None: 0:06

Welcome to the Leading Conversations podcast sponsored by the Excel Leadership Network. On each episode, jd Paring will have conversations with church planting pastors and leaders from around the country. You can learn more about how to connect with Excel at the end of this podcast. Let's join JD now and listen in on this leading conversation.

J.D. Pearring: 0:30

Welcome to another podcast with Accel Leadership Network. This is the Leading Conversations podcast, and today we are very excited to have with us Josh

Josh Huseby: 0:41

Usobi

J.D. Pearring: 0:42

Is that right, usHabi? Tell me, josh, what kind of name that is?

Josh Huseby: 0:50

It's a Norwegian name. So, yeah, my ancestors came over, I guess, from Norway to Minnesota, then to North Dakota and settled there and started farming and doing all the stuff.

J.D. Pearring: 1:03

So yeah, and you are planting a church in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Josh Huseby: 1:09

Bismarck, north Dakota, yep, capital of North Dakota, and we started back in 2020, right in the middle of COVID, so it was a good time.

J.D. Pearring: 1:18

Hey, sell us on North Dakota and or Bismarck. What does it have to offer North Dakota and ?

Josh Huseby: 1:26

North Dakota is a great place to come, in the summertime. If you're going to visit, I'd recommend coming between July and August and the rest of the year no, we get four seasons, but our winters are a little bit brutal. I got to say that in the middle of winters we usually ask ourselves, my wife and I, why do we live here? And we question that. But then we usually take a trip somewhere warm. But it's a great place to raise a family just some great people here. And we've lived here a good chunk of our lives and so we've grown to love it, even in spite of some of the weather challenges.

J.D. Pearring: 2:06

So, other than the weather, it's great, huh.

Josh Huseby: 2:08

Yeah, yeah, pretty much, I would say. And Bismarck's right kind of smack in the middle of the state or the capital city and right on the river, missouri River. So beautiful city, clean city, and I think it's the best in North Dakota. So that's my opinion. I'm a little bit biased, but we like it here.

J.D. Pearring: 2:27

Well, great, well, hey, thanks for being with us. Tell us your story. How did you come to Christ?

Josh Huseby: 2:33

So I came to faith at a young age. I was probably around six or seven years old and my parents brought us to church every Sunday, and so we grew up in the church, grew up knowing about Jesus. I just remember praying with my dad. I said I understand eternity and I need Jesus. So he led me in prayer, my brother and I, that night. Then he passed away when I was nine.

Josh Huseby: 3:02

That was a pretty major life event for me and I really at that point got angry with God and I said this is no good. Like what good is a God that loves me if he takes my dad? I didn't understand. I had a lot of anger and so from I'd say, about age nine to about 20, I was angry and I just was rebelling against God, didn't want anything to do with the church.

Josh Huseby: 3:28

Um, throughout high school my mom made me go to youth group you know, still drug me to church, but I didn't want to be there. Um, I just had a lot to process and deal with. And so it was about when I was, I would say, about 20 years old, when I had just finally had enough running and I started attending a small church here in Bismarck. I was going to college here at the time and started attending this small church and just God was doing something in my heart and I was just tired of running, and so I finally just rededicated my life and I said, lord, I think you're calling me to ministry. I don't really know what this looks like, but I'm tired of running and been walking with him ever since.

J.D. Pearring: 4:11

So yeah, so your recommitment and call to ministry were kind of at the same time.

Josh Huseby: 4:18

They were yeah, and you know, god was healing some things in my heart, that again, my anger about my dad being gone, and I honestly sensed the calling. Since I was a kid, like since probably about the time I came to Christ. I remember, like to go back in time. I remember sitting there, the church we were attending. It was a small church and this guy was kind of from like a southern accent. We were over in England, my dad was Air Force, so we're in this, this military chapel, but the guy was from the deep South, I don't know Louisiana or something like that, and he was. He was preaching and he was kind of one of those guys who would wave the hanky and and yell a lot and sweat a lot. And he was.

Josh Huseby: 5:00

I remember sitting there thinking this guy's nuts, like I would never do this. And in that moment I sensed the Holy Spirit saying one day you will. And I'm thinking, no, I won't, it's just like a little kid, you know, wanting to argue and fast forward. And now here I am, you know, preaching and leading a church, and so God obviously knew what he was doing. But yeah, that coming back to kind of return home to my relationship with God, that recommitment was also a decision to say I'm going to pursue ministry and pursue whatever God has for my life, because I had tried going off on my own, doing my own thing, and it just wasn't working. I was miserable and yeah.

J.D. Pearring: 5:42

I need to ask do you preach with a handkerchief and sweat and have a southern accent when you're on stage?

Josh Huseby: 5:50

Probably all the opposite of those. No, I'm not sweaty and I don't have a hanky and I have a northern accent, as you can probably tell. But you know, it just was a kind of a cool moment I it was very much a marker in my memory. I can remember right where I was sitting all those years ago. God uses all different kinds. I didn't have to be just like him, even though in my mind I'm thinking this guy's just wild.

J.D. Pearring: 6:20

What college was it In Bismarck? Yeah?

Josh Huseby: 6:24

Bismarck yeah, bismarck State College. I did an automotive degree right out of high school and went to work in dealerships. I was wrenching on cars and kind of trying to forge my own path, even though I knew God wanted me to be in ministry. I was like, nah, I don't want to do that.

J.D. Pearring: 6:41

Are you a car guy?

Josh Huseby: 6:43

I am a car guy. Are you a car guy? I am a car guy and so that's part of my kind of my side hustle, or my I call it my garage therapy now. So I love ministry but obviously being able to get out in the garage work on vehicles. I've built a few motorcycles. I got a project. Right now I'm building a chopper, got a couple of project cars and probably too many projects, but you know it's fun. So you're a car guy and a chopper, got a couple of project cars and probably too many projects, but you know it's fun.

J.D. Pearring: 7:07

So you're a car guy and a motor head.

Josh Huseby: 7:10

Yeah, pretty much anything with an engine. But I've got a 68 Ford Fairlane. That's my project project and everything else is kind of just getting in the way of that one that's my main project.

J.D. Pearring: 7:24

68 Ford Fairlight Is that a 289 in there?

Josh Huseby: 7:28

I have a 351 Cleveland in that one.

J.D. Pearring: 7:31

351 Cleveland. Wow, I'm kind of a Ford guy. My grandfather would turn over his grave if he heard me say that I have a 66 Mustang. My first car was a Galaxy, but it was a 351 Windsor. You know, the weak little brother of the 351 Cleveland. We're probably boring anybody. I consider myself a car guy, but not a motorhead. I like cars, I know about them. I don't want to work on them. I retired from that in Denver. It was too cold.

Josh Huseby: 8:17

Well, at that time. So I got out of high school, went to college for auto tech, did a two-year degree in that. Then that was about the time that I decided I was, you know, wanted to do this ministry thing and kind of get on God's plan for my life. So I enrolled at another university a hundred miles away as a music student, because I wanted to get a four-year degree so I could go to seminary. I needed a bachelor's degree so I could get my master's. There weren't any Bible colleges close by, so I just decided to do an undergrad in music.

Josh Huseby: 8:48

Where was that that was in Minot. Okay, what school? Minot State University.

J.D. Pearring: 8:59

I don't. I don't know any of those. That's why I'm asking.

Josh Huseby: 9:02

Surprise. Yeah, so I went to Minot state did a four year degree and while I was there I got hired at a local church as a worship pastor and so I started full time on staff while um kind of finished up my music degree. And then I started doing my master's while I was working there and finished, finished my master's and so I got a um master of arts in master's while I was working there and finished my master's and so I got a master of arts in worship studies and church planting.

J.D. Pearring: 9:34

A master of arts in worship arts and church planting.

Josh Huseby: 9:39

What's your instrument? So for my undergrad I was a vocal major but I played percussion and I play a lot of other instruments guitar, you know, drums, just all this stuff. Kind of like most worship leaders, you got to be able to play a little bit of everything.

J.D. Pearring: 9:51

So and church planting, so you took that at school.

Josh Huseby: 9:55

Yeah, I was always fascinated by kind of the nuts and bolts of why churches work the way they work, and maybe that's part of my automotive background is I'm curious about, you know, the inner workings of things. And so I was fascinated by this idea of starting a new church and saying, okay, well, what are the structures and systems and what does leadership look like, and, you know, kind of challenging some of the ideas of the way we've always done things, and that fascinated me. At the time I didn't know that God was calling me to be a church planter. I just kind of thought worship was going to be my thing forever. But obviously those classes paid off and all that study like it was very much helpful for where I am now.

J.D. Pearring: 10:39

So so you went into ministry. You're a worship pastor a couple different places.

Josh Huseby: 10:47

Yep, I was a worship pastor in Minot for about seven years. That was the church that hired me right out of college and then went down to Owasso, oklahoma, which is a bedroom community of Tulsa, and was down there for about five years at a multi-site church, yeah, and then ended up coming back to North Dakota to be closer to family, and that's about the time we got the call to plant and the time that I met you and I went out to the Discovery Center.

J.D. Pearring: 11:18

Yeah, how did the call to plant occur?

Josh Huseby: 11:23

Well, that was a little bit more gradual, I feel, like my call to ministry. I very much knew clearly God was calling me to be in ministry. The call to plant specifically. You know, we were at a kind of a crossroads where it was like, all right, either God's moving us on to another worship ministry or to church planting and honestly, like I had a lot of doubt, I'm like I don't know if I'm a church planter, I don't know if I have the chops to do that or the skill set you know, and just kind of had in my mind that church planters were a certain kind of human that maybe I wasn't. And so we ended up coming out to I forget what church. If it was Mariners, it was somewhere.

J.D. Pearring: 12:06

It was at Mariners. I'll never forget because I, if it was Mariners, it was somewhere. It was at Mariners I'll never forget because I think it was January. We usually do those around Martin Luther King weekend and it was like 70 degrees and sunny in SoCal and there were a couple of you clients from North and South Dakota and you were just amazed that the sun sun happens in January or uh and that campus is just so beautiful. It was like being in heaven for a couple of days.

Josh Huseby: 12:37

It was, and you got to realize that we we lose the sun for a few months. So when we saw it it was a rare sighting in January to January to feel warmth, but it was a beautiful, beautiful time out there and yeah, so we went out to Mariners and met up with you guys and went through that process, the Discovery Center, and really for my wife and I we were just exploring Like what has got up to. We feel something kind of going on in our hearts and there's some conversations happening within our denomination about church planning. But are we specifically called? And we didn't really know. So we went into that process kind of open-handed to just say let's see what these leaders obviously these are people who know church planning, who've planted a lot of churches and done a lot of ministry let's just entrust the Holy Spirit to speak through them to us. And so we went into that, just very much kind of ready, I guess, for either a green light or a red light or a yellow light, you know, not really knowing what it was going to be. And at the end of that we ended up getting a yellow light saying you know, we feel like you guys could be church planters, that we believe in you but you also have to decide if this is really what God's calling you to do. So it's kind of like, all right, we're going to still, you know, we still need to really seek the Lord on this. And so that's what we did.

Josh Huseby: 14:01

And we took some steps. We moved from Minot to Bismarck to where our sending church, so we planted in Bismarck and our sending church is also in the same town and they were wanting to plant and we were looking for a church to kind of partner with. So we ended up just joining up and just saying, hey, let's take some steps, let's take some time and pray and just discern. And so it was kind of a gradual, I guess, revealing of God's will. And that was also about the time of COVID. You know we moved just here right before COVID, and so a lot of time to just take things slow. And now I don't have any doubt that God called us to be here and that he was guiding us all along the way. It was just more of a slow, gradual sense of discerning his call, I guess.

J.D. Pearring: 14:51

So COVID actually happened in North Dakota. It did for about a month.

Josh Huseby: 14:56

No, that was one of the times I was really glad to be in North Dakota, because there's so few people here that everyone's already socially distant without even really trying. You know a lot of rural, you know farms and people just spread out. But but no it did happen here. We ended up, you know, having restrictions, but I don't think it was near as restrictive as other parts of the country, so it was very nice to to kind of have that minimized. But yeah, we planted right in April of 2020.

J.D. Pearring: 15:30

Wow, well, how has it gone?

Josh Huseby: 15:33

It's been a ride. I tell people that church planting is the hardest thing I've ever done in ministry and it's also the most rewarding thing that I've ever done and I love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but it is difficult and there are days when it's a grind, but then you get to like witness God's working and things that I just have never seen before. So we share a lot of stories and we love to tell what God's up to, but it's going well. The church is growing and we're just seeing constant signs that God is expanding his kingdom here in Bismarck.

J.D. Pearring: 16:12

Can you tell us one of those stories?

Josh Huseby: 16:16

Let's see. Yeah, I could tell you probably one of the more unusual stories. I mean I've got a lot of variety of kinds of stories, but one of the things that's I mean I've got a lot, a lot of variety of kinds of stories, but one of the things that's unique about us is we are right next door to a homeless shelter. So we're in a building, it's a warehouse, and right next door to us we have a homeless shelter. And since since the beginning, since we've started being in this space, we've always kept just an open, you know, posture to homeless folks coming to worship with us. We have free donuts and free coffee, and they know that, and so we're a popular place to be.

Josh Huseby: 16:54

On Sunday morning and I'd say it was about a month ago we had a lady come up. She was from the shelter and she was sitting in the back of the worship service and I'd been preaching and I'd come back for, kind of the end of the sermon Band had gone up to lead a closing song. And she approached me during the closing song and taps me on the shoulder and she says will you pray for me? And I said, sure, what's up? And she said I've got demons all over me and I said, okay, well, just hold on. I said I need to go up and close the service and then I said we'll pray for you. And so we I went back up, dismissed the service, and then she came up and this woman's name is Pam, just a short little gal with brown hair, petite little thing. And she comes up and she says will you pray for me? I've got these demons that are bothering me. And I reached out and grabbed another lady who does prison ministry to come and assist. And so we started talking with her and interacting with her and we kind of started with you know, do you know Jesus as your savior? Do you have salvation in him? Do you know Jesus as your savior? Do you, do you have salvation in him? And she went from like this crying kind of high pitched you know voice, this woman's natural voice, and her voice dropped about two or three octaves, immediately stopped crying and said she does not want to be saved. And, and Renee, this other lady and I we kind of looked at each other. We're like, okay, this is this other lady. And I kind of looked at each other, like OK, this is, this is interesting. And so we ended up having about a 20 minute conversation between the two of us and Pam, and also this spirit, this demon that was like, speaking to us through her, and we asked her. We said do you want to receive Jesus, do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Do you want freedom from this oppression of these spirits? And she said yes and she prayed to receive Christ on the spot. We prayed over her.

Josh Huseby: 18:53

She disappeared for about two or three weeks and then all of a sudden, she showed back up and she was completely different. Her eyes were clear. She now is in attendance, like every week, and we do dialogue during our services, like during the sermon. I'll stop and we'll have some questions. She's answering questions and like she is completely different. Now she's still homeless, still has some struggles and we're trying to help her with some of that. But I mean, it was just wild. I'm like, OK, we had, you know, we've got and that's not the only demon possessed person we've had come through the doors and so that, yeah, that was an interesting one, and there's always something with with our homeless population. There's always some interesting things to deal with, but we love it.

J.D. Pearring: 19:40

That's crazy. So if you need somebody to cast out demons, just call Josh.

Josh Huseby: 19:47

I don't know if I'm a specialist in that, but you know, it's just a reminder that you know he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, and we don't have to be afraid even though we're not, maybe, you know, super experienced in that area that we have the Holy Spirit and he's greater.

J.D. Pearring: 20:05

So thank you for sharing that. That's a crazy, crazy story. I can't imagine being homeless in North Dakota. It's got to be freezing.

Josh Huseby: 20:15

It is, and that the shelter next door I think their capacity is like 60 to 80. And they run like closer to 200 in the wintertime People are sleeping on the floor and it's way over capacity. Because you can't. You can't really survive on the street. You know other parts of the country you can. You can lay outside on a sidewalk and sleep or in a park around here. You freeze to death. So there's not as many homeless people, but the ones that are here they definitely have to be in the shelter.

J.D. Pearring: 20:46

Wow, they're the hardcore homeless Yikes. Well, hey, give us a leadership tip from the great Josh Huseby car guy, motorhead demon caster outer you know, there's probably a lot of things that would be good leadership tips or or principles.

Josh Huseby: 21:16

I think the one that I that came to mind first when you asked me that was get a coach, have a coach. So all throughout my ministry years, whether I was a worship pastor or a church plant or whatever roles I've been in, I've always had a coach, and there've been a few seasons where I've gone like six months without it and I can feel like the edge start to dull. And so I currently have two coaches in my life and they're very different purposes. One is helping me with strategic kind of goal setting you know what's the next thing we need to to to push for as a church, and that's been super helpful. And then the other coach that I have is more of a soul care type of coach, and so we talk about processing the internals of what's going on in my heart.

Josh Huseby: 22:03

What am I dealing with emotionally as a pastor and just as a, as a, as a person, and so having some kind of person to pour into your life who's a couple steps ahead of you, man, it's just such a healthy thing to do. And you know, in ministry we're lonely, we're isolated, and so it's easy to be kind of off by yourself and you just kind of either plateau in your development as a leader or you just feel alone. And so having somebody there to kind of pull you on and encourage you and just you know, link arms. Man, I wouldn't trade that for anything. So I'm a huge proponent of coaching and I was at one of the Accelerate events and you guys were talking about it and that's really where I was in a season at that point where I had been without a coach and then now I have one and I'm just so grateful and I'm grateful for the partnership too with Excel and just your guys's commitment to coaching as well. So that's my tip get a coach, have a coach.

J.D. Pearring: 23:03

It's a great great tip are you coaching anybody yet?

Josh Huseby: 23:08

um, I am currently not. I was for a while when I was doing worship, leading like worship, you know stuff I had a few people that I was coaching. I'm not currently coaching anybody, but maybe in the future.

J.D. Pearring: 23:21

Have you gone through Brian Berman's coaching training? I have not. Okay, I think you would be phenomenal at being a coach. One of the prerequisites for being a good coach is somebody who understands the importance of it and leans into it. So if you are looking for a coach, you can check us out at accelnetworkorg. Or if you would like to become a coach, I know Brian is doing Brian Berman, our coaching coordinator. He's doing a couple of training days here fairly soon, but he does those regularly. So just check out Excel networkorg. Send us a note, we'll get you caught up with that, but I think that would be a really good next step for you when you're ready for that, josh, yeah.

Josh Huseby: 24:11

I'd be glad to visit that that you know and talk about it so yeah Well.

J.D. Pearring: 24:17

Hey well, right before we leave, it's um. You mentioned to me before this podcast that you're a big Minnesota Vikings fan. Is that normal in North Dakota? Is that the team that they?

Josh Huseby: 24:29

Yeah, I'd say it's fairly normal. Most folks around here are either Minnesota Vikings or Green Bay Packer fans, and then there's you know kind of a smattering of other people who've kind of come from other places, whether it's you know, Cowboys or Chiefs or you know some other team. Mostly it's purple and green, and a couple of weeks ago we had that rivalry, you know, Vikings versus Packers, and so we had on Sunday morning, we had a meal after church and we had everybody wear their jerseys. So there was a lot of purple. We'll just say that and your team is doing well this year. They are, they're 5-0. And everybody thought, I think, they had projected them to win six games for the whole season. So, being 5-0 right out of the gate, I'd say they kind of surprised some people, including myself.

J.D. Pearring: 25:21

Well, congratulations. My team is on the opposite end of that. Well, hey, thank you so much for being on, thanks for what you're doing, thanks for just, you know, pushing things forward in North Dakota and giving us a little bit of insight onto that. So appreciate you, josh.

Josh Huseby: 25:40

Yeah, for sure. So glad to be on here and just to be able to chat with you, JD.

None: 26:37

Thanks for joining the Leading Conversations podcast. We hope that you found it both helpful and encouraging. At Excel Leadership Network, our focus is on the church planter rather than the church. If you'd like to find out more about us, visit our webpage at excelnetwork. org. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. See you next time with another leading conversation.