War Room movie actor TC Stallings was determined to make the NFL, and almost did. But God had other plans. See how his life's mission has turned to gloryifying God in multiple ways via the entertainment industry.
The Dan Scott Show Podcast
Dan Scott Sports/Faith Show - TC Stallings (11-3-24)
The following program is presented by Ingalls and is a service of Grand Slam Ministries. Is it Sunday morning again already? I believe it is. Hi everybody and welcome to this week's Dan Scott program. As you just heard presented by Ingalls markets, I am Dan. It's great to have you with us. Thank you for joining us. So we provide you with a little bit of a hopefully a lift, both spiritual, physical, mental, whatever it may be. As you begin your Sunday morning, I hope you're listening to this preparing for or getting ready to leave for church. No, we've got NFL coverage coming up on both Fox Sports upstate and ESP in Asheville following the show. So we'll try to set the stage for that. And actually today will be a good conversation to do that with, because our guest had very serious NFL aspirations. He was a very talented college player, played in the CFL for a bit, didn't quite make his mark in the National Football League, but he has made a huge mark in the world of entertainment and doing so as a Christian. His name is TC Stallings. You have seen him in a number of movies and he is this week's guest on the Dan Scott show. We'll get to that interview in just a moment. First though, I want to remind you that Ingalls has donated more than $18 million to schools in our market areas. And you can help by linking your Ingalls advantage card to the school of your choice. And when you shop, you're also earning money for that school. Schools can select from the number one supplier of school supplies in the world, everything from pencils to computer labs to STEM. Visit the website Ingalls-markets.com, click on tools for schools and learn how you can help students and teachers right here at home. All right, to break we go. And on the other side, TC Stallings will be our guest. 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We need your prayers, we need your ideas, and we need your support. Visit our website www.Grand Slam Ministries.org to find out more about our mentorship mission and prayerfully consider how you may be able to assist us. Again, that website is www.Grand Slam Ministries.org. [Music] Got a question or a comment? Maybe a guest suggestion. Send an email to Dan@danscotchow.org or private messages on social media. You're listening to the Dan Scott Show. Ingles only sells USDA choice or prime beef and it's always cut in the store. Ingles market managers are just like your friendly neighborhood butcher. Cut fresh into order, low prices, Ingles, low prices and love the savings. Thank you for joining us on this Sunday morning on Fox Sports Upstate and ESPN Asheville. I am Dan Scott. Our guest today, this is a conversation that I had some time ago with actor TC Stallings. You have seen him in a number of movies, maybe most famously the movie War Room and his acting legacy just continues to grow and he's even stepping outside of the big screen and doing some other things as you will hear us talk about in this interview. But Stallings was a guy who grew up wanting to be a professional football player. He got to play pro football, not in the NFL, but his story about how his dream to be a football player ended up transitioning into where he is now in the entertainment industry and how God is using him is one that is really amazing. So I hope you will enjoy this. Here is our conversation with former football player and actor TC Stallings. He said here talking right before we started about life in Fort Worth, Texas after living in Los Angeles for the previous decade and following wherever the Lord leads you to do so and it sounds like you and your family are adjusting to life in Texas pretty well right now. Yeah, getting used to it. Me and my family pretty much have the same existence wherever we live. You know, we started our family in Louisville, Kentucky. I was there for 13 years and you know, we homeschooled our kids and when I started acting, we did all that together. I go on auditions, you know, they come with me. When I was playing football, whether it be college or pro, they all came with me. So we're always together and we've always said as long as a family is all in the alignment with Jesus, we all love each other. We can be anywhere. So the trek from there to you know, out in LA, 14 years, Fort Worth, we could be in Timbuktu as long as we're together and follow Jesus, we can, we'll be just fine. I think the key phrases there were together and following Jesus because if you got those two things down, Jesus being at the top and then everything else underneath that, then chances are it's going to work out. It may not always be the smooth ride you would like, but it's going to work out the way God has ordained. That's right. It may not be painless, but it'll be purposeful and that's what we always say. Long as long as we know the Lord's in front, even our pain makes sense and that's the type of life we want to live. Those are hard lessons to learn though, aren't they? They are. And I don't think, you know, you never sign up for, you know, hey, Lord, give me a hard one. It's just, but boy, I tell you, the ones that are hard sometimes are the ones that can be the most life-changing at times, even though we don't sign up for that. Well, even in life in general, you and sports and you as being a high profile athlete, you know, you learn the most from adversity. You don't like those lessons, but that's what you learn the most from, but you're right. Nobody ever says, hey, Lord, I think things are going too well right now. Won't you, won't you throw some misery my way? All right, right. Hit me with some, hit me with some difficulty. But, but yeah, whether your situation is smooth sailing or whether it's a rough, bumpy road, the key, you know, like you said, is to learn from both instances and make sure it's the lesson that God wanted you to learn and you learn from it and grow. That's the key. If you don't grow, then it was often nothing. I'm going to kind of jump back and forth on some things here, but as we're talking, was acting ever on your radar early in your life? Not in the sense of what it developed into, you know, to me going to Hollywood and being in movies and all that. It was, I was a kid that loved to actually get attention. So, you know, when the school or my church would say, hey, we're doing a play. Well, I knew you get to be up in front of everybody and play another character and get some attention to yourself. So I was that I was actually that type of kid. So, I did school plays and church plays, but it was always for fun. It was never this thing where it's like, you know, one day I want to be in a big movie. Like now for me, it was always about one day, I want to be in a big NFL stadium, playing football, you know. So, so yeah, I just did it for fun. I did not see this coming at all. The Lord definitely kind of punched me in the face with it for sure. Whether it's school or church, they have to reel you back in and say, look, man, let somebody else do something once. Were you were you were you always that guy? You know, what it was is people recognized my personality and how so they were they were actually it was like a mutual thing that everybody wanted. Like I wanted to be in there and they're like, you know, TZ, you got to do this. You got to do so it was one of they knew I was still in, you know, goofy kid have fun and it's kind of hard to get people especially in church and stuff like that to want to get up in front of everybody and do stuff put it this way. They just knew they wouldn't have to twist my arm for me to get into something. So, but it was never like, you know, sit out and get out away. It's just like, hey, I hope you're gonna do our next one. You're gonna do our next one. So, yeah, it was cool. That's great. T.C. Staling's joining us on this week's edition of the show. When did you develop your love affair with the game of football? I would probably say I was about 11, 12 years old and it was one of those things where you in the neighborhood and my neighborhood was rough. And it's that same old story of, hey, find a way to get out. And for me, I used to see that people could go to college for free or, you know, you can go to NFL. You can change your parents life. And I was growing up rough and I wanted to help my mother and my siblings and everything. So, I just, I saw that dream play out with so many other athletes. And then, you know, I'm playing football video games all the time and you start to see, like, hey, the dude that you're playing with is actually playing college football right now. Like how cool. So, the coolness of it really kind of started hitting me as a kid. I was about 11, 12. And then when I went to a practice, saw my friend was playing for a city team. And I didn't even know you could do that. We were like 11, 12, 13 years old. He's got a full uniform, like uniform on. And I'm like, I've never seen that for our age. He said, you should come check out of practice. I went and I was hooked and the rest is history. I'm out there running around. I don't even got all the equipment. You know, I'm not even on the team. I don't have no permission to play. I just asked the coach guy, I run around a little bit and I'm tearing it up. And I'm just like, all right, this is it for me. And I've been playing ever since I was 12. And every year, I've always done great. And so it, it, it then became the way to get out of the neighborhood and maybe chasing people's lives on one day. So it became my top priority. When did you realize you were pretty good? That day. That day, really. The day I went out there and shot some t-shirt and I'm, I'm just, I'm a dog. I'm tearing it up. I couldn't be caught. I could run. And you know, it was just, you know, we've been playing in the neighborhood all the time. You run around or whatever. And both, but I had never known that you could play like organized football. And when I got out there, it was like year, year one, I was, I was 11, 12. And then I stopped playing to organize stuff, 12, 13. And just for the first time they hand me the ball off, you know, I'm gone. You know, it was just, it was like a natural thing. Because I was not the guy that grew up with people throwing a ball to me in the backyard. You know, my dad went in my life and everything and my siblings, you know, my, my, I have two brothers and three sisters. And I, you know, they're not the type that, you know, take y'all back, play, catch between all that kind of stuff. I, I learned all that on my own, you know, and so it's just, it's just a natural. And like I said, once I started, I never looked back and every single year I played great. I was usually the star running back on the team every year. What was life in the neighborhood like growing up? It was, it was rough. And the thing is, is when you, and a lot of people who grew up the way I did will probably identify with this. When you grow up in the, in the mud, you know, when you grow up in the, in the projects, in the ghetto, around the gang violence and the drugs and all that stuff, you actually don't see it as a problem. Like, I mean, how can I put this? Like, you see the danger, you know, it's wrong, but it kind of is like the norm. I mean, I, I'm five years old, six years old. And once you start, like seeing what your surroundings are, it's like, you know, you always see people fight. You always hear bullets flying. You always, so it was like, you don't like it, but it's like the norm until you start to see better. Like, I'm, I'm, you know, you go into school, you got friends, you go on over their house and you see, wow, the mother and father aren't divorced. There isn't a whole lot of custom people are fighting and all that kind of stuff. And you don't have, you know, drive by shootings in this neighborhood. And you start to see people do better than you go home. And then every now and again, you might catch some of that. You know, I had an amazing mother, but my house was just, you know, a little bit divided. Like, at this point, people are doing great in their lives for like my brothers and sisters. But when I was growing up, you know, they had it rough too. You know, we all had it rough and people were finding different ways to try to make it for themselves. And it wasn't always on the up and up. So, you know, at the end of the day, I grew up really, really rough. I didn't have the best examples, but I will say nobody ever treated me terribly. Everybody always loved me. It was just hard. It was just a really rough neighborhood that I woke up every day, trying to find a way to get out of it. You know, how can I get out? How can I help others get out? And that started to shake my dreams and goals and desires to, you know, make it in that fail one day and change everybody's life. And about what age did those thoughts start coming that I got to get out of here and I got to make my mom's life better and do what I can? When did that start to formulate? I was about 12 years old, man. Like I said, my father went in my life, some other, you know, did a little bit of dating and then at some point she got serious, you know, with my stepfather, who she had been married to for like 25 years before she passed away. But she, she, I remember when I was about, I don't know, maybe I'll say maybe 11, 12 or so. And we're going downtown to pick up, you know, my stepfather from work, he worked downtown. Well, at the time, the stadium is called in Cleveland, where I grew up. The stadium now is called First Energy, but it was called Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The old one. The mistake by the lake. Yeah, yeah, man. Yeah, for sure. And it was a game going on. And you could just hear the roar of the crowd. And I knew I'd never be able to afford to go in there and watch one. But I said to myself, like, you know, I forget going to watch one. I'm gonna be playing in there. And that's where it kind of started. And I knew what I had to get there. And so I just put everything I had into getting that done. Yeah, I don't know if you and I should be talking to each other. I'm a Cincinnati guy. You know, I'm a Bengals guy. So, but you do what you got to do to get through TC, TC Stallings with us on this week's edition of the show. So, obviously, you were good enough in high school to get the scholarship offer and went on to play at Louisville. And at this juncture, that NFL dream is still alive, right? Oh, yeah, I got my first, I had my first recruitment letter when I was a sophomore. And from a little small college, and I think it was in like Pennsylvania named Teal. I didn't even know nothing about college football in terms of like, how do you get there? Like I said, my best experience about college football came from playing video games. I didn't, I didn't have that. I mean, I was a first male in my family to graduate high school. So, that let's you know, what a standard was, like I said, my family is loving and all that stuff. But we didn't know better so that we could do better. You know, so it's not, it's not a knock on any of my family. They always treated me great. We just didn't, it was just hard and rough. And, you know, people dropping out of school. It's just what you knew. It's just what you knew. That was life. So, right. And so nobody, you know, new to like, hey, this is what you can do. This is how you get in college. This is called the ACT test. This is the SAT. Here's college prep courses here. Nobody had ever, nobody had ever even been in college. So everything was, I was a first at doing all of these things. And so, you know, for me, when I got that first letter, I'm just like, oh, so this is how it worked. Then I started really kind of playing extremely well and looking into it. Now, I'm getting letters from everybody, you know, whether it be Ohio State or Maryland or Illinois not Penn State. That's where I wanted to go. So hold up the story. I ain't had a grace to get a letter from them. But all these schools started giving me letters. And so that every time my coach would hand me this envelope with her or a rubber band with all these envelopes or letters in it, I just got more hype. And so every week I just continued to try to shine. And, you know, that's what I did. Got all Ohio's running back and got my scholarship to Louisville's playing well there. Yeah, the dream was alive and well. All right. So let's, let's pause on the football aspect for a minute. And let's talk about Jesus. When, when, when did you surrender your life to Christ? What was that journey like for you? Oh, belief in him and accepting God and everything and surrendering to him and letting control your life is two different instances. I don't think a lot of people understand that, you know, when I was about seven years old, I got baptized. I knew you're supposed to do that. And these, you believe in God, you believe in Jesus, you get baptized. I see it happen in church. You know, my mother always say, I got the best version of my mother. You know, I was I was the youngest of six. By that time she was the best version of her faith walk, because earlier in her, you know, faith journey wasn't all that great. So I got the best version of her where she's going to church all the time, singing in a choir was committed, made me go. So from right out the womb, I'm going to church and seeing what you do. So once, once you go on to Sunday school and they, they find out, you know, you believe they actually do you want to get baptized? Sure. I believe in getting baptized. I'm seven years old when that happened. And so every year was just, Hey, I'm baptized. I'm a Christian. And I thought that's all you really had to do. And you grow up that way. I'm still, you know, doing whatever I want to do. If I'm at school, my friends are cussing and I'm cussing with them, or we watch the dirty movies or listen to bad music. Like, I didn't think God cared about that kind of stuff. I believe in him. I'm good. That's it. I took that belief all the way to college. And it was my sophomore year in college where my faith really, really, really bloomed. And it was just through a random Bible study with another student that was there. We started digging into the Bible. And I really saw that belief was not enough. You know, we're opening up all the scriptures and we're seeing that, you know, everybody believe, you know, or not everybody, but anybody can believe, but that doesn't transition you into a follower. Like you have to do that. You have to take that next step. And so I'm looking at all the scriptures and I'm chopping up the Bible. And it was my sophomore year of college where I really gave, like gave Jesus control in my life, let the Holy Spirit take control. And I knew exactly what and why and all of that. And I wasn't just living off of belief. But so that was my sophomore year when everything kind of changed where I would say I became a true Christ follower, not just somebody who believes. So God, if you want to look at it this way, He orchestrated your football career to bring you to a place and meet a person that was going to open that door for you to get you on the right path for your spiritual journey. Well, I always say this to everybody, man, everybody has a song 139/16. And if you know that scripture, you saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was written in your book, every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. So God knows exactly where I'm headed and He knows at the point where He wants to get my attention and it's going to come down to a decision that I made to either go his way or my own way. And I feel like the more and more He put people in my path, like all of these people that make these little deposits in your life that point you towards Him is 100% behind that. You see that from scripture, but now it's about the response. And so I could have either just not listened to that or I could humble myself and soak it all in. And I praise God through His grace and mercy, nothing about me is special. It's just through His grace and mercy. I was able to humble myself, listen to everything, believe what was read. And that made me become a true Christ follower. So all credit goes to the Lord for, you know, orchestrating that path so that I could have my Damascus moment like Paul, you know, and make that decision. And we hear stories like that. We've all experienced things where if we will just let go and follow what God wants for us, we know that that He's got the perfect plan, even if we don't see the big picture like He does. And we've all had those experiences that tell us that. And yet I think especially as men, I had this conversation with, with our guests last week, who's a very high profile law enforcement officer here in South Carolina, who is an unabashed Christian. We can be knuckleheads as men sometimes, even though we, if you're a Christian and you follow Christ and you've had that example, all of those examples, you know, he knows what's best. And yet sometimes we still want to get in the way and do things ourselves. You know, it's funny, it's like, and this has taught me a lot being in the different industries that the Lord has put me in, whether it be professional sports or whether it's been professional performing. I mean, you hitting it on the head as far as people being knuckleheaded, but I'm like, as far as men go, we're just most familiar with men. But like you said, man, everybody is knuckleheaded when they, it comes down to when you want what you want, whether it's a man or woman, it's like, when we want what we want, we get so selfish and blinded and silly and stupid when we want what we want. Because like when a woman wants what she wants, you know, she's going to, she can ignore God and men, when we want what we want, we ignore God. It's that, it's that fleshly battle that human beings face. I would say human beings can be knuckleheads and it all comes down to the flesh and mastering the flesh is just one of the hardest things to do. You can't do it on your own as a human being. You know, and so it's like when you just surrender that part, once that happens and God is the one that you're counting on to help you beat the flesh up in the way that it needs to be, you know, put under your foot so it can surrender to you. You do what you, what God calls you to do. That's when life truly changes. But when you go on your own and it man, it is, it put it this way. It's a defeat. It's a defeat waiting to happen. How long have you been married? I go on 22 years, June 9th will be 22 years for me. I got married my senior year in high school. How often do you tell your wife that she's an uncle head? Never. She'll tell. She'll tell. She'll tell. She'll regurgitate everything that I'm saying. I got you. Like sure, the cool thing about the cool thing about me and my wife, man, is she, she knows that like we look at scripture as human beings. Like she's, it's like they're women aren't smarter with Christ. Men aren't smarter with Christ. Like there is none of that. It's, it's all the Holy Spirit gets all the glory anyway. So it's like, you know, they're not better at being Christians. Men aren't better at being Christians. It's like, as far as it's the person who has sold out for letting the Holy Spirit take over will be the better Christian, because the Holy Spirit is the same in all of us. And it's who's willing to put him to the front. I will tell you this that being that men are sometimes, you know, we're, we're put into the leadership role. I think we have the most opportunity to get the most prideful. I will tell you that because we're, we're accounted for to be the leaders. So I think when it comes out like pride and making some kind of knucklehead decisions, I would say we probably take the lion chair of those because of the positioning that we're putting in. And knucklehead is the kind word. And I use it to describe myself a lot. You wouldn't know this obviously because this conversation is the first one we've ever had. But your role in the war room was one that in a lot of ways paralleled my relationship with my wife and the way that I was acting up until I gave my life to Christ about 10 and a half years ago when I was 45 years old. And I'm a preacher's kid. Pastor, pastor, it isn't my dad is. And so, so I get it. I trust me when I say knucklehead, that's, that's a kind of a watered down word that I have used to describe myself in the past. But as men, right, we can get that way. And I think pride is part of it. A lot of us were raised in an era where we were taught that, hey, you don't complain. You just, if it's broke, you fix it and all these other things. And we're not as vulnerable sometimes as we need to be. Yeah, you know, it's funny about knucklehead in this is like my character Tony Jordan, if you're anything like him. In that movie, see, he wasn't a knucklehead. That dude was, he was inexperienced. He was ignorant. And there's a, when you're ignorant, you're not, you're, you're inexperienced. You don't know. You come a knucklehead when you know better and you don't do better. There's, there's your knucklehead in this. This is what kind of what I talk to my children. I'm like, it's one thing when you don't know. Now you're a, you're, you're kind of falling victim to your ignorance. And then you need to try and make sure you learn. That's why you, you know, you can't, you can't obey what you don't know. So if you ain't reading scripture, you screw it up because you don't know. You can't claim promises from the Lord that you don't know about. So if you need to read scripture, so you know, but now when you know it, we've taught it as parents and you know it, or you read in the scriptures, you know, and you know it. And then you still do something else. And then we warned you about the consequences and you still do something else. Now there's your knucklehead in this. And that boy, I tell you, I mean, both are kind of messed up, but one, there's a little bit more grace for the other. It's because you don't know. Well, fortunately God has enough grace to cover all of us. Absolutely. So that's the most important thing if you're willing to accept it. TC Stylings joining us on this week's edition of the show. Back to football for a moment. You had the dream you were at Louisville and you were chasing that NFL career didn't quite get there. You did play professionally in the arena league Canadian league and NFL Europe for a while. When did you know it was time to quit chasing that dream and how difficult was that for you? It was a collection of things. The main two would be getting very close and just people kept, you know, the door kept being shut. And it took me a good little minute to understand that, you know, really people ain't the opener and shutter of doors. It's the Lord, especially, you know, you go over in Europe and, you know, our rough for 1500 over 1500 yards over there, 26 times down the MVP. And we won the Super Bowl Championship over there. I'm like, okay, I get it. I didn't have the numbers in college. I certainly got them now. I got all this experience. I ran all over the CFL and, you know, like, let me show this and get in and then you still can't get an opportunity, you know, the injuries I'm mounting up. You starting to get older, but when I was like 33, I had my best season and I was faster than I was in college, you know, it's like, this is trending the right way. But then I go and I go see a movie. People, for me, with my story, knowing that I go, I see fireproof and I'm just completely inspired by it. I mean, the movie was good. It wasn't completely the movie as much as it was the reaction from married couples in the theater. Because I, because it was a lot of people from my church had, we had this acting group of my church and they asked me to come to this movie with them. So, it was all couples. It's like, it's like mostly married couples was in there. And watching people respond to the movie's message and like, in real time is what got me. And then the movie kind of affected me too. I felt like, man, I thought I was doing pretty good. I've been married seven years. I thought I was pretty good. I felt like I'm not so great right now. And I'm like, a movie has convicted me like this. So, I saw the power of film. And this is when the acting book really kind of started to bite right there. And I'm like, in order to do this, it's gonna, I can't do both, you know, I like to go all in on something. So now I got to authenticate this. Is this the Lord? If it's him, then I'm quitting football. And so, I prayed that I would get connected with the Kendrick brothers. And it wasn't even a year later that that's exactly what happened. So, I felt like he directly answered that prayer for sure. And I put football in a review mirror and started pursuing acting. So, which came first, the meeting with the Kendrick brothers or the reality TV experience? The reality TV experience. That came first. And but for me, I knew that that wasn't gonna amount to, well, I won't say I knew it wasn't gonna amount to anything. I just was used to like, you know, nobody's gonna really say that I'm this great actor when I didn't do any acting, right? It's just, you know, me on the show, I won the show. But that was more for me, getting a feeling of what it's like to be in that industry and the acting book. Like I said, the acting book really, really jumped at that point too. Because I go over there, this was 04. And I win this show on Animal Planet. They fly me out of the country. I'm in Australia filming my own show. That's what's a prize for winning. And that's what I got a chance to see what it's like to have everything taken care of for you. Or you got to learn a script. All these producers and cameras and just all this stuff, everything, all expenses paid, you're traveling, you're, you know, I'm like, this is amazing. And then I came back and then it was all over. And I'm just like, man, I could see myself doing that. But then that's right after that, I got picked up by the CFL and then I'm doing well there. So now the NFL stuff. So I shoved the acting, but it was in my pocket. Like I was like, huh. So then it was 08 that I wouldn't saw fireproof. And the football thing, I did the best I'm ever gonna do and couldn't get in. And now I'm feeling this way. So now I just have to say, like, okay, this is a crossroads. Let me pray. And the lawyer opened the acting door. I mean, he kicked that thing in because I see people to this day been trying to connect with, you know, studios for years and never get a shot. I got it rather quickly. And my first movie is number four in the country with courageous. And people knew who I was right away. And LA comes calling and saying, hey, we'll help you the rest of the way. And that took a whole other prayer thing because I'm like, man, I'm not going out to know LA. And but we prayed it through. And the Lord did it again to show me that, hey, this is me. I got you. I have a purpose for you. I go out there and three years later, I'm in the number one movie in America. And it's about him. You know, so, you know, it was authenticating the calling through prayer that was key. And I just chasing something just because somebody's saying, you know, hey, we're Hollywood, we're big time or whatever. I'm like, I ain't a Laura has to sign up on this because I know my standards and this ain't making sense to me right now. And so the Lord got it that whole process. But yeah, that's what led to me hanging up the cleats and starting to act. And I've been doing it ever since. And I was around 2012. I've been four times since 2012. And all of the success that you've had, I'm sure has, has brought in a ton of offers for you. But in reading and knowing what I've been able to find out about you, you are very, very specific about the kind of roles that you take and about the kind of roles that you won't take because of your faith in Christ. What kind of conflict has that caused you number one in this business? And number two, what's your process about deciding which roles you actually want to take? Man, you know, the key word there you said, turning down offers. And what's funny is a lot of people, when they read about me and hear me say what I've turned down, it's rare that you hear me say offers, you always hear me say opportunities. And they are a little bit different. And this even makes it kind of hit a little harder. It was like, I rarely get to the point of being able to get the offer, because I never can get past the audition part or reading the material. Like the opportunity is what I turned down a lot. And like, if people see what comes across, whether it be like big name stars or in it, can probably pay me a ton of money, I never get to see that money. Like, I never want to pay the picture that somebody to put like, you know, $200,000, $300,000 check in front of my face. And then also gave me the script and said, hey, we want you, you just got to do this. And I'm like, push it to the side. No, what it is is audition opportunities to where people are really, really digging you. And they're just like, hey, if you can come in here and impress us, you got it. And they tell you what you know the potential. Hey, this could be $50, $60,000 episode. So there's a lot of could be, could be, could be, you just got to go audition. And then I look at it and I'm just like, I can't do this. And to answer your question about like, how do I make that decision? Man, it's the same thing I took to Hollywood with me. And I've had for the last ever since I started acting, I said, look, if Jesus is in the room, I need to be able to do it in front of him. If I can't do it in front of him, then I ain't doing it. Because he is with me. He sees everything. I got an answer to him. And that's it. It's it's a question that I always say a lot of Christian actors. Because again, I'm not a faith based film actor. That's just what I've been in. I'm just I'm going to perform. I'm an actor and I just happen to be Christian. I'll do anything, any genre, any movie, as long as if Jesus saw it, he's not going to be like, TC, are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? So, you know, I'm just a clean content actor. So with that being said, you know, it's it's it's running it like like knowing that it doesn't match up with my faith, knowing that Jesus wouldn't approve of it, you have to say no. And if if any person who calls himself a Christian actually acts himself that question before taking a role, there's only one answer. You know, you can't say MF this and do this and naked sex things and all this stuff. You wouldn't do that if Jesus was in a room, you know. And so a lot of the material that was coming my way, they'd say, hey, you got the look, you got that leading man look, you got the build, you know, but you're gonna have to like chill with the I don't kiss other women stuff. You're gonna have to chill with the, you know, it's just a word. It's just it's just acting. It's just it's almost like, man, that is not how God sees it, bro. You don't read the Bible that I read. So I can't get down like that. And so that led to me passing up opportunities that will lead to an offer. So I never I really got to the offer stage for stuff like that because of I'm not going to do things that Jesus wouldn't approve of. You know, as I'm sitting here listening to you talk about that, I go back and this has been a number of years ago, but you know, you may remember people walking around with shirts or the wristbands, this ww. What would Jesus do? And unfortunately, that became more of a fashion statement than it did a mission statement. Yeah, absolutely. People don't want to people don't you don't see those no more because at the end of the day, when you wear that, people you got to actually live it out. So you start wearing it because you were in a bracelet while you at a strip club or you were in the where in the bracelet, why you cussing somebody out in a store or cussing your children out or you're cheating on your taxes or what would Jesus do bracelet. So it not only became you know, this thing that you have to live up to. So people start wearing that stuff, you know what I mean? And so I just find it funny. I'm like, well, for me, the new what would Jesus do is just for me is, you know, I'm just not is how you live your life out loud and, you know, turning down these roles and showing it with the way you live and being willing even saying it now, like saying it like this, this is the equivalent of wearing it because people are going to now watch me in my life and see if you're if you're a real one, it's TC a real one. And I'm 100% up for that challenge because I already got somebody way greater than anybody on this earth that holds me accountable. I literally put Jesus in the room with me when it come down, the choices that I make. And that's, I fear him. So I don't, I don't, I would wear the bracelet. I'm just out of just out of prideful dude. I'm like, you know, I don't need that. I just I just speak it out and live it. And I'm cool with the world holding me accountable for the type of person that I claim to be because I know that God will hold me up so that I don't ever lose my testimony, which is the most important thing to me. If I ever lost that, I don't need to be here. I don't even need to be living. If I ever lost my ability to tell somebody about Jesus and because of some I've done in my life, and I'm openly simple, whatever, man, and now they don't want to hear and they don't trust my words about the Lord. And that that means everything to me. So I got enough reasons to keep it clean. And he's also the greatest booking agent in the world because he still keeps giving you parts. You still keep working and doing things like this without compromising your standards. So it's obvious that he's working in your life. Yeah, like I said, so I'm on 3916. I always say anybody who has said no to TC, they did not do that on their own power. They did it because the Lord, the Lord, no, came first. The Lord says before I was born, he saw my days, he planned my life before I ever lived the day. So when people say no to me, I don't look at it like, man, you shut this door, the Lord shut that door. And the way I know that is always make sure I'm walking with him because if I'm not walking with him, then maybe it was my sin that caused that door to shut in the Lord shut the door. But if I'm walking with the Lord, do what I'm supposed to do. And he says, you can't have that. That's the door that he shut. And nobody can open that. If I'm walking with the Lord, he says, we're going to walk right through that door. So you're going to get that road. There's nothing anybody can do to stop me from getting that road because the Lord is on one that shuts and opens doors. So like you said, my heat, he is basically the real agent and manager of my career. And I'll take whatever however many roles he said I can do. And I'll stay away from how many roles he said I can't do. And because I love his life for him, I'm fine with that. Yeah, my wife and I pray together every morning before she goes off to work. And one of the things that I've been praying consistently lately is Lord, open the doors you want to open, close the ones you want closed, and give us the discernment to know which is which. It has to pray. I teach everybody all the time. That's literally a carbon copy of what I say. You know, like I said, Lord, open the doors you want to open shut the words you don't and give us the wisdom to know the difference. James won five. And we don't have to be in the dark about those things. That's a prayer that that according to scripture, like I said, Jesus answers that prayer daily because you're walking with him. So yeah, that's exactly, that's exactly the prayer that I live by because I know he'll answer that. And he's not going to let me walk into the trap when I'm begging him to have me walking behind him. You know, so I tell people all the time and you don't have to be in the dark about your life. You may not always know where you're going, but you will know who's leading. And that's what matters the most. Who's leading? Who cares where you're going just as long as you know, Jesus is out in front. Now you got to just faithfully follow TC Stallings with us as we start heading down the homestretch of our our time together here. The thing about being a Christian in any kind of public life or really being a Christian in any phase of life now is the way that today's culture is turning or has turned and now things that people used to not bother Christians with now they're taking offense at and and it's becoming more and more of an anti-Christian culture, especially in in your industry. And yet you continue to stand tall and stand firm for your faith in that industry in the midst of where culture is heading today. How how difficult has that been for you? I mean, the more difficult part for me is probably Christians who don't know how to navigate it. I ain't worried about the world. It's to me, it's the Christians that don't navigate it right because you're forgetting why we're here. Like, as far as the world doing what the world going to do, I mean, if you're reading your Bible, you're already seeing that that has to happen. Everything that the Bible says, you know, people are going to be doing what they're doing. And so you should be excited because you're getting closer to certain things happening at the Bible, that the Bible promises will happen at these times. So it doesn't shock me what the culture's doing. And as far as getting upset with them or, you know, worried about it, I'm just like, well, again, the culture does not control anything. You know, they don't, God is in control. God is sovereign. Culture is not sovereign. So I don't have to change for them. I have to love them. That support that I'll see a lot of Christians missing out on is a love part. You know, they, they're fighting culture instead of loving them. You know, they're arguing with them. I see a lot of people, a lot of big, prominent names called itself Christians sitting up here arguing with these folks politically and all of that. And that ain't cool. It's just you really aren't doing your job. And that irks me more because, see, again, you go to talk about Jesus to somebody and they will lump me in with anybody who claims to be a Christian who has been unloving and unkind, you know, especially on the political scene and all of that. And that's not biblical. You look, you actually look more like a Pharisee than you do Jesus when you do that. And you should be loving these people. And you don't have to agree with them to love them. And they probably won't like the way you love them, but they shouldn't be able to argue with you about like they won't say you wasn't loving and kind. They'll say they disagree with you. They, they don't like that you didn't support their lifestyle choices, but they, they should be able to say, but I can't, I got to keep it real. He was loving. He was kind, but he said that this was wrong. He showed me my sin. He didn't support it. He didn't. But he wasn't, I didn't see evil in him. And when I look in scripture, see how a Christian supposed to be, he matched up with that. And so, yeah, so the more difficult part about it is watching Christians not care about how they're failing the mission, which is go and make disciples. You got to protect your testimony. By the way, you handle the culture, love them, you know, rebuke what you need to rebuke. But don't be the reason that they won't come to Jesus because you're hypocritical, you're ferocetic. That's the most irritating thing about it. But the coaches is doing what God said it was. So that shouldn't surprise nobody. Yeah, you read Matthew 24, you read Romans 1, you know exactly where culture in the world is headed. If you read your Bible, you should know. Absolutely. So it's, you know, ain't no surprise, you should just be getting ready, you know, getting ready and continuing to play your role within how Christians are supposed to be at this time. We should be pulling people out of the world. We should be loving the world, being a reason that they come to Jesus as opposed to giving them fuel and gasoline and approving them right in some cases for the gripes that they have with Christians. You know, so that's, that's where it is. But, you know, God controls my roles. So I'm never worried about standing up for him because he's the one that gets to say whether I get to do something or not, not culture. You know, I love culture, but I don't bend to him. And when I say I love culture, I'm saying it's just the people. I love them because God loves them, but they'll never make me change because they don't control anything. You know, I just want to love them and I fear God not culture. Right. I spoke at a church two weeks ago and the day this ears, I'm speaking at another one and part of the message is going to be the same that we have to speak the truth, but we have to speak it in love and, and what has happened just to what you alluded to. And I think social media has played a role in this. Media in general has played a role in it as Christians. Sometimes we just want to throw some Bible at them to try and win an argument. And you're not going to win souls for Christ that way. Yeah, you've got to show them scripture and, and, and exactly what you said, show them their sins, show them these things, but you've got to do it in love. And a lot, a lot of people who claim the name of Christ aren't showing a whole lot of love right now. Not at all. In fact, they ain't even showing data, not even showing that they're disciples. I mean, you can't, I can't see you claiming Christ and then, you know, custom people out online and political debates and all this different stuff and saying all this, you know, vitriol and all this stuff is like, look, you got to understand you can't match. I'm sure they may be doing that to you, but you can't match that. Like how, if I'm looking at this conversation and I can't figure out who the Christian is, there's a problem. And you see that a lot, you know what I mean? That's like one of this. It's so disheartening to see. So I don't, I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on social media. Like I said, because like, you know, the world has an excuse. They don't know. Again, back to what we said earlier, the world may be being, being ignorant in some areas, but the Christians being knuckle-headed. Yeah, but we know better. And we just going to talk and match their word for word with profanity and just, it's just embarrassing because there's no way you just cut me out that I'm going to come back the next day talking about it. And I don't even, it don't even matter if you was right, but you cut me out with a show on love and I'm going to come back to you and ask you to tell me more about Jesus. Yeah. And you just call me a mother effing moron. And you supposed to be a Christian, please. That's a big problem. That's, that's, that's more some, I worry about what culture versus, um, you know, the culture itself, because those hearts are right. He says, the Bible said the harvest is plentiful. It's the workers that are feeding folks. So who does it sound like Jesus really got his grip with the harvest or the farmers? So, you know, listen, I, I told you a minute ago, you're talking to a preacher son, I'm ready to pass the plate right now, man. This is good stuff. All right, I've already kept you 10 minutes longer than I said I would, but we got rolling. So two quick things. And we'll get out of here. Number one, talk going back to the movie war room. Uh, you, you worked with Priscilla Schreier in there, who people know as Tony Evans daughter. So, so was Dr. Evans on set supervising? No, he came, he visited, which was cool. It was the first time I got a chance to meet him. And, uh, he, he had made some jokes. I'm sure he was familiar with the scripts, uh, and you know, Tony George, my character pretty much a jerk in the first part of, uh, and you know, um, you know, Priscilla Evans, like, uh, you know, making funny jokes about, you know, you better fix that up, get that right and funny. Um, but, uh, but yeah, I, I, I remember being on set for like a couple of days and, uh, you know, he, he wrote some books at the time. I can't remember which way I came out, but it was nice of them to, you know, he assigned books and was passing them out to people. But yeah, he visited, he was there for a couple of days, but he wasn't there throughout the whole shoot, but he didn't, he did visit. Yeah, he, he is a phenomenal preacher. I really, really love listening to that man go about it. He, he, uh, he picks them up and lays them down in the pulpit, as they say. Final question for you. When everything is said and done, what do you want people to remember about TC Salings that, uh, once he learned what Jesus wanted him to do, once he learned from scripture and from prayer, what it truly means to be a Christ follower, that he never compromised the platform that Jesus gave him. That said, there was nothing you can ever buy him. You know, you can never get him to trade in what God wanted him to do for what the world wanted him to do, or for his own selfish desires. Once he learned, once he was enlightened by scripture, once the Lord got a hold, but once the, once Jesus got his heart, he never compromised. Um, no matter the opportunity, no matter the payday, uh, he never compromised the platform that Jesus gave him. And see, because that can inspire people long after I'm gone. Um, and so that's the legacy that, that I plan to leave is that, uh, hey, that guy did it. Um, he never compromised. And so for that reason, I'm not either at first and foremost, it'll be the motivation of the Lord that they get, but, uh, you know, how the Lord uses people, you know, just like in sports where I was inspired to be a professional running back because my hero was Barry Sanders. So seeing him do it made me want to do it. Um, while I hope that when people see, um, a person that has allowed the Holy Spirit to capture their heart, and he never compromised. You can, you can, you can try to dig up some areas where, and he just don't see it with the platform that God gave him. That's what I want people to remember about me. Hey, and, and that's a great attitude because Paul in his writings told people imitate him white because he was imitating Christ. Yeah, that's it. That's exactly the cool thing about read scripture is that there, these are people whose, whose obedience to the Lord has been recorded. Um, whose lesson from the Lord has been recorded, like all of this stuff. And a lot of us are Christians because obviously the Bible. So we read about Paul, we read about Peter, we read about Job, we read about David, we read about these people and then how they walked with the Lord and how the Lord thought of them, how he treated them, how he helped them. And we're inspired by that. We're Christians because of, of these, you know, books. So you think about how, if you live your life the way God mapped out for you who lived it. And when you're gone out of here, and somebody here stories about you that inspires them to want to walk with the Lord, you know. And so that's, that's, that's what I mean. Like for me, you know, I can't imagine how any of these people in scripture would have felt if they, if they, if they failed at obeying God's purpose for their life and, and don't get the chance to be a part of all these people, generations that are growing because of what Paul did, Peter did, Job, James, all these people. And I want to be in that number as well. And so, and the Lord promises that that's what will happen. And you obey him, people testimony can live on. And, and that's what's all about making disciples. So that's, that's my existence. If I ever lose that, I don't need to be around. What a fantastic word to close out that interview that we did with T.C. Stalin's want to thank him again for his time. Hope you enjoyed that. And just get a little glimpse inside the, the life of a guy who is doing great work for the kingdom and a place where we don't normally find kingdom work. And that's on the big screen. Thank you again, T.C. Stalin's let's take a break and we'll come back and get into wrap up mode on this week's edition of the Dan Scott show presented by Ingles back in a moment. Upward Sports equips churches to run self-sustaining sports ministries in their communities. Whether you're a sports fanatic or on staff at a church, Upward Sports will give you all the tools you need to run a first-class sports ministry that allows you to reach families in your community. Upward Sports offers basketball, soccer, flag football, cheerleading, volleyball, baseball, and softball through league and camp offerings. At Upward Sports, we want to help your church make a difference and give you increased opportunities to share the gospel. Learn more today at Upward.org. That's Upward.org. 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Want to thank obviously our presenting sponsor Ingles Markets and would love to be able to thank your business as well. I put out something on social media this week that I really hope some of you who own businesses or manage them will take into consideration. We've got a lot of negativity in this world. I don't know if you have noticed that and with Election Day just a couple of days away, regardless of the outcome, there's going to be half the country that's really happy and half the country that's really upset. And there's so much vitriol out there. There's so much anger in the world. So many people trying to get their point across in any way, shape or form. And let's face it, most of the news that we hear is not good news. But here on the Dan Scott Show, that's what we are bringing you. We are bringing you Christ centered, good news, inspirational stories from the world of sports on a regular basis. Wouldn't you like to have your business associated with something like that and do it in an incredibly affordable way? I would love to talk to you. Just shoot me an email, Dan@danscotchow.org. You can reach me on social media, send me a message there. And I will get you some information and we can have a conversation about having your business associated with some good news instead of all of the the muck that's out there right now. Danscotchow.org is the website. You can find out more about what we do here. You can find out more about our other radio show. You can find out about Grand Slam Ministries. You can find out about all of those things by going to the website, Danscotchow.org. The affiliates and archives page is where you can find out the airing times of this show 8 a.m. on Sunday. That's really difficult, right? But the other program, the 39 stations, over the air stations, it's on the internet stations. But there's a bunch of archive material there. Everything that we've done, including some bonus stuff on SoundCloud, is available at the website as well. So I hope that you'll take some time to check it out. Check out our nonprofit organization, Grand Slam Ministries. It's a page there or go to grand slam ministries.org. It takes you to the same place. And last week, I had the opportunity to go speak in Kansas City. First time I've taken the show on the road like that, so to speak, and it was a marvelous time. Wonderful church out there, the Rock of Casey, and I spoke at their Celebrate Recovery meeting, which is a Christ-centered addiction support group. So instead of going to, say, alcoholics anonymous, you have people going to celebrate recovery and doing, in a sense, the same thing, but doing it from a Jesus-centered mindset. And it's, I'm telling you, there are celebrate recoveries all over the listening area here, upstate South Carolina, western North Carolina. And I'm so glad to see the church finally embracing the idea that there are people out there who are hurting because of addictions, whether it's drugs, alcohol, gambling, pornography, whatever it is. And they need Christ-centered help. So thank you to every church who's doing Celebrate Recovery or a similar program. Point being in all this, I love sharing my testimony, sharing what God has done in my life. And when I'm asked to come and speak someplace for the first time, that's what I do. I share my testimony. So if you have a church, a team, a group, an organization, and you're looking for a speaker, I never charge. I don't have a speaking fee. I leave that to the people who invite me and the Holy Spirit. Some places have given me a nice honorarium. Some places have given me nothing. Bottom line is if God says go, I go. My only expectation is if there's travel involved, that those expenses will be taken care of. And as I say, even at that, if God says go, I'm going and leaving that all up to him. But I would love to come and share my testimony. There's some other things that I talk about too, like finding God's purpose for your life. How the world defines us versus how the Bible defines us. What winning looks like from a Christian perspective, there's a lot of different paths we can go down. So if you're looking for a speaker, I would love to come and talk with you. Dan at Danscottshow.org, again, is the email address and you can send me a message and we will see what we can do. And as I'm going to Kansas City proves, I will travel. Looking to expand the speaking ministry that God has given me and somebody asked me about it the other day. And my response was God has done a miracle in my life because I shouldn't be here right now. But I am thanks to him. And if I don't share what he's done in my life, I'm being disobedient. And I think honestly, it's just as simple as that. So I'm always looking to tell people about Jesus and what he's done in my life. Dan at Danscottshow.org. Hey, listen, have a great day. NFL coverage is coming up next. I'm Dan Scott. God bless you so long, everybody. [BLANK_AUDIO]