- Hold on, hold on. We have a singer in here and there's no scream. - I'm saving my voice for worship night. - Oh, that's a good segue. Christy Rhodes joining right here on the Backstage podcast, Evan Cemento, producer Jordan Phillips, one of the two scouts out on assignment, but Christy, we're glad you're here. - I'm back. - I'm back. - Do you remember the last time you're on? I don't. I should have looked this up. - It was maybe before the last worship night. - Yeah, that sounds right. February. - It sounds about right. - We just want her for the music. That's it. - That's it. - Oh, we want you for-- - Well, my day-to-day job's really cool. - I was gonna say, we don't do a lot of counting podcasts. - If you would like to know about bookkeeping. - Oh, I do not. I took two counting classes as a business major and not a fan. God bless you. Thanks for what you do. - Oh, somebody's got to do it. - That's it. So let's intro you. Anybody does not know you. You're the accountant/worship director, leader, band leader, vocalist extraordinaire. All kinds of hats. Tell us about Christy Ryan's. - You know, if you don't know, be by now. We'll let me introduce myself. - I might be new listeners. - My name is-- - What? - My name is-- - Ooh! Because I was thinking about that. You know, we've not been doing live music since January, and there have been new people who come who only see, you know, the past and present so last, honestly, the last 15 years of hair change, weight gain, you know, sandals in the winter, sweaters in the summer, all those things. So Christy Rhodes, I have been a part of the church since for 17 years now coming up on that old birthday. I attended the second preview service of the simple church. - So you missed one, to be fair. More than every one of them. - No, I missed the very first one. I was invited to the second one by Chip Mitchell, and then we started singing the very first Sunday that we went every week, and then two years later was hired on. So this September, I will be with the simple church for 15 years working. - A wild. - A staff member. That is wild, my longest job ever. How babies have grown up here. They're both in college now. And so, yeah, just been handling those books and singing a lot of worship songs, singing a lot of church songs. - You've not been singing as much lately. - No. - So let's go back to January. - January. - January has not been around and didn't know. When we moved to the theater, there was a tough decision that was made involving the band. - Yes. - What have we been doing since January? - So we have been, honestly, enjoying a little time off. Greg had an opportunity to work on some songs that we've done. We did one at Easter. - Greg Walker leads the band. - Greg Walker, yes, he's one of our worship leaders along with Daniel Nelson. And so that was exciting, and we got to perform one of those at Easter, so it's kind of given a creative space and time. I have personally enjoyed, for the first time in my 17 years, being able just to walk around and really fellowship more on a Sunday morning, getting to just sit down and visit with people and not have to be back at the stage real fast. - I was going to say, does nobody understand, really, that you can't just be out of a lobby? - We have to be places at a certain time and do what we've got to do and rehearsal and things like that. So I've just been enjoying just being President Church and helping out in children's. I got to go to kids camp, like all these things. - Let's talk about that for a minute. - Christy Rhodes, as an adult woman with two grown children, went to camp for the first time, Jordan. Did you know that? - I love it. - Never been to church. - I love it. I love it. - I've been to camp at least. - There you go. That's good. No mission trips. We keep getting on Jordan. He's never been on a mission trip. We're trying to get him all along. - Oh Jordan, you got to go on one. - That's the best. - That's right. You got to go on kids camp. - I did. - Tell us about your kids camp experience. Let's go side note. - Well, it was amazing. It was exhausting. It was hot and it was so fulfilling and it was thrilling and hilarious. And every single emotion I slipped in a bunk bed, I did bring my own personal fan. That was amazing. And I stole a mattress off an empty bed to have a double dress for Christmas. - It's for young people. It's a hard game. - It was it. What Christy Aguirre and her leaders do on a day like a weekly basis and like the programs they put together for those kids and the fun that was arranged. It's amazing to be a part of and then also watching the kids like really just like focused in. There's no phones. They're playing. They're laughing. They're talking about Jesus. They're singing worship music. They're dancing. And it was great to be a part of that worship experience and not having to be up there leading it. I was able to receive and then be being with those kids as they received and participated. It was awesome. I loved it. I loved it. I know y'all made a joke while I was gone that Christy Rhodes gets saved in camp. - You never experienced real camp. - Christy Rhodes got saved a long time ago. But it's always a sweet reminder to be able to be still and be quiet. And there's nothing better than doing it. You know, with kids, because it's innocent. - The next generation. - Jin Alpha. - Jin Alpha. - That's Nora. - Wow. So it was great. I absolutely loved it. And I thank you, Christy. Christy A for inviting me and trusting me, you know, with the response. So it was great. It was great. I said that we missed out on heaven, missing a lot of them. - I know it will be there next time. It's a schedule conflict. But that's two things on camp as a youth pastor when I would go and tell parents no phone. It said literally, for middle schoolers, this was probably the longest time they've been with an electronic device in their entire life. And every year they get younger. You think about it. You get kids iPads and screens. It's like the only time in your life you're unplugged and off of it. And they hated it Monday and Tuesday by Wednesday they got used to it. And then Thursday and Friday some, not all, but some kids would be like, you know, I don't really miss this. Like I kind of was nice being off of it. - I know. It was great. They're super present. So that's what we've been doing in our off time being able to experience other things. - One other thing on camp, we moved off of that though. I told you, I predicted the future. I've been to a lot of camps. What did I tell you about what happens as the week goes on? - Oh, well, I mean... - And if it's not a universal truth. - It's day three. Is that what we're talking about? - Oh, yeah. - Day three. - I told Chrissy, before she left. - You get there. First day, everybody's excited. They don't sleep. Tuesday, everybody starts going and still going off the high. Tuesday night, they start to get a little more cranky by Wednesday night. Everybody melts down. - Everybody melts down. - It's always the drama. People are crying, fighting. - I did an update in the staff text to let everybody know what I was learning for the week so that everybody could do. And I was like, and everybody is also starting to melt that. - You can push it for 48 hours. That's 72 hour mark. They start going. It's time to go home. - It's time to go home. And then dive virgins on kids camp. That's awesome. Jordan, we're going to have to get you out there as leaders. - Yes. - Can't wait. - I'm sure camp. Can't wait to go to camp. - Camp to camper. - Camp will love to go camping. - Yes. - So it's been great. It's been an awesome opportunity to work in other ministries, experience church in a new way that I haven't ever experienced in a long time. And I think same for Greg and Daniel, like I said, being creative. And we've had a great little transition, but we are excited about what's coming. And let's go back to why, for everybody just to explain with the theater, moving away because some people didn't understand an early on with the band. Talk a little bit about that decision and how we got to that point. - So for those of you who've been back to the very early years, you've seen what it's like to have a live band in the room at one point. - We did it in the theater. - We had three bands going at one time, two bands at Regal, at Regal Boardwalk, and one at Regal 9. So that did exist at one time. We had three bands going at the same time. And it is a lot of work. It is a lot of setup early in the morning. We had everything there and physically demanding, timely and stuff like that. So we had made a collective choice about six months into last year, like 2023. - Yeah, I think we started talking about it in like July, and then we worked through it for months on what we were going to do. - And what we were going to do and that it would be the best choice for volunteers, for time management, to get the most out of the service as if we just went back and showed streaming music. So we were very strategic from that point on at the Shreveport Convention Center, not time and dating stuff. - Order 4th 2020? - Yeah, so really so that we could have a great product. Even on some of the do-good days, we would go in and record three or four songs. And it was just really so that we could make it a seamless transition because it is a big job and it's a big expectation. And we really want the product to be done well in the way it's shot live in the room. And it's like we've been making really good music for a long time. And so why not go back and relive some of that. We've worked hard on those projects. Jordan has worked hard on those projects, mixing, lighting. And I've enjoyed going back and watching stuff because sometimes we don't even... - Order would have kept the productivity, or not the productivity, but quality of the quality of the product up to what it was at the convention. Because you would have gone down. - And you go back and look, because we did. We were planning all this and trying to decide what we were going to do. You go back and look at the early days and they were not thinking about broadcasting because it wasn't online. It was not streamed. We have thousands of people that watch every week all around the world. And so filming in the room was very complicated. It wasn't even possible to get the stuff set up and do the angles that we had before. And all that just converged into that was... - Yes. Because when 2020 happened and we started creating another level of product... - And Jordan is a big part of that. - We just couldn't go back. It looks too good. It sounded too good. So, yeah. So we made that collective decision. - Well, on the other part of it too is that we knew it was going to be temporary. It's only for a few months... - Not a target out. - Yeah. It's coming back. So we knew collectively, it's just temporary. The band will be back. Just, you know, work with us. - And my favorite story to summarize this, and I think I told you, was this is when we were recording this in July and June, six months into watching and having the pre-recorded band, a guy came to me as a volunteer and was like, "That girl was pregnant last week, and now she's not. And is this not live?" And he really thought it was live at the convention center streaming over for six months. - Yeah. - And was like, "Be able to just own her life." - Same. - I had Cheryl Stevens stop me one time ago. "Christie, why is she wearing sandals? It is 40 degrees. That was shot two years ago." - What was so funny is that, like Christy said, once we made the decision at the convention center, once we were on Sunday morning, somebody would say, "Man, I'm so glad y'all are here in this rainy weather, and I'm texting the band going, "Stop. You can't say that." - Quit. - You got to change your mindset. - Absolutely. - We were very strategic. So, yeah. - So those of you that are here, you have not left the church angry over the music not being live. You've survived it. We're almost there. - Almost there. - September 15th. We've been on the podcast last two weeks. If you didn't listen to those, go back. We'll put Link in the show notes with the update on the building, but we've set a deadline. We're working hard to it. I was in there painting today. Christy's been up there working. Jordan doesn't do anything. He just sits around. - Ah, well, I have other full-time jobs. - No, but everybody is trying to plan and prepare and get it ready for a grand opening in like seven weeks. Not that far. - It's not that far. - Yeah, it's nuts. So, everybody is volunteering to help you thank for that, and we're excited to have live music back every Sunday in the room in the new space, but to get you by. - Okay. - One more worship night, at least. - One more worship night. - This Sunday, July 28th, if you're listening when it comes out. So tell us about this one. Talk a little bit about what's going to be happening. Maybe give us a sneak preview, some song selections. - Yes. - Worship night, July 28th. - So, one thing I have done in these past couple of worship nights that we have really enjoyed and we're kind of staying with the same pattern is it's a little bit more broke down than some of our bigger stuff that we do like, like it that we've done in the past to Hurricane Alley, because we have had great response in like sing-alongs and it's just a whole different vibe that we honestly have not done a lot in our years, and it kind of creates a cool environment, and so we decided to kind of stay with that one more time before we kick back off, you know, big, loud, strong, you know, it might get loud, kind of music, but we do have some great worship songs. So, we are doing some of, every song is something that we have sung before except for two, and Daniel and Greg love to take it old school and this time they have gone really old school, you know, 'cause- - You do some gators? - No, but Guy Pinrod, a little victory in Jesus, and so it's a fun version of that, and then an old, one of the slower worship songs is called Refuge, and even Justin was like, "Man, they threw it way back on that," but the words are beautiful, and everything is kind of leaning towards where we're moving right now, and how we're trusting God in so many ways. It's very special that we're going to be able to experience the music, the worship night, and our new environment and the events center area of the church, and it really does, and this is your first chance to really look at it from most of you, that we did a wedding in there for somebody at the end of June, prepped, worked a lot of hours to get it ready, and the downstairs area is pretty close to being done, so you'll be able to see it Sunday night, it's downstairs at the boardwalk, in the new space, and it looks great. - Yeah, so that's really special, so we just kind of wanted to enjoy the simplicity of that moment, and sing some songs together, we will have Communion, we will definitely walk through and some prayer, and then Justin's going to talk and kind of bring it in. We do have a fun theme, it is Christmas in July, so we... - Trying to think cool, cold thoughts. - Cool, cold thoughts, and Santa, Santa's coming off summer break to come hang out with us for a little bit. - We made the call, he had some spots open for the offseason. - He did, so we are excited, and I think me and Santa, I've got a wish for him that I won a Christmas in July wish, so I'm going to give, ask him my Christmas wish that he might sing a little song with me to kick off the event. - There you go, let's get that anywhere else. - No, so I'm really excited about that. - We just got ice cream delivered today. - Yes, blue bell ice cream, and it's just going to be fun. What I'm loving too about this warship night and the ones that we've done, these past couple, is we are bringing in everybody closer to us, it's more intimate. Like in the movie theater. - The theater, I'll say that was February this year. - And things like that, yeah, so it's just a little bit more intimate because you're closer, there's a connection, and so yeah, so I just think it's, we're just excited all the way around, and we think everybody, you'll be able to sing along, the words will be on the screen, so you don't necessarily have to know the songs coming in, but we do want you to participate and join in with us and take time and be still in the moment. - Absolutely, and I talked about this, I got to preach a couple weeks ago, and just reminding people that life is busy, you know that, but if you don't plan for it and make the time, you never are going to just sit and be still and pause, and you're not going to reflect, you're going to keep going, you're going to cram something else in your schedule, like sit in my house, I cannot sit and work at my house because I see the stuff around, right? There's all the projects, there's things I've done, dishes in the sink, so I try to leave and get out of that environment to go focus, to try to do work and put your mind into something, and if it's going even outside or something else, so change your environment, do something different. If you've not been, you don't normally come, you're like, "Ah, where's your night, I'll skip it." This is a great time for you to do that. At the end of summer, we're getting ready for school, we bought school supplies yesterday, thinking about getting back in the grind and all of the things that start happening in fall, take this chance, come to it, and the cool thing is getting to see the space, know what's happened, if you've given, you've been a pleasure, you've been able to help make it happen, thank you, we cannot get where we are without you, there's still more to be done, and if you've not been able to give or you're new, we're going to give you some opportunities to show things that we need to help to be a part of that in the new space, the kid space, and it's just really exciting. I agree. Talked about this, leaving the wedding, that this is probably where my kids will get married. Like to think about this, if this next generation camp and your kids, Jordan, and all of them growing up in the spaces, we're going to run around the halls, this is where they're going to make their memories. Kids space looks really good. I walk through their Sunday morning, it looks awesome. It's coming along, and you can see it first if you're in person, and then just real quick to the online audience, because we have people that listen everywhere and trying to do church online, you might not ever step foot in this building, but we still want you to be a part of it, because if you enjoy the product, you watch, you stream, you like pre-show, you're a part of things, you listen to this podcast, all that's going to happen in that space and continue to get better, so we'll have some ways for you. We are going to stream it on Sunday night, we're going to have it online, so you can watch via the app or YouTube channel, we'll put all that stuff out there Sunday at five whenever it goes live, so we'd love for you to jump in. If you listen to this beforehand or go watch it on demand after, you can catch it. Absolutely, can I tell you a Greg Walker story? Absolutely. You brought him up a minute to go. It is. This one's pretty critical. That's right. Greg's been on the podcast before, he's great, we'll put his links up too if you want to go back to one of our most downloaded episodes ever as The Wolf, but I'm walking out of church Sunday, I just preached, and he comes and he's like, "Oh God, I saw you." He's like, "What's up, Greg?" He's like, "I don't know why, but when I walked in the theater and I saw you on the screen, I thought you had cornrows." He's like, "My boy don't rock like that." I was like, "Why?" He's like, "I don't know just how it looked on the screen, the camera." Most random thing. I didn't think it looked like cornrows, I went back and looked myself. I was like, "I don't know what he saw, but I just picture me in cornrows." There you go, that's a good visual for you. Love Greg, love Daniel, did a great job. Who else was playing, you know, on top of your hand? Me and Ben Abshire. Like I said, that's why we're keeping it very kind. Yeah, a little quartet, super talented. Gentlemen, we were all the group, a lot, well, hold on, take that back, because Keith Fosbury is not going to be participating this time, but it was the group that we had on Manday, just out there kind of playing some music and some songs. He walked by Father's Day outside. Yeah, so it was good. That's Daniel, Greg, me and Ben. The good sound. Jordan, are you going to make it too loud in there? We have to complain? No. Okay, good. No sound guy. Always makes it sound at all. You know why it's only them four? What? I'll say, y'all keep it simple. I like that. Bingo. I like that. So we would love for you to join us. We'd love for you to be there, be a part of that. Christy Rhodes, that's not all you're doing, though. No. We're excited, personally. What happened? We're quadruple dating. What? There are eight friends of ours going to dinner Saturday night to come see you in the '90s countries. '90s country women. We're the fancy women of '90s country. So I'm going to do it for you. You didn't ask for this, but we're going to plug your side gigs here as you're singing. Do you know about this? Yeah, I've seen some of it. Absolutely. My wife is the biggest '90s country fan period. And so I'm not necessarily, but I'm going to go for a good time. It's plug Saturday. I'm going to walk out in a blonde wig on Saturday night. I will no longer be Christy Rhodes. I will be Tricia Yearwood. Nice. And who's joining you? Who's your Garth? Well, Alan Smith is Garth. And Jessica Brock is Reba McIntyre. Oh, nice. And Emily is Shania Twain. Nice. So it's really two shows. We have a pole first set, all the girls. And then there's a little bit of break. And then Alan and his band are coming up and doing a Garth Brooks tribute. So it's a great time to go have fun and be silly and listen to some great music that helps you kind of reminisce. Last year, we did it for a fundraiser and raised a ton of money. This time, it's just for fun. So Saturday night, seven o'clock, hurricane alley, I'll be Tricia. And as you see Tricia, y'all say hi to your girl. It's going to be a lot of fun. It was a great night. You should walk out there with that cookbook she got. Oh, nice. There you go. That'd be awesome. I have to show y'all a picture. I'm just never meant to be like a full blonde. Okay. Can we post that? I'll put it up. No, no, no. She said no, not for your eyes listeners. Wow. I will do it. I'll send you a picture once we're in full gear. Not for you listener, but all right. Saturday. There you go. That's perfect. That's hilarious. This is like a bathroom selfie. Okay. Yeah, that gets you. I got you. Keep it real. Come for confirmation to all the girls as we prepare for this week and put our costumes together. So let's talk a little bit about when it opens in the new space. People look forward to it. Yes. So what is going to happen? The band is going to be live. The band is going to be back. We are going to be live. We are going to be excited. Well, we are excited about coming back. When you'll start rehearsing again. Well, honestly, that's a great question. Technically. Sunday morning. Yeah. I mean, you know, really, we would love the, I mean, the goal is is Wednesday before church opens. We will actually get to rehearse, do sound check, get everything locked in in the new room, because that's going to be a whole new experience and sound and all the things. All that stuff makes a big difference. And yeah. So we were talking about maybe doing a pre rehearsal, then that rehearsal to get back kind of in the groove. And we're already starting to talk about songs. Justin's throwing out some songs that have he's heard that he really likes, that will help convey like the first message in the new space. And it's coming September 15th. Hold out a little bit longer. Christmas be here before you know it. I know. All flying by and fall. We got some fun stuff playing for Christmas. It's an exciting time. Yeah. And it's a big day because, I mean, it's we're going to have baptism. We are going to have, you know, a big party to celebrate and our saints and cowboys. That worked out perfectly. Do you know that? I know about it. It's always going to be a party. We're talking about the party we're throwing. Are we saying some of that yet? I think let's just say you're not working on things. We want to miss September 15th. Number one, it's the first day back to church, grand opening, live services, everything's back and we want you to be a part of it. And mark your calendars. Mark your calendars. Yeah. It's two weeks after Labor Day. Yeah. That's right. See, you can be. And the kids will be in school now for over a month at that point, which is kind of crazy. So we should all be back in the swing and we want you at church. Come to church, come hang out with us. We see in a boardwalk. So that's September 15th, but you can join us this Sunday. The Sunday or not September, July 28th, 5 p.m., new space down on the end opposite of the theater. Worship night and walk through. We're going to have worship communion and we're going to walk through and see the exciting things coming for the simple church. We'd love to see you there. Thanks for listening to this episode. Thanks for being a part. Make sure you subscribe, get the new episode each week and Pretty Roads. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. I did want to give one more shout out before we go because you were talking about what we've been doing during this break. Yes. And I forgot to mention one of the most exciting things that happened while we were off, which is our girl, Mary, all Red Clawson had twin baby girls. Yeah, that's right. Will runs monitors as a part of that to her husband. Yeah. Sided for Betsy and Opal. So if you've seen her singing on screen every week and then she just delivered about a month ago to beautiful healthy girls. So Mary's been a little busy in the off season. So we basically it was her maternity leave. That's right. And we can't wait till she's ready to come back and join us. But so that is we're in a group text with them. And I asked I was like, Hey, open invite if y'all want to go Saturday night to the concert could be Betsy and Opal's first concert. They denied. They did not. Yeah. So anyway, that doesn't want to make sure at that end because Mary is a huge part of what we do. And so is Will. We cannot do this without them whenever we want to say will better than Jordan. I mean, not me. Will has a way more intense, busier job than me. And has to deal with us. Also, I have to deal with just the mix that everybody hears, which is pressure in itself. He got to deal with 15 divas. Lord, he's not talking about you. It's the other 14. It's right. Straight talking about Daniel Nelson. Let's be real. De nice. Love you. De nice. Just good shout out for Mary. Congrats. All right. Y'all come see us Sunday. We'll hope to see you there Sunday morning. Normal services Sunday night come back five p.m. Bye bye. Bye. Thanks for downloading this episode. We appreciate you listening to Backstage with the Simple Church podcast. Subscribe so each week you get the new episode when it comes out on Wednesday. Exactly because that's what you want. It's the new content. That's right. Automatically pop up in your feed, Spotify or Apple podcast, wherever you listen to podcast. And while you're there, leave a five star review. Please do because it helps people find us and plus we deserve this. That's right. Scott, you do a great job. Oh, thank you. And thanks for listening. Share it with a friend. Send it to somebody that should enjoy this episode and subscribe as well. And thanks for being a part of the Simple Church. Thanks for listening.
