How Mount Olive Lutheran is Bridging Church and School
Reverend Garret Casper shares insights into his pastor journey and experiences at Mount Olive Lutheran Church and School in Des Moines, Iowa. He emphasizes the importance of fostering a vibrant and supportive community for the church and school, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of bridging the gap between the two. Garrett discusses his commitment to discipleship and how he models faith-sharing within his congregation and school community. He reflects on the significance of maintaining humility as a leader and his family's role in his ministry. Additionally, Garrett addresses the potential of educational savings accounts (ESAs) in revitalizing church and school connections, aiming to enhance their outreach to unchurched families and strengthen their mission.
Garret Casper's story unfolds as he shares his pastoral journey and the transformative experiences that have led him to his current role at Mount Olive Lutheran Church and School. The conversation captures the essence of his ministry philosophy, which centers around humility and approachability. Garrett's insights into his upbringing in a Christian environment and his early aspirations to become a pastor reveal the profound influence of mentorship and community in shaping his faith. The dialogue explores the unique challenges of leading a church with an associated school, particularly emphasizing the need for unity and collaboration within the church community.
Throughout the episode, Garret discusses his and his congregation's practical steps to enhance the connection between the church and school. From innovative community outreach programs to fostering a welcoming environment for unchurched families, the conversation emphasizes the importance of meeting people where they are in their spiritual journeys. Garret's enthusiasm for engaging with students and their families shines through as he describes various initiatives to build relationships and encourage spiritual growth. The episode closes with a thoughtful reflection on the legacy Garrett hopes to leave behind, focusing on creating an intergenerational community that thrives on shared faith and mission, ultimately reinforcing the idea that ministry is about service, connection, and love.
Takeaways:
- Reverend Garret Casper emphasizes the importance of humility in pastoral ministry, encouraging others to remain relatable and authentic.
- The integration of church and school at Mount Olive creates a supportive community that benefits both students and congregants.
- Garret Casper highlights the value of mentorship from pastors during his formative years, shaping his journey toward ministry.
- The challenges of bridging communication between church and school require intentional effort to unify their missions effectively.
- Mount Olive Lutheran Church is focused on expanding its school facilities to accommodate anticipated growth in student enrollment.
- Garret’s discipleship approach involves engaging children and parents through relational opportunities for spiritual growth.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
My guest today is Reverend Gary Casper.
Keith:He is currently serving as pastor at Mount Olive Lutheran Church and School in Des Moines, Iowa.
Keith:This is the second year at Mount Olive.
Keith: ed from Concordia Seminary in: Keith:2018.
Keith:And since then he has found immense joy and fulfillment in his pastoral ministry.
Keith:Garrett and Amber have been blessed with four wonderful children, ages 9 to 2.
Keith: ve been happily married since: Keith:Ambry and Garrett grew up in the St.
Keith:Louis area and cherished their roots there.
Keith:He attended St.
Keith:John Lutheran Church in Arnold, Missouri, where his faith journey began and flourished.
Keith:At Mount Olive, he is deeply committed to fostering a vibrant and supportive community for both church and school.
Keith:He finds joy in being a part of this community and serving his congregation and students spiritually and educational needs.
Keith:Welcome, Garrett, to the podcast.
Keith:Well, Garrett, welcome to the podcast.
Keith:How you doing today, my friend?
Garrett:I'm doing pretty good.
Garrett:How about yourself, Keith?
Keith:I can't complain.
Keith:It's good to talk to you.
Keith:It's been a while since we visited, so I'm looking forward to having a conversation with you.
Garrett:Yeah, that sounds awesome.
Garrett:Got a lot of exciting things here.
Keith:Yeah, we get to share that with people and kind of find out what God is doing through you and Mount Olive and this new.
Keith:This new season of your life.
Keith:But before we get into all that fun stuff, give me the best piece of advice you've ever received.
Garrett:Oh, my goodness.
Garrett:You know, I think some of the best things for me was like to always be myself, always be humble, those kinds of pieces of advice, and it pretty much translated over to ministry pretty well, you know, to.
Garrett:To kind of step down into the.
Garrett:Into the level of the people, like, don't put me on this pedestal kind of thing.
Garrett:You know, I'm still this.
Garrett:Still the sinner, just like you, and it's.
Garrett:It becomes pretty relatable to people.
Garrett:So still something I hold and value.
Keith:I agree with that.
Keith:Because when I told my current gauge, you put me on a pedestal, you can always kick people off the pedestal.
Keith:So I'd rather not be up there in the first place.
Garrett:That's right.
Garrett:Then I don't have to worry about falling over.
Keith:That's right.
Keith:Embarrassing myself.
Keith:So, you know, I love for pastors like yourself to kind of share with me your journey from growing up in St.
Keith:Louis.
Keith:Go Cardinals, by the way, to becoming a pastor of Mount Hollovin Church's school.
Garrett:Yeah, so it's actually how we got connected to school was pretty interesting there at St.
Garrett:John's so my mom grew Up Baptist, and that was kind of her thing.
Garrett:And then they had moved to the arnold area where St.
Garrett:John's is located, and just kind of looking for the Christian school, sort of, kind of what people do now when they come to Mount Olive looking for the Christian school.
Garrett:And then so that was.
Garrett:She found it.
Garrett:And then next thing you know, they're like, oh, it was back when everybody was giving the tuition breaks if you join the church.
Garrett:So, you know, you get a two for one deal sort of thing on that.
Garrett:But then as you got like plugged in, like starting to meet people and all that and really enjoying the pastors at the time and those kinds of things, and that kind of like the tuition break became kind of like the root.
Garrett:But then we became founded in something else.
Garrett:So K through 8, all the way there, baptized there, confirmed there, seen the church with the split there, you know, lots of different things that took place there.
Garrett:And then went off to Lutheran south there in Afton, did nine through 12.
Garrett:My wife also went nine through 12 there.
Garrett:So we're like, used to Christian schools just.
Garrett:I mean, St.
Garrett:Louis is the mecca, like, of Christian schools.
Garrett:I mean, they have one on basically every corner and then all of these Lutheran churches on every corner as well.
Garrett:And so we, we spent some time that.
Garrett:And then I got to the point where it's like, oh, you decide college.
Garrett:My people don't know.
Garrett:I actually got accepted into River Forest for pre Sam, but I was like, I really want to go Sam.
Garrett:And just the, the room and board at River Forest is just enough, like, to maybe kill that dream.
Garrett:And so I stayed home, went to Missouri Baptist, then boom, seminary just like right after.
Garrett:Because I, I was one of those guys where if I take a year off or a little break in between, I don't, I don't think I won't make it.
Garrett:So just bang, bang, always through school and, and get it done.
Garrett:But I mean, growing up in Lutheran schools, it kind of makes some of the ties of why Mount Olive became this easy choice for me as well.
Garrett:Some of that played into it.
Keith:I'm curious, Garrett, as you think about those formative years being in the Lutheran system, how did those shape and form you as a pastor?
Garrett:Yeah, so like us, I had some pastors that I was pretty close with over the time.
Garrett:And thinking about, I'm working through a discipleship kind of book.
Garrett:And, you know, you're thinking about some of those mentors you had growing up and thinking about how they shaped you, and it's like, yeah, I.
Garrett:That person was There a lot.
Garrett:And then we had some pretty fun DCEs and received some who, you know, husbands were seminarians at the time, and they're filling in DCE spots.
Garrett:And so we had all these fun times together kind of this.
Garrett:We, at the time, we had, like, this big core youth group at St.
Garrett:John's and that.
Garrett:That really, like, helped shape a lot of.
Garrett:Of our identity at that point.
Garrett:Now, if they all stayed, that's.
Garrett:That's a different story as they.
Garrett:They grew up.
Garrett:But at the time, like, this was our identity, the Pastor being involved, D.C.
Garrett:is being involved.
Garrett:Like, we could lean on them.
Garrett:So there were those occasions where it's like, oh, I'm going to go talk to the pastor for counseling or for something that I need instead of, like, I'm going to go find a friend or my parents or something like that.
Garrett:So that became a safe place to do that.
Keith:I love that.
Keith:I'm always curious for pastors.
Keith:I know what my experience was like when I decided to become a pastor.
Keith:What moved you?
Keith:What inspired you to say, I think God is calling me to be a pastor?
Keith:I tell people it wasn't a bad pizza I had that day.
Keith:It was something much bigger than that.
Garrett:Yeah.
Garrett:Yeah.
Garrett:So I actually started young.
Garrett:Apparently.
Garrett:I used to go around the house preaching little mini sermons, and at like, 6, 7, 8 years old.
Garrett:For me, the pastors were a big influence on my life.
Garrett:At our church, we had several good ones and.
Garrett:And I believe St.
Garrett:John's has put out four pastors in its existence, which, from my understanding, is pretty rare to have that many from one congregation.
Garrett:And so they were people that I looked to.
Garrett:So I'm like, I want to be like them.
Garrett:You know, everybody else wants to be like, the firefighter, the police officer, and all those kind of things.
Garrett:I want to be.
Garrett:I want to be them.
Garrett:You know, this seems kind of like a.
Garrett:An awesome gig, at least at the time when you're eight.
Garrett:Made me realize how much work it is.
Keith:I love that.
Keith:That's great.
Keith:So you've been in Mount Olive now for two years.
Keith:What's those two years been like for you?
Garrett:Seems way longer than two years, so.
Garrett:Especially when we're following school years.
Garrett:And so I came in at the end, in the middle of a school year, basically.
Garrett:And then.
Garrett:So I've had.
Garrett:This is my third school year then that I've been here.
Garrett:And so summers are kind of.
Garrett:I write my sermon, and then we move stuff around all summer, you know, get ready for the next school year and contribute in that way.
Garrett:And kind of use every inch of our.
Garrett:Of our space here at Mount Olive.
Garrett:And it's been kind of interesting to see how the.
Garrett:How we can bridge the gaps between the church and the school.
Garrett:Kind of see how we can fill some of that and get people from the school invested in the church and from the church invested into the school.
Garrett:And in theory, it all sounds pretty easy, but it's actually not that.
Garrett:Not that easy, but, you know, because you don't want to take over their space, but they don't want it vice versa either.
Garrett:And so we had to move this church library at least three times.
Garrett:You know, make sure the library ladies are happy.
Garrett:But it's been pretty, pretty intense.
Garrett:Let's see, the day after I was installed, we had Jenny, our fourth, so installed on the fourth.
Garrett:And she was born on the 5th of December.
Garrett:And so, yeah, she's kind of following my.
Garrett:My time tracker here.
Garrett:She ages.
Keith:That's so cool.
Garrett:Oh, yeah, it's neat.
Keith:I'm curious.
Keith:I served all my ministries, have had schools, and it's been a unique opportunity, but also sometimes a very unique challenge.
Keith:What are some of the things you've discovered in this.
Keith:The challenges of having a church with a school?
Garrett:I think.
Garrett:I think the biggest challenge is getting people on the.
Garrett:On the same page or the communication process between everybody.
Garrett:We want to make sure everybody knows about everything, you know, and so you get people from the church who, if they don't know everything that the school is doing, they feel left out.
Garrett:And so that's kind of a big challenge.
Garrett:And I don't know if you've experienced that same kind of kind of thing where you're just like, we want this big vision.
Garrett:Often we try to think about like, oh, here's what the school is doing, here's what the church is doing.
Garrett:But very little times do we think about, here's what the organization is doing.
Garrett:And so it kind of makes that team church, team school sort of feel, which is also a challenge.
Garrett:Do you feel.
Garrett:Have you felt that same way?
Keith:Sure, yeah.
Keith:My last church in Milwaukee, when I got there, the school and church were very divided.
Keith:And we had a school vision and they had a church vision.
Keith:And I'm like, we gotta stop, and we just need to have one.
Keith:And you just talked about one organizational vision and realize that the school, the elders, the outreach are all part of the same vision.
Keith:And you just implementing one piece of the overall vision.
Keith:And that kind of helped us to not be seeing the.
Keith:Seeing each other's competition or going different directions.
Keith:But we Keep reminding people what the one common vision and mission of the church and organization was.
Garrett:Yeah, yeah.
Garrett:So this common vision.
Garrett:So we, we had that school thing on Saturday here hosted with the district and that was.
Garrett:And I went to that and that's kind of something that he brought forward there since key.
Garrett:And so that was a good thing that we brought up in our board meeting last night.
Garrett:Like we often think about this, but we need to be doing these things together.
Garrett:And it's kind of a nice segue into the ESA because the education savings accounts have presented this opportunity to like revitalize churches or.
Garrett:I was talking with our maintenance.
Garrett:We hired a maintenance guy and he was in Sioux Falls and he was talking about a school in Sioux Falls that was going to plant a church and lcms.
Garrett:And so you think about that and how we have this unique opportunity with the ESAs to kind of bring some life back to our church.
Keith:Yeah.
Keith:For those who don't know, ESA is Educational Savings accounts here and Iowa, which is kind of our version of school choice.
Keith:How has, I'm sure that.
Keith:I know it impacted our church in Milwaukee because we had school choice when school choice wasn't popular.
Keith:And all of a sudden our entire clientele of students completely changed from being a mostly Lutheran based group of students and school body to none of them were Lutheran.
Keith:They know what Lutheran was to now.
Keith:Some of them weren't even church.
Keith:And we had to try to figure out how do we connect with people who don't have any drawdowns other than the fact that they come to our school.
Keith:How do you guys address the we have all these potential people on campus.
Keith:How do we share the gospel with them?
Keith:Because I think we have something amazing as Lutherans to offer to families.
Garrett:Oh yeah.
Garrett:And that's super challenging.
Garrett:So we are at a 32% unchurched.
Garrett:So almost a third of our school unchurched.
Garrett:And then of course, Keith, I think we can always throw in the nominals who they say they're going to church.
Garrett:I've had people who put down that they're going to our church.
Garrett:And I'm like, I've never seen you.
Keith:I haven't seen you yet.
Keith:We're pure you.
Garrett:Yeah, well, maybe I must have missed you there.
Garrett:But they think about that.
Garrett:And so you're probably really at the like 50% kind of mark.
Garrett:I think only if I remember correctly, only like 8% of our school body even goes to an LCMS church.
Garrett:And so you're thinking about how low this actually is.
Garrett:Chapel becomes a huge deal for us here.
Garrett:And it's amazing because the kids who have been through chapel for all these years then kind of step up and they're like these leaders of, hey, we sing in chapel when the.
Garrett:When somebody comes up to light the candles.
Garrett:We're not talking like, they.
Garrett:They set the tone for the.
Garrett:The new kids that.
Garrett:That come in.
Garrett:And it becomes kind of this unique thing.
Garrett:Whether it be I'm giving a message, or some of the classes are giving a message, or somebody is coming to give a message.
Garrett:We put a lot of emphasis on that chapel.
Garrett:Some of the goals are to think about how we can talk about baptism and church membership with some of those families coming in and some discipleship opportunities as well.
Garrett:See, tonight, we.
Garrett:You got to give my first grade teacher and my wife all the credit.
Garrett:Tonight.
Garrett:We started a thing called the Young and Devoted.
Garrett:So cool, like a young and restless kind of feel to it.
Garrett:But we have quite a bit of our school families coming to our house tonight to do Bible study together, you know, and the kids are going to be in one area doing whatever.
Garrett:Whatever they do.
Garrett:And then, you know, the adults are gonna be in another area doing things together.
Garrett:And so it kind of gives us this cool opportunity to bridge some of those gaps and become kind of unified in our mission here.
Garrett:And then, frankly, I start to build a lot of relationships with our students.
Garrett:I have a Greek student, believe it or not, he wants to be a pastor in the LCMS when he grows up.
Garrett:And so we started doing Greek last year.
Garrett:We nixed Spanish forum and did foreign language there of Greek, and none of the teachers cared, so that was a good thing.
Garrett:So he joins me on Tuesday, Thursdays, and we.
Garrett:We run through the Greek grammar and translate and those kinds of things.
Garrett:So, you know, most of the students are pretty comfortable with me.
Garrett:So that's a good thing, too.
Garrett:It starts with those relationships with them, which I thoroughly enjoy, by the way.
Keith:Are you.
Keith:Are you.
Keith:I know your school is quite diverse in terms of makeup.
Keith:How has that become a challenge, especially in Des Moines area?
Keith:Because I know Des Moines, there have been some schools that had some difficulty with just students who were adjusting to the public school system.
Keith:Have you run across any challenges with the diversity of your school now?
Garrett:No, I don't.
Garrett:I don't think so.
Garrett:We had a little bit of, like, racial diversity and ethnic diversity whenever I first got here.
Garrett:And actually, one of the coolest things.
Garrett:So right now is junior high lunch.
Garrett:And I get to watch, except for today, watch the white kids sit with a group of African American Kids and race never even comes up is like the coolest thing.
Garrett:Like, they're just hanging out like they're the best of buddies, and, you know, they have the best time together.
Garrett:And it's like, that is like the heaven on earth church right there.
Garrett:You know, they can sit down, break bread together and not have a problem or anything like that.
Garrett:So we actually don't have a lot.
Garrett:And you came last year and talked, and, you know, some of those kids enjoyed your talk last school year and.
Garrett:And, you know, they can see that being together is bigger than our race.
Garrett:You know, we're gonna be around the same vision of Christ and we're gonna hang out together, we're gonna have fun together.
Garrett:You know, we can be friends.
Garrett:So none of those things really ever comes up.
Keith:I love that, thankfully.
Keith:Yeah.
Garrett:Yeah.
Keith:I'm curious, are you discovering that the parents who are maybe unchurched, are they.
Keith:I hear that there are results that say that a lot of parents are seeking more spiritual discipline, journey, discovery in their life.
Keith:Are you seeing an openness of the unchurched parents to get a closer connection with God than maybe people believe they were?
Garrett:Yeah.
Garrett:I think tonight is really going to be our first kind of tale of that where we actually have probably one of the largest groups of school families come to our house and see where their spiritual levels are basically at, like, so what do you actually believe?
Garrett:We try to.
Garrett:We've had some new school families come in, and a lot of them are churched, you know, so we've had a lot of school families to our house as well.
Garrett:We're trying to do some of that, you know, and get to know some of them.
Garrett:But tonight is probably our biggest one.
Garrett:We're gonna actually find out in a larger group of parents.
Garrett:It's kind of, I'm gonna be honest, kind of hard to isolate them one on one with me.
Garrett:Like, the kids will do it.
Garrett:Oh, yeah.
Garrett:Pastor.
Garrett:We love hanging out with Pastor, but the parents are not as much.
Garrett:I can get some to talk.
Garrett:So it just depends how involved they want to be.
Garrett:Because you have the parents who are like, I'm just going to drop my kid off at the door, say, bye, and then I'm going to.
Garrett:I'm going to leave, you know, and some parents will come in and talk with the teacher.
Garrett:So it depends on who you get and who you get to talk.
Keith:That's great.
Keith:It makes sense.
Keith:Everybody's got to find their own comfort zone.
Garrett:Yeah.
Keith:I'm curious, as you have been doing this for about two years now, what Key programs, initiatives have Mount Olive started that you found to work pretty well and other side of that, what have you found out that just kind of like bombed royally.
Garrett:So actually my first year and a half here, we've, we've kind of just done a lot of listening to the community when we actually haven't done a lot of key initiatives.
Garrett: rst big vision thing here for: Garrett:GROW will be the, the acronym so guide in truth, Relate and Love, Obey in Action and Witness to Others.
Garrett:And so that's going to be kind of our, our big vision.
Garrett:Kind of some of that was like going through the missionary pathway stuff.
Garrett:That was a big, a big impact for me.
Garrett:Like, oh, if I got a.
Garrett:I'm thinking about being around the word of God, that's kind of like this, this emphasis and then everything else kind of falls in place after that.
Garrett:So that's really kind of our biggest initiative.
Garrett:We've kind of kicked around the idea of like some sort of DCE coming in, whether it be part time or full time or anything like that.
Garrett:I think a part time person could eventually turn into a full time person because there are kids and I hear it quite often.
Garrett:Pastor, I'd love to come to your church and be members of your church, but we gotta go to the church down the street because they have a youth group, you know, and I'm like, yeah, I can't compete with that.
Garrett:You know, I don't have an established youth group right now with all the fun things or anything like that.
Garrett:So I think a role like that could end up working itself into a good one.
Garrett:We had somebody to do that, so that's kind of a challenge we're kicking around as well.
Keith:Yeah, that's awesome.
Keith:So how has mission pathway helped you equip your members?
Keith:Because I think one of the key things we talk about in church is you can only do so much as one person as a pastor.
Keith:How are you using that to equip your members to also be able to share their faith with people as well?
Garrett:Yeah, so we're actually.
Garrett:Our next sermon series is going to be kind of.
Garrett:We've done the missionary pathway together as a church and kind of some groups.
Garrett:In our next sermon series, we're going to talk about taking that even further.
Garrett:I really like the work live and play.
Garrett:So I'm going to go into the world and the places I work, live and play and we think about discipling people and we're like, oh, that means I gotta go, like spend Two hours with somebody every week or something.
Garrett:And it's like, just think about, like, what if it was just 10 minutes, you know, and somebody in.
Garrett:It doesn't.
Garrett:It could be on zoom.
Garrett:It can be over the phone.
Garrett:It can be in person.
Garrett:Like, there are those things.
Garrett:So some of the goals that I had for myself are, I want three men from our school, I want three men from our congregation, and I want three men in my neighborhood.
Garrett:And so I'm like, I need to model this first before I actually tell them to go and do it.
Garrett:And same as I set up.
Garrett:So Thursdays in our religion curriculum is Discovery Bible Study.
Garrett:The kids are all junior high kids are broken up into groups 5 and 7, 6 and 8 just because of the times when they do Discovery Bible Study together.
Garrett:And so that was kind of another one where it's like, okay, if I'm making them journal, what is.
Garrett:What does this tell you about God?
Garrett:Was it tell you about the world and yourself and how do I live it out?
Garrett:Then maybe I should start doing my Bible study that way.
Garrett:Otherwise they're gonna be like, well, pastor doesn't do it, but he makes us do it, you know, for class.
Garrett:And.
Garrett:And so I do that every day.
Garrett:I have a journal that I do the Discovery Bible study myself.
Garrett:And then I do it with other people as well.
Garrett:We've kind of picked that up as a staff, too.
Garrett:Wednesdays is our staff Bible study morning.
Garrett:So we gather together around 7:15 and meet for about 20 minutes, 25 minutes, and do the same exact thing.
Garrett:And it kind of becomes this easy way.
Garrett:I just want people to be able to see.
Garrett:It doesn't have to be so intimidating.
Garrett:It doesn't have to be so complicated.
Garrett:Like, I can sit down and do these with somebody.
Garrett:And right now we're doing a sermon series on spiritual gifts.
Garrett:And I often think about, like, at least I've always heard it as, like.
Garrett:And maybe it comes off this way, like, oh, I can only have one of these gifts, you know, and maybe you've heard it that way too.
Garrett:Like, I can only have one.
Garrett:But is that really.
Garrett:Because Paul talks about how it's kind of divided out by the spirit, and he can give whatever he wants to whoever.
Garrett:So you get the person who's like, man, that person could do everything.
Garrett:And you look at yourself and you're like, I can't do anything.
Garrett:But I wanted you to think about it as like a spiritual toolbox where we need to be equipped with all of these, you know, so maybe I'm.
Garrett:Maybe I Go.
Garrett:And I proclaim.
Garrett:But really the portion that makes disciples is the person that is teaching like the chisel.
Garrett:They chisel away the person to look like and imitate Christ.
Garrett:And so that's kind of how we've been taking that approach.
Garrett:And people have loved it that way.
Garrett:And I don't want them to see just that missionary pathway style of oh, this is intimidating.
Garrett:But I want them to go and just, just do this, like find somebody, just one person and do it with them.
Keith:No, that's great.
Keith:I think that's so important because, you know, discipleship is not something we talk a lot about in our church.
Keith:And so we don't even know exactly sometimes how to equip people to just be there and have those conversations with each other.
Garrett:Yeah.
Garrett:And I've been.
Garrett:So I'll hold it up.
Garrett:So Matt also has like some of the Mac Lake stuff.
Garrett:And so he came out with the book Leading Others and kind of talks about some of that discipleship.
Garrett:And he put a quote in there that I read this morning about like discipleship and being disciple makers is not a program of the church.
Garrett:It is the program of the church.
Garrett:And you're like, oh yeah.
Garrett:So I can't compare it to like the men's ministry, but it often gets compared to that.
Garrett:Like somebody's going to do it, but it's not going to be me, you know, and so I thought that was pretty impactful.
Garrett:And so this is also something.
Garrett:Leadership development is something we're planning on as well.
Garrett:Making leaders instead of waiting.
Keith:I love that.
Keith:As you think about Mount Olive's long term future, what are some long term goals that Mount Olive church and school have?
Garrett:Yeah, so our biggest right now is just our expansion.
Garrett:Adding on a school of our size without a gym is crazy to think about.
Garrett:And so everybody is invested in on that church and school.
Garrett:It's kind of given us a, kind of given us a good unified piece.
Garrett:Like we can build around this together and do something together.
Garrett:And I've talked about some different ways that we can gather together and do this.
Garrett:Like let's have a, let's sell bricks and build a big wall in our sanctuary and do a special worship service together, like to celebrate how we're.
Garrett:We're going to be building this piece of our generations to come.
Garrett:So that's kind of been our biggest focus.
Garrett:And then I already mentioned the dce, that's kind of another focus.
Garrett:And we want to get those going and think about where our church can be in five years and our school in Five years.
Garrett:I mean, we probably have the projection of about 400 kids in five years in our school.
Garrett:So it'd be nice to have another person to come alongside and say they're also making an impact and bringing them into our congregation and revitalizing.
Garrett:So a lot of it is around some of that.
Keith:The challenge I had when I was a pastor with the school was how do you do, how do you have an impact in the community while also having a school and a church?
Keith:So how do you guys balance out that?
Keith:My ministry is not necessarily just a school, but the community around my church as well.
Keith:How do you balance those two things?
Garrett:Yeah, it's so hard because it's like, man, we would kill for everybody to just walk into our churches like they walk into our schools, especially with that ESA right now.
Garrett:But some of it is.
Garrett:So I've talked with some nursing homes and those kinds of things.
Garrett:Like we want to get our school kids involved, we want to get our church families involved and go to some different places in the community.
Garrett:We want to explore down at that food pantry.
Garrett:So there's a Hispanic food pantry down the street and they get about 800 people on Wednesdays.
Garrett:And so we've talked about how we can help serve them and serve that community.
Garrett:And so that would be a couple different options for looking around our community and seeing some people that need help there and need some support and somebody in their life.
Garrett:And so in their immediate things here, like, we always have people in nursing homes and those kinds of things, they want to come, they want to hear our kids sing.
Garrett:They want us to be involved, they want us to come do church with them.
Garrett:And then down the street you have a different ethnically diverse group and you're like, well, I don't speak Spanish, so this is going to be really hard.
Garrett:But.
Garrett:But there has to be some way to connect with them.
Garrett:And they sit there, you know, they get there around 1:00 and they sit there till about 6:00 on Wednesdays.
Garrett:And so it's kind of a neat thing as well.
Garrett:We didn't know that it was even down there until we had our junior high kids down there last year for school.
Garrett:Would have never guessed that Wednesday was just like that.
Keith:Wow.
Keith:As we kind of wrap this up and thank you for the time, I appreciate you taking the time to kind of come on.
Keith:How do you balance ministry and family life and your own personal time as a pastor?
Keith:I always think about, you know, we have so many things that pull at us, but how do you keep all those things, all those different plates in the air.
Garrett:Yeah, it's kind of a challenging things.
Garrett:So like my family has sort of stuffed alongside.
Garrett:We kind of see those things as a fun opportunity.
Garrett:And that's.
Garrett:And that started in Remsen too.
Garrett:An opportunity where like, oh well, all of us will go to Bible study so my wife doesn't have to stay at home, like, even though I'm leading, you know.
Garrett:And so they became kind of that support and they enjoy doing things.
Garrett:Oliver, our nine year old, he knows how to set up the communion trays and run the sound system and all that.
Garrett:So he's kind of given some of that support as well.
Garrett:And then I think seeing rooms, it was hard because of the parsonage.
Garrett:Living next door we'd have just people show up.
Garrett:But now you can kind of find that balance a little bit by not living by the church and school.
Garrett:We're already here enough and so it's kind of part of the leadership thing, just empowering people in our church.
Garrett:Hey, if you want a ministry, I'm okay with you doing the ministry, like, and I don't.
Garrett:I'm okay not being involved in it as well.
Garrett:I will gladly guide you and support you and pray for you and be a sounding board for you, but I also can't be there for all of your events that you're going to do.
Garrett:You know, I gotta have my family time and, and all that.
Garrett:So there, there is kind of that you're juggling some different things there.
Garrett:And so you can only make so many commitments all at once, right?
Keith:Yeah, you gotta kind of balance those things out.
Garrett:Yeah.
Keith:I'm curious, Gary, as you think about what you hope to leave behind as a legacy, one your ministry is all said and done, what do you hope people say about you as a pastor and a father.
Garrett:Beth?
Garrett:That is one that he sent that question and I was like kicking that around for quite some time, like, oh, what do I want to be known as?
Garrett:And maybe I, maybe I don't.
Garrett:It's kind of back to that opening, that humbleness.
Garrett:Like maybe I don't really want to be being known like.
Garrett:Or maybe I want to be known as the pastor who.
Garrett:Yeah, think about like with the kids, you know.
Garrett:Yeah, we're going to talk for 20 minutes about football, but we're also going to talk for 20 minutes about Jesus, you know.
Garrett:And so they kind of see this where, oh, some of my best moments were hanging out with pastor and some of my spiritual moments were also with hanging out with pastor.
Garrett:And so I'm good with something simple just like that.
Garrett:And, you know, thinking about this legacy, I think thinking about our opportunities here, we're hoping that these will become this intergenerational place for kids.
Garrett:Like, we envision our school pretty functioning without us at some point or, you know, in our church being functioning as well.
Garrett:And they, they're still bridged together and around this mission vision.
Garrett:I think my, my partner in crime across the desk here would also probably say the same thing, you know, and so we think about that.
Garrett:We're not too caught up in, oh, here's the legacy.
Garrett:But the legacy is that they worked hard for Jesus, they worked hard to share the gospel, they worked hard to shape the students, and we're okay with that.
Keith:I love that.
Keith:For someone who has a church with the school, you have any words of wisdom for those who are trying to figure out what you're discovering now on the path that you're on?
Garrett:Yeah, I think some of the, the best things for the church with the school is if you're.
Garrett:Well, if you're a church that's struggling.
Garrett:Oh, if you're a church.
Garrett:If you're.
Garrett:Yeah, we share an office, so that kind of, kind of is the thing.
Garrett:So a church or the school, I think if you're, if your church is struggling to see the easy input of the school, especially in Iowa here where we have the school choice things and we think about this is our opportunity to meet some families, and it can be some of the easiest ways to meet families because they're already stepping foot inside our door every single day.
Garrett:And so I think if you're the pastor who's just expecting to sit and wait for those school families just to come to you, it's probably not going to happen.
Garrett:So they, they need to know who you are too, you know.
Garrett:So I sent a letter home to my.
Garrett:To some new school families that came in this year and said, you know what?
Garrett:Your kid is not going to just know me as pastor who sits in his office over there, but they're going to be some.
Garrett:I'm going to be somebody that they continue to interact with.
Garrett:And that was for all of our new school families received a letter like that.
Garrett:So I, you know, and then I put in there, well, I hope I get to know you too, you know, and pray for you too.
Garrett:And if you need anything, I'm here for you too.
Garrett:I'm happy to be the school family's pastor if they don't have one.
Keith:That's awesome.
Keith:Where can people get to get to get to know you more about you, Garrett, and follow what's happening in Mount Olive Church in school.
Garrett:Yeah, so.
Garrett:So for Mount Olive, we're always open for tours.
Garrett:I've already.
Garrett:I've already told Heidi, our tour, our tour guide here, our missions director.
Garrett:I'm like, hey, I'm going to be offering you up here with Keith.
Garrett:And she said she loves to give in tours, so it doesn't matter.
Garrett:They can reach out to Heidi Rainsolcs or Garrett Casperolcs and I'll connect them with Heidi.
Garrett:And we're happy to show people our school.
Garrett:We've had some from our district come down from our other schools and kind of just see what's happening as well.
Garrett:So we're kind of used to that and we want people to see, oh, this is what a Christian education looks like.
Garrett:And this is also a ministry as well, and a good, thriving one.
Garrett:They can Also connect on molcs.org there's some things on there that they can connect with me, too.
Keith:Well, Garrett, thanks so much for taking the time to share what's going on in Mount Olive.
Keith:And blessings on the work you're doing and the dust that will start when you break ground on your new thing.
Keith:That's always fun when God's doing so much in your church that there's this growth happening.
Keith:And with growth comes sometimes pain, but also excitement.
Keith:So blessings on that next phase for you guys as a church and school.
Garrett:Thank you.
Garrett:It was good to be on today.
