Adam and Brooke
The Story Behind TUS
(Please listen to Adam and Brooke’s story by clicking the white play button at the top of this post. You can read the transcript of the story below.)
Brooke: Hey, guys, we wanted to do a little podcast of our own to kind of give you guys a glimpse of why we’re doing what we’re doing and how we got here. If you haven’t already listened to Adam’s podcast on that, this will give you a little more insight. But I encourage you to go and listen to that as well, if you have more questions. We just wanted to give you an insight into our lives and what it looks like from our end of doing The Unseen Story. Why we’re doing it the way we’re doing it. Why we’re doing what we’re doing. And we just wanted to clarify some of that.
Adam: I believe that we were called to do this. I believe the church is headed in a direction where it’s, Spirit and truth. That we’re raising up an army to engage the enemy, to push back darkness. And I think that it’s not just an army that is intellectual in nature. I think there’s got to be power. Paul talks about that, that He didn’t come just in words, but He came in power. That’s just my hope for this podcast; to cast a vision through the power of a good story on what it looks like to move in power.
Brooke: And I used to be like, “Oh, well, I haven’t seen that; so it must not be happening. Well, I’ve never heard a story about that; so it must not be happening.” Or when I did hear a story, I’d be like, “Bull! I don’t believe that.” And sometimes I still feel that way. But man, once we started this podcast, or even began to pray about presenting these stories, they just started coming out of everywhere. Like, “Oh, you’ve got to hear this, and you got to hear this, the Lord is so good. You’re not gonna believe what He did.” And for me, it was very eye opening and gut wrenching that I had been missing, or not necessarily missing, but dismissing that part of who God is. He’s just crazy creative, crazy intimate, and pursues us in the most reckless, but loving way.
Adam: The vision for sharing these stories was based in Scripture comes from Revelation 12:11, “overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.” So we know that our testimony has power to overcome, to present the gospel through what God is doing in and through us. Another scripture says, “exceedingly abundantly, beyond all we ask or think, according to the power working within us.” Okay, so the Holy Spirit has power. What has that power for? Well, I believe that power is to move in ways that are supernatural. They’re there to move in ways that only God can do, to bring people a glimpse of God’s power, of His kingdom.
Brooke: And His love. He does it from a place of love. Everything He does is from place of love.
Adam: I mean, we can really cut to the quick on theology, if you’re having an encounter with somebody and you’re sharing God’s love and all of a sudden they get healed. Or you know something that is impossible for you to know; you have an insight into that person that speaks to their heart in an instant. Something has happened that’s supernatural and now the ball’s in their court, so to speak. [They consider] okay, well, how do I grapple with that? What do I do with this? So I think that’s one of the reasons why the gifts are so valuable, so important. This is something that the enemy is working very hard to steal from believers. That’s really what’s on my heart, behind sharing these stories, I think this can be normal for us. I think often the way we think about church means that when we go to the building, and we gather on Sundays, we listen to a message, and we sing songs. We can function in that environment, thinking that God, what He does, is confined within what that routine looks like…That theology or best practices of our church, of our local church, God works within those confines. And, if God is doing something that maybe doesn’t fit within those confines, then we’re reluctant to accept that, to believing that that’s how it is. So now you see, there’s a denominational sort of division because, ‘well, actually God looks like this, and He functions this way, and being a mature Christian means that this is how I do things. By sharing these stories that would be across denominations, not tied to a specific ministry. These aren’t from believers from a specific body. This would be, as we get more and more stories, it would become increasingly more and more diverse from more and more states, more and more countries. That is a better reflection of the church. It’s a better reflection of how God is moving. God is doing things that are outside of the walls of our church. It’s outside of our doctrine of our local church. I’m not saying local churches are bad, and their way of doing things are bad. I’m just saying…
Brooke: It’s bigger.
Adam: It’s my hope to expand our collective concept of what God is up to, and how big He really is, and how He can circumvent some of our rules and our way of viewing Him. You know, His love surpasses knowledge; it’s a peace that surpasses understanding. That means it’s beyond, what God does, has to be beyond our intellect. If we can understand God, then we would be God.
Brooke: Right. So that’s kind of why we present these podcasts and these stories in the way that we do. Because we see that some of these issues can be uncomfortable. And some of these issues are so divisive, and we don’t feel that they need to be. We hope that it would stir questions. That it would start a conversation. That the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit working within you, would stir you to search the Scriptures and search Him in prayer. And just meet Him where you are; whether that’s fear, that’s doubt, that’s questioning. Whatever that looks like. We wanted these podcast to be kind of like, umm, not an interview type thing, but more of a…Hey, grab a cup of coffee with your friend or with this complete and total stranger; sit down and listen to their story. And then take that story and wrestle with it. Wrestle with the Lord on, “Is this You? Are You really and truly the same yesterday, today and tomorrow? Are You really still doing these things? Is this possible for me? Why is it so uncomfortable? Why is it so strange? Why does some of these things make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up?” But also, that it would encourage you. For a long time I was going to church and I just was so not encouraged. I just felt more and more discouraged. Every time I left [feeling] I’m not doing enough. I’m not serving enough. I’m not righteous enough. And no one was telling me that. I was feeling that way based on how I felt I should or should not be behaving or the things I should or should not be doing. Instead of letting the Lord told me what He wanted me to do, how He wanted me to process His word, and how He wanted me to spend time with Him. It wasn’t a relationship of intimacy. It was more of a contractual relationship.
It’s my hope to expand our collective concept of what God is up to, and how big He really is, and how He can circumvent some of our rules and our ways of viewing Him.
Adam: Regarding the Holy Spirit, I think there’s a lot of confusion and disagreement about the Holy Spirit in particular. The Holy Spirit is our Guide, our Comforter, our Advocate. How the Holy Spirit moves is a big part of this podcast. How can the Holy Spirit empower you as a believer? Think about what Paul said. He said, “Walk by the power of the Spirit and you will not desire the lusts of the flesh.” Paul also said, “Walk in newness of the Spirit.” So there’s this encouragement to walk by the Spirit. What does that look like? Well, I think through testimony, through story, we can share what that looks like. Now, you may not agree with every story. I’m not asking you to swallow every story. I’m asking that you would consider every story and say, you know, there’s this tension, Spirit and truth. Take these stories, and then wrestle with truth of Scripture and prayer. The Holy Spirit’s in you; He’s your guide. He can guide you. Scripture was written by men, physically, but through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Every person I pray over them, and we ask the Holy Spirit to lead them, to guide them, to give the story to them. Sometimes we don’t know what story is going to be shared. We’re really asking for the Holy Spirit to show up and give them the words and how to navigate the story. So I’m not equating these stories that we’re gathering as the Bible. But, I’m implying that they have value to give us a vision for what it means to walk by the power of the Spirit. These are stories of people that are trying to walk by the Spirit. I don’t know that we do a good job of opening ourselves up to these kinds of stories that are supernatural in nature. Because we’re of Western mindset, we like things tangible, we like things, you know, “scientific.”
Brooke: And, we like lists, and we like order.
Adam: And we’re more, I think often, more prone to function from logic, from process, from procedure. And the Holy Spirit’s like the wind, Jesus said, you don’t know where it’s going and where it’s coming from. I know for me personally, these stories have really challenged my faith. They’ve opened my eyes to some things that I didn’t know that I would be stepping into. But to me, the end goal is dependence on the Lord.
Brooke: I think it’s so good that you said that, because even for me, I’m like, “Oh, Lord, I want that gift. But, don’t give me that one because that other one, that one’s weird. But I’ll take this gift, or that gift, but that one, that one’s too weird. And I don’t want to seem like any more of a total nut job than I already appear to be. So don’t give me that.” So there are things that we’re sharing on here, that even for us, in in sharing all this, like Adam said, it’s making us dive deeper into the word and into a time of prayer with the Lord. Like, WOW! Whaaat? This is crazy! And, we’re wrestling with things too. I mean, I cannot even begin to tell you how far out of my comfort box I have been through this whole process. I feel like the Lord is just taking me from one thing, to the next thing, to the next thing, of just calling me out of comfort. I love to be comfortable. And man, this lifestyle is just pushing me right out of that. Lifestyle of following Him and lifestyle of trying to obey what we feel He has called us to, and the lifestyle of looking like Jesus every where we go. Even if that means that we look strange, we look weird, or that people think we’re crazy. And I think that one of the biggest areas for us in that is that you left your job for this. I mean this, we’re doing this ministry full time. We had savings that we feel like God provided for us, or guided us, in putting away for a season such as this and it is allowing us to basically, do this first year of The Unseen Story. But really, our income is solely based on financial provision from donations and partnerships.
Adam: We hope you like the stories. We hope that you share. We also hope that you’ll pray and consider partnering with us. We desire to do this long term. For as long as the Lord wills us to do it. In order for that to happen, practically, we need folks that are willing to support us on a monthly, a month to month basis. That’s a real ask; a real need that we have. And we would love for you to pray about that. We hope that we’ve cast vision; I have a lot on my mind and a lot that I want to say. I don’t know that I’m saying everything that I want to say. If you have questions, I’d love to grab coffee with you or have an email exchange or however you want to communicate.
Brooke: Or we could both grab coffee. I’m happy to meet with women; Adam will meet with men.
Adam: We would love for you to pray about it and say, “Lord, do you want me to participate financially in what they’re doing?”
Brooke: We need you.
Adam: Yeah, we need your help.
Brooke: Yeah, we’ll keep bringing you stories because they’re out there and we want to go get them!
Adam: Love you.
Brooke: Yep.
