Ministry Mondays with Meg: Ryan Taylor

welcome to Ministry Mondays with Meg I'm Meg welcome to the show everybody glad to have you here uh if you've not seen the show before one where have you been and two welcome um so Ministry Mond is with Meg what's it about it's about all the different kinds of ministry there is because there's so much more to Ministry than just what goes on in the Church in the worship service on Sunday there's so much more and so I have um the opportunity I'm blessed to be able to talk to all sorts of um people who serve in so many different ways and I know I say almost every time that I'm excited about my guest but that's true and uh this one yeah this one like [Music] uh the one that I never saw coming so full disclosure I come from the thriving Metropolis of Hope Indiana a town with no stop lights even now I don't know if the I assume like the liquor store and things are still there maybe but um and went to this tiny high school that was too small to even have a football team and my guest today you year in front of me was it graduated the year before I did trumpet player basketball star right Ryan Taylor yeah so uh welcome to the show Ryan and thank you for doing this I I really appreciate it thanks so much for having me Meg it I how often do we get to interact with uh somebody from high school right I mean there's like there's the Facebook thing but that's yeah live in this sort of and with somebody that's kind of went down a similar path um that that you have like it just doesn't happen so right this is a big privilege for me as well yeah so I I mean I'm I'm just so glad that you're you're here um and like as we were chatting before you you you're like my memories are like high school yeah like you you were the at least to me seemed like a pretty quiet guy but the basketball you know star the basketball team and the trumple figure in the row behind me and me and clarinet section faking it because I was terrible um but also I didn't practice enough but you know that's another story for another time um so like for people who don't know you um want you tell everybody a little bit about who you are what you do like how did you get from Indiana you know to where you are now yeah it's a wild story um we all have a wild story but it so I went yeah the whole the whole Hope was uh to be the Basketball Star and to create some sort of career out of the sport of basketball so Meg my you know the idea was to go to college play some basketball uh get an education degree and probably be a what a social studies teacher or the PE teacher and Coach the basketball team right yeah so I I started on that track and uh I went to Huntington College it's called Huntington University now it's up by Fort Wayne Indiana and um you know played couple of years of basketball uh in college but then it just sort of stopped working out for me it was really hard for me to keep up with classes and grades and such and uh so I I stopped playing basketball when I was a junior in college and that devastated me because I didn't I had no other trajectory Vision dream uh at that point in life um and so it was around that time that I started reading Henry Nan um and some other authors that were kind of like you know we end up finding our way forward um by going down first Sometimes by dreams being splattered uh crashed and then we then our start our life starts to unfold before us and uh well that's a neat idea and all um but when it happened you're funny you're 20 yeah you have no other no other vision for what life is going to be like um when I look at back now in retrospect though I was being given um I was being given a pathway forward or words to it before it started to happen so so yeah the Basketball Dream started to go away and I started having people lovingly point a finger in my chest and talk about Ministry and Leadership and the idea of Seminary and so the the college chaplain was like I think I think it would be good for you to consider Seminary and uh so towards the end of of college got married to my to my now wife and uh we spent a couple of years in Fort Wayne Indiana and I was a case manager for developmentally disabled um traumatic brain injury uh folks was inspired by the pathway of Henry Nan my my the the writings of Henry nowan uh who went into that type of work and chaplaincy within that type of work so that that was really good for me and then applied to Seminary in Denver my wife and I thought yeah let's let's go to Denver we love the mountains we we'll be there for however long it takes me to get a degree or or get kicked out um of Seminary um the latter would probably be more likely to happen I thought right I I expected the same yes yes um but yeah that was 21 years ago so we we did fall in love with the city so we went from Indiana to falling in love with uh Urban spaces and specifically urban life in Denver I'm a Survivor of Seminary I got that Seminary degree that that Masters in Divinity um and then from there started moving more and more into sort of non-traditional Church spaces um in many ways I'm like I I can't do quite the traditional thing I where Pulpit Ministry is is the is the mode is is the primary medium of ministry um I was kind of drifting away from that during during Seminary and looking for Creative creative ways of ministering um and uh and eventually my heart got you know I kind of went through this second conversion some people call it a second conversion if their first conversion is this this befriend befriending this friendship with Jesus some people call a second conversion the befriending of who are stuck in poverty um those who are who were oppressed and marginalized of society and so I I fell hard into that second conversion and part of the the uh that road was through New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina happened in 2000 let's see Hurricane Katrina happened in 2005 and in 2006 I had opportunities to to uh lead teams and go down there and um to do some stort of work but I also fell in love with just with that entire city the community my eyes were opened really for the when you come from kind of a naive World um you don't think a whole lot about how communities do become marginalized and overlooked by local government and federal government so this naive boy's eyes were open for the first time via the survivors of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans um and so my wife and I we seriously flirted with the idea of moving to New to New Orleans uh in 2007 uh and then I kind of said but I I don't really know my own backyard here in Denver as well as I could so I started connecting with with uh people doing Urban Ministry work in Denver and that opened up beautiful new relationships and opportunities uh here in the city that we had lived in and so now been here for 21 years wow wow I and I'll just say you know from from what I've seen on social media you know and when you do the Google searches and and things like that what I see at least for my position is that you give people's dignity um that that folks who are um underprivileged who are life has just been unfair and hard and all of those things um and hope uh that I think a lot of them so desperately need at least that's where I see it from my my perspective at least as far as your ministry yeah yeah that's that's great so about uh so I'm I'm just transitioning out of a role that I was in for for 15 years and that was with some a friend connected me with this guy who was running a Hospitality House in downtown Denver uh for chronically homeless chronically mentally ill folks and that's right down that was right down in Capitol Hill Denver so it's so funny because you had Brian Henderson on a few weeks ago and I'm like hey we we worked about three blocks from one another um when he was at First Baptist Church it was literally down 14th Avenue uh to the west of my building at Network coffee house so yeah so for 15 years I worked at a at a little joint called Network coffee house um as both Pastor and a executive director of this of this nonprofit and the whole idea of that was just anybody and everybody could come through that front door and it was primarily chronically homeless chally mentally ill chronically overlooked and oppressed people of downtown Denver and the whole desire was just to give them a place to to belong um a safe place to be and then to develop relationships with like to to to start to form uh just very simple attachments you know so like and the only metric for Success you know for what we did was like are they coming back are we getting to know one another um are we are we starting to learn names and stories and and then sort of like the ultimate was like yeah that's that's actually my friend now so we wouldn't we wouldn't miss an opportunity to to see one another and and spend time together um so those were the Met those were our metrics of success is just relatability just just Rel those are perfect I mean is somebody who now works in that more structured you know where you have to write your smart goals and all of that stuff to be able to that's your measurement is that you've got the honor of calling someone your friend but that that yeah um that's amazing yeah yeah yeah and it's kind of you know in some ways it's modeled after well I it's a crazy thought it's modeled after Jesus um but that yeah Jesus you know he starts off with his disciples and and eventually towards the end of life says I no longer call you uh servants I now call you friends and it's like if that's if that's the arc of development and maturity um then yeah let's do that you know do let's go from yeah you were at one time you were my students or whatever but now you're now you're my friends and then there's this other text where Jesus says I'm going to go away and prepare a place for you and and so there's this crazy idea of what if we prepared a place for anybody to belong to um so that was the idea of of network coffee house I wasn't the founder of that I came along and took over for the for the founder and then now after 15 years um I could just see that it was my time to to move on and and Venture elsewhere and so we've got the reason for that I I I had that in my mind for quite a while but um I started to see somebody come along who I thought could take my place and laugh last year about this time um I kind of popped the question to him to say if he would be dumb enough it's interesting when I started um I had a friend say hey there's this interesting opportunity in Capitol Hill with this really weird pastor and my friend said Ryan I think you might be dumb enough to do something like that so um and I was dumb enough to do that and so the whole time it was I mean in the last couple of years it was about trying to find somebody else dumb enough to to take my place and so I I landed on that person and it was time for me to transition on so what comes next yeah well for one um my wife after kind of being the the captain of home base Taylor International headquarters here on Flamingo Court um she was ready to get back into exploring her passions and into full-time work and so that was one uh one of the reasons why it was time to transition on it's like what what does it look like to support her now after so many years of you know kind of her supporting me and taking care of home base um how can how can I reverse that role how can we Empower her and support her and to do what she's doing um when she works with a nonprofit works with uh uh youth in the judicial system um trial pre-trial post-trial primarily gang affiliated youth um and so wanted to give her the the green light to go full full steam ahead in her role and um so that's I have two teenagers at home I've got Josiah who's 15 and who'll be 16 next month and Micah who's 13 I'm act my studio right now is Micah's bedroom and I'm grateful that you can see what you see but you don't have to smell what I smell because teenage boys that's right yeah yeah wow yeah so that's that's part of it but also my my desire for um for a long time and what I've what I've dabbled in for a long time is spiritual Direction the work of of spiritual companioning um so I do have um about seven individuals that I that I work with one onone in the season of life and I just say I I what I feel compelled to do or called to do is walk with people through both the ordinary and the quantum transitions of life so I think we're we're always in transition um in life but then there are these big transitions in life uh that are huge and so my my desire and what brings me life uh is to walk with people as they're asking questions through those spaces of transition and it's it's especially folks that are kind of in that uh deconstruction space from what they once knew as their spirituality as their Christianity now they're starting to ask more questions they're wondering if they're a Christian anymore um and what comes next after the church or after Christianity so I those those are my people um as well as those who are working in hard spaces you know with people that are um uh marginalized and oppressed and sort of the hardship the the secondary trauma that comes with working with those folks those are my people and I'm just like I want to be available to those folks and I I also have a we have a house church so my role my role at Network for years was both as pastor of a small Church um as well as executive director and so we we split the church off um from the from the nonprofit and so I'm I'm continuing to do that and it's just a a very uh small version of of church um in which but if if people don't need to call it church or don't want to call it church that's totally fine um but I'll offer a reflection and we'll try to keep it very dialogical so that everybody everybody's in and interacting with it so I am still doing that on Sundays as well as some spiritual Direction work as well as um getting all the stuff from Costco getting all those yeah wow um but it but for anybody who's been in in Ministry I don't know to me it does I'm not going oh well he's got plenty of free time I mean that's not what's running I'm I'm going well yeah that that that keeps you pretty busy right right there um and hopefully enough to keep you out of trouble um yeah because while all that work that you've done up to this point has been so incredibly important it's not like it's like okay you know so I was a pastor I'm still a pastor just just a different kind I mean you're still in Ministry it just shifts and changes as you go along I mean would you go back to it probably not in the chur church I can't imagine myself doing that but um I I like that I like the house church and the the dialogue and and leaving space to deconstruct this thing that you grew up with and went well okay that worked then there but I'm not buying that anymore because Jesus isn't all those things um or Jesus is so much more God is so much um so I I love this isn't that crazy that we work in the business of of God we're supposed to supposed to talk about it yeah um I got pulled over once for speeding and I was like I told the the officer wanted to know where I was going in such a hurry and I said I was going to the church and um and I was brand new to this church and I'm I'm so surprised I didn't get in big trouble but he was like um can you he's like so you're the pastor yeah I'm the pastor and uh he goes can you prove it and what came rolling out of my mouth is like do you want me to like produce my God card or something and the officer goes do you have one no but I had the bullettin from Sunday and it's got my name on it yeah so you know I didn't get a ticket I should have probably but got you the clergy card got you out of that yeah I mean yeah me privileges yeah right right um so yeah yeah who's your employer God I mean yeah if you if you want to yeah but um and I and I love all things now and I mean you can't go you can't go wrong there I mean really and and if if folks if if you're listening or watching and and you don't know now and you know let either one of us know and and we'll help you out there's you could start just about anywhere and and not go not go wrong with with with now one's Works um and it's one of those that I don't know I don't know about you but like I keep on my shelf and oh I think I need this one for yeah the I think I need to read this one again so so so simple so accessible and uh it's been so important he has been so important for me years and I'll tell you like when I when I did move away from the basketball team the the quote that hooked me um we were talking about like if we need a gateway drug into nowan the the I love the book in the name of Jesus um so in in that book he says the Christian leader of the future um will be completely irrelevant with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self and that it's it's that quote that hooked me you know in this desire I think especially as a 20 20-year old 21y old you you you want to find relevance I mean the whole idea and even in religion you're trying to find the relevant the relevant way to speak the relevant way to talk about God um or just you know the relevant spaces to navigate in life and he here he comes along and says the the leader of the future will be completely irrelevant and have nothing to offer but but their own vulnerability and I was just like whoa that's that ain't going away like so that that quote has haunted and and echoed in me up until the present like what what does that mean w so Ing we put that one in the show notes yeah wow yeah I I I don't think I've ever heard that one and wow that's huge so good yeah yeah okay I guess I know what I'm thinking about this afternoon because like that's uhhuh yeah oh wow where it go um and I gu I I guess so that I'm just not sitting here while my brain is still pondering now and but like you wrote a book right you're you're now a published author what was your book um I have a book award spirituality um so when when the pandemic happened so like in early of 2020 I just thought oh now's my time to write a book um we were continuing to keep Network going but it was at a smaller scale than usual um and I've I've done quite a bit of writing over the years and um so awkward spirituality the Divinity of ordinary life and I think that now and quote is kind of at the beginning of the book it sort of sets the tone for for for the book um but it's my ramblings on experiences relationships that I've had at Network and uh sort of how that shaped my Theology and uh you know there's another quote and I'm blanking on who the author is so you probably shouldn't say the quote unless you know who the author is but I'm going to anyway um you know yeah um God comes to us disguised as our life uh can't remember who said that but um but I'm a firm believer in that that God comes to us disguised as all the different es and flows ups and downs and Adventures and Misadventures of our life um that's it's all in those those nooks and crannies and in circumstances that God comes to us and so that's the basis of a lot of the book as well we'll find the quote and or or listener viewer also you can chime in um and but yeah am you get on Amazon or bar Barnes & Noble and we'll put links we'll put links in the show notes and and all of all of that who would have ever thought two kids from the middle of the corn field would like end up where we are and and that I get to do this like this is they pay me to do this is just I mean sometimes it just blows my mind that I was pastoring and people would pay me to stand up and talk about Jesus and hope and and love and and and and now I get to do a podcast and I get to make connections with people and go back to people that I haven't seen in you know forever and just go because we've all got so much to good stuff to share with one another really I mean if we can do it like come on yeah it's it's so wild it's yeah it's that Adventure God keeps coming to us and surprising us yeah with God and so really your your why why your why you went the direction you went was all because of that would you say it was all that that the Hurricane Katrina experience was then the Catalyst for going yeah I want to I'll be that guy who will do the network coffee house thing was that the big yeah you know I think that there I think so much of the Catalyst for for what I've done is through through wonderful mentors wonderful I mean I I feel like a wealthy very very wealthy person in that and I don't know if you would probably say something similar Meg you know at just the right time just the right person has come along and um and affirmed and listened to your life and offered the right question or or a new way to frame things and you kind of go man um I am I'm I'm wealthy in my relationships and I i' and people are longing longing longing um to be related to and so I think it's yes I that's I think that Hurricane Katrina experience was a big Catalyst um in a season of life that that help shape the direction I was heading in um but it's all it's primarily it's been the people along the way about it like this or this is what I see in you or I'd like to affirm this in you um and I'd go Ah that's so so good it's it that took me from constriction to expansion and how I everything and and if I could offer that to others um that's that's what I would love to do um and then I get to my my first night at the coffee house there was an individual who walked up to me and and this this would shape me moving forward too he walked up to me and he stuck a finger in my chest because he just sees a big polite looking white man you know come into his space and what he says is he said you'd better not be here to fix me cuz he'd been used to like the miss the the missions kids um or being in spaces where oh pity you I'm here to make you better I'm here to fix you so he said he comes up to me he literally sticks it's it's interesting his name was Kickback that was his street name and fingers that were down to the The Knuckle from frostbite and he sticks one of those knuckles in my chest and says You' better not be here to fix me and I'm like yeah that's that's not what this ministry thing is about people aren't meant to be fixed they're to be related to and and related to in such a way that provides an opportunity for healing and for wholeness wow yeah and I mean if and and if we're going to relate to others then we've got to throw ourselves out there to be related with I mean for it to be a reciprocal a mutual Exchange not just the person who went to Seminary um you know sort of the I I'm you're the receiver I'm the provider of all the wisdom and the goodness it's like no the real magic happens when there's there's a mutuality and there's spaces of of deep deep Connection in which I'm being changed um by the the one I'm relating to and I think that's what I've gotten hooked on over the years and continues to influence the the direction that I'll go is yes I have something to offer as this clergy person um but I'm I'm continuing to be shaped and changed and um ministered to um so yeah there's been a lot of influences but I think um once you get off your your high horse and you put your your Seminary certificate away and those things get Dusty um you God God continues to come to you by the people that you think that you're ministering to and that's what that's what keeps me keeps me going yeah and you know I I think um one of the best things people can do is leave home I'm not saying that to leave home and never go back but I I couldn't today um in Hope IND Indiana like um because you you gotta be able to see the people and not just oh well that's the story that everybody's known for UND years about that you know about that person and I don't you've got to live and You' got to let yourself be the broken and maybe stop looking at other people as the broken and I don't know that I could have done that in in Hope indana but yeah I'm sure there people that can but not me well yeah it is it's I mean we just get into these these frames of references and frames of seeing things and I think some people have the ability to get to bust out of their frame of reference even when they stay in the same location but I I know I have needed changes of scenery and changes of perspective and opinion in order to in order for me to expand um my perception and perspective of how how life works um and how people work um you know and it's a lot of it you know you talk about leaving home and I think about um the work of Joseph Campbell and the heroes journey and you know all a lot of the Greek mythological stuff of the leaving home to come to go find yourself and then eventually you could come back home um but also eventually home changes you know what home is yeah but I also think of Genesis Genesis CH 12 um the whole abrahamic journey begins with a leaving home invitation um you know the the text says that God invites Abraham to leave his his household how he grew up uh the every way that uh that he grew up and where he came from he's asked to leave that all behind and and then and God you know if he goes well where am I going God says go to the land I will show you you know it's like oh that's really helpful um so so but that that's like I don't know what's up ahead um but I know in order for me to continue to follow the you know follow the path I've got to leave what's what's now and Adventure forth so if you could like um talk to that kid who's still in the trumpet section you know now what what would what would you tell that what would you tell that that kid oh man all that's a that's a wonderful question and I should have warned you about that one no that's that's great but I love it that you and I can can reflect back on on you know on the on the trumpet section and the what' you say the clarinet oh yeah what you faked okay yes I fak yes yeah um well if I could talk to that kid I think one of the most important things would just be to you know affirm that kid to death you know of just like dude you don't have to impress me um and you don't have to impress any like work hard do your best um but but you are okay right right now in who you are um so the kid just need to be loved right like yeah showered and saturated with with affirmation and love um well and a good kick in the butt too at times but I mean yeah I mean honestly yes which is love times yeah yeah yeah it is um I think it would be you know to to to seek out wisdom guides um to to seek out uh mentors to ask good questions um to not limit yourself um to your current perception to always be on the road of of evolving into what's truer what's healthier um and yeah all all that no I think those are great answers really I mean yeah don't don't be dude yeah things that relax um life life life will happen and um um leave home yeah I mean and explore and and and and listen to people listen to people that don't don't take what they say is yes yeah um as it can only be this way um you don't put a limit um don't limit what what God can do um all all those things um but you know life is Liv you know what is it um we live forward but we understand it backwards I think is what guard um yeah so if uh so so we've got your book and and we'll put up the links and all that and and if people wanted to get in touch with you uh how you socials or something like that that sure yeah you could you could put my email in the in the show notes as well and um also you're welcome to uh I don't check the whole Facebook Messenger thing as frequently as as uh people think I should but Facebook or Instagram is is hold of me yeah you could PLP the email down in the notes here today but I I love doing this I love chatting and it's it's just so fasc fascinating to especially chat with somebody from back home I know I know uh I do have to ask you the joy question though the joy question okay the joy question so how it goes is you know you do all these things now you're what chauffeur um Costco getter I mean like all the but like so what brings you Joy I would say the the creative process um I more and more I'm I'm dabbling uh dabbling in sketch and painting and I just built a a big old bookshelf because I moved from my office downtown and had to move too many books home so um I started dreaming over the holidays about this bookshelf that I wanted to make and so but the whole the process of making um and creating there there's a childlike thing there's things that fire in the brain and in the body in the creative process that um that that don't if I'm just watching TV or something and and I would it's it's the same stuff that fires when I'm walking alongside somebody in spiritual direction or I'm spiritual companion meaning um somebody is like we're chasing that that childlike Discovery stuff of when we go oh wow I never saw it like that before um and so that that brings me joy whenever I see that whenever I experience that Within Myself or whenever I see those fireworks um popping in somebody else and I'm able to have a front row seat to that sometimes life is just like the coolest thing ever I mean really yeah yeah and it's this the really simple non- elaborate stuff where we go life is the coolest thing ever you know oh I know I know and I mean that that would be what I wanna I think a best would be like what I want to tell my younger self life is really it's going to surprise the crap out of you in some really great ways and yeah some not so great ways too but um yeah just hang on and and and do the best you can to en enjoy the ride um I love that like life's gonna surprise the crap crap out of you and and how like how can you set yourself up to allow for that because I right like how can you create habits in a space to allow yourself to continually be be surprised um because I think that that's that's scary like life surprises are are terrifying and so you know the tendency to just uh numb ourselves out or to to protect ourselves from any way of being surprised or or hurt you know in the future um you know it's like you yeah in good ways and bad ways you're going to get punched in the teeth uh and and you're going to be swept off your feet in amazing ways so how can you not constrict yourself I I don't mean to I just love what you just said so I I'm just kind of now going down my own trail like of what you would tell that younger self of yeah life is going to come at you with surprises and and allow for it allow for it don't insulate yourself from how you and surprise you and even the ones that really seem like at the time that sucked um when you go when you look at it after the fact and go oh like I am not the same as I was then by the grace of God and and that's okay um because I didn't see this coming but and life is different now and that's really oh okay um and yeah there's grief and and all that stuff that goes with the the hard thing but it'll be okay um yeah yeah yeah I mean it's the birthing thing yes it's being born again and then being born again and again and again and again yeah yeah yeah but but part of that process is pain yeah i' so I've heard I mean yeah I've had three of them and you know yeah yeah it doesn't so I mean but neither does life in general so but um I think especially the older I get that's what I'm trying to remind myself is that even in those pain points there's always something to learn and um you're going to go through it one way or the other so I might as well um hopefully come out a little better on the other side yes yeah I'm sure there are better ways to articulate that and if somebody wrote that book you know I'm I'm totally not those P points like the pain points the pain is pointing to longing yeah often times and and that word long you know and and then we're all Desiring to belong which is be you know the mash up between being and longing and and I feel like that those pain points they're are invitations to draw out our being and our longing and keep drawing us forth forward if we can take the risk of seeing it that way but typically what I like to do is rever it back to a more comfortable way yeah right we all do y this is good like this is good this is great um I am really grateful for you um you know giving your time figuring out the figuring out the browser situation um sharing a small part of your story uh I'm going to go I'm gonna buy the book um because I mean it it sounds right at my alley and uh yeah I'm I am just grateful so thank you for for for being a a part of ministry Mondays and and and sharing your your story at least this little bit it's super tege to for you to invite me to do it so really good to be with you and blessings to you on your way and uh Meg will always have hope a a that's beautiful a surprising little to a surprising little town I mean like hash hope they should put us in the well they don't have the star Journal anymore but yeah be like hey look at this look the two two that escaped but yep you know it's we we always have hope that that's lovely um and with that we'll thank everybody for watching