Jake Mentzel - Church Planting & Godly Ambition

In our fifth episode, Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock sit down with Jake Menzel of Church of the King in Evansville to talk about the word Reformed men are afraid of: ambition. Ambition they've been trained to distrust. Ambition that draws on the Father's pleasure instead of earning it. Ambition for a man's sons and grandsons, and the church he's been given. Jake, Stephen, and Aaron talk through why a man who won't believe his sanctification has not believed his justification, why Reformed devotion becomes a contest over who feels worst about himself, and why feeling bad is not the same as repenting. Or, as Jake puts it: before you die, let the world see the best you that you knew how to become.00:00 — Meet Jake Menzel and the Frontier Shepherds conference01:46 — Why Evansville is a hard place to plant a church07:10 — Why plant here at all: "God was calling me home to my people"09:24 — Coming back to the Lord at 17, then off to IU12:04 — Trial by fire at a secular university; charisma that outruns character14:55 — Three years at NGA and seven years of campus ministry16:51 — Godly ambition and how young men have changed in twenty years22:24 — Bloomington vs. Evansville; when a church never grows past campus ministry28:46 — A hard demographic shift and the cost of defining who you are32:46 — How do you fuel ambition without burning out?34:32 — The baptism of Jesus: the Father pleased before the Son has done a thing36:22 — Haddon and the center-field fence39:39 — If you don't believe in sanctification, you don't believe in justification42:03 — The feedback loop of self-loathing — and why it isn't the gospel45:39 — Godly ambition rooted in the fatherhood of God49:43 — The little-league coach who can't let his son fail53:47 — Better or bitter56:41 — The smallest, most fearless kid on the team1:00:36 — Ambition for growth, not greatness