants more of his kids to be found those that are lost. So let's talk. First question start the clock there, adam, 10 minutes. What is your dream for the role of the laity in the life of the church? Ty?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I guess my dream would be that there would be continued opportunity for those people that just thirst to explore their own spirituality, thirst to serve the church, that there's avenue for them to continue on that path. And that's what drew me in. I was fortunate enough that when I just walked into a church at 19, 20 years old in Fairbanks, alaska, was just looking for a church, was not an LCMS Lutheran, didn't know what any of that stuff meant, but I was devouring scripture and going to the University of Alaska, fairbanks, wanted to find a church, walked into Zion Lutheran Church, who happened to be an LCMS church, and they just met me where I was at, took me all the rough edges and everything and really really just wrapped themselves around me in a missional way, brought me forward, put me in leadership positions, supported me in leadership positions and were very intently missional about that. So that was really kind of my upbringing. I saw that it drew me in and it was wow. And it taught me that ministry is a shared burden, it's a shared blessing, it's a gift to all of us and it's not incumbent upon the professional clergy and the commissioned.
Speaker 3:People to you know they lead ministry for sure. People to. You know they lead ministry, for sure, but it was embedded on me early in my spiritual formation that I was a part of ministry and I was important to ministry. So that's kind of the spirit where all of this comes from.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I love that so much. So we exist if you're a leader Ephesians 4, to equip the saints for love and good deeds, for the works of ministry, both for discipling the found, but also to care for their community and those that are lost from Jesus. So let's go deeper. I think there's a profound thirst right now among more of the baptized, especially in our LCMS congregations, to go deeper in their theology. We're getting requests in our congregation hey, what is the 202, 303 kind of Lutheran teaching classes? And so I mean, on Sunday mornings I got about eight to ten guys that are showing up for a deep conversation. We're reading Luther for Armchair Theologians right now and we're digging into the scriptures. It's so much, so much fun, fun. So what is it about? Like when you define lutheran and we're confessional, not not liberal necessarily, but confessional conservative lutheranism? What is it that you find so attractive, ty?
Speaker 3:well, what I really really appreciate about the, the, the lutheran perspective, our hermeneutic, is that it is so scripturally based, it doesn't fill in the blanks where there's not a clear answer. I really appreciate that. So it doesn't over-rationalize things. It leaves mystery as a part of the faith and it's just so robust. You know the history of our faith coming, you know, coming out of the Reformation, it had to be defended. It had to be so intellectually rigorous and that appeals to me. So we've carried that forward. We've done a great job of carrying that forward. We've done a great job of being a beacon amongst you know, christianity of this is the true gospel message and we don't deviate from that. So I really appreciate that, because most of Protestantism talks about saved by grace and practices some measure of you know. You know saved by works, and and we Lutherans does do such a good job of maintaining that balance of law and gospel.
Speaker 2:Hey, yeah, luther's freedom of a Christian. Have you read Luther's Freedom of a Christian? Have you read Luther's Freedom of a Christian?
Speaker 3:Yes, and Bondage of the Will, which really kind of anchors all that, and then, on the other hand, cost of Discipleship is, you know, is a good counterbalance to that too. So yeah, I've read, I've devoured all of those books.
Speaker 2:Well, whenever I bring this up, I'm teaching. Right now we don't have a Lutheran high school here in the East Valley of Phoenix Wish we did and we have a hybrid model here at our church. But my son plays high school football and so I get to be a coach as well as kind of the chaplain. Every time I bring because there's kids that come from mostly evangelical kind of backgrounds, non-denom churches, things like that Every time I bring kind of Luther's teaching, namely the two kinds of righteousness and even the paradox, filled freedom of a Christian statement that the Christian is the perfectly free, lord of all, subject to none, and at the same time the Christian is the perfectly free, or perfectly a slave to all, subject to all, servant to all, subject to all. And then you're able to decipher hey, before God, it is by faith alone, right, and now it gets carried out in love for neighbor. Does your neighbor need your good works? Yes, they do. Does God need them? No, he doesn't. You're perfectly whole in him. Your identity in Jesus is perfectly whole.
Speaker 2:Are there any other kind of Lutheran teachings that you're like man, if the wider Christian church just got a handle on this teaching like everything would open up for us, and I don't know that right now because in the LCMS we kind of have some of our own kind of struggles. I don't know that we're as evangelical across denominations as I wish. I talk to a lot of academics and they like we have to be at the table at a lot of these conversations because what we have is so, so good. We also have things to learn, obviously, but as it relates to, say, the freedom of Luther's understanding of the freedom of a Christian, such a helpful paradigm, any other Lutheran paradigms that you're like man, if the wider church knew this.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I think you hit on the main one, the main one being that you know the works that we do. The sanctification of ourselves is a byproduct. It's not the thing in and of itself. I think that so much of Christianity, especially in the non-denominational arenas that you spoke of, is that we are doing our ministry that serves us in the name of Christ. It's not Jesus first, it's me first, under this cultural Christian context, and I see that a lot. So it's just getting back to recognizing that anything that's good that comes in and through me is a byproduct of what was created in me, not in and of myself, and that's the, that's the real crux of of that, I think um the sacraments um of course you know we're a beacon of truth for the sacraments.
Speaker 3:I mean the readings last sunday and john um, just speak to that. This is my body, this is my blood and that is such a big part of you know. You know leading a sacramental life, having the sacraments as front and center, as part of our faith. Walk um, that's something that needs to get regenerated as well in the christian.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and and the role of the role of baptism, right, yeah, in creating faith and sustaining faith, rooting me in creating faith and sustaining faith, rooting me in my identity as a follower of Jesus. I'm built up now at Jesus teaching in John, chapter 15, that a branch connected to the vine, right, a healthy tree bears good, good fruit. But the healthy tree has been planted there by the word of God and therefore the fruit of, of faith, the fruit of a changed life for the sake of the world, this is simply for the world, not for for God, right, and and I love the metaphor he's going to continue to prune us, right? He's going to continue to prune us why? So that we'd bear more fruit, that the love of Jesus would flow through us to the world, that we would be his hands and feet, that we would raise up more people to be proclaimers of the word of God.
Speaker 2:I don't and we're going to get into some of the, some of the kind of power play struggles between the priesthood and maybe, maybe, pastor, but I just don't understand, I guess, how anyone could read the Bible and not view it as God's divine love letter, mission story to the world, that God so loved the whole world that he gave his one and only son. And God is on a mission to get his sons and daughters back, who are lost, and we simply need more leaders to be raised up and to accomplish that mission with a mission-oriented heart. Not a power, me first, pastor first, but this kind of wide, open heart. And that's what I see in you and many of our deacons, who are not recognized now kind of by the wider LCMS but still recognized in a lot of their local contexts, you being one of them. Right, you just want to, you just want to serve. Say more about deacon ministry and lay ministry in general there, ty.
Speaker 3:Well, I've been. I've been fortunate to serve in areas that where it was just necessary. It was just needed because there isn't enough pastoral, enough pastors to do all of this. Pastors go on vacation and in the past where I have filled in and have been supervised it's just been during vacations, absences and things of that nature. But since becoming a licensed lay deacon I've begun to be used in wider because we've got four or five vacancies here in Alaska and so that you know, it just creates demand and so right now all I am is the path of least resistance and I'm happy to serve in that capacity. So until that changes, there's plenty of work to do.
Speaker 2:Amen, Praise God, All right. Second question I think we hit right about 10 minutes. That was great. We did a at the last Senate convention. A little side story we got. We got booted out of the convention, like you know, in a hallway by Senate leaders. We were unauthorized to be there. That's fine. We went out on the street and had more conversation there. But just around this question do you think the LCMS needs more paths to ordination, yes or no? And defend your answer there, Ty.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, the demographics dictate that. So, you know, the LCMS can, you know, maintain its current position and continue to diminish in scope. You know, mostly from the edges inward, mostly from the edges inward. Or we can try to find ways to use technology to continue to evolve and continue to use the resources that are now available to us to expand professionally trained church workers. And if the LCMS the reason why I'm taking classes at the Institute of Lutheran Theology, because there really isn't another avenue, an LCMS approved avenue, I've looked at them. Even if me, as a, you know, a white male in North America, if I even had access to the things that we offer to international students or ethnic students, then great, I would be able to continue my formal academic education within the LCMS approved channels. But as a member of an LCMS congregation, not having the right ethnicity and not preparing myself for an ethnic ministry, there's really only one path, and that you know, that is to, you know, move to St Louis or Fort Wayne.
Speaker 2:Now why? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Residential. Why couldn't you go through SMP?
Speaker 3:I can go through SMP and right now and I may very well do that at some point, but you know, you go through the work and exercise of SMP, um, you don't get a degree, Um, you get the blessing of the church and you can perform in that capacity and some even still limited capacity, um, but, um, but that's a, that's a full course load. Um, I'm not prepared, I'm not in a place, um, professionally, to take a full course load, maybe when I retire, but that'll be in another few years and that will even shorten the amount of time that I can continue to serve the church. So those are the reasons for that. Primarily, the Institute of Lutheran Theology allows me to continue to grow in my own spirituality. It continues for me to be a better advocate, a better lay person, to serve the ministry here in Alaska in this context, and so I can take a class at a time, I can take two or three classes at a time. The education is good, it's orthodox, it's confessional, so it allows me to continue.
Speaker 3:You know, I guess, in short, this has been the prayer that I've had, tim, for the last few years is okay, I'm at a place where, father God, what do you want of me? Do you want me in professional ministry? Do you want me to continue to support professional ministry financially, like we're able to now? And the response I keep getting back is why do I have to choose, figure out a way to do both? And I'm like, okay, well, that's a harder answer, but it's the one that's been placed on my heart. So this is what I have to wrestle with. You know, I want to continue to maintain the support of ministries and continue to grow ministries, as my wife and I have a heart for and are able to do here, but, yes, also to continue to work in those ministries and support them. And so I'm left with this, and so far this has been, you know, the most prayerful and the best solution forward. So I don't know, does that kind of answer your question?
Speaker 2:Well, it does. So does the ILT, the Institute for Lutheran Theology. Does that give an MDiv, or is just kind of a certification?
Speaker 3:I'm in an MA program now, taking, you know, coursework is as much as I can and that can lead into an MDiv and a PhD. It's fully accredited and it's it's, it's all online, it's, it's great, it's robust, it's it's difficult, but yeah and cost it just to get the weeds a bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you know it's about fifteen hundred bucks a class, maybe sixteen hundred bucks, and then of course, you spend a few hundred bucks on books and things of that nature. But you know right now that that's not a stumbling block for me. They do have scholarship programs and things of that nature. Most of the classes that I'm taking I'm by far the oldest person there, classes that I'm taking I'm by far the oldest person there and these are, you know, lcms. Smp pastors are taking these classes, using this as a resource to supplement their SMP education. A lot of SMP pastors are taking these classes. A lot of LCMC pastors working towards ordination and NALC as well.
Speaker 2:Well, and the reason SMP guys would be taking this is because they want a degree, right.
Speaker 3:Yes, well, they want a degree and they want the educational components that the SMP program doesn't build in. You know, there's no languages and there's some other things that they want to round out. Right now there is an SMP pastor in my world religion class and I don't recall I've reviewed the SMP curricula but it's been a little while. I don't know how much time they spend on world religions, but he's taking this class because he wants to explore that further.
Speaker 2:The interesting thing you told me is that Dr Jack Kilcrease you told me is that that dr jack kilcrease, again a layman, academic, is, as far as you're aware, possibly on a task force exploring alternate routes. Uh, to ordination, is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 3:yeah, he went to I'm pretty sure he went to synod convention, but he was named to be on the task force that was to explore, all you know, additional, additional paths towards ordination and I don't remember what what overture that was, that came the number that was attached to it. But there was a task force that was created to explore additional paths towards ordination and he said that he was on that commission. I haven't spoken to him yet about what's come out of that or anything, but yeah, he's a layman, um grew up Wells and now has served in the LC LCMS church for a number of years now. He's a theologian and currently is a faculty at the Institute of Lutheran Theology.
Speaker 2:So some people wonder is there really a market for, like, more pathways and things like that? And, uh, I can't.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes there is I can't speak, you know, outside of my own, you know narrow context here, but what I find in the next generation of young people is that what they crave is authenticity. They don don't need the smoke and mirrors, they don't need the light show, they don't need some of the trappings that have come into the broader cultural Christian experience, but what they do want is authenticity. And so that's where I'm seeing our theology and the depth of thinking of our apologetics and the rigors of it are appealing and people want to know more. In our own congregational setting, you know, alaska is the most unchurched state in the nation, and so most of the people that are sitting in our LCMS congregations don't have, didn't grow up in the church, didn't grow up in, oftentimes, any church, let alone a Lutheran church, let alone an LCMS church. So we've got work to do even amongst our own brothers and sisters, let alone the broader community.
Speaker 2:Man. So so good. So I've talked to district presidents, many, many district presidents who are waiting right now. You talk about four vacancies in your area, right, that have in the Pacific Southwest District and I could be wrong with this President Gibson, but I think he said there's 60, some vacancies right now in our district. So those are only, unfortunately, going to increase unless we focus on raising up, raising up general ordination pastors, so those that can serve in their, in their context, those that can. And here's what I sense in men like you is I get I get so many emails like the one I got from you. I sense a humility, I sense like, yeah, I'd love to come underneath the guy that experienced the gold standard of residential education they got to sit at the feet of the Dr Beermans and beyond, you know and like I just, I just want to serve and I don't. I hear a lot of the guys like I don't even care, like if it takes me a while to get to ordination.
Speaker 2:I just want to be, continue to be formed here as a vicar. So right now we're running the test. I just want to be, continue to be formed here as a vicar. So right now we're running the test. Right, I got a whole host of men in your season of life kind of between your season and maybe a little bit older and they're just like. I'll be a vicar for the next three, four, five, until we get done with our training and until the church kind of figures out what to do with men like you and those going through ILT and those going through the Luther House of Studies and maybe there's an LCMS kind of more branded path that gets placed underneath Kairos University.
Speaker 2:These guys are just kind of like okay, you academics and you current pastors that did all that. Hopefully you can get your stuff together and figure out that the church needs to raise up more leaders for local congregations and to start, because a lot of the guys this is one of the things that's like so evident to me is that, my goodness, ty, you've run a business for a long period of time. You're a business owner, you work with clients, so much of your business skills can and should be leveraged to reach people with the gospel today, like. I don't know why we don't take that into account more consistently. Anything more to say about what the bivocational and co-vocational who's been the professional brings into the church?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know I own two companies. Arbor Capital is one and we've got nine employees spread throughout the country. But the other business I own and was a founder of is Denali Brewing Company and Denali Spirits and we have about 160 employees there. And so you know it takes a fair amount of organizational skill and, as a man of faith, it takes a certain kind of way of delivering that organizational skill that really really does a good job of preparing you for ministry, navigating difficult church settings. I mean, a volunteer organization runs very differently than one where you're delivering paychecks every two weeks. I get that, having these types of skills, the maturity that comes as a byproduct of that the church could use a lot of, for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, Okay, We'll move off of that. I can go down the formation path easily, but let's get a little higher as we close here. Third question what are your thoughts on missiology and ecclesiology? These are big words that get thrown around quite a bit and I've written and spoken a fair amount that it appears we're going Christology, ecclesiology and missiology, and I'll set this up like this.
Speaker 2:When I was a young pastor I think 26, 27. Um, I think it was Bill Woolsey, actually, with five two, before he even like fully fully launched five two, came up to me and asked the question um, a number of guys, probably probably Norbash, probably Norbash would have probably asked this question to me, Tim. Uh, does the church have a mission or does God's mission have a church? And I'm like kind of scratching my head like, oh my gosh, is this a riddle? What are we doing? What are we doing here? But I mean, they were very, very intense about it Does the church have a mission or the mission of a church?
Speaker 2:And the correct answer, according to scripture, according to God's divine love story, is God has a mission to get all of his kids back and the means through which he accomplishes that mission is through the church through the proclamation of the gospel, through word and sacraments, and God's ultimate end is the restoration of all things, the return of Jesus to make all things new. So he is the, as John says, the word made flesh. He's the cosmic Christ, and our number one mission is, for the sake of the world, that the world would hear I have written these things that you would believe. John says right, and that by believing, you would have life in his name. So your thoughts, though, on the state of the LCMS right now as it relates to missiology and ecclesiology Ty.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, worshiping and growing up in the faith in an outpost of the LCMS here in Alaska my experience maybe is a little bit different.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I can only speak to it, though, and I'm going to keep my comments fairly short because I'm probably sophomoric in my thinking about those two things. But my experience has been through missiology and through the approach, the missional approach, that brought me deeper into the faith. I began to study and learn about the church and grew in my love for the church. So the ecclesiology is an important part of that, because it's important for us to know where we came from, how we got to where we are, why we are the way that we are. We cannot abandon our roots, we can't lose our moorings in that, but yet it doesn't, it shouldn't dictate to us externally. So I guess it's a blend, and I think I wrote in my response to you that it was kind of a blend that missiology leads to for me anyway, led to a better understanding of ecclesiology, but the ecclesiology should point back to missiology and they're connected in some way. At least that's been my experience. Maybe that's singular to me, I don't know.
Speaker 2:No, let's talk about liturgy. The liturgy can be brought, so the divine service. It can be presented in such a way and I think we do a great job across the board here of recognizing that we are being served by God. Right, this is one of the main distinctives of Lutheran worship is it's not us bringing anything outside of our sin to God and Him serving us through the forgiveness of sins, through the hearing of the word, through his body and blood, but the whole service itself is kind of like a reorientation of God's missional love story, right From baptism through. This is confession, absolution, right Through rebellion. Right, I confess I'm a poor, miserable, wretched, sinner of sin and thought, word and deed, sins of omission and commission. So then we see kind of rebellion, and yet God has promised something for us. He promised that he would not leave us. He promised, through Abraham, isaac and Jacob and Israel's raised up in the prophets, then try to call Israel back to faith. But God took matters into his own hands.
Speaker 2:In Jesus, the word made flesh, and so we gather to hear God's word consistently and then, like the disciples Jesus, will you please teach us how to pray, will you please come alongside us, because we yearn for that deeper, intimate relationship with our heavenly father. Jesus teaches us how to pray. We orient around who we are and the mission we've been called to. What do we proclaim? This is our creedal understanding. And then, lo, I'm with you always. How is he with us Through his body and blood? And then we head off with most of us. The Aaronic benediction, which for the Jews, the Israelites, would have been God's presence, goes with me as I'm sent out into the world, out into the wilderness, out to different vocations, out to people who are far from God. So even the liturgy has this kind of mission orientation to it. God's word comes to us and then it flows through us as we move out into the world. Any other take on the divine liturgy and the missional bent of it, ty?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you brought up a good point there. The one thing that we do well in the LCMS is that we recognize that worship service isn't Bible study. It's unique, it's independent. This is not where we. Somebody stands up front and and delivers educational content for half an hour and calls it a sermon. It's an interactive worship service, um between God and us, both individually and collectively, with sacraments being so central to to that.
Speaker 3:So, but what is lost at least what I find is that there is a diminishing understanding of the liturgy and what it does and what its role and why we're doing what we're doing. So one of the things that that might be worthwhile is to find additional ways for us to inform and educate. If you grew up in a liturgical setting, great, you have done this, you find great comfort in it and you probably are surrounded by a faith family that informs you as to why we're doing what we're doing. So many of us and as the US gets less and less culturally Christian, we are going to have to find a way to preserve the liturgy but also communicate it and demonstrate it in a way that lets people know why we're doing what we're doing, and you know there's a lot of ways to do the liturgy, to have the components of the liturgy. There's a lot of ways to educate and communicate that, but we don't really have a lot of that. We just assume everybody kind of gets it.
Speaker 2:Um well, I think there's room tie for theological hospitality here. Yeah, uh, and theological hospitality would look like hey, I'm going to offer, uh, a series of classes on why we worship all of the components of the divine service, letting them know that we're passive in reception primarily. You know God's work for us, and then we're actively mobilized in love for the world. So you could draw out the two kinds of righteousness very, very easily there. And then in some of our services and I know that sometimes explanation can kind of stifle the holiness, the otherness of the liturgy, and so we want to be careful and not like over explaining. But sometimes in transition and I'll just give one example I get the privilege of preaching and I can do some teaching and do from time to time kind of an introductory statement before I get into my message is something like isn't it amazing how we've just remembered our baptism, confessed who we were, and apart from Christ, and now with Christ? And now we're prepared, right, we're prepared to lean into the hearing of God's word, which never returns empty and void, like I can say something like that as I head into the sermon, and maybe we just get more intentional in those kind of transitional teaching moments, because you're exactly right.
Speaker 2:In our congregation the vast majority of people did not grow up Lutheran. Now, that may be the exception, obviously, in some Midwestern churches, but well over half have come to us from some other tradition. So, yeah, to be clear is to be kind, right, and we should be kind. People want, like Lutheran worship, divine service, like it actually makes sense. The telling of that story makes sense. But if we're not theologically hospitable, yeah, we're going to miss, miss out and folks will think then we're just, we're kind of strange, like we look very different right than a lot of the mainline evangelical churches and praise be to God. But we got to explain it. Go ahead, ty.
Speaker 3:Well, I was just going to say, if I can give a quick plug for the MTC, the Mission Training Center. Here they've got a couple of courses, one specifically called Lutheran Worship and it's a great class where you can just get into the whys, the reasons, the historicity that supports the liturgy and all of those types of things. So if anybody's out there listening, you can audit the course, you can take the course as part of course, you can take the course as part of but. But anyway, there are, there is some further study available that really will will really open up and and enliven the liturgy. You know, through a little bit of study.
Speaker 2:Ty, this has been so much fun. Brother, I'm grateful that Jesus led you to the LCMS and I'm grateful you're continuing to learn and and serve, and, um, I'm just very, very optimistic that our church is filled with with leaders. Uh, like you just saying, here I am Jesus. Uh, use me, and you can do both things at the same time. It appears to be the fuel that fired up the early church a lot of bivocational and co-vocational leaders, and we need them now, today more than ever. Ty, if people want to connect with you, how can they do so, brother?
Speaker 3:Well, you've got my contact information. They should be able to reach out to you. Should I share it now here, or how do I best?
Speaker 2:do that you can. You can if you got your email, just your email.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, ty, at Arbor A-R-B-O-R capital dot I-O, that's leadtimeio.
Speaker 2:All right, love it, love it. He is Ty Schomer. I am Tim Allman. This is Lead Time Hot Topic Friday. I pray. The joy of the Lord is your strength and come back next week for more enriching conversations as we grow up into Jesus. Who is our head, our leader, our Lord. It's a good day. Go make it a great day. Wonderful work, ty All right Bye now.
Speaker 1:All. Right Bye now. Thanks, you've been listening to Lead Time, a podcast of the Unite Leadership Collective. The ULC's mission is to collaborate with the local church to discover, develop and deploy leaders through biblical Lutheran doctrine and innovative methods To partner with us in this gospel message. Subscribe to our channel, then go to theuniteleadershiporg to create your free login for exclusive material and resources and then to explore ways in which you can sponsor an episode. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for next week's episode.