Speaker 1: Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
Speaker 1: Welcome into the shop. Shop talk number one fifteen. What's up?
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 1: Bill? How are you looking for anything special? Just hanging
Speaker 1: out today in the shop.
Speaker 2: Still looking for cigars and women and well.
Speaker 1: God, okay, well man, this is a family establishment, all right.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, you know, do you have a
Speaker 1: girlfriend right now? No? I don't. Did you get dumped? No?
Speaker 1: Not this time.
Speaker 2: I've experienced the full spectrum of the actually want to
Speaker 2: hear something funny. I don't think we've talked about us
Speaker 2: in the shop before. This guy, Chris Williamson, he said
Speaker 2: on his podcast that like dating at my age is
Speaker 2: like tell everybody, held, you're all right. So I'm thirty seven.
Speaker 1: And you got nineteen children four it's just okay, all right.
Speaker 2: So like when you're young, like you and Lisa, like
Speaker 2: when you start off and you have nothing, it's like
Speaker 2: building a house together. So you're starting the house with
Speaker 2: scratch or deciding all the furniture that's going to go
Speaker 2: in the house together, and you're basically building this house
Speaker 2: or this life together. But when you're my age, you
Speaker 2: already have like all this furniture in your house, and
Speaker 2: you're trying to find the exact lamp that will fit
Speaker 2: with all the furniture.
Speaker 1: That's the metaphor for which is all the junk you
Speaker 1: bring into a relationship at your age.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the other person, right, so you're bull. You're
Speaker 2: both trying to find the exact lamp that can fit
Speaker 2: in hard to find. Yeah. Anyways, I'm having fun. Okay,
Speaker 2: not not with dating in life.
Speaker 1: I got it.
Speaker 2: We got a bed build tomorrow with forty or fifty
Speaker 2: people coming to Oxford.
Speaker 1: That's what are you doing.
Speaker 2: We're doing a bed building. That's I'm still having fun.
Speaker 2: All right. Let's girl.
Speaker 1: You know, you would think with thousands and thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of people listening, there's gotta be somebody
Speaker 1: out there that's around thirty five to forty years old
Speaker 1: that is moderately interested in meeting you. I guess not.
Speaker 1: I guess not.
Speaker 2: They looked me up and I said, that dude is ugly.
Speaker 1: Dealing with that dude, he's a plady. Dude. Good, it's Mike.
Speaker 2: Alright, Let's get to the actual time.
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, this shop talk number one fifteen. We
Speaker 1: are talking about ordinary radicals. The subtitle Lose the Shop
Speaker 1: Talk is inspired by Shane Claiborne's book The Irresistible Revolution,
Speaker 1: Living is an Ordinary Radical. Hold On, I know that
Speaker 1: you don't have to keep telling me the producer situation,
Speaker 1: and this is driving me crazy. We'll get to this
Speaker 1: after the break, but first our shop talk history lesson
Speaker 1: for the day. What happened one hundred and fifty years ago? Alex?
Speaker 1: And please don't laugh while you're saying something horrible, because
Speaker 1: last time you were dying laughing when you said that
Speaker 1: Titanic sunk. It was it was a horrible look. And
Speaker 1: I'm I'm offended.
Speaker 2: Okay, what year was one hundred and fifteen years ago?
Speaker 1: Bill? That would have been eighteen ninety eleven.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the first guy to reach the South Pole
Speaker 2: Rowald's Amundsen.
Speaker 1: Jeez, I thought that was like Ernest Shackelford or something.
Speaker 1: No whole endurance story.
Speaker 2: Nope, Okay, the first Indianapolis five hundred.
Speaker 1: I'll hold it one hundred and fifteen years ago, was
Speaker 1: the first Indy five hundred? Yeah, but they do run
Speaker 1: it on donkeys.
Speaker 2: The discovery of Machu Picchu.
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 2: You don't know what Machu picchu is no, are you serious? Oh,
Speaker 2: Machu Pichu, it's your next trip with Lisa?
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I'm gonna have to pull up a picture
Speaker 2: of this for you.
Speaker 1: What do we got? Oh? Oh oh, oh, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: I do know what that is. I just didn't know
Speaker 1: that's what it's called. I've seen this. Oh it's incredible,
Speaker 1: isn't it. It's beautiful for everybody. I'll need to google
Speaker 1: m A c h u ps cc hu match. You.
Speaker 2: You're gonna sound like such an idiot to our listeners.
Speaker 1: I understand. I am an idiot. And plus, this happened.
Speaker 1: What in eighteen ninety nineteen eleven, November one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago? Anything else? Hundred and fifty years ago
Speaker 1: we're discussing.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I forgot this one. The Mona Lisa was
Speaker 2: stolen the modo?
Speaker 1: Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: The loop?
Speaker 1: Was it? Really was a?
Speaker 2: Was it that made international headlines for two years and
Speaker 2: transformed the painting from a respected masterpiece and arguably the
Speaker 2: most famous work of art.
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 2: That that that theft of it made it.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that either. It was part of in
Speaker 1: the Louve a year ago where they broke in and
Speaker 1: stole bunch stuff was Monolysa. Part of that was it
Speaker 1: stolen again.
Speaker 2: I think people have like throwing blood at it though
Speaker 2: and stuff in recent years.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, one hundred and fifteen years ago, the Mona
Speaker 1: Lisa was so it was gone for.
Speaker 2: Too overrated, just like hushpuppies.
Speaker 1: Hush puppies are not overrated.
Speaker 2: Talked about that in a recent episode.
Speaker 1: Ron sparks, you are a loser Yankee if you think
Speaker 1: hush puppies are over ready.
Speaker 2: So is the Mona Lisa.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go, all right, Shop Talk number one
Speaker 1: fifteen Ordinary Radicals. Right after these brief messages from our
Speaker 1: general sponsors. Okay, everybody, welcome back to the shop. Shop
Speaker 1: Talk number one fifteen Ordinary Radicals. This Shop Talk is
Speaker 1: inspired by Shane Claiborne's book The Irresistible Revolution, Living as
Speaker 1: an Ordinary Radical. Shane Claiborne completely redefines what it means
Speaker 1: to be radical. When we hear that word, we usually
Speaker 1: picture someone loud, someone extreme, someone making headlines. But Shane
Speaker 1: says that's not how Jesus changed the world. Jesus Revolution
Speaker 1: wasn't led by celebrities, politicians, or people with impressive resumes.
Speaker 1: It was led by fishermen, tax collectors, women, carpenters, neighbors,
Speaker 1: ordinary people who simply loved in extraordinary ways. That's why
Speaker 1: Shane calls them ordinary radicals. I love that phrase because
Speaker 1: it reminds me so much of what we're trying to
Speaker 1: build with. An army in normal folks, Not an army
Speaker 1: of super heroes, not an army of experts, an army
Speaker 1: of ordinary people who decide to live extraordinary lives by
Speaker 1: simply doing what they can. Shane cites the scripture passage
Speaker 1: of John the Baptist. Sitting in prison. He sends his
Speaker 1: disciples to Jesus with one question, are you really the
Speaker 1: one we've been waiting for? Jesus could have simply answered, sure, yep,
Speaker 1: that's me. Instead, he says, go back and tell John
Speaker 1: what you see and hear the blind received sight, the
Speaker 1: lame walked, the poor here good news. Shane points out
Speaker 1: something beautiful. Jesus let his life. I e. His actions
Speaker 1: answer the question. He didn't ask people to believe his claims. First,
Speaker 1: he invited them to notice the trail he was leaving behind. Healing, hope, restoration, compassion.
Speaker 1: Then Shane asked questions that challenges us all. If someone
Speaker 1: asked whether we were followers or Jesus, or if you're
Speaker 1: not a follower Jesus, any moral system that we proclaim,
Speaker 1: could we answer the same way. Come look not because
Speaker 1: we're perfect, but because there are little signs of hope
Speaker 1: following our lives. One of the stories that launched Shane
Speaker 1: Claiborne's own journey happened while he was a college student
Speaker 1: outside Philly in nineteen ninety five. Dozens of homeless mothers
Speaker 1: and children were struggling to find housing. At the same time,
Speaker 1: Philadelphia had hundreds of abandoned buildings, including an abandoned Catholic cathedral,
Speaker 1: so the families moved into it. A few days later,
Speaker 1: Shane and some friends were sitting in their college cafeteria
Speaker 1: when one of their buddies threw a newspaper down the
Speaker 1: table and said, you've got to read this. The headline
Speaker 1: read church resurrected not because someone had repaired the building,
Speaker 1: because people had brought life back into it. But as
Speaker 1: they kept reading, the story took a heartbreaking turn. The
Speaker 1: Catholic Archdiocese, which owned the cathedral, had served the families
Speaker 1: with an eviction notice. They had forty eight hours to
Speaker 1: leave or they would be arrested for trespassing on church property.
Speaker 1: Shane said they had one of those moments when they
Speaker 1: found themselves asking, Hey, God, why don't you do something?
Speaker 1: And it was if God, and they answered, I did
Speaker 1: do something. I made you get out. So that night
Speaker 1: Shane in a group of college students drove into North Philly.
Speaker 1: They found the cathedral. They knocked on the doors, and
Speaker 1: Shane says they entered into the struggle. They didn't just
Speaker 1: admire the courage of those families from a distance. They
Speaker 1: joined them. They became friends with the mothers and the children.
Speaker 1: They worshiped together inside that old cathedral. They organized together.
Speaker 1: They stayed with them through the eviction battle, and Shane
Speaker 1: says that experience became the catalyst for an incredible student
Speaker 1: movement on their campus, and it completely changed how they
Speaker 1: read the Bible. He said, they stopped seeing Jesus simply
Speaker 1: as someone who cared about the poor. They began seeing
Speaker 1: Jesus as one who became poor, one who was born
Speaker 1: into suffering, one who identified with the forgotten, one who
Speaker 1: invites his followers to do the same. Meanwhile, the families
Speaker 1: hung a banner across the front of the cathedral that
Speaker 1: read this, how can we worship a homeless man on
Speaker 1: Sunday and ignore one on Monday. That's one of the
Speaker 1: most convicting questions I've ever heard, because it isn't just
Speaker 1: a question for churches. It's a question for all of us.
Speaker 1: It's not just a question for Christians. It's a question
Speaker 1: for any members of any faith or the agnostic. The
Speaker 1: question is incredible. Do the things we say we believe
Speaker 1: actually show up? And how we live? Do our words
Speaker 1: or our actions speak loudest? Then the story takes another
Speaker 1: incredible turn. The Archdiocees decided to bring in the fire marshal,
Speaker 1: hoping the building would be condemned as unsafe and the
Speaker 1: families would have to leave. The night before the inspection,
Speaker 1: there was a knock at the cathedral door. Shane said.
Speaker 1: Everyone assumed they'd come to evict the families under the
Speaker 1: cover of darkness. Instead, it was a group of firefighters.
Speaker 1: They quietly said, we're here against orders. Then they spent
Speaker 1: the entire night helping in small smoke detectors, exit signs,
Speaker 1: and fire extinguishers so the building would pass inspection. And
Speaker 1: the families could stay. I can't tell you how much
Speaker 1: I love that image. The institution failed, but the people
Speaker 1: inside it didn't, and I think that's the heart of
Speaker 1: the irresistible revolution. Shane didn't become an ordinary radical because
Speaker 1: he read a book or heard a sermon. He became
Speaker 1: one because he stopped asking why doesn't somebody do something
Speaker 1: about that one day and started asking what can I do?
Speaker 1: Sometimes changing the world starts with something as ordinary as
Speaker 1: knocking on a door. Sometimes it starts by staying with
Speaker 1: the people in the middle of their struggle, and sometimes
Speaker 1: it starts by installing smoke detectors at midnight. That's what
Speaker 1: ordinary radicals do. One of Shane's biggest idea is that
Speaker 1: followers of Christ don't spend their lives trying to avoid
Speaker 1: broken places. They move into them. Not because suffering is good,
Speaker 1: of course not, but because that's exactly where Jesus went.
Speaker 1: He tells about one of his classmates who proudly landed
Speaker 1: one of the most prestigious teaching jobs in a wealthy suburb.
Speaker 1: His professor looked at her and said, there are almost
Speaker 1: three hundred applicants for that job. Why would you take it?
Speaker 1: You're one of the best teachers go where they can't
Speaker 1: find enough teachers. Then he tells about a Harvard law
Speaker 1: graduate who turned down lucrative opportunities to defend poor people
Speaker 1: wouldn't afford lawyers. Shane said, the biggest question isn't am
Speaker 1: I going to be a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor.
Speaker 1: The big question is what kind of teacher? What kind
Speaker 1: of lawyer? What kind of doctor? Who am I going
Speaker 1: to teach? Who am I going to heal? Who am
Speaker 1: I going to represent? I think an army of normal
Speaker 1: folks ask the same question. What kind of retiree will
Speaker 1: I be? What kind of business owner, what kind of mechanics,
Speaker 1: what kind of parent? What kind of neighbor? If you
Speaker 1: believe in God, he doesn't just redeem our sundays, He
Speaker 1: redeems our vocations. Another theme running through The Irresistible Revolution
Speaker 1: is what Shane calls an economy of love. Instead of
Speaker 1: asking how can I accumulate more, he and his friends
Speaker 1: started asking how could we live with less so we
Speaker 1: can give more? They shared houses, they shared cars, they
Speaker 1: shared possessions, not because sharing was the goal, but because
Speaker 1: it freed them to love their neighbors more generously. Then
Speaker 1: he tells about a group of Christians who were tired
Speaker 1: of waiting for someone else to solve the health care crisis.
Speaker 1: They started pulling their money. They prayed with one another,
Speaker 1: They helped pay one another's medical bills. What began with
Speaker 1: just a few hundred people eventually grew into tens of thousands,
Speaker 1: sharing hundreds of millions of dollars in medical expenses. Shane's
Speaker 1: point isn't that everyone has to organize life exactly like
Speaker 1: he did. His point is that love is creative. Ordinary
Speaker 1: radicals don't ask what can't I do? They ask what
Speaker 1: can I do with what's already in my hands? No
Speaker 1: one person has to solve every problem, but together normal
Speaker 1: folks or ordinary radicals can do extraordinary things. That friends
Speaker 1: is shop talk number one fifteen, basically another man's take
Speaker 1: who I've never heard of, never read, or never met
Speaker 1: on what really can fix our culture? Are sighting a
Speaker 1: world which is an army of normal folks. His version
Speaker 1: of it is ordinary radicals, But candidly guys, it's the
Speaker 1: same venture.
Speaker 2: And if we live that, as the title of his
Speaker 2: book says, it becomes an irresistible revolution that people can't
Speaker 2: turn away from. They see it and they got to
Speaker 2: be a part of it.
Speaker 1: And although obviously he is a Christian, I'm your Catholic,
Speaker 1: I'm Christian, were Christians. But I do fear that non Christians, Jews, Muslims, Agnostics,
Speaker 1: hear us talking about this and think that this does
Speaker 1: not include them.
Speaker 2: That's why I said any moral code.
Speaker 1: And I'm really glad that we talked about any moral colleague,
Speaker 1: because you don't have to be a Christian to recognize
Speaker 1: talent and need and join the army of normal folks,
Speaker 1: A true army of normal folks, a true group of
Speaker 1: ordinary radicals really don't care how you pray. They just
Speaker 1: care what you do.
Speaker 2: And the reality is we all worship some kind of God.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: And even most Christians get that wrong, including us two included. Right,
Speaker 2: it's easy to make money your God or power or pleasure.
Speaker 2: So I mean all of us do have some form
Speaker 2: of God in some form of moral code. We couldn't
Speaker 2: operate in the world if we didn't.
Speaker 1: That's true, That's absolutely true. Guys, join the army in
Speaker 1: normal folks. Be an ordinary radical. Understand that those firemen
Speaker 1: changed lives by installing a smoke detector. That is not
Speaker 1: some massive, top down, huge five H one C three
Speaker 1: or government agency coming in and solving the problem. It's
Speaker 1: a freaking husband and a father and a dad who
Speaker 1: happens to be a fireman, who makes it less than
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars a year. It showed up with
Speaker 1: a sixteen dollars fire detector and a screwdriver and changed lives.
Speaker 1: That's the power of an army of normal folks, of
Speaker 1: ordinary radicals. And you can't sit on the sidelines and say,
Speaker 1: I wish somebody would do something about that. One day,
Speaker 1: when you have abilities and gift and there's needs surrounding you,
Speaker 1: who the hell is somebody? The answer has got to
Speaker 1: be you, us, an army of normal folks, a group
Speaker 1: of ordinary radicals seeing areas of need in their communities
Speaker 1: and filling it. And when we do that, all of
Speaker 1: our worlds get better.
Speaker 2: One part I like about that too, is that it
Speaker 2: was at midnight. Like Greg Spilliard said this while on
Speaker 2: his episode where he's like, this work is not nine
Speaker 2: to five.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: I mean sometimes it's at nine pm, sometimes at midnight.
Speaker 2: Mk Hill too recently talked about you know that one
Speaker 2: case where she you know, helped those three kids who
Speaker 2: became her foster kids, were you know, the police, you know,
Speaker 2: just rested.
Speaker 1: Mom.
Speaker 2: It's at night, these three kids around the corner with.
Speaker 1: Cod I can't remember what time it was, but it
Speaker 1: was late at night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is like, yes, she stepped in that moment
Speaker 2: and said, hey, I'm happy to take them, you know,
Speaker 2: and have them be you know, my foster kids. And
Speaker 2: it's not like it's happening every midnight. These guys are
Speaker 2: doing it. But you have to be mentally prepared when
Speaker 2: those opportunities do present themselves at crazy times, be willing
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 1: And that is because you if you assume that working
Speaker 1: in your community is an hour by hour, exhaustive process,
Speaker 1: that that very thing may keep you from engaging in
Speaker 1: the first place. It's it's not. It's just being ready
Speaker 1: to act and willing when you see opportunity. And who
Speaker 1: knows when that comes and what time it comes. But
Speaker 1: that's what an army and right if you think about it,
Speaker 1: the United States military spends ninety percent of its time
Speaker 1: hanging around, training and eating, right, and we're not always
Speaker 1: at war. An army builds itself in preparation for an event,
Speaker 1: and then it acts, and then when that act is over,
Speaker 1: it chills. And that's what an army normal folks has
Speaker 1: to be do, large enough and ready enough that when
Speaker 1: areas of need a rise in your community, you can act.
Speaker 1: It's a it's not an all the time thing. It's
Speaker 1: just what you can do when you can.
Speaker 2: That's a good analogy for us. Even when you're at
Speaker 2: war a lot of time they're sitting around too, right,
Speaker 2: They're sure they're not kinetic the whole time.
Speaker 1: Sure, okay, guys, that is shop talk number one point fifteen.
Speaker 1: Join the ranks of the army and normal folks become
Speaker 1: an ordinary radical and be as as our buddy Mike
Speaker 1: would say, a bloody do gooder. And let's let's let's
Speaker 1: do some good for our society and our culture and
Speaker 1: build relationships, have fun doing it. And the payoff is this,
Speaker 1: you will be so much more personally fulfilled in your
Speaker 1: own life when you're engaging in others. It's just a fact. Guys.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate it, review it,
Speaker 1: share it friends on on social Subscribe to the podcast.
Speaker 1: Join the Army at normal folks dot us. Join a
Speaker 1: service club if there's one in your area.
Speaker 2: We have five six or help start one.
Speaker 1: Oh what we've started one?
Speaker 2: No, we've fed six all on, Oh haven't we.
Speaker 1: We have six clubs and help start one. And our
Speaker 1: merch is online represent wear it around and understand we
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Speaker 1: the army normal stuff, So y'all buy some of that
Speaker 1: weird around So people ask and you get to say, hey,
Speaker 1: listen to the podcast, join the movement, be part of it.
Speaker 1: What else?
Speaker 2: Take the ten level challenge and get out of here
Speaker 2: and go do some good.
Speaker 1: That's it. And you can write me anytime at Bill
Speaker 1: at normal Folks dot us and I will respond if
Speaker 1: you have any ideas for things we should take up
Speaker 1: on shop Talk, or people in your community doing amazing
Speaker 1: things that we could feature on an Army of normal folks.
Speaker 1: Let us know your stories, will respond.
Speaker 2: That's sare we send you merch if you do what?
Speaker 1: Oh and if you do that, we send you free
Speaker 1: merch and that costs as because we don't make any money.
Speaker 1: I merg So there you have it. That's it Shop
Speaker 1: Talk number one fifteen. Thanks everybody. We'll see you next week.