Beyond Sunday with Pastor Nic
Join me for a more personal look into the weekend sermons, as well as some thoughts on theology, marriage, parenting, and leadership. I will also explore some of your most asked questions throughout the year.
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Beyond Sunday with Pastor Nic
The Rest of the Man' Show: A Conversation with Author and Pastor Bill LaMorey
Hey Podcast World, pastor Nick here with another episode of Beyond Sunday and today's special episode. I have a guest speaker, someone whose story will honestly wreck you in the best possible way. His name is Bill Lamore. I've known Bill for several years now. He's a pastor and an author and become a friend, and he's the author of the book the Rest of the Man's Show. It's a raw, redemptive and real look at humanity and you're going to want to lean in for this one today. So, bill, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. Pastor Nick, Thanks so much for having me on your show.
Speaker 1:No, I'm excited you're here. In fact, Bill actually just walked off stage. We had a leadership lunch today and Bill spoke at that. But, Bill, before we get into the book, can you give our quick listeners a quick snapshot of your story, who you are and then what actually led you to write this book? Yeah, great questions.
Speaker 2:So my life, born in Connecticut and moved to Florida, moved back to Connecticut, moved back to Florida. So I am half New England man and half Florida man, so I'm a strange hybrid.
Speaker 1:Are you a true Florida man, though, because those are a little crazy.
Speaker 2:No, I feel like those are a little far north, further North of us, the real Florida where all the memes come from. But I'm comfortable in Florida man land and I'm comfortable in new England land. But yeah, growing up I just I guess some things that would probably be helpful towards shaping this is growing up without a dad. Dad died at a young age. Growing up with my mom, she had me baptized as a baby into the Catholic faith. We never really went to church. Years later she ended up taking me to a Christian church and she became saved and I started going to church with her and that was a good experience and I really feel like something happened there. I feel like I came to know Jesus during that time.
Speaker 2:There's also a pivotal moment where she had remarried a stepfather who was abusive to her. He was an alcoholic and an addict and that's one of the themes that ran in my family was alcohol and drug addiction that I had kind of seen exposed in my life. So it was an interesting thing. When she came to Jesus, my dysfunctional stepfather at the time didn't want anything to do with her and so he split and so immediately I was like thank you, jesus, the Jesus thing's already working because it was a chaotic element that was removed from our home. Obviously, then that was tough for my mom now being a single mom and raising me, but I went to church with her for a few years and then went long hard down a different prodigal road and began with experimentation with alcohol, drugs and heavy metal. That was kind of the scene. I ran with getting into all of that stuff and began pulling away from the church, began hanging out with the guys at the time they were a local band, marilyn Manson, which is always a fun story, and that was fun in the beginning.
Speaker 2:Hanging out with some of the besides the singer, some of the other members, though, led me down a pivotal moment where, when I was arrested, my mom refused to bail me out until I agreed to enter a Christian program called Calvary House in Fort Lauderdale. So, reluctantly, I did, and let's just say my motives weren't right for the first time. But three times later, after being kicked out and re-entering, I finally got it right. Or I should say that God broke through and re-entering I finally got it right. Or I should say that God broke through and really grabbed ahold of me again, put me on a right path, began a path of restoration that, nick, when I look at, it's just amazing to me to see what God did through my brokenness. He redeemed my family, put me together with an amazing woman, rebecca. My wife gave us three beautiful daughters.
Speaker 2:With not knowing what to do with my life, god hilariously I thought I was going to enter business, so I started working in the business world pulls me out of that and puts me in vocational ministry, leading the program, starting with ministry that I had been a member of, a client of years earlier, and then moving into being an executive pastor in Miami and then finally planting and being a lead pastor in West Hartford, connecticut, with our church now called 180 Life Church. So it is a crazy story and I guess what motivated me to write the book is about a year ago I was at a place it was in Montana, on a literal mountaintop, at a place called the Trinity Encounter, and I was experiencing deep change, renewal for Christ, and just felt like man. I want to be able to be a part of helping. I know that not everyone can come to a mountaintop experience like this. How do I help bring the mountaintop to other people? And I knew that I didn't have some of the training that some of the other guys did, whether it be counseling or sort of neuroscience, how to work into transformation. And I wasn't really that wasn't my wheelhouse, but God reminded me. You have a crazy story and I want you to take that and put it in my hands.
Speaker 2:And I had a title for my book, the title of the book. I've had this for almost 20 years now and I didn't know what it was going to be, but I had the title. God gave me the framework for it that day and it was clear that it was finally time. I'd wanted to write a book my whole life and, funny, when I got home I didn't even connect it to two. I'm like, okay, I had a different title for it, but then God said, no, this is the one for the rest of the man's show, and it kind of came all together. And so then, coming back from that experience is when I sat down and actually began to flesh it out.
Speaker 1:Now, I wasn't going to ask this, but you brought it up a second ago and it popped in my head, so you went through that recovery ministry right Over in West Palm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, fort Lauderdale, fort Lauderdale.
Speaker 1:And one of the crazy things I guess in ministry you have people that have really hard stories and God turned them around right. They went through the addiction and stuff and that's not really my story. I grew up in church and my sins seem small sometimes in comparison, but I also know what God rescued me from and so you always have that hard time of comparing right, especially as a pastor in ministry. But I know this that you had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to go back to that program and to speak into part of the story, the book you're writing on and kind of sharing right now. What did that mean to you and what was that like to step back in that this many years later, having seen what God has changed your life into from what it was.
Speaker 2:It was an amazing experience and it's one. Honestly, I love any opportunity that someone allows me to share their stage and platform and to share God's word or share my story or whatever it is, but I got to tell you that was one I was looking forward to the most. It was just another of I just call them redemptive circles that God does in my life, where he takes me somewhere and somehow later in life, where I don't even see it, pulls me back in a redemptive circle. And it was that moment, it was just the ability, because when I first entered Calvary House I was such a mess, I was so needy. I drove the. I should have been thankful I wasn't. I drove the director insane. I ran up his blood pressure, I pushed back and caused a lot of problems, but God really worked. And so now to be able to go back, having been the director and, by the way, seeing it is just prospered and is still cranking out God stories I was able to sit in front of 50 guys who sat where I sat and it's kind of like someone else said to me, like I feel like what I said was helpful, but he said you almost didn't need words other than I was in your shoes, trust God and see what he could do in your life and to share what he's done.
Speaker 2:And it was that kind of and of course you know you and I are preachers so we use more words but it was a great moment. And then I was able to give each of the guys a book that I had written, written that I had wished I had had a copy of something like that when I was in it, but it felt great. I don't know if they're going to read it. I hope they do. I hope they like it, but I know that if they do, it'll be beneficial. I didn't write it just for the person in recovery. You know. I think that everyone has brokenness. I think everyone needs redemption, transformation in different areas, but I do know that, based on my story, it will probably have also a unique appeal for someone that's walked some of those roads.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what I love about this book is it doesn't just tell a story, although it does tell a story. I'm a very story-driven person, so like I was from chapter one in your book, like I was wanting to know what's happening next, kind of thing which is a great compliment to a writer, because that's what you want to draw people in. But it doesn't just tell a story, it invites the reader into their own healing journey. So it's not just about you, it's about the person reading the book. You mentioned this a moment ago. The title is so creative the rest of the man's show. So can you unpack the meaning behind that? Yeah, and it's funny.
Speaker 2:I was advised not to use this title by a friend because it's not a great marketing title.
Speaker 2:It's kind of weird. It's like maybe it's marketing helpful in the sense that it's unique and curious, but most books like you want to tell someone you have a great title, be free. It's like I know what the book is about and what he's promising to help me with, but I really felt that I wanted to stick with it. The subtitle helps explain, I hope, a bit more. A beautiful, gritty story and guide to bring new life to your soul. That's the purpose, but the story was absolutely hilarious. So a woman came to our church and she walks up to me after a church service. I had never seen her before. The first thing she says to me is I bat for the other team and so I braced myself because I didn't know if this was going to be some kind of awkward or difficult conversation. And then, after it seems like she did this intentionally to make me uncomfortable, after a long pause, she finally says I'm Jewish and I started laughing. I was like, okay, great, and I was curious at this point. And then she explained you know, I came to church today because my neighbor's daughter you were doing the dedication for and I wanted to support her.
Speaker 2:My intention was to leave as soon as that part of the service was over. So I grabbed my son she says he's four years old and began to try to leave and he said wait, mom, I want to stay and see the rest of the man show. And I just thought that that's just funny on a lot of different levels and at that moment I kind of locked in. It just got stuck in my brain. And then, you know, she went on to explain a few things.
Speaker 2:But I just loved that because at first I thought maybe that is like explaining my story and kind of pulling back the curtain, because when you it's not a show church obviously we know that but there is that that sense where it feels like that there's seats set up and there's a stage and a speaker and everything else.
Speaker 2:But I realized over time what happened in the mountain? Is it realized that like when people see the rest of the man's show, I'm not actually the man in the title, god's the man and the man, if you will and I know I don't say that in a sacrilegious or hopefully not too familiar way, but really the idea is that God has more for us than we sometimes settle for and we want to see the rest of it. What is it that he's offering it? And it's not a show, but it is a beautiful story that he invites us into and transforms us. So, yes, on one layer, I guess I'm the man pulling back the curtain, exposing myself and my story. On another layer, I'm hoping to pull back the curtain on the man and share what he has for the reader.
Speaker 1:Now, you said in the prelude of the book that you felt like a supporting actor in your own life. How did that realization change the trajectory of your story?
Speaker 2:Well, it's just a good question. I think that when I look at my story, it's wild and crazy.
Speaker 2:Sometimes there's parts of it and you read the book, you know that are like whoa, it's a little nuts, and so it feels in a sense like a movie that I'm watching. But I think the reason I said that is because over time, when you step back and look back, you are like, oh, that was that really me, and of course it is you. Whoever you are today sits on the end of all the decisions, all the experiences and the choices that you've had and made and so I. That, I think, is what made me say it.
Speaker 2:But there was a point where I did feel like an actor, where I was almost like sucked in and going along and playing a part, and I think what happened when God entered the scene is not only, yes, did I now have someone to serve, but also had more agency, because I had more freedom and there's more choices. That became involved. So I realized I wasn't the director, but maybe I had a little bit more ability to participate and move things than I thought I used to have, especially when I felt trapped. Yeah, oh for sure.
Speaker 1:Now, there's no really sugarcoating. This your book. It talks about addiction. It talks about failed marriages. It talks about loss. It talks about deep pain. What was the hardest chapter or memory for you to revisit and talk about in your book?
Speaker 2:You know, I think that the hardest chapter probably was dealing was chapter two, dealing with my father. There were lots of other things, the whole act one on brokenness. It felt like every day I was showing up and just bleeding onto the pages Like like sometimes I would feel numb afterwards because I just kind of poured that out. But you know, I get into the chapter that my dad died when I was five and I was told it was in a car accident. And then, you know, later on my stepfather comes along and I talk about some criminal mischief. I got in at age nine and that he then my stepfather took me aside and says do you want to be like your father? And then come to find out that my dad didn't die in an accident. He was with a friend that influenced him and they started robbing liquor stores. My dad gets shot and killed and I can understand why my mom didn't want to tell me that as a five-year-old. But finding that out was hard and then finding that out from this man that was physically abusive to my mom an alcoholic that I hated was sort of a double sting and I think writing those things brought out a lot.
Speaker 2:Now God's had to do a lot of redemptive work in my life because I grew up all my life thinking I have no dad and there's like all kinds of funky things to deal with with that, but then learning eventually God is my father and what does that mean?
Speaker 2:To learn to have God as a father. So there's been a lot of healing there, especially becoming a dad, and that has redeemed father's day in a lot of ways, where now it's a celebration of my kids and being a dad that I didn't have and that I could be that for them. But I would say that writing that down and pouring that out was difficult and hard. But I felt it was important because when I as when I share my story, it's not just like cause I'm not famous, so it's kind of weird that I'm sharing my story. But it was never meant to just tell my story. It was helped invite people to share their story and I know a lot of people have grown up without a dad or with a dad that wasn't present or there for them in ways that they needed them to be there, and it brings up a lot of different baggage. So each chapter brings up different facets of brokenness that I'm sure someone can relate to at least something that's connected in there. But yeah, I'd say that was probably the hardest one.
Speaker 1:And I think that's what I loved about your book was whether it's personal for you or you know somebody. Each chapter did have something that you could connect with. You know somebody that their fathers died or somebody that's been in an abusive relationship, especially as a pastor. Like, we see all these things and hear all these things and so, like I, was able to relate to each one, and some of them were hard to read. I mean, it's hard to read some of those things and and feel the pain that you probably felt as a nine-year-old going through some of that, making bad decisions, but then also having this guy who's being abusive kind of tell you a secret in the family that your mom probably one didn't want you to know, but two did not want you to find out that way. But those things shape us. I want to go back to something you said earlier. You talked about growing up in church but not really knowing Jesus. What did the journey of really encountering Jesus look like? When did that happen for you in your life?
Speaker 2:So when I was 11, I think something clicked for a little while and it was just learning about the Bible, learning about Jesus, and there were some real cool people in the church my mom started going to. There were some really uncool people too, and some people, let's just say, that made it personally difficult for me to connect to God, to church, and so I did pull away. But I think when it came to coming back, for me it was at a place I too far gone. Am I beyond redemption? Can you work in this situation? But I came to believe at a fork in the road that Jesus was making himself visible and available to me and that I didn't have a lot of other options. Now, I think that's.
Speaker 2:By the way, I do recognize that for a lot of other people, it's not that they have lots of options, they have lots of other places they can turn to. But I still think you can find yourself with having a lot and being broken in other areas of your life. But for me, I came to that place of just total brokenness and then just putting everything in God's hands and saying I can't do this anymore. Will you help me? Not knowing that he could. But then I began to experience, as I took a step in his direction. I began watching him work miraculously in my life, and it wasn't just the external habits that I needed to change, but it was the way I began to think differently, and that was a process. The way my heart began to beat differently and to feel differently, and all that was a process. The way my heart began to beat differently and to to feel differently, and all that was a process. But I could definitely feel that there was some kind of I don't know. It was like spiritual puberty or something.
Speaker 1:Is that a? Thing? I just thought of that Like.
Speaker 2:But there's like strange things happening that you're not really aware of. But over time you're realizing hey, I'm going through changes.
Speaker 1:No, that's awesome. Now you wrote in the book about seasons of relapse or even seasons of regret. What would you say to someone who feels like they keep failing, spiritually or even emotionally? They're in that pattern of they're trying right, yeah, they're trying, but for some reason they just can't get past this thing and they keep failing in the same place. What would you say to them?
Speaker 2:First of all, beware of toxic shame, because that is something we do, something we make an attempt. We say this time I'm going to do it. God, I mean it, I'm really sorry I blew it, I did that thing again. I went in this relationship that I said I was going to stay away from whatever it is, and we mean it, I think, to stay away from whatever it is, and we mean it, I think, to the best of our ability. And then we stumble, we fall, we get tempted, we make a dumb choice, whatever the case is, and we find ourself in the mud again. And I think that the problem is, you know, there is a healthy sense of shame where we say, oh, I feel bad and I don't want to do that again, and it motivates us to change our path, our behavior. But I think that toxic shame the distinction that I would make is you know, shame is I did bad. Toxic shame is I am bad. And I guess that would be my encouragement is not to go down that path of I am this and then to define you, because God wants to change your identity into a victor. God wants to shape your identity into an overcomer more than a conqueror. God wants to shape your identity into an overcomer more than a conqueror, and he's doing that, but it is a process, I guess, to that person. I would encourage you to get back up.
Speaker 2:I talked about at the leadership lunch today about failing forward. So when you fail, what did you learn from the process? Take that away. Evaluate, not just I'm sorry, I did bad, okay, that's good. What was it? Were you hanging around some people that you shouldn't be hanging around? Have you kept some things available in your home that makes access to whatever it is easy? Have you not set up safeguards for accountability? Are you trying to do it on your own, white, knuckling it versus God? Have you invited the right people in to help you? I think to really take some time to evaluate what you did and then to put in place any changes, but the last thing you want to do it's you know the devil's strategy and I know it's not a video podcast, but with one hand he's using it. He's pointing and saying come, follow me, do this temptation, and then, as soon as you do it, that finger turns to a point and he's accusing you. Look at you, you're worth nothing. You're not a Christian. How could you do this if you love God. I guess that would be some of the encouragement, because you, as I mentioned in the book, I failed many times, relapsed many times, by God's grace, been clean many years now. But it is a process. I got kicked out of Calvary house three times. Had I given up at any of those times, I wouldn't have the story that I have today. And so God works through people that make mistakes and fail. Look at the nation of Israel, right, how many times it's just like it was my grandfather.
Speaker 2:I mentioned my Pepe in there. So it's funny. I say, ask him, I'll tell you some funny stories. I'll tell you a funny story, since nobody will be asked, but I'll tell you anyway. He got a large print Bible. It was like 80 years old and I come over one day I say Pepe, what are you doing? He's like I'm reading the Bible. He's got this Italian raspy voice and he's like I'm going through the Bible in a year. I'm like how do you like it? He's like, well, I'm in the Old Testament. He's like you know, god tells the Jews what to do. They do it for a little while. Then they don't do it and they sin. Then he kills them and then they start all over again. That was synopsis of the Old Testament. I was like, okay, well, that's good, pepe, but there's some truth to it in the sense that, over and over again, god's patient with them as they rebel and resist, and man isn't that us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh for sure. So I want to talk about something a little bit different than the content of the book, because this happens all the time. It happened to you. Today, somebody finds out you wrote a book and you, in your writing, you weave together fate, humor and vulnerability so well, and so I want to talk about the writing process for a moment. How long did it take you to write this book, and how did you know it really was the right time? You talked about that kind of that retreat you took and came back, and how did you know when you started writing, yes, I need to do this. So how long did it take to write?
Speaker 2:So the process of writing the book once I sat down, I knew that I had some things that summer that I had to take care of with my girls and I knew that when I got started I was going to lock in. So I didn't want to start until I was ready to lock in. So I started, probably end of August, and it took me two and a half months to write the rough draft, which I think for you that's long, for most writers that's pretty quick. And the reason is I showed up every day and wrote for about three hours. I just I knew that my, my, my, my time to write is the morning. That's when my peak creativity is, my energy, like if. If I write in the afternoon, it's just a different product that's going to come out of me. And so I locked in and I didn't. I took off the weekends because I just needed refresh time Before I got going. And I think this is a key if you're ever going to write is have the skeleton ready, know where you're going.
Speaker 2:So, for example, the first half of the book I outlined all the chapters. The second half, I outlined a bunch because I knew that I was going to do some thoughts, some practices and tools to help people overcome a lot of things. But I also wanted to write more of the story before I knew, oh, I need to include this in there. And so I had a lot of it, but I didn't have. I left some room to be creative as time developed, but, yeah, two and a half months, and then after that, went through the editing process. I don't know, man, sometimes working with editors is tricky, but that that took a while too, and so, but from the time that I sat down to write until the book was released was probably eight months in total, and but that's, that's boogieing, and I know that people are going to work at different paces and different ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting. When I started writing, I studied a lot of writers John Acuff was probably the one I studied the most, and he had a great format for writing sticky notes with all the chapters on his wall and then putting questions under each one that he wanted to answer and eventually just grew into this huge wall art. If you will, so let me ask you this, because I think about this with writing and you and I have obviously known each other through this writing process, and so I wanted to ask you this as you were writing, did this feel more like therapy yeah, more like ministry, or more like obedience? How did you feel as you were writing?
Speaker 2:It would depend on the day and the section of the book. Fair enough, yeah. So act one felt like total therapy, with obedience to keep moving when it was difficult, because it was that. But it honestly felt like. And honestly, when I got done with act one, which is about the first 25% of the book, I was thinking am I ever going to release this? Or was this just like a therapeutic exercise for me and I generally, because the intention was to release it? But I was like I began to wonder. Then, as I got into act two and went through the redemption side, it was oh, wait a minute, not only is this therapeutic, this is redemptive. This is God's hand. It's like showing off what he can do.
Speaker 2:Act one was the black background. This is the diamond of God, taking a life and changing it and glorifying him. So that was helpful. And then probably act three second half of the book was ministry, because in that section I'm getting into things that will help anybody. Some are more tailored for certain people, but it was like really instructive things that I've learned along the way that I'm passing on to other people. So it felt very ministry minded. And I still include stories and things because that's just kind of. I think it keeps it interesting as part of who I am and it makes it relatable, but it felt very ministry minded. So I don't know, I don't know, how do you do you feel one way, throughout as you're writing, I felt like the different moves necessitated sort of different vibes, if you will, or different motivations in some ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say very similar. It depends on the chapter and the book that I'm writing. Like with Be Free, there were some sections in there I tell a story about my closet and that's the closet right there. It's a sticky story and that closet, if you open it right now, like stuff may fall out, like that's just. It has become the junk closet. And I tell that story because we do that in our life, like we store baggage. Instead of getting rid of it or dealing with it, we just stuff it away. And I still do it like this. This, all this junk in the floor, is going to be in that closet as soon as I get the nerve to open it.
Speaker 1:But for me, as I was telling that story and I'm always looking for illustrations it really made me sit back and think, oh man, like I've got a lot of stuff that I've stuffed away in my life and if I'm going to write about this, I've got to deal with it. If I'm really going to continue on this journey with this book, I've got to do some, some heartwork myself. Otherwise this book means nothing and it's lost the passion. That the reason I wanted to write it. Right, because you always want to write for other people, but God ends up using it for you. Yep Right. So one of the things that stood out is how you speak directly to the reader. Your book felt more like a conversation than a monologue, and so, as you're writing, who did you have in mind for the book, like who was your audience?
Speaker 2:your target audience. As you were writing, I wrote for two types of people and I hope it connected. You know how it is when you're preaching you have a couple people in mind. One was for the Christian that really may. You look at them and it's like their life is all together and they look from outside appearances you'd say everything's fine. I think God hopes for more than fine in our lives, and so, again, it's that idea of. One of the things I say is you know, in negotiating, you never want to leave money on the table, and I feel like when it comes to Jesus, people leave money on the table. I don't mean money, I mean what Jesus died for you, the abundant life, which is not. I don't mean prosperity, gospel, I mean abundance of soul, quality, care, the things that he wants to give in part into your heart and your soul, and I think that there's more. And so what the the?
Speaker 2:The reason I wrote it, the way that I did, is in act one is with brokenness. I am trying to, and even in the interludes what did you think about that? What did you feel? What's going on in your story? What did it draw out? What brokenness did that draw out in you and then in act two hey, how have you seen God's redemptive hand in your life? What does that look? And the reason I'm talking to them is I'm glad if someone thinks it's an interesting story, but if it's just an interesting story, that I've kind of failed them as an author and what I'm trying to do is bring them along on a journey, because the rest of the man's show is meant to tell your story too, and I'm wanting to do that. And so I was writing to that person.
Speaker 2:But, man, I was definitely also writing to the very broken down and out, maybe even someone far from God at the moment, or maybe someone that does believe but is struggling much of the way that you said. And, like man, I've been on a path. I hope that by sharing my brokenness, it would encourage them like, wow, okay, god did something like that through a guy like this, then maybe he could do something in my life too. And maybe, oh, even when I shared my struggles with God, maybe someone hasn't gone through addiction or something like that, but maybe they look and say, oh, how you laid that out in chapter six about your struggles with God.
Speaker 2:I had some of those same issues and maybe that encourages them to press deeper. So I wanted to basically go after the person that kind of looks like they got it all together, but in moments of difficulty and challenge they would recognize there's more. God needs to do more in my life. And then for the person that is, absolutely there's no question I am broken, I am a mess and I need this. So I tried to thread both of those needles. I don't know how well I did, but that was the goal.
Speaker 1:No, it was great. So this book doesn't just tell the rest of your story. It gives hope that God is still writing ours, and that's one of the things I love. I tell people all the time we have Celebrate Recovery Ministry here on Sunday nights, sunday ministry here on Sunday nights, sunday mornings we have about 1200 people that come to church here. Sunday nights for CR, we have about 200 people to come and, honestly, sunday nights is one of my favorite places to speak because they know they're a mess. Sunday morning we're hiding the mess right, like we don't want anybody to know we're a mess. Sunday night they walk in. They'll tell you their whole mess and I love your story because I do think it connects well with people that are ready to admit all right, I am a mess, I have some things that I need to work on and the reality is that God is still writing our story. So let me ask you this what's next for you? More writing, speaking ministry projects? Where are you headed?
Speaker 2:Man, you asked a really good question because my answer is I don't know. So we won't get into that story today. But, as you know, I've been in a season of transition, having moved down here from Connecticut with the church we pastored for 18 years, figuring out what God has next. Right now I'm doing some consulting with a church in Cape Coral faith generation really loving, enjoying that, and that's for a season. I have some more speaking opportunities. I'm speaking at this cool church called South Shore coming up pretty soon.
Speaker 2:So speaking at a few other churches, looking forward to in June, heading up to West Hartford First time I'll be back at the church we planted and speaking there, looking forward to that, going back to the Trinity encounter where that first vision came from this summer. So I don't know what, god, I don't want to put too high expectations, but maybe something's revealed. But I'm really leaning in seeking what God has next. I'm you asked hey, are you going to do another book? Man, part of me doesn't want to, but part of me already has a title and an outline for the next book. So we'll see how it goes with that.
Speaker 2:So I do enjoy that writing process, as strenuous and taxing as it can be. Sometimes I do find it helpful and I may do that, but really looking to see what God has next, and it may be a full return to full-time vocational ministry in the pastorate. It may be coming alongside other churches and helping them and seeing how I can do that. So I guess that's more of a prayer at this point than an answer, nick, because I don't know. If God tells you something, let me know.
Speaker 1:I'll let you know. I'll let you know. So where can people find the book and where can people connect with you online?
Speaker 2:Book is available on Amazon paperback, hardcover and Kindle. Talking about getting it out on Audible because enough people told me, man, I don't read, can you just read it to me? So I'm working on that, but it's available in the other three formats for now. You can connect with me. You, now you can connect with me. You can go to restofthemanshowcom and that will have all of my information. I'm on Facebook, instagram, just about all the social channels, and would love to hear from you, and in the back of my book is my email address to bill at restofthemanshowcom. So if you had any questions, if you work through the book or anything encouraging you want to share with me, I always love hearing from people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I had Bill on today, not only because he's my friend, but when I read the book I felt like man. This could be a book that helps people. So if you're in a season where you feel stuck, broken or forgotten, the rest of the man's show is a reminder that God still shows up and the best scenes might still be ahead. Bill, thank you for your honesty, your courage and your heart and your friendship, excited to see what God does next in your life and excited for people to grab this book. Thanks so much for having me on. Yeah, hey guys, hope you have an incredible week. Share this podcast with someone. Honestly, take a picture of his book if you buy it, share it on social media and if you do read the book, do me a favor, go on Amazon, write a review. It is what helps authors reach more people, and this book is a book that teaches people about God, and so what more of an important book to share than something like this? I hope you have a great week. We will see you next week.