Alan Adler: 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: 0:29

Well, welcome to another edition rendition of the Leading Conversations podcast with Accel Leadership Network. And today we have the voice of Leading Conversations. It's the great and powerful Alan Adler is with us all the way from the home office in Visalia, California. Howdy, howdy. How's life in Visalia?

Alan Adler: 0:57

You know it's good. We you know we're dealing, just doing life and taking care of stuff. And you know we're dealing, just doing life and taking care of stuff and it's not a bad place to be. It's kind of right in the middle of California. So if we want to go to LA or San Francisco, we're kind of right in between, so it's not so bad.

J.D. Pearring: 1:15

Good, good. Well, hey, let's just start from the beginning. Talk about how you came to Christ.

Alan Adler: 1:24

You know it's, it's uh, my dad, um, was born in Minnesota, raised in Minnesota, so obviously very, very, very Lutheran, and so he felt like he just needed to be, uh, have a relationship with Christ. And we didn't really have that out here. He didn't really do anything, but he was really a seeker. So he really wanted to find a relationship and go to church and do stuff like that, and so he was an orthodontist, had another friend that was a dentist, that was part of the Mormon church and so for the longest time we started doing the Mormon church, we were. For the longest time we started doing the Mormon church, we were going and doing and we even had the missionaries come to our house and all that type of stuff. And I can still so clearly remember one day we had this big shag carpet in our living room and we were getting ready for the missionaries to come to our house, and so I was raking the shag carpet and because I was a creative, I guess I was raking a cross in the shag carpet, and then I can still hear my mom talking from the kitchen saying you know, they don't really believe in that, and so that was something that really stuck with me and then my dad went to this conference or seminar on the book of revelation and he was like all into it. Like we had the big posters on our wall of the you know. You know the old school posters of the, the, all the stuff that happens in revelation and all the you know, this happens in here and this happens here and here's the angel and here's the boars that pulled up bowls that poured out, and all that type of stuff Anyway. So he was very big into that and that's kind of what led him to Christ.

Alan Adler: 3:35

And he came to Christ really at a later age he was like 40 something and so, long story short, we ended up going to there's this place in Visalia it's called the Oval, which is kind of downtown. It's just kind of the used to be kind of like the old I don't want to call it the rundown part of town, but it's kind of like. You know, you go out to the Oval, that's what you called it but there was this little church that was out on the oval and this was one of those things where we went out there one day and we watched. We went out there to watch one of these movies on the revelation movies, and I don't know if you remember these old 70s movies on revelation. You know like people are getting their heads chopped off and you know it's just like, oh my god, this is terrible. I need to like. You know, I need to accept Jesus now. And so we watched this movie and, honestly, at the end of the movie there's a pastor that came up to the front and said, hey, if anybody, you know, if you feel like you need to make a decision tonight, then this is your chance to make a decision. And honestly, I don't think anybody could have held me in that row. I, like ran to the front and I ran to the thing and I can still remember, I can still picture sitting in the little pastor's office saying the prayer and that type of stuff.

Alan Adler: 5:00

And so that was my introduction to Christ and my introduction to our relationship with Jesus. And then, of course, over time, we started going to church and we were there regularly. I was super involved with youth and for anybody that knows Excel Leadership Network, knows Karl Roth. So Karl Roth and I were bosom buddies growing up together in church. Bosom buddies growing up together in church, and you know. So it was a fantastic thing that I was very blessed to have parents of friends and also just a church that just nurtured me through a youth program, and so that's kind of how I got there. And of course you know you go through the whole thing and everybody has their transition of you go to college, you figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life and but yeah, so that's how I that was. My journey into a walk with Christ is just. It started with a movie of revelation that literally scared the hell out of me.

J.D. Pearring: 6:03

Wow, hey, you mentioned carl. We haven't been able to get him to come on the podcast. Maybe he will in order to rebut this. But give us a story about carl, because I heard that you guys were troublemakers we were kind of troublemakers.

Alan Adler: 6:20

So back in the day, um, obviously we grew up at in in church and we would do, you know, sunday school and all the stuff and everything like that. And it just so happened that the sunday school room somehow, some way, they decided it was a great idea to have national geographic books in the sunday school room, right? So it's like, okay, it's educational, we want kids to learn about stuff, so anyway, so Carl and I would sneak into the Sunday school room and find the National Geographic books that just so happened to have images of, let's just say, native women in Africa, and so I don't think I need to say much more than that.

J.D. Pearring: 7:12

No, that's about as far as you want to go.

Alan Adler: 7:14

I think we're going to keep this G-rated.

J.D. Pearring: 7:20

Wow, okay, that's what you guys did. Did you have any inkling that Carl was going to be like a pastor, a church leader?

Alan Adler: 7:31

You know, when one of the things and we do, a one of our discovery centers is at South Shores Church and Ty Guy is the pastor there and he was actually our youth pastor in high school when we were growing up and we had a deal where he actually made an opportunity for those of us that wanted to to meet early on Sunday morning, like literally before church.

Alan Adler: 7:57

We would get there super early, like if there's an eight, you know, eight or nine o'clock, so we'd get there at like seven or eight o'clock early in the morning and he would teach us the Greek New Testament. And so Carl, myself and a couple other people, what we ended up doing is we ended up taking, each of us took one gospel and we went through the Greek in each of those gospels and then created a lesson or that we would use on Wednesday night at youth group. And so, you know, carl of course took Luke, but I had Matthew, but, but that was just one of those things where you know it was. I could see then, certainly with Carl, that teaching and digging into scripture was certainly something that was kind of his part of his DNA and so, yeah, so it was. It was neat to do, and I love Ty to this day for giving us the opportunity to do that.

J.D. Pearring: 8:59

Wow, wow. So you go off to college. Did you send some sort of call into ministry?

Alan Adler: 9:07

You know, not in college right away. I, you know, like most people that go to college, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, and I was a big computer nerd, so I thought at first I might do computer stuff and then I realized that math was really hard and I didn't like that. It was a general ed class and I realized this is something that I can do without even thinking about it. I could just stand up.

Alan Adler: 9:34

You know, it's like the old Seinfeld thing, it's like I would much rather be the, you know, everybody never wants. They would much rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy, right, right, I'm kind of the person I would much rather be given the eulogy because I just, I just love to be able to share and speak, and and so that was kind of what happened at first and then, after doing a couple of different things in college and different jobs and all different sorts of things, I ended up back at my one of our original churches we attended, which is Tulare First Baptist, and I ended up kind of just volunteering there.

Alan Adler: 10:13

And honestly, that's how I met my wife. She was moving to Visalia because she worked at Wells Fargo and she was getting transferred to the Tulare branch, and so she asked someone there at the branch so if there's a church that I should go to, where should I go? And they had suggested Tulare First Baptist. So she told that to me because she knew I lived in Visalia and Tulare and Visalia are right next door. And so I said, hey, I go there, let's go, perfect.

Alan Adler: 10:45

And so what we ended up doing? And kind of bounce back to Carl he just happened to be the youth pastor at Tulare First Baptist at the time. So he had kind of called me and said hey, dude, it'll be like when we were in junior high, come help me with, you know, help me with the youth group. And so Beth, my wife, who eventually would become my wife and I started working there. We volunteered and helped out with the junior high group, and we did that, you know, wednesday nights. And we volunteered and helped out with the junior high group, and we did that, you know, wednesday nights and Sunday mornings and that type of stuff, including going to church, and that's kind of how we, you know, developed our relationship and ultimately I actually proposed to Beth in front of the junior high group on a Wednesday night at our church, and so she was kind of she kind of felt like she was, didn't have a choice to say no, but anyway, but yeah. So that was kind of the start of it and then that kind of just led to staying with in work and youth ministry.

Alan Adler: 11:46

I left with those, stayed with those kids through high school, then even into college and and then eventually watched those kids. You know, have families and kids of their own and that type of stuff. But ultimately I ended up working on staff at that church and then I felt like, you know, maybe this is, maybe this is where I'm going to be, and so that led to a decision, maybe this is where I'm going to be, and so that led to a decision. I ended up going to Dallas Theological Seminary and it's I got. Basically I got a well, I got a master's degree in Christian leadership, thinking that I, you know, like this is what I want to do. I want to do ministry and be a part of a church and make church happen. You know, that was kind of my thing. It was like all the stuff that you know I didn't necessarily want to be the pastor up front, but I knew that it took a lot to make a church work and so I wanted to be that guy.

J.D. Pearring: 12:41

And then, at one point Karl said hey, Alan might be somebody that could help out at Excel.

Alan Adler: 12:48

Yeah Well, and I think the thing for me was it was you know as many people do that go into church, work and work at a church. You would hope that the church is the best environment to work in. It's the happiest place on earth right, it's not Disneyland, but it's the next happiest place on earth and unfortunately that's not always the case. And so, like many people that I've heard on this podcast before, you know, the church experience was challenging, it was tough, it wasn't easy, and so I decided I still want to stay in ministry and I want to do something different. And so I called Carl and he said, well, you need to call JD. Called Carl and he said, well, you need to call JD. And so that's kind of led to some conversations of, you know, working with Excel and kind of doing what I had done at church, but also, but you know, using that for church planters.

J.D. Pearring: 13:43

So, yeah, I remember that. I mean I'll never forget Karl saying hey, I talked to this and then came to Connection Events, started working with Excel You're doing that for a while. Then we worked together at a group formerly known as Transformation Ministries.

Alan Adler: 14:02

Yes.

J.D. Pearring: 14:03

And then one day you said, hey, I need to make a change, talk about that, it was in Arizona. You said, hey, I need to make a change, talk about that, it was in Arizona.

Alan Adler: 14:12

He said, hey, I need to talk to you. Well, you know, one of the things that I just felt like I needed to do something outside, I guess I wanted to do something that was outside of, you know, the church I really wanted, I had looked into, I had really thought about and prayed about the idea of doing clergy at the hospital and really wanted to do that. But, you know, and so I started pursuing that and then, of course, you know, covid hit and it was just, it just changed everything and it changed everything, especially in hospitals. Um, and so that kind of changed and then, um, so that meant I was still doing volunteer stuff, I was still helping out with Excel where I could, um, and then I was having, we were having my wife and I were having dinner with a friend of ours that I used to that works at the elementary school where my son attended. I used to volunteer there with his classes and she said, you know, hey, the librarian position is open at our school. And I said, well, gosh, I could do that.

Alan Adler: 15:25

And so that kind of really was a course correction for me and not so much a course away from ministry, because I think one of the things that came out of that was, you know, working with the teachers and the adults there and the kids there. Um, it was a great opportunity to kind of just be, um, be there for those kids and for those teachers. Um, so even now today I've transitioned to where I'm working at a middle school and we've done some things where, you know, we do some volunteer stuff with some of the leadership kids where we raise money for local charities and that type of stuff and, you know, put little signs out and you know circle back to Carl, we do Flipside Church here at our house and you know we kind of raise awareness about that church and raise awareness for things in the community and that type of stuff. So it's been kind of interesting to kind of jump back into out of ministry capital M and into ministry in the workplace and see how that looks. So it's been fun.

J.D. Pearring: 16:33

And you're kind of a campus pastor for a flip side, is that right?

Alan Adler: 16:37

Yeah, so Carl, his church is in Madera. We're in Visalia, which is about an hour plus away, and so we have some couples that come to our house on Sundays and we do kind of like a remote church so they'll do a live, they'll do a live feed just for the remote churches, and so we watch that and we kind of have our community here that we're developing. And, again, both of the families that are here we've tried to take the opportunity, especially in our community, to, you know, raise funds and or raise awareness for local charities and that type of stuff. A big one that we do is like for a homeless place that, uh, is doing some really neat stuff here in our, our community, Um and uh. So like I'll, I'll, I'll partner with, like our teachers at church, and so we'll donate socks and things, like you know, all the stuff that homeless folks need.

Alan Adler: 17:34

And our other, a couple other families work at the hospital and so they do the same thing there. So they'll ask their friends for donations and that type of stuff. And all the while we try to, you know, say, well, if they ask why we're doing this, this is why we're doing it and that type of stuff. So it's been interesting. It's it's it's kind of like a you know it's, it's a house, church, and it's been interesting because you don't have the you know, you don't have the choir, you don't have the band, you don't have the music, but it's, it's still a community. So it's been, it's been fun to do.

J.D. Pearring: 18:06

Now, do you see yourself ever jumping back into the I think you call it the big M church ministry?

Alan Adler: 18:14

You know, I don't know. I mean I'm old enough that I don't know if I'm ready for another career change. But I think what I love the most is the opportunity that I have to do some stuff still with Excel, opportunity that I have to do some stuff still with Excel. I'm kind of the point person for the Cuba ministry as far as getting them funds and getting them stuff, and so I really enjoy that, being able to do that. I think the you know, as you know, we move forward and do different things. Maybe there's other stuff I can do, but it's it's just been.

Alan Adler: 18:50

It's been neat to be able to have my feet in a lot of different pools and to be able to do some stuff and still try to um, you know, with our, with our home church, I mean the, the, the. The challenge is with a home church is you don't have a pastor that's out there in front saying hey, invite your friends, and that type of stuff. It's kind of you on the ground and so it's been. I don't want to say it's been interesting to be. You know, I'm not a pastor of a church, but to do that kind of outreach and ministry and to kind of reach out to people and say hey, you know where do you go to church, what do you do when we have that opportunity to have that conversation? So so I still feel challenged, I still feel like I can do some stuff here, but I don't. Yeah, I don't know, we'll see. I mean, god has his plan and we'll see what he has in store.

J.D. Pearring: 19:42

Sure Well, you've worked with leaders and you are a leader. Give us your leadership tip.

Alan Adler: 19:50

You know I thought about this because I obviously I do these podcasts a lot, or at least I edit them and put them together you have a motivation to make something happen, to do something to, to lead something and to and to make something work, um, whether it's to start a church, whether it's to run an organization or anything like that. And I think that I think the challenge for leaders, aside from that just natural inclination, whether it's your strength finders, it's your numbers, whatever it is your Enneagram, you know, if you're inclined to that, that's great. But I think that the thing, especially with ministry, and especially with churches and planting and just in ministry in general, is to know that the leadership goal that you should have is not necessarily yours. It should be what God's is, and so be prepared to know that, hey, I want to do this, but to know that God might have a different plan in mind.

Alan Adler: 21:13

He might have something in store for you that you didn't even think about and he might have something in store for you that maybe it's not leadership like you thought, and I've had the opportunity to meet tremendous leaders through Excel and through my experiences and that type of stuff, and I think, without a doubt, and, with the people that I have met, I think those that are the most successful and those that have made the most impact are those that have said you know, it's not what I know about leadership, it's the fact that I'm willing to let god show me what I need to be doing and where I need to be, and the only way god is going to show you that is if your relationship with him is in tune, and that's the key, and so I I guess that would be my tip is don't let your relation, if you're a Christian leader, don't let your relationship with God fall away from your desire to be this leader of something, because the only way it's going to really be successful when and we you know, you look, you know if anybody here is listening and knows anything about the Bible and the stories in it and that type of stuff you're going to know that God uses people that are not who you would pick as a leader, and so be prepared to be humble enough to let God be the leader for you and not you, if that makes sense.

J.D. Pearring: 22:54

Yeah, yeah, good, good, good, hey. One last question. I know you are the Disneyland guy. Give us a Disneyland tip.

Alan Adler: 23:04

Disneyland tip. Well, the Disneyland tip is gosh. Let's see what's a good one. A good one is this Definitely be there at open and definitely find the ride that you want to ride first, first and then after that, just enjoy your day, Because if it's a busy day, it's going to be nuts and yeah, just enjoy it, and I love being. I've always enjoyed going there with our family and look forward to our next trip again.

Alan Adler: 23:38

But yeah yeah, definitely find your first ride. Get on it, go do it and then the rest of the day just kind of make your way around.

J.D. Pearring: 23:45

So that's good, that's good advice. Well, hey, thanks for all you do for Excel. Thanks for putting these podcasts together. Look forward to many years ministering together. Thanks, alan.

Alan Adler: 24:47

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.