Love Fort Wayne Podcast
The Love Fort Wayne podcast amplifies the stories of everyday people who are loving and leading in Northeast Indiana to spark imagination, root inspiration, and ignite transformation.
Love Fort Wayne Podcast
2023 Year In Review
When the heart of a city beats together, the rhythm resonates in every corner of the community. Fort Wayne pulses with such a rhythm, and I've had the privilege of witnessing the symphony of change since joining Love Fort Wayne in 2013. The stories Brenda Gerber-Vincent and I share in this episode capture the essence of a united city—a city that's seen remarkable growth and transformation through love. Our conversation weaves through the aspirations and concrete steps we are taking to expand our reach throughout the city, ensuring that every neighborhood feels the warmth of our collective embrace.
The tapestry of a community is stitched together by its leaders and the relationships they nurture. In our discussion with Tom Shepard, we unearth the layers of leadership within a family business and the beauty of evolving alongside a team. Pastors Ryan Cochran and Anthony Payton lend their voices to the conversation, highlighting the church's evolving role in modern society and the irreplaceable value of genuine connections in a world often skewed by the digital lens of social media. These narratives aren't just testament to the power of vulnerability and prayer—they're an invitation to you, our listeners, to be part of a movement that's reshaping our community with every act of compassion and understanding.
As the episode unfolds, we celebrate the emergence of new leaders who are courageously stepping up to tackle some of our toughest challenges, from human trafficking to addiction and mental health. The insights gleaned from my own leadership awakening at the GLS to the communal service spearheaded by Pastor Quincy McGee with Lifeway Bible Fellowship and Associated Churches underscore the transformative power of service and connection. This episode isn't just a reflection of the past; it's a clarion call to action, urging us all to lend our hands and hearts to build an even more vibrant and loving Fort Wayne.
Hey everybody. We're excited because we have a special end of the year wrap up podcast just for you, where we get the opportunity to take a glance at all the powerful and impactful conversations that we were able to have this year. 2023 has been a remarkable year, as we've heard inspiring stories from community servants and leaders who share their journeys and passions with us. Following our 2022 rebranding into Love Fort Wayne, we not only continue to emphasize and extend our love to our city's leaders, but also to our schools, pastors, families and prayer community. Listen in as we hear from Brenda Gerber-Vincent on these changes and how this is just the beginning of how we hope to unite the city and ignite transformation through God's love.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of new life, it's a new year. The two of you are leading us in Love, fort Wayne. What do you want to happen?
Speaker 4:Oh, my goodness, we're going to follow in your footsteps, mitch. You and the board, who have been doing this for 20 years.
Speaker 2:Are you serious? Is that true?
Speaker 4:Yeah, 20 years. It'll be our 20 year anniversary. Oh my goodness, it seems like yesterday.
Speaker 2:No Wow.
Speaker 6:I was still bald though.
Speaker 2:Still like the Jeff King starter kid.
Speaker 4:Jeff and I are going to very gently pick up what you all have done for 20 years in growing up what used to be GLS, gls between the summits, and now Love, fort Wayne, and it's been a journey right. I started in 2013. It's how long I've been involved with the organization. That was the first GLS I went to. I went to. It was the big one.
Speaker 2:I think we hung out a little bit together.
Speaker 6:We did.
Speaker 4:You called me up on stage.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 4:And you asked me what my favorite scripture was Malachi 3-3. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and we talked about that. We kind of pulled apart that scripture, but that was my first kind of entree into what this was about.
Speaker 6:Man, that was again that seems like yesterday, it just absolutely seems like yesterday.
Speaker 2:You've been a huge part of it. We have kind of a new structure that we started with, where we're not GLS and beyond anymore Global leadership, something beyond we're Love Fort Wayne. What we're about is to imagine, inspire and ignite transformation through God's love, and we do that through loving our leaders, loving our pastors, loving our families, loving our schools. Can you talk about both of you actually what that will look like in 2023?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a great question, jeff and I, I'm sure that our answer would be the same. We're going to figure it out and, again, just listening to the wisdom of the people who have been around the table like you, mitch, you've been with this program. You've been with this organization for much, much longer than the two of us have, so I think it's learning what's working, what can we do to refine it and what can we do to help move it forward. The thing that I'm most passionate about is when we say Love Fort Wayne. I want to love all of Fort Wayne. That's a goal of mine and we have a ways to go because we have some awareness. I want to make sure that you know Jeff is Jeff is out there speaking about what we do, making sure that we, that we're in areas that maybe that we haven't been in, touching people that we haven't touched before. We're just starting. I mean, even though we say we're 20 years old, I believe that we're just getting started.
Speaker 2:Oh, I agree too.
Speaker 4:There's so much, so much we can do to love our community.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. In February, Mitch Cruz and I had the opportunity to connect with Audrey Beer from DeBran Fine Chocolates, a second generation emerging leader in our community. She talks to us about growing up in the family business and extending excellent care and service to their customers.
Speaker 2:You have an amazing gift with people. I feel like as I've sipped my hot chocolate meeting with somebody at the Auburn Park Drive store. I've watched you grow and it's been really, really cool. You're always happy and joyful, no matter what's going on in your life. I've watched you engage with staff, but you have this, I would say, engaging personality that's almost like artistic. And then we got to throw alongside you Manage people. How do you, reconciled both of those, not lose who you are and still manage and lead staff?
Speaker 10:Mm-hmm. I think that has been the biggest point of growth for me over the past few years and that was the biggest struggle that I had. Moving into operations is like, how am I gonna confront people when I need to and during have those really hard conversations and most of time it's with people who are much older than me, you know, and it's like, oh, how do I do this? And, honestly, like, my mom has been my biggest mentor in that and she's just great with people and she, I think, has helped me to really like Excel past, where she was maybe at my age, because she can just give me these tools that she had to learn the hard way, you know. So she, her big thing is like, when you have to confront someone, always do it with kindness, confidence and use logic.
Speaker 10:And that's really stuck with me. So you're not just doing one or the other or one of them, you're not just being super kind but not using logic or not having confidence. So that's been a big thing for me Learning to confront people with kindness but also confident and using logic. Like this is what what happened. It's not like a the feelings thing, it's like black and white. So that's been really helpful for me. Confrontation was hard in the beginning, but now.
Speaker 6:I think, it is.
Speaker 10:I mean it was and it kind of intimidating me. Now I've gotten so much better at it and I think the the biggest thing is like having a rapport With your employees. If you never like have fun conversations and you don't know anything about them, but then you have to go criticize something they're doing, that's not gonna go over well. But if you know their personality, you kind of know like what makes them tick. That's how you confront them. So I feel like I've learned so much in that area. You confront everybody differently and the way you get to know them like kind of that'll shape how you confront them. So it's been fun.
Speaker 10:It's been such a challenge. I still can't say like, yeah, any confrontation I ever have to give is so easy. No, it can be difficult. The hard conversations are never fun. But I've gotten so much better and I think I've gotten to the point where I had to be able to respect myself Before I can really get respect from other people. So it's been a learning opportunity. It's been really great. Um, it was a challenge, but I think I've gotten so much better of it over the years and hopefully will continue to get better.
Speaker 1:In March, we had the privilege of hosting Clinton Fopple, co-founder of remedy live, who shared a profound personal experience that catalyzed a series of transformative career decisions, ultimately making a significant impact on individuals grappling with trauma, addiction and mental illness.
Speaker 9:And I didn't know the whole story but as a as a child of addiction myself and gotten saved at 18, I was just bold enough and crazy enough to say what if. And so we tried an internet experiment and it was a radio experiment under the remedy FM label and and AOL instant messenger you guys remember that do? That kid jumped on, named Ben I know him well now. Ben shared that he'd taken pills and he was dying and that was the first conversation that changed everything for that experiment. And they found him on his living room floor. He was dying of overdose of medication and four days later he and his mom came down to the studios at downtown remedy FM and she cried my my arms for 20 minutes and everything changed that day and we became really committed to what we call the secret struggle, 24-hour chat center care. You know, since then we've served 186,000 northeast Indiana students to our get school tour, 80,000 northeast Indiana residents through our wired experience and businesses and corporations.
Speaker 9:All of it started with that conversation to say what if you provided presents for people caught and meant, and in Jesus name you know, amen.
Speaker 1:In April we dove into the realm of education, with Mitch and I having the pleasure of hosting Kerry Kennedy, frank Klein and Kelly Pack net together. They share their extensive years of experience within the school system by highlighting their collaborative efforts with the broader community To foster cultures of love and support at their schools.
Speaker 11:Go be on this team, be on this committee, take part. Yeah, you want to try and be in charge of it. Do it, try it, and I feel like that push Helps me see like I can do what I want to do. And I want to give that same power to some of our kids because I can see it in them. They love being helpers, they want jobs in the school, like if we had more hours I'm sure I could find jobs for all these kids and I you know a lot of them. I'll say, like you can't be the teacher today, but I want to hire you so that they know they have a future and they can be in charge. And I don't think like I mean probably my family would say I'm a little bossy, but I don't look at it that way. I just, like you know, I like things to be consistent for people and and orderly, and I feel like that students feed off that a lot about you, frank.
Speaker 5:I come from a family of five boys and we're very diverse and what we want with our lives and One of the things that I was always that kid that until I was about 15 or 16 and sat on the report card is not reaching potential.
Speaker 5:And so my youngest brother is autistic, and so somewhere in my teenage years fortunately for me my mother got me involved in working with Special Olympics a little bit of doing some volunteering. I really like taking care of people and I'm really trying to shift myself right now from yeah, I still want to take care of students and I love what Kerry is talking about building children more than just reading and writing, building a whole person but again, I am trying to transition that right now into building my adults. Someday someone's going to need to sit in my chair. I would love for it to be someone who has as much love for a school like Kerry as you like mine to sit in that chair, and not just someone that's using the principalship that I will leave vacant to get that next promotion somewhere else. You really have to be in love with the community here in order to build a chair in schools like that.
Speaker 1:In May, we had the opportunity to connect with the committed leader within Northeast Indiana, Tom Shepard, of the Shepard Family Auto Group. Tom shared insights of his upbringing and the influential figures he looked up to in his life, along with key points, principles and personal stories that have impacted the way he leads lives and serves, which speaks directly to our heart of equipping and encouraging emerging leaders in our community.
Speaker 6:You have to have that guy right. He was your leader and my dad was that right. My dad was a great leader at his business Shepard's Chevrolet in North Manchester 1968, I think we're the second oldest Chevrolet dealer in the state of Indiana.
Speaker 1:Wow by the same family.
Speaker 6:So, like I said, 1968 and watching him take this little store in this little town and turn it into what it is now. So he was that guy. I had an uncle who allowed, who I worked for for seven years. He let me make the mistakes, allowed me to make a lot of mistakes during that time when I was working for him. And then in 1998, I got my own dealership. I think I was the youngest car dealer in the state of Indiana at the time and I went to kind of didn't know a soul. My dad drove up on the first day. I'll never forget it, july 1, 1998. And we were riding in the car together and I say to him I said any words of wisdom? What can you tell me? He says yeah, very simple. He says find some people and grow old together.
Speaker 1:And that's what I've done.
Speaker 6:That's the only advice he gave me, and that's exactly what I did. I found some great people and we've grown old together.
Speaker 1:In June, we focused our conversation on loving our pastors. Joined by pastors Ryan Cochran and Anthony Payton, we dive into their personal stories heart for the community and the call of the church to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our city. Listen in for insights of specific areas of focus in the everyday, as they share their fruitful, action based examples that can contribute to a more loving city.
Speaker 12:I think warning people about the ways that they are being shaped by the world of social media, by the world of media in general, to be where we see a demonstration of the opposite of the fruit of the spirit but the works of the flesh, over and over and over and over again. And so to help people to see the ways that they're being shaped by that every single day and to be aware of that, I think is really important for us right now, as leaders, to have our eyes open to that and to name it for people. It's good.
Speaker 13:I think one of the ways, one of the pragmatic ways that we get there and biblical ways that we get there is you all articulated it when you talked about getting together for three years and praying. I don't think any significant change about anything going on happens outside the context of relationship. I've always operated from the old Addis. I learned from I was from my days involved in Promise Keepers, but it says it went like this ten percent of people change when they hear the truth. Ten percent of people may not change. Eighty percent of people change within the context of relationship and one of the things that we have failed in is building relationship. No, think about this. Praying together for three years Built relationship, but prayer as essence is that posture of vulnerability. We go before God.
Speaker 13:We're vulnerable to him and in that prayer, now, if I'm praying with you, which we have, that should also be a level of vulnerability between the two of us, and out of that space, that genuine space, comes genuine relationship, and so we change, we begin to walk into one another, one another's, marcus, and if you would, and then and understand one another better, because we both have lean into that place, that space of vulnerability. And I think that you know, you, you said something yesterday when we was talking. I, I don't know exactly how you said, but you, I think we've gotten so accustomed of proximity, mm-hmm but we really ain't in a relationship.
Speaker 13:Yeah, yeah, yeah you know, we're physically in proximity.
Speaker 1:We're not in that's right. July was a conversation focusing on ignite, fort Wayne, our faith-rooted Self-leadership cohort for our communities. Emerging leaders our guest d'Artagnan Williams, jeremy McClain, rosalina Perez and Katie Kaiser share compelling insights into their personal journeys with ignite Would initially drew them to be a part of it and how it has significantly impacted their lives and their leadership for me.
Speaker 7:I was at the GLS and Felt like I was being called this. Leadership is more of a passion and it's for me to sit next to whether it's my staff, whether it's a church member or whoever to love them where they're at, to help them, no, grow. But at the same time, how do I get that? And I have kept was praying and praying and talking to my husband and GLS. That information came and I was like, okay, how can I do all of this? Is still you what I need? Feel my bucket and I filled out the application and information and also felt like it was a call upon me because part view was blessing us and I couldn't say no. And what better way for me to we see what I needed to receive at this time and at this place, but to go through this.
Speaker 14:Yeah, some great answers right.
Speaker 14:The only thing I would add, I think, is and there were some threads of it in other responses Is the connectedness right.
Speaker 14:Sometimes, when you're leading, you can feel like you're out there kind of on your own trying to navigate the leadership journey, and you know whether you're leading at home or leading, you know, in an education setting or a business setting, you're responsible for pouring into and leading other people and you know that if you don't invest and lead yourself well, you can't continue to lead others well, and so sometimes it can feel you can feel a little isolated, and so I looked at this as an opportunity. Here's not only can I connect, but I can connect locally, you know, with other people, and so that was really intriguing. And then the faith element for me was just even more. So you know, I know the values and beliefs are gonna align. You know there's some some great leadership material out there. A lot of it is secular based, and so I thought you know, here is a, you know, a faith based leadership Local program that I can participate in and I'm gonna learn, I'm gonna connect with others.
Speaker 14:And so I would say if somebody's has a ten about taking that step you know a couple of other people have already said it very warm, very welcoming and right away. You know I stay connected with, I still talk to. You know two or three of the people that I went through the cohort with on a regular basis my facilitator you know I have coffee with regularly. He checks in with me regularly and so not only was the material great, but the relationships with icing Wasn't expecting that in August, we welcome Sandra Keller and Janice Marisi, faithful servants and community collaborators Via their program.
Speaker 1:The initiative our time together focused on the challenges posed by human trafficking, impacts of addiction, mental illness and the many different life circumstances that lead to trauma and, ultimately, the need for loving care. Council and community.
Speaker 15:More. I was learning about trauma, especially when we just went through what 2020 in the pandemic. It really impacted all of us and and and I think Janice can speak on this one a little bit but I think a lot of people feel that when they talk about trauma, there's a big T, but there's a lot of little Ts that that go unnoticed. We were talking earlier about kind of I'm okay and those that have gone through the training to have self identified. Maybe I'm not so okay. Yeah, maybe there's some things that here that I haven't dealt with and and, unintentionally and knowingly, I've kind of I don't know if this is an eloquent way to say it, but I've bled all over. People like my trauma has impacted unknowingly on other people could be coworkers, you know parenting, you know kids, however that might be, and so to see the positive effects of people becoming aware of of trauma big T and little T, yeah, um, it's it that in and of itself, it's huge. When we know better, we do better.
Speaker 16:Well, you say no better, do better. There's a quote by Maya Angelou that says do your best until you know better, then do better. And I love that because One it takes away the shame and regret of not knowing in the first place. And I think, what it comes to trauma, trafficking, addiction, there's a lot that we don't know. We're just uneducated, and so to empower people to know so that they then can do better, we talk a lot about being a proactive person versus a reactive person, and so I see what we're doing with the initiative being the proactive piece of that. We're helping people know ahead of time, or know so that they can do better, to Be a trauma-informed, healthy, healing person.
Speaker 1:In September, we offered a glimpse into the Global Leadership Summit. During this transformative event, leaders from diverse corners of the world shared invaluable Experiences and narratives from their journeys. As part of our programming, we hosted a panel featuring Brendan Maxwell, fernando Zappari, pastor Steve Terry, allison Holland and Bonnie do little. Together, they provided insights on the qualities of servant leadership in the necessary actions for success from their various perspectives.
Speaker 17:So for me, I believe that leaders, ministry leaders at least, have a responsibility to represent Christ, to represent the kingdom in everything, in every area, really have a responsibility, get involved in education, get involved in transformation and absolutely community revitalization. I believe that they have that responsibility and and really it's to connect the community, to connect the neighbors. And I think what happens is Often times when it, when the word reminds us to love our neighbors as ourselves, it may not be talking about our next door neighbor, but connecting neighbors. For me it's. It may be the haves and the have nots, but the only way to do that is we've got to be connected to the neighbors. I can't connect to a neighbor if I don't know how to love them. I gotta love them, I've got to listen to them, I've got to learn from my neighbors and actually you can't just, you know, invite yourself, they've got to invite you in. So we got to learn how to love and connect with all of our neighbors.
Speaker 3:I think, as leaders in any in anything like all of us are in different blocks. Right, we need to figure out what everyone else is doing and Pull those assets, work together. We can all work together and bring what we have to the table and Serve them together, and I'm a big fan of collaboration, not Remaking the wheel. Get out there. Don't do it just because you know how. Do it, because it's you know what God calls you to do.
Speaker 1:In October we had the honor of hosting Angela Monty, the dedicated executive director of a live community outreach. Motivated by a family tragedy, he tirelessly endeavors to instill characteristics of peace in our local schools and support families through the city who are grappling with personal traumas due to violence.
Speaker 18:The beginning of the year and most of our work at Southside at that point was oriented around Leaders, you know so, students. So there are summer Academy that I talked about. That's for students who are leading Positively for the most part. Every now and then we'll look at a student who may have a little bit of a past but be ready to To lead in a positive way. It's not an intervention program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 18:But we were looking to do some more intervention type of work. Yeah and so our staff, chris, who's there at Southside. He talked with the administration. He said hey, you know, we would like to connect more with kids that that are acting out. And I Don't even think he got through his his sentence and this particular administrator was like well, I got just the kid for you to start with.
Speaker 18:Because he was having a lot of issues at the time, and so Chris connected with him. But at the same time, we had a Bible study going on in our church around violence, gun violence, and One of the folks, who was mainly older members of the church and one of them said you know what, what can we do to help? Mm-hmm, that's great, we're learning about all this, but what can we do to help? So where we had them start was to pray for this young man. I'll call him Joe. Yeah, pray for Joe. Here's what's going on with Joe. And so they did, and that week that we committed they committed to praying for him. Chris was able to connect with him in the in the school and Learn about his story and all kinds of trauma.
Speaker 18:Yeah all kinds of trauma is like if I've been through that, what he's been through, I probably punch in everybody I see to you know, yeah, I just been through a lot with no real support and so learned his story.
Speaker 18:But then in the midst of that conversation he said to Chris that he Didn't want to keep living like that and that he wanted to be a peacemaker. Chris was like really, wow. He's like well, you got beef with such and such this other student at school. He said how about we start there? He was like all right. He was like okay, let's call him down right now. Wow.
Speaker 1:So they got this other student out of class, called him down there and they ended up having this conversation and reconciled right then and there and it was done, it was over with wow, november was a special month, as Mitch and I had the privilege of having Bernice Bush on the podcast, an Extraordinary leader dedicated to improving the lives of pre-k children through building blocks outreach. Beyond her inspiring professional role, she also happens to be my mom. The episode infos with the wealth of exciting stories and valuable insights, offering a glimpse into her Compassionate and impactful approach to working with children as a foundation to the rest of their lives.
Speaker 8:I'm a wife and a mother and a grandmother and I love, I enjoy working with children, especially the young kids. I Became a part of the program, which was at the time under a different organization, and I was simply looking for a job, and I was hired as a teacher and A couple of months later became the director of that program, which is a program that serves Mostly women and children in a community that is over 90 percent Single moms on some type of assistance. So this program is a free of charge preschool program that serves children ages three to five, prior to going to kindergarten, getting them ready for kindergarten. And then we do a couple of actually three different community outreach ministries to those, the people in that community.
Speaker 8:One is our wealth, first of all, our preschool program, and then we have our backpack back to school event that provides the children with free school supplies and backpacks and we also Make it a special event for them. So it's not just here's a backpack, we make it really special for them. We also provide Christmas gifts to all of the children from in the womb to age 18. And Then we do a women's outreach ministry, which we call empowering women. Now that I started a couple of years after I began working there. So this is just a way to go beyond working with the children, but also embracing the families as well and giving the families and the moms a hand up instead of a handout, and and empowering them to Embrace the better part of themselves and know that they matter, and encouraging them to go beyond where they are.
Speaker 1:To end the year in the month of December, our focus centered on the significance of community. Pastor Quincy McGee of Lifeway Bible Fellowship and Associated Churches Shares his story of loving and serving the community where his church is located. As we chat, quincy shares the journey of illuminating the lives of those around them, loving neighbors and entering into the fabric of the community they now proudly call home number one as a Church.
Speaker 19:Yes, we've been in existence for 15 years, but it took us about nine years to be planted in a neighborhood and find a place that we could call home and give back and be a part of the community.
Speaker 19:And right there next to the church, we have a neighbor, orlando, and I Remember inviting the chapel over to do some work around the church. But also Orlando had some leaks and as rough and had some work done and some Shingles were just all over the ground and same with his garage and they have been sitting, yeah, lying there on the on the ground for some time here. And it was amazing to be able to have a team from the chapel come over, not only to help serve us and put out mulch and Help do some grounds keeping and cleaning around the building, but at the same time they were able to bring over a dumpster and get all that debris, get all those shingles up From the work that he had had done. So just a beauty to be in a neighborhood and have, yeah, neighbors and he looks out. He looks out his window, he's got his window and he'll let me know. Hey, guys, we're on the parking lot and.
Speaker 19:And in the same, it's true, with having Fairfield elementary a block in. What is it? A block east of us, then, right next door across the street, is South Wayne elementary, comprised of about 700 families right there, and we're we're trying to figure out the best way. We don't have the capacity right to to do as much as we would love to do, but we've partnered together in hey, whether it's going over to the school and providing lunches for the whole staff in that school or Sending over a food truck to a school. There were some neighbors in the community when we Were able to land the building who'd later told me said, oh, we were so concerned about who would take, yeah, this property and what they would do with it. So, yeah, it was certainly a blessing forgot to put us right there and We've done some food truck rallies there in the neighborhood. It's come through and just got to meet a lot of great people.
Speaker 1:This year our discussions encapsulated many different themes directly connected to the pillars of a flourishing community leaders, pastors, schools, families and prayer with diverse guests. Each month brought unique perspectives and inspiring stories Contributing to our collective journey of growth. As we wrap up the year, we look forward to continuing meaningful conversations that amplify the way leaders are loving and serving our community.
