Kristy 0:06

Welcome to Unshaken, the podcast where unwavering faith is real life. I'm Kristy, and together with my husband Tony, we dive into authentic conversations, offering biblical insights and sharing stories that inspire resilience, especially for families navigating the challenges of disabilities. Join us each week as we explore faith with family and the journeys that keep us grounded in Christ. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Let's stand firm together.

Tony 0:39

Hey Unshaken family. Tony here with you today. I have a good buddy of mine, Cody Watson here. So excited to have him here today. Cody, number one, just thank you for being here. Just to jump right in, tell us about you and your family. Very much want to hear uh your story.

Cody 0:57

Yeah, man. So like you said, I'm Cody and I I've been married to my wife now, Erin, for 12 years. And we have three boys. My oldest is Judah and he is seven. Uh my middle is is Nox and he's five. And then our youngest is Ransom and he's three. And so before I tell you anything else about them, you know my house is chaotic. Like it's it was seven, five, and three, like just back to back. It's it's a a house filled with joy, but it's a little, even just having typical kids, it can be crazy. To tell the the short version, about five years ago, when when we found out we were expecting Knox, my wife had a high-risk pregnancy. And in the womb, you know, that we did all the the heart checks and the genetic testing. And when they were doing the the heart check, they told us he had a VSD, which is a very small hole in the heart. And they were kind of reassuring us, being like, hey, don't worry about it. Most of these close up. So many kids have these. Don't, it's not a big deal. And so we just kept praying and praying. And he was born. And he, you know, my wife, you know, if you ever want to ask her the crazy story of his birth, but I thought that was going to be the most difficult medical moment for us because she bottomed out at one point and then had to have an emergency C-section. But, you know, we ended up with a beautiful boy and our second child. And, you know, while we were in the hospital, we we said, hey, you know, we'd like to have the cardiologist check him out just because of the VSD and everything. And so they said, Well, don't worry about it. You can go in. Well, my wife was pretty insistent, like, hey, let's let's get him checked. And so the doctor came in, checked him, said, Hey, he's got a very small murmur. It's probably not a big deal. Like, bring him in in a in about six weeks. Well, I was I was finishing my uh master's at New Orleans at the time. Um, I I'd been in ministry, you know, about six years at that point. Uh, had just started my role here in in Bristol as a senior pastor. And so I was I was planning on going to graduate in December of 2020. Six weeks would have been right at graduation. So we were like, hey, let's do, let's do it in two, three weeks. And so we go, and I say we she goes, she takes him. I stay with Judah, and they're doing an echo on him. It was one of those moments where they're looking and you're thinking, okay, well, when's this going to be over? Like, this is just the last thing. And they keep looking and they keep looking. And then the the tech kind of walks out the room, doesn't say anything to my wife, and brings the doctor in and keeps doing it. And finally they lean over and tell her and say, Hey, he has a major cardiac defect. We need to rush you to Wolfson's Children's, which is in in Jacksonville today. He'll he'll probably, you know, they told us then he'll probably have surgery today, uh, open heart surgery. Uh, so she calls me that moment, as the kind of the moment I I view that everything changed. You know, I packed, we figured out what we're gonna do with our older son. Uh, we we had him go stay with family. That started our first stint in the hospital. You know, they didn't end up doing surgery on him that day. They waited a week, but essentially, if we had waited the the two or three weeks, we probably would not have had him with us. So it was a miracle that he was caught that early. They ended up doing open heart surgery. At Wolfson's, the the rounds when they come by are very participatory. They want the parents to be in. And so while we're sitting every day as the the team of doctors comes by, the word the term William syndrome kept getting thrown around, and we never heard of it. And it was one of those things of, you know, oh, we'll we'll we'll test him. Don't worry about it until we get the test. And but like all the doctors had kind of just already assumed that he had it. And so, you know, he has the surgery. We talked to the geneticist, and the geneticist says it could be one of four or five different conditions. And we're sitting there every day Googling on our phone, hey, what is this condition? What would this look like? And in the process of starting to, you know, we were already kind of anxious about his future, you know, what would an open heart surgery look like, you know, as he likes 10 or 11 is and is playing? Is he gonna be able to have a fully functional, you know, childhood? And are we gonna have to be watching him all the time? You know, he has the surgery, he comes back, and we did the testing, and it took him at least a week. And we kept asking every day what's the results? And they didn't tell us until around midnight on Christmas Eve. That one doctor came in and was like, Hey, by the way, it is William syndrome. That that somewhat started the journey for us. You know, he's had multiple medical complications since then. A few months later, he had a follow-up. And William syndrome is unique, it's a missing portion of your seventh chromosome. It causes cardiac defects, intellectual disability, and it also leads you to have severe reactions to anesthesia. Essentially, every time he goes under anesthesia, there's a 50% chance of him coding. We hadn't had any incidents in the previous three. He had a calf, the surgery, another calf. Nothing had happened. And then on a follow-up calf where they were just supposed to go in and kind of balloon it, he coded in the summer of 2021. And we ended up spending about three, almost four months in the hospital. And he, you know, was on life support. It was a crazy journey for us consistently. My wife was a testimony of faithfulness. Of she even has it tattooed on her arm. Now I know it is something we we both said to the doctors multiple times, and it it says, either way, he'll be okay. It was in the midst of conversations of them telling us, hey, you're probably you're probably gonna lose your son. Like he's probably gonna die. And and we knew that God could heal him or or Jesus could take him home. And we knew God had him, you know, he was gonna be okay. And and by a miracle, he, you know, started to recover. We had run out of options at Wolfson's. They transferred us to Shands. The doctor who's there who founded the cardiac center, uh Pediatric Cardiac Center, was a believer. He was super understanding of our faith and and prayed with us. And he and I joked about going on a mission trip, and my wife absolutely forbid it. She's like, I am not letting the the father and his doctor out of the country at the same time. One of you can go or one of you can stay like that, but you are both not going.

Tony 7:44

That's a protective mama. I totally get that. That is a protective mama.

Cody 7:49

You know, we ended up going home. I started having 24-hour nursing at the house all during that time. We were missing our oldest son. He had started once we got home to show some some early signs of autism. I remember I read Andrew Wilson's book, The Life We Never Expected. It's an amazing book. Have you have you ever read that? I have heard of it, but I haven't read it personally myself. No. If you're a parent of multiple kids with disabilities, he's pastor in England and he has two children with severe autism. He recounted the time that he he saw his second child start to show regression and the grief that comes with that because you've already experienced it once. I read that before we started seeing it in my oldest son. I watched my my boy who was you know talking and laughing and giggling just kind of close in on himself. And we weren't sure early on if it was, you know, because we were separated for a while, or pretty quickly we realized it was autism. And my youngest son had already had a kind of a team of therapists that was working, and so we were bouncing those things off of them. Any autism parent knows that takes a long time to get the official diagnosis. By the time he was three, he was diagnosed level three, different language people use severe. While all of that is going on, I decided to do doctoral work. I was pastoring uh at the time as well. I ended up getting my demon from New Orleans, and I'm still at the church that I was at when all this started, uh, which was was a blessing. You know, I think a lot of times as pastors, we we move around a lot. You know, I'm now one of the longest serving pastors at my church. I've been here six years. Now that's it's not a lot for for some people, but for a church that averaged two years every pastor, we've stuck around. As far as disability ministry goes, part of it was just thrown in our laps of hey, you've got two disabled children in your nursery, and now you have them in your preschool. And now they're, you know, in your first, like they're going to be in the first grade classroom. And so our heart began to be opened. And even before I started reading and and researching, I saw it in my community of these other families. Not everyone has parents that are equipped to handle these things. Or I've heard the cliche over and over again the idea of God gives special kids to special parents. That's that's a lie. Disability isn't based on the parents or anything. Jesus says that in John 9. It's so that God would be glorified. The majority of parents, even the best disability or special needs parents, are just people struggling and trying. We started to develop relationships through our therapist and through others in the community. Anytime we heard of another medical kid or another kid with autism, we were reaching out, messaging, and they were saying a lot of the things that we had experienced in the church of the issues that come. Now, me being the pastor, the church has kind of not been forced, but like if they wanted to keep me as the pastor, they had to make adjustments for my kids. And sometimes that meant, you know, me not being there for some things, and other times it meant maybe only I can be there and my wife can't. Through that, you know, developing friendships and relationships and ministry across it, started to see the need. And, you know, I think you've you you've said it well on your podcast of when you're not living it, you don't you don't see it. Our church, you know, we had we had a wheelchair ramp in the front, but then also like a four-inch lip on the front door. You can get up the wheelchair ramp, but you can't get in the door. Just those little things, you know, you just don't see it till it's there. And sometimes I meet people that are disability advocates that have no connection. My wife will be the first person to ask, why do you care? And and not in a mean way, the thing that blows me away are the people that just, you know, didn't have a son, didn't have a brother, didn't have a, you know, parent that was disabled, that they just God got a hold of them in in in his way. It's been a a crazy journey. And the last year has been even crazier. Uh, and I I know you probably have some some questions about that with the SBC and stuff, but but that's the the long and short of of of our personal kind of story.

Tony 12:22

I want to go back a little bit though with you, and I want to know how your faith journey started as these things happened with with your family, how that sort of kind of shaped your journey now going forward.

Cody 12:40

To give you the the short version of my testimony or my story, I grew up in the south. I grew up in central Florida. Everyone around me was a Christian. I mean, it's very similar to where I'm at now. You know, you go to the local restaurant, you ask, hey, do you know the Lord? And everyone says yes and amen. Now you ask them what that means, now they're not gonna have an answer, but but for me, that was who I was for you know most of my life. Like my parents didn't go to church. You know, we went a little bit when we were like 11 or 12. I got baptized sometime around then, but that only lasted for a very short season. And it wasn't until my parents got divorced, you know, there's a lot of things that go into that. You know, my mom had some some alcohol issues and and things. My parents got were separated. My dad started dating a woman who was going to church. We started going every Sunday, and I went like every Sunday, every Wednesday, and I started hanging around some other believers in the youth group. I had kind of a one foot in both both lives. In one sense, I was, you know, playing sports and chewing tobacco and drinking and doing fun stuff, running around with girls, and then also going to youth group on Wednesday nights, you know, every Sunday praying a sinner's prayer, asking the Lord to save me. I can't tell you a date, some people can, but but the Lord got a hold of me during that season and was like, no, this isn't about saying these words or doing these things. It's it's do you trust me? And do you trust me to forgive you? During that season, I did. Every time the doors were open, I was at church, I was serving in any way I could. And within my senior year, for my senior year, I felt called into ministry. Uh, where before I was so sports focused, wanted to, you know, if I couldn't play sports, like if I wasn't good enough, I was gonna be a sports writer or be, you know, coach or something. But the Lord gave me a new heart and gave me a new desire. I ended up going off uh to what is now the Baptist University of Florida, uh, met my wife there in our my second year, and my theology developed a lot during that time. Um, and she, you know, was helpful. And I I was really into to reading and still am, got real deep into to reform theology and to, you know, I look back now and think, man, I was so dumb. Like I didn't know as much as I thought I knew, came to be convictionally Baptist. And by that I mean like understood, you know, I'm not just a Baptist because I went there, but like I believe what I believe. You know, started going a church plant early on. I didn't share this, um, but before we had our first son, it took us five years to get pregnant. And we had three miscarriages. I had already started wrestling with some of those things of like, hey man, I believe this is a child. Our first one was was really traumatic. And like I saw that child on the ultrasound, like I saw its heartbeat. How could God let this happen? And I just came to the conviction of all these things I've been saying about God being sovereign, this isn't a game. This isn't a theology book anymore. This is real. And I feel like each of my life, like a step of my life has been more and more of that of when Knox was in the womb and that happened. No, God's real. I gotta, I gotta lean on him when he's in the hospital. You know, when I'm looking at him after they if you've ever seen a child come back from open open heart surgery, they leave them open. Like I did not know that. They leave them open, man. And you can see his heart and the grief of like, what did we we lose or what did what did they lose? You know, I had someone ask me recently, you know, the whole Calvinism thing was a debate when I was in college and it was a debate in the convention. Some churches it still is. And I was talking with a church one time and they were like, as another church leader, and I was kind of like, y'all need to move beyond just arguing this, and whatever you label you put on it, God is is sovereign and in control. I can't tell you how that that fleshes itself out, but I can tell you that's where I lay my head every night is knowing like, hey, I can't do this, God can do this. And I feel like if I hadn't have had that that foundation, my faith would be be shipwrecked. Like if I if I was still kind of the nominal Christian, or even even just the you know, if I hadn't been in ministry, not that I would have, you know, that people that aren't in ministry can't lose the don't have, you know, can't have solid faith, but like for my journey, if I hadn't have done all that theological reading and had all of that as a foundation, I I don't know where we would have landed. And even our love for the church, you know, I've seen that people would that get disabilities like that either have disabilities or children with disabilities. If if you don't have that as a foundation, when you come up with problems with the church, that's where the devil likes to put his foothold in. And so I'm grateful for the the foundation that I had before that and how I got to see it lived out for real.

Tony 18:00

We talk about that foundational piece so much here on this podcast because you're absolutely right. If you don't have that solid foundation, Satan will look for any sort of crack that he can use to break apart and break down whatever he can. I mean, that's John 10:10 in in a nutshell. So you're absolutely right. I I know that here, Kristy and I, we we talk about prayer a lot. Before we get into the ministry work, I would love to know how prayer is part of your family life. How does that play out?

Cody 18:38

I'm trying to look it up right now, but there's there's a quote that I've I've twisted, I haven't twisted, but I I want to get it right from Spurgeon. Essentially, I never pray for more than five minutes, but I never go five minutes without praying. That's kind of how I want to live my life and how I've I've learned to live my life. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid, and I've had people pick on me, but I have, I know I know the podcast listeners won't be able to see this, but I have a timer here right here that I will use oftentimes and I'll set it for like three minutes and we'll have one thing that I can focus on in prayer. And I've taught some students with this that that also I think have some learning disabilities. You know, when you pray, it's not about the length or the amount of time, but it's about the fellowship and the intimacy. My wife is extremely understanding of who I am and she knows I'm gonna get distracted. And so if she can love me, I know my God can love me and can handle the distractions. And so for me, it it is that hey, whenever a burden's on my heart, as quickly as I can, you know, throw it off. And I I've you know, I've had times where we've spiraled. My wife and I joke, we we've learned in our marriage, we use kind of a percentage system of we don't believe everyone can give 100% all the time because you will burn out, like you will, you'll you'll crash and die. But there's still a hundred percent of things that need to get done every day. When I come home, you know, if I've had a rough day, I'll say, hey, I'm at 30%. And she knows that means, hey, you know, she might have to take on 70%, or I'll come home and she's like, I'm at 5%. Like, I'm sick. These kids have been puking on me, like, like, please. And I'm like, go rest. I've got it. We joke, we're never we we we we kind of, I don't know if it's somehow we've agreed or the Lord has just let it happen. Of we, we both will not, one of us will be strong and one of us can be, you know, weak in a in a moment. We work as a team in that way. Of you know, whether it be grief, depression, exhaustion, we try to make sure to give each other space for that. And so that is a huge, huge help. Because sometimes, you know, my prayers are, I just need sleep, Lord. Like I just need like, like let this kid fall asleep. Like my autistic son, he had sleep regression extremely, it was terrible. There was a point where between my middle son that would, you know, be awake till one, and then my oldest would wake up at two. And then we we'd had a third kid at that point, and I haven't mentioned him much, but like he's he was a little baby for a while, and now he's a toddler, uh, which is absolutely insane. And so, prayer man is is something, you know, we always say we can do more, but that quote from Spurgeon is is something I try to live by.

Tony 21:39

That that's awesome. And and honestly, like you're you're preaching to the choir because that whole percentage thing, like Kristy and I, we use that all the time, and we we talk about that very early on in in our podcast. Actually, I think it's episode two, actually, where we where we talk about that, but we do that same thing, even at the point where the person that has 30. Says that out loud, it makes it so that you're now in a team effort. You know that your wife has your back in that moment. So you know that you don't, okay, it's not all on me. I got 30, but it's still not all on me. How many times do we have less than what we need? And we still like think in the back of my mind, oh my gosh, I still gotta get all this stuff done. But then what a relief is it to have you know your spouse to be able to say, I got you. Like I I'm gonna, I'm gonna pick this up and we're still gonna do this together. I just think that, I mean, that's incredible. And I think I've already told you this, but both me and my wife have ADHD as well. So we, you know, we get you.

Cody 22:48

It's one of those things, man, of I'm learning to trust God. We know the scriptures that say, you know, he's not gonna give us, not that he's not gonna give us more than we can handle, but that it's that he's gonna be there to comfort us, care for us, and that he is in control. If we believe that and we believe he's gonna give us our daily bread and meet our needs, then the strength that we have and the effort that we have and the the things we have to get done, oftentimes I think we get burnt out because we're we're trying to take on things that aren't daily bread, that aren't what we need. I have never been a neat freak. I'm thankful this isn't a video podcast and that I can blur out my screen so you can't see all my disorganized books and stuff back here. But this idea of you know, you gotta have a perfect house and you gotta have a perfect, your kids got to have a perfect bedtime routine. And no, it's what God gives you for that day. That's what you got to do. That's it. You can't let tomorrow and you can't let you know perfection rule either one of those things. And so that's something I'm still I say that, and I'm gonna regret listening to this because I'm gonna, it's probably gonna, and I'm probably gonna need to hear this when I listen back to this, man.

Tony 23:59

You're absolutely right. Because I I think we we get to a place where we know what the daily thing is that we need to get done, but yet we try to cram every moment and every second with being as productive as as possible. And then we wonder why we're we wonder why we're burnt out, because we try to do more than what God said, no, this is all I need you to do today. Like wait for tomorrow, tomorrow, but just do this. I think that's how that burnout happens, is we just constantly are trying to do too much instead of waiting on him to and waiting on his timing to do the things that that he has called us to do when he has called us to do it. I mean, you and I both know how many times in scripture, you know, has God smacked somebody upside the head because they rushed and they did something before he said, okay, now go do it. But they panicked or they took it upon themselves and just did the thing, and now an entire nation is suffering because they got impatient. And I think you know, there's a lesson in that for all of us, I think that we just need to wait on God's timing. And I think God's timing is better than ours, and it's always going to be better than ours.

Cody 25:24

Yeah, definitely.

Tony 25:26

So let's let's talk a little bit about this task force because I'm so I'm so excited for it. Uh like I and I know that you've been so involved with it. So tell me go back with us and go back for those that don't know what this is. Start with the genesis of where of where this task force started and and kind of where where it is now. Just kind of bring us up to up to speed at this point.

Cody 25:55

I was reminded, and I want to say this first before I get started of by Sandra Peoples, who's an excellent author, you know, advocate. You know, I've heard a lot of people say in the last few months, man, I love all that's going on with disability and how God's moving and and praise God that he's doing that. But also acknowledge that there have been people doing this for years and years and serving faith. Like I I feel like I'm I I've had the opportunity to come in and stand on the shoulders of giants who have, you know, I go like I like church history. And so like I'll read, you know, what did Annie Armstrong or what did Lottie Moon do? Or what did these, you know, early, early church people do? And even in Southern Baptist life, like what did they do? To get to the genesis, though, of of this task force and everything, it started somewhat in the heart of one man, Benjamin Hankin, who is out of New Jersey. And he and I have become real good friends. It was in Indianapolis 2024. My wife and I had gone to that convention and he made a motion to form a task force. You know, I about stood up on my chair, shouted amen, and that was it. I mean, that and then, you know, I waited and watched. And, you know, I like going to the convention every year. I I'm a parliamentary procedure nerd. Like I like some of that, like what other people dread it. I'm kind of like, oh man, that's a slick move. Like, I hate it when I'm a uh pastor moderating a business meeting, but when you're watching it, it's kind of cool to see some of that stuff. You know, I watched as as that motion got referred to the executive committee, uh, which, you know, in the past I've seen that be kind of a a death nail for a motion because the executive committee's got a lot. And to ask them to do everything, you know, there's a lot of motions made every year. And a lot of them are are great, some of them are good, and some are bad. And and so I get why they they don't take something up every time. I was pretty disheartened that year. I've been my second and third convention going to, and to see someone say, Hey, disability ministry, like, man, that's that was so awesome to hear that. And and so I didn't, you know, I just waited and watched the executive committee, and then I saw their meeting where they decided to table it and not do anything. And so we go to 2025, and and at this point, you know, we're five years into this disability journey, and my eyes are now open, not only at my church, but also at the convention level of I look around at the booths and I'm like, how many of these ministries have anything for disability? At the one in Dallas, there wasn't any. I mean, I and I I had met some some disability advocates, but there wasn't a booth, there wasn't a you know, a ministry. Part of that is is not on the SBC, that's on those ministries and their priorities and those things. But uh for them to to come, they've got to see that it's it's worth it. You know, they gotta know I'm in the meeting and during the motions time, Benjamin steps up again and makes the same motion. And I didn't know who he was still. And I lean over to my wife and I said, Hey, I need to go find that guy. Like, should I go do it? And she goes, Do it, go, go and like so I stand up and there's 20,000 people, and I'm only kind of remembering where he was. And while I'm heading in that direction, uh Shannon Deal, who's also an amazing advocate, makes a motion for almost the exact same thing. They were sitting in a similar section, but I think Benjamin had already walked out for something, or he was sitting in somewhere else. And so I saw Shannon and I shook her hand and just told her thank you. And then I put out a message on Facebook and was like, hey, if anyone can find me, the guy who made that motion, I want to thank him, please. Through some mutual friends, we connected, we had coffee. I just thanked him for what he did and found out about what he's done for ministry. You know, my wife and I also got to meet Sandra Peoples at the Dallas convention. And so we just came away burdened personally and thinking, man, what can we do? And so I started thinking through the avenues I have. Like I'm I'm active in my association, I'm active in my state, you know, what can I do? And so I had messaged, uh, I write for our state paper, and I had messaged the editor at the time, and I talked about writing an editorial, and they were like, that that sounds great to do for Baptist Press, like reach out to them. And so I did, and you know, they had kind of said, Well, we'll wait a little bit because we're we're we're actually considering this. And I was like, Okay, whatever I can do, let me help. And then at that point, I'm still sitting on my hands, and I'm like, what can I do? And so I start a Facebook group because I realized there's no Southern, specifically Southern Baptist disability anything. I kind of modeled it after what uh is done for the Hispanic, for Haitian, African American, and disability is different than than racial, you know, breakdowns, but like those groups have have their fellowships and have ways to advocate for, and so I was like, let's let's start it as a Facebook group. And I I even messaged the commission, I was like, hey, how does this work? These organizations, you know, are they connected? Are they not? And most of them they're they're not officially connected, they can still hold the SBC name. While that's all going on, Dr. Orge messaged me and he's like, Hey, I heard you're interested in writing about this. We're actually looking at doing this, taking this on, just pray and wait. And so started the Facebook group, kind of grew pretty quickly. And then a few months later, he called and asked if I would serve. I immediately said yes. I like what Tom Stoll said. He said, You know, you don't have to ask me to pray about this because I've been praying about it. And I got on there and then I saw who else was on there. And I'll be honest, I felt very ill-equipped and and not equal because Tom Stoll, you know, the executive director of Maryland Delaware. The more I got to know about him, I was like, man, he's he's a hero, he's an advocate. Like Sandra Peoples. Like, I had read her books, and I'm like, she's she's awesome. And then I look at these some of our other people, like Jana, who worked at Lifeway, and uh we had entity people representing each one. And Shannon was also on there, and so was um, you know, Gus. He's from Summit Church in North Carolina. And I'm like, I am just a small church pastor in the middle of North Florida. But as we went along, I got I realized, like, no, I like I kind of, and this isn't a toot me, but like most Southern Baptists, more Southern Baptist pastors are like me than you know, life way execs, you know, even some of the larger churches that have amazing disability ministries. And and so I I was I was privileged to be able to to kind of speak in that direction. Uh, we worked, we met probably most months, once a month, sometimes twice a month over Zoom. I loved it. I I hope Tom doesn't mind me saying this, but the highlight of every meeting to me was uh Tom would would he would be at home when the when we were doing the meeting, and his son Jimmy would come home off the bus every day. And and I would love seeing Jimmy and Jimmy, Jimmy has autism and and some other things to see him live it. And there were a couple of times like I had my kids on my shoulders, like while I'm trying to do it, and we're all in the midst of it. And Sandra Peoples, and she was the the rock star of the as far as as of knowing the the SBC politics of it all, getting to where we want to get things accomplished. She wrote the majority of the recommendations now. Each one of them we we reviewed and thought through, you know, how does this work and how would this look? You know, I don't know if you you've if you have them or if you've looked over them, but I'd encourage those who listen. Uh, it's on Baptist Press. Uh, you can just put in disability task force recommendations. It's one of those things of, I will say this, you know, if you're not involved in Baptist politics, though, even though this passed and we approved this, all of these things still have to be done through their particular entities. They can't, as Baptists, we're not top down. So it's not like, oh, the convention says we have to do this, so we have to do it. No, it's the the convention suggests that you you do this. And so a lot of it is applying it, you know, in real term and putting not pressure, but like talking to those, you know, we were asked to stay on an advisory kind of role. And that's part of what what's been happening is, you know, some of us have been talking to different of the entities um and and encouraging them, hey, take this up. I mean, that's the the long and short of it. I know I left things out. They don't make you sign an NDA where you can't share things. I mean, it's uh, you know, some some conspiracy theorists are gonna say different things about task force, but I think it was one of the, I mean, it was the highlight of my my convention experience was being able to see 12,000 Southern Baptists unanimously raise their ballot to say we're gonna advocate for disabled people.

Tony 35:21

I have seen um the recommendations and they're and they're awesome. For our listeners, we will put a link to the recommendations on our podcast website. So when you go to this episode page, there will be a link to those recommendations so that you guys can take a look at that and and bring that to your churches. You know, I know that, you know, I realize certainly realize that everybody that's listening to this podcast is not necessarily a Southern Baptist, but you can take those recommendations and you know just bring them to any church or any community organization and and you know, adapt them, use them. It's a great starting point. That's the thing that that kind of struck me about all the recommendations. For me, they're like as common sense as breathing because this is what I live. At the same time, number one, awesome to put them on paper and to get them started, but let's not stop there. Let's not look at this as kind of the finish line. Let's look at this as the doorway to to now move forward and go even deeper. What do you see as the next steps?

Cody 36:31

Well, it's like you said, it's this is the doorway. And and I hate that that's the reality, but it is. You know, the the Lifeway survey, I think it was something along the lines of 95% of pastors believe their church is welcoming to disabilities. And you and I both know we don't have to walk around the church building, we we don't have to go to a service to know that's true. Like we can, you know, just look at some of the architecture and some of the, you know, even on the website, look at what's what's said. And honestly, there's no limit to what you can do. But for me, I think as a Southern Baptist, and and I know you have non-Southern Baptist listeners, and they can apply this too. I think their structure will be a little different, you know. And I hate to say this to this disability people, but like advocacy is who we are. You know, we have been advocates, you know, if you're a disability parent, you have sat in IEP meetings and fought for your kid. Doing this in the church is is just as important to not just settle with, okay, my church is good. Well, like, no, let's like, how can I serve like my association? How can I serve my state? How can I serve the national? You know, that's some of the discussions we've had, you know, in the disability ministry group of like, hey, take this and and take it to your state convention, take it to your you know, state execs. If you are on your state board or on those things, like speak up or call them. Call the person you know from your association who's on the state board. Like, you know, they publish the the people from your state who serve on each one of these boards, the seminaries, NAM, URLC, talk to the one from your state and just say, hey, I think these recommendations were great. What are you going to do? Can you help building those those relationships and doing it? And then ultimately it comes down to the local church. The three recommendations for the church are pretty basic, but they're the groundwork. Understand your population. For me, I'm in Liberty County, which is the largest land county in Florida, but the smallest population. But we also have the highest rate of disability per capita. We have 25% of people that are disabled in Liberty County. And the state average is about 15. And there's a multitude of reasons for that. But there's also, you know, I believe a connection between why do we have a drug problem? You know, if people aren't getting the help and love that they need and they, you know, feel isolated, they're reaching out for something. Understand the mission field. I mean, that that's just part of being a church. And if you don't factor in disability into that, you're missing out because you know, disability isn't children always. I mean, some a lot of times, but like it's also your senior adults that are shut-ins. It's your your nursing homes, it's your adults that are have different ailments or or dis. I mean, it's a it is so much more. You know, I've told people that we have the highest rate of disability in our community. And they're like, Well, I only know three people in a wheelchair. And I'm like, wheelchairs aren't the only disability. Like it's one of those things of like, you got to know your mission field and then think through, you know, who are some key leaders uh that would take this on. Uh, my church is in the process of this right now. We're doing a disability training. Joni and friends, an amazing ministry. They have done nothing but serve us. They haven't asked for a penny. You know, they have all their things where you can donate to them. And I would encourage you to donate, like do stuff. But from the moment I reached out to them for some help, they have been nothing but consistent help. They're in Orlando. They'll they they drive up here to Bristol regularly to talk with me, to and and they're coming and doing a training for our association, not just for my church, but for our association, because our church is one of the larger churches. We we average about you know 90 to 100 people. That's considered a that's I mean, that's a small church, like, but we're the the big one. Like there's a few of us, but there's we're like if we've got the largest disability population between our two counties, and there's only 13 of us, we can't reach all of them as a single church. And I'll be honest, the church with five people can phenomenally impact a disability family, can change the lives of generations. Because if you got five people and one family, man, everybody can pitch in. Everybody like it's not like you won't miss them.

Tony 41:19

I love the fact that you're working with Joni and Friends. We we love Joni and Friends, we give to Joni and Friends. Uh, so I I would encourage, you know, for those that are listening, if you have the resources, if if you are able to, uh Joni and Friends is a great organization to give to.

Cody 41:38

Joni herself put out an art, like a, I don't know if it was a she put out a release to the Southern Baptist Convention saying she's gonna do whatever she can, like whatever the organization can do to help with this, all the things we did, they were there this year. And so was uh Nathaniel's hope, another ministry out of out of Orlando, but they were there, man. And man, it was so so good. Like that alone was was worth the price of admission to see them connecting with people and they get it. So yeah, I can't gush enough about what they've done, man.

Tony 42:13

It is exciting to see, and it is awesome to see, you know, more of that represented at the conventions and at more conferences, and and I hope that that continues. I hope that you know, like even as Unshaken develops, you know, hopefully, you know, maybe there'll be an Unshaken booth at some point in the future. I want to respect your time. Um, I just want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast and and and just doing this with me today. Um, anything else you want to share with just this audience? And um

Cody 42:44

y eah, can I can I make a plug for something?

Tony 42:48

Absolutely, absolutely.

Cody 42:49

Two things coming up in October, uh, there are two conferences I want to to encourage if you're in Florida. I don't I I haven't looked at your your breakdown, but if you're in Florida in Jacksonville, uh they're doing key ministries is doing a tour stop.

Tony 43:08

I believe it's October 15th and 16th.

Cody 43:12

That's yes, yes, 15th and 16th. I'm getting the opportunity to to speak. Uh I'm doing a breakout on uh getting pastoral buy-in. And so letting people in on the world of, oh, how do you convince your pastor? My wife said it was not appropriate for me to say to pray that his kid would be disabled, but because that's how God got me. But you know, I've got some experience in in you know, working with people and how to preserve unity in the church while showing your pastor, you know, hey, this is valuable. And so that's an amazing conference. And then my friend Doug uh Rollin Bush is putting one on around that same time.

Tony 43:55

I believe it's it's the Arise conference of. Remember correctly, and that's in Melbourne. Love Doug very much. I hope to have him on this podcast at some point.

Cody 44:07

He's a great guy. I'd love to come on again. We can talk about

Tony 44:11

absolutely

Cody 44:12

what's going on with the the state of Florida. Uh, and that's thanks to what Doug has been been doing. Yeah, there it's October 3rd, it is the week before, and that's First Baptist Indian Atlantic. I'm not gonna be able to do both, but you know, if you're in the south part of the state, that's a great place to go. The Arise Conference, if you're in the northern middle part of the state, you know, come up and and meet us at Key Ministries. Uh, I'm looking forward to that. And the other thing I was gonna say, you know, I I I write, I'm at uh sovereigntyinmotion.com. You know, I don't have like a an official ministry, uh, but but that is the heart behind everything, even what we talked about today of, you know, I believe in God's sovereignty, but it's it's in motion. It it does not uh sovereignty is not on the bookshelf in your John Calvin or in your you know big theological tomes. It's it's lived out faith by faith, day by day. You know, if anyone wanted to to check me out, that's where you can find me. Thanks again, man. I really appreciate this podcast and what what God is doing. You know, I I pray, you know, it continues to grow and just some of the episodes you've done have been a blessing for me. Sometimes, you know, I put it on when the kids are are being a little loud. I'm like, okay, let me plug in Tony and and I can drown out some of this noise.

Tony 45:35

I appreciate that. And we'll definitely we'll definitely link to your website um on this uh on the episode page as well. I have checked out the website. I love your articles. I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to read your articles when when I see you post them on Facebook or you know, stuff like that. Um, so like there is a lot of good information and and just good resources there. So thank you so much for doing that. I know that that takes a lot of work. Very thankful for you. I'm looking forward to just continuing to get to know you better and and as we lock arms and and continue to try to do uh this ministry that God is calling us all to do, you know, in whatever way that we can. You know, it doesn't have to be, you know, some you know big major thing. Maybe it's just making room for the one person that shows up, you know, at that that's at your church, you know, who doesn't know where to go or what to do. It doesn't have to be a big thing each and every day, but if we can be faithful and do the faithful thing, those small steps add up to a lot, you know, over time. And and I think that God does honor those small things and it just opens the door for more and more to be done and and ultimately to bring glory to his name. And that's that's that's what we're here for. And so again, Cody, thank you so much uh for being here. Uh would you go ahead and pray us out?

Cody 47:02

Yeah, man. Your Lord, we we thank you so much for for this podcast and this opportunity to to just share. And and Lord, I thank you for how you worked and and the story that I got to to share today, Lord. That that man, I just I sometimes think, man, God, what are what are you doing? Like what how why? Why have you allowed me this blessing uh and and allowed me to get to know so many of these amazing uh advocates and and workers, Lord? How you've given me you know the this place. Uh Lord, uh I'm I'm so grateful for those that are listening to this. Lord, I pray that if if one person is encouraged uh just to take a small step, even if it's just you know listening or looking into uh through the work of this ministry, Lord, it is a a win and a blessing. Uh Lord, I pray uh you would help us as we we continue or uh not to get exhausted, but to rely on you in faith. Well, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Tony 48:11

Amen. And uh Unshaken family. Uh thank you guys so much uh for listening today. Uh, hope you guys have a great day and a great rest of your week. And uh and we'll see you next time.