Why Trusting Influencers with Your Faith is So Dangerous

Richelle Alessi:
And it's a different walk. It's a different thing. You shepherd people, and so you come from a place of pastoring, of, like, that is actually not helping the person who is just becoming a Christian. Like, that's not a good foundation for them to have as they go forward. And my question to you was, then, what do you do for somebody who he might be genuine about Christ and he just doesn't know yet because he's not there yet.

Chris Alessi:
Foreign. Welcome to a long play episode of the Family Business podcast with the Alessi's. You have Rochelle and I. Chris. Alessi. Rochelle, Alessi. Very excited to be here today. And, you know, these long plays are kind of fun.

Chris Alessi:
They're bringing us back to what I really loved about us doing the podcast. You know, we kind of phrase it as we get to discuss the things that we can't always hit on Sundays. But the reality is that I loved the podcast, especially when we started it, because we got to have conversations that we were already having at home. We just put cameras on. And so now we're gonna actually have one of those conversations that you and I have legitimately had at home.

Chris Alessi:
Yes.

Richelle Alessi:
That we're now going to bring here. And so I'm excited to be on here. How you feeling?

Chris Alessi:
I'm feeling great. I'm excited, too. We had the. The initial idea, and then I came in, just so you guys know. I came in and Chris was like, we're gonna talk about this, and it's with the same theme. And he was like, we've talked about this so many times or for a long time, and I couldn't even remember, but now I do remember, and I am ready to talk about this for an hour.

Richelle Alessi:
It's gonna be a blast.

Chris Alessi:
It's gonna be a blast. You and I didn't have different opinions on this. We. We had the same. It was just we were coming from different places. So it's gonna be an interesting.

Richelle Alessi:
It's gonna be a good one.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Now our. Our audience on, like, YouTube. If you're actually watching the video of this, you might be wondering, why do things look a little different? Well, you know, we're trying to take things up a notch. We're changing some lighting things so things look a little different. But it is still the family business with the Alessis. And we want to thank you for subscribing. Thank you for being a part of this. And just quickly, you know, the whole point of the Long Play episodes is it's the summer.

Richelle Alessi:
Maybe you're taking long drives you and I on a long. Recently, I finally got to introduce Relle to Hamilton.

Chris Alessi:
Right.

Richelle Alessi:
And so on the drive up somewhere, we listened to disc one. On the drive back, we listened to disc two. And now she's a Hamill fan.

Richelle Alessi:
I am.

Chris Alessi:
Can you believe it?

Richelle Alessi:
That was so much.

Chris Alessi:
I can't believe it.

Richelle Alessi:
That was so much. But you had a good time. We watched it and then we came home and then we watched and then.

Chris Alessi:
We watched it and it was so good. And so hopefully we can create the same feeling for people with these episodes for you to have something to listen to. And I just come up with whatever. Or have to talk. You don't have to. You can just listen to this.

Richelle Alessi:
Exactly. Or sit in silence, which is Rachelle's favorite pastime.

Chris Alessi:
It is. I don't think it's awkward yet.

Richelle Alessi:
You think it's awkward? I always think you're mad at me. But the funny thing is that I totally cried listening to Hamilton with you.

Chris Alessi:
You did.

Richelle Alessi:
And then watching it back again. Cried both times. So hopefully somebody will cry as a result of this podcast. Awesome. There you go. Well, we want to dive into a conversation we had recently. And, you know, I have a pet peeve. It doesn't make me right.

Richelle Alessi:
It's just my personal pet peeve. It's just something that I don't. I don't like, and it's difficult. We live in this world, but my pet peeve is just basically all of social media. Just period. I don't think the individual's use of social media is where the danger stops. I think the fact that we're encouraging people to get up and just talk into their phone or do podcasts, or just talk and talk. I don't think preachers and communicators can keep up with the pace of constantly having well thought out, truthful things to say as often as they're talking.

Richelle Alessi:
That's one of the things I love about our church. You know, while we have a podcast, we share it. There's a lot. We're not doing it. And every single. Even though my morning devotional podcast, it is every day, but you take a week and then Stephanie takes a week. So even our preaching on Sunday, we have a system to where I think my dad preaches twice, my mom preaches once, I preach once. We're not asking the communicators of our church to constantly have good things to say, but in the podcasting world, especially when people are making their lives of it.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Their whole life is. I have to have things to say. And I think that's just dangerous because it creates a world where young Christians, not young in age, but in experience of the faith.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Get these large platforms and they're trying so good. They're trying so hard to do good.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
But they're so inexperienced that they're kind of bringing a lacking product to the education of the people that want to become Christians. They say things that end up being. Man, they sound good. Because when you're young in the faith, there are things that. I've said it to you a thousand times that sounds noble, but it's not. And recently it happened. Alan, should I say the name of the guy or should I keep it to myself? Alan did this. So.

Chris Alessi:
And I say keep it to yourself.

Richelle Alessi:
And so I'm gonna say it. It. It's. It's because I think if you're watching this podcast, you should be aware. I think this is a. He's a good guy. I just also think we need to take everything he says with a grain of salt because he's at the beginning of his faith journey. You don't think I should say his name? No, I won't say his name.

Richelle Alessi:
But he's a very famous podcaster who is very open. What? Put it in the show notes. Exactly. Look at the show notes. But very famous podcaster. Very famous. It's not Russell Brand or anything like who his whole bit is. I'm new to this.

Richelle Alessi:
Right. That's not what he's saying. This guy kind of has been on podcasts, been a podcaster as somebody who was not a Christian and then somebody who was like a baby Christian. And then he left the podcast he was on and now he's got his own. And the whole thing is like, I'm a Christian. And he said something recently and it drove me crazy. He said, because he was asked by another Christian who I also think doesn't need to have a podcast right now, but he was asked, like, where's your stance on marijuana now? Pause. Because recent reports have come out over the last two or three weeks that marijuana is.

Richelle Alessi:
You have. That you have a 50 chance to experience cardiac arrest and, and heart related issues smoking marijuana than you do not. So you have it like literally a. It's terrible for your health. It's, it's, it's terrible for your health. Forget the health part. He, he's just like, you know, I don't see what's so wrong with it. And this is a Christian guy whose podcast is, we are Christians.

Richelle Alessi:
That's what we do. He brings on a bunch of famous Christians, people to talk about things, theologians, all that. But then he makes the statement where he's like, to me, you know, it's. It's less about marijuana and it's more about like being addicted to something. At the end of the day, I want to be addicted to God. And to me, there's no difference between the guy who says, man, I just need some marijuana right now, and the guy who says, don't talk to me until I've had my morning coffee. He says, both of these guys are doing the same thing. They should rely on Jesus and not on a substance.

Richelle Alessi:
And you know, Rochelle, because you were there, I happened to hear that clip and I lost my mind. I lost my ever loving mind. Now I've done too much talking. You need to speak now. But like, I remember that just drove me crazy because in. In it sounds all right in his mind, but that couldn't be more off. And I think it's because nobody should find Christ and then have a microphone thrust in their face. You know what I mean?

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
And my question for you was not because I disagreed with what you were saying, but in a, In a world, let's say, where. Let's say this guy, his life was a podcast. That's what he did. That was his job.

Richelle Alessi:
He was good at it.

Chris Alessi:
And he was good at it pre Christ. That was his job. And now he's found Christ and he's genuine about it. We can't say it's not right. We're not in his closeness to say is genuine or not. It looks like it is genuine. But then we come from a place where ministries are alive. We've seen a lot, you've seen a lot.

Chris Alessi:
And it's a different walk, It's a different thing. You shepherd people. And so you come from a place of pastoring, of like, that is actually not helping the person who is just becoming a Christian. Like, that's not a good foundation for them to have as they go forward. And my question to you was, then, what do you do for somebody who he might be genuine about Christ and he just doesn't know yet because he's not there yet. And your response was like, then you get off. You don't do this.

Richelle Alessi:
Right?

Chris Alessi:
And it's like you disappear for three years. Like, that's what Paul did in the Bible. And it was like, okay, that would be healthy, it would be good. That's his job. So it was like, now you enter a conversation where you have to navigate, and even as a family, it's healthy for us to start having these conversations, because it is true. That was his job. What do you. And he wanted to.

Chris Alessi:
Maybe he didn't have to do a podcast about that. Maybe it's something you say, let me continue my podcast on something. Let me just clean it up. Let me be a Christian. Let me live a life that is like, I am a Christian. This is who I am. Maybe it didn't have to be a podcast about Christianity because maybe you're not ready to speak on that yet, and it could be dangerous for you to have such a wide audience and then you're speaking on something maybe you're not ready to speak on, not because your conversion is not true or true it probably is, and that's probably why you're so fired up to talk about it. Because we also live in a world where that's what's become normal the last couple of years, that you're anywhere and you pick up your phone or a camera and you film yourself.

Chris Alessi:
You talk about it, and it's like the norm now. It's like if you actually don't post about it, it's like, did that really happen? We used to joke about it, but now it's become reality where even people are basing their life or their vacations of what they've seen. And it's become this. It's now becoming this weird mix where we're having to decide, then, what's the line? Where do we say, that's enough? Where do we say, no, we have to speak on that because we can let people believe that and misguide people. But also then the conversation is like, where do you have the grace to say, well, he'll. He'll learn. But then that's hard to say that, because if it was somebody who. Who's doing it and is doing their walk, not in secret, but in a.

Chris Alessi:
In a regular way, not in front of thousands of people, then it's okay, because then let me teach you. Let me help you. Yeah, but if you're doing that and there's thousands of people listening, then I knew in your mind you were thinking of, like, well, now you have to teach all those thousands of people that that's not correct. And so my question for you is, then, how do you, as we continue to navigate this, right, how do you not fully balance it, but how do you approach it in a way where it's not dismissing somebody's conversion, but it's also us as Christians now allowing that to water down the gospel? And for us to say yeah, yeah, that's okay. He'll get there. But then we take it seriously to educate the people, our families, the people we're raising. Because it is not a good statement to have the foundation of your faith, Right?

Richelle Alessi:
Well, yeah. So, you know, Paul says in certain moments, at least, Christ is preached. Right. So there's that aspect of it. So technically I'm supposed to look at that and go. And at least he's trying. At the same time, there are moments where Paul had to get in someone's face and say, dude, you're not doing this. Right.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Apollos, who may or may not have written one of the biggest books of the Bible and his theology is phenomenal, who is a really powerful preacher. I mean, they actually say that Apollos, from what we can read in Scripture, might have been a better preacher than Paul. He was pulled in by Priscilla and Aquila and taught the right theology. So Paul would have gotten saved and gone away for a number of years to learn. And so that's one of the hard things. So that's where my mind first goes. It's like, man, because I. I probably never get to talk to that guy and he probably wouldn't listen to me anyways.

Richelle Alessi:
But for the people that do listen to me, it's important for them to understand. They should see value in the education of the person teaching them.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
So I will be honest, and this sounds crazy. Sometimes you should not look at the point the person made. You should look at the person.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
So maybe the point sounds logical, but you should look at the person. Has this person been educated enough? And I, I look at even the message. You know, my dad preached two days ago. Sometimes we think that conversion immediately means Holy Spirit download of everything you need to know.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
And it's not right. It. It's not. It's okay. You've seen Jesus. You, you've given your life to Jesus and now you're on a lifelong journey of following him to become more like him. I should be more like him 10, 15, 20 years in than in the first couple of years of conversion.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Even if I was raised in it, I think Alan and Ashley in the room would say, as people that were raised in church, one of the things we had to do in our 20s was go, oh, some of the things I learned in kids ministry was for a season, but was not full truth. So now I have to learn full truth.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
In the same way, even if you were raised in church, there's a period of education the older you get. And so I Would say to anybody, like watching and listening to this, like, there's a lot of content out there that makes points that sound good. I just wrote a blog today, I'll release it later, that's all about this. This Catholic woman who makes these points about, you know, Protestantism really came from people walking away from Catholicism and that you shouldn't give your life to somebody that's walking away from something. And there were people in my world that sent that video to me saying, is this true? And it's like, no, it's not true at all. And so maybe we should stop listening to people who are just talking from their cars. Like, hey, maybe we shouldn't find so much value in the, in the views and sends, but we should start to value the person's experience. We should start to value what we know of the person.

Richelle Alessi:
So remember when we were. You did marketing for school and I did psychology and there's a lot of overlap.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, I was actually thinking about that right now. This is crazy.

Richelle Alessi:
Were you really?

Chris Alessi:
Yes.

Richelle Alessi:
So there's two different types of commercials that are out there today and we see them. There is the, hey, I'm an expert. You can trust what I'm saying. Right. And so now it's like, hey, this is what I'm telling you because I'm an expert. There's another kind that's like, this is how you feel. This is what you're going to feel if you get our product. So they don't.

Richelle Alessi:
You're not wanting to learn from an expert, you're just wanting to feel good.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Most of social media is the second type of.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, it's just, I would say he's probably the type. That's why it's blown up everywhere.

Richelle Alessi:
Exactly.

Chris Alessi:
Because of the immediate feel good.

Richelle Alessi:
It's one big beer commercial.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Social media is one big wow, look, they're having a big party. It must be because of the drink they have in their hand. And it's like, actually, if that commercial kept rolling, those people would make the dumbest decisions of their life and wake up the next day feeling terrible.

Richelle Alessi:
Right.

Richelle Alessi:
But you don't want expertise in marketing. Right. So all that goes to say, like, I think if we're looking at people podcast wise that we're listening to or whatever, we should care about the, the amount of time that they put in.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
If somebody was to put up a sermon I preached over the last month against a sermon I preached in my first month of preaching, you will see substantial differences.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Because I've been doing it for A long time.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
And not only doing it for a long time, but doing it submitted to somebody who's been doing it longer.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
And I told the church in my most recent sermon that, guys, there have been times I've walked off the platform to a standing ovation and been grabbed, pulled into an office and said the way that you said A, B and C was not correct. It's like. But the crowd loved it. It doesn't matter.

Chris Alessi:
It doesn't matter.

Richelle Alessi:
There's a, there's an order. There's a way. You, this is how you don't do, you know? And that's what I think people should realize. So real quick, like, one of the things we also wanted to talk about here was like, how for us, we have noticed we were both pretty dedicated to our Bible reading when we were single. We had like a system.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
And then all of a sudden we're married. And you can't just adopt the same system you had before because the other person, like, matters and their schedule matters. And so you figure out a new rhythm on how to get into your word. Sometimes it means, man, I could have done five times a week when I was single, but for the first couple of months of marriage, like, maybe I can't. And then all of a sudden you get back into a rhythm and you get back to, like, man, every day. And then all of a sudden, like, you get pregnant and there were days where the last thing on your mind was, let me get into my word. Today you were sick every day of that pregnancy. Then the baby comes out and neither one of us is able to be like, you know what I'm gonna do tomorrow, 6am Read my Bible.

Richelle Alessi:
So there were seasons of, like, our ability to study the word and spend time with God. And it was always a priority. It's never something that we neglect. We feel the, the results and the effects of neglecting it.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Like, there are moments where it's like, oh, shoot, this week was really hard. I didn't really. This wasn't a good week for me.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Because I didn't get my he, like, okay, I can see the connection. But the point with that is, even us as people, you know, who've been in ministry for a while, who've been raised in the church that are long term Christians, even we are like, oh, shoot, there are some weeks I don't want a mic in my face. And some weeks where, man, I'm prayed up, I'm ready. We don't ever consider that when there's somebody who's on social media having to speak every single day. There are problem. And this is where when you challenged me and you said, okay, Chris, I agree with you, but what should a guy like him do, right? One of the things that I don't even consider is, man, he might hang up. He might turn off all the lights of that podcast and go, man, I shouldn't have said that.

Chris Alessi:
And so we have those moments all the time.

Richelle Alessi:
Oh, my God. Yeah, I get in the car many times and go. So I know I shouldn't have said this, but all that. Which is, by the way, that's why I said I'm not going to say the guy's name because I don't want to deal with the effects of me having said it. And you think I shouldn't have. But all that goes to say, like, that's one of the things. There's like no room for that in the. In the Bible discussion via social media and podcast space.

Richelle Alessi:
Like, not only maybe that guy doesn't know, but maybe he got caught up in the moment. And yet there are people that might take that and go, oh, shoot, look, I can keep doing this. So it's.

Chris Alessi:
It's kind of like. So you brought up marketing and all of that. And it's funny because I was thinking this one of the big. There was a class I took. I don't remember the name, but it was all about.

Richelle Alessi:
Probably had to take it for you. What?

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, it was.

Richelle Alessi:
What?

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, towards the end of my college career, you helped me a lot, but. But I still finished myself and graduated.

Richelle Alessi:
Okay.

Chris Alessi:
I just had some help. Okay. But I remember one of the big classes in marking was about learning about credibility. And it's so sad because I feel like that's kind of lost a little bit. And I just finished college how many years ago? Like four?

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
Four.

Richelle Alessi:
No, actually like two. Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
What does it matter? It's been. It's been a while, but. It's been a while, but not that long to say, oh, that's lost. But I remember learning. And the big thing about marketing, especially when it came with communication, was about credibility and the teacher. And all we learned about was that before you go and write an article, before you go in front of somebody and deliver a speech, before you have to do anything that comes with communicating, you have to have resources and you have to.

Richelle Alessi:
Resources.

Chris Alessi:
So sources. Yes, there you go. I graduated, I promise. But you do have to have sources, and they have to be credible. And they can just be credible because they were in Wikipedia. In fact, there was Places is that they said, if you say that you got your info from here, we immediately eliminate your credibility. It's done. Because it showed you did not put the work in to show you were credible in what you were speaking about.

Chris Alessi:
And you had to go and find the right places with the right things. And that determined whether or not I should listen to you. And it had nothing to do with the person. It was not like a person showed up and you said, I like you or I don't like you. It was about what was your preparation, how did you prepare to deliver this. And I think we've lost that a little bit in this age. And it's become. Yeah, and it's become more about the person.

Chris Alessi:
So even us, we go and this person is wrong and you go to attack the person when reality, all we have to do is say, are you credible? Can I trust what you're saying right now? Not because, what are your sources? Not because you're bad. Like this guy. Like we were saying, he might have had a really true conversion and he doesn't know anything else. But with that being said, me as a Christian, as a parent, right now we only have a two year old, so we're not there yet. But I can imagine parents who have teenagers who their world is listening to, to these people in the sports or whatever world your kid likes, and they go and listen to these podcasts, to these things, and then they come back and they're like, mom, dad, look at what they said. And they just became a Christian. And because their kids are young or teenagers are still very young in the faith and they hear they became a Christian. So now everything they say I can.

Richelle Alessi:
Take, I can trust it all.

Chris Alessi:
I can trust it because they said that. I remember when I was a teenager and I heard that the Jonas Brothers were Christian and I was like, oh, my God. Well, 10 years later, she's laughing right now because she understands. Well, ten years later I had to like, say, oh my God. That meant nothing. The fruit of their life is not, does not reflect that. But it took 10, 15 years. I feel so old, and I know I'm not old, but like, I feel so old.

Chris Alessi:
It took that long to say, oh, you know, they, they didn't really mean that. Or, or they just at the time said it and their life took them somewhere else. And before, as a teenager, I became obsessed with everything they said just because they said they were Christian.

Richelle Alessi:
Or it's kind of like when you have to take a test and they're like, okay, what's Your age, what's your race?

Chris Alessi:
Right.

Richelle Alessi:
Your gender?

Chris Alessi:
It's.

Richelle Alessi:
And what's your religion? And they go, Christian. That doesn't mean.

Chris Alessi:
No, you just you. I had to go back and now I know this. So as a parent is almost like when even us, before we go and like get mad at the person for saying it, let's take it personal to say, let's educate the people around us to say before you take anything anybody says, are they credible? And let's teach them what that means. Are they do what they're saying. Does it back up what your parents are teaching you, your pastors are teaching you, your youth leaders, your connect group leaders, the Bible, like, that's why stand up to criticism.

Richelle Alessi:
Like, can that thought. Like, is it logically consistent?

Chris Alessi:
Does it. Yeah. And the person who said it, what's. How many years have they been in ministry? What is the fruit of their life? Because for me, now that I look back, I'm like, these guys, they don't reflect that fruit at all. But when I was a kid, I'm like, oh my God, they're Christian. And now we're seeing that all over again. Because that's going to happen.

Richelle Alessi:
So, so President Woodrow Wilson, one of my favorite quotes of all time, he said, if I have to speak for 10 minutes, I need a week of preparation. If 15 minutes, three days, if half an hour, two days, if an hour, I'm ready now. And the idea is, is that the, if I have to make a point in a smaller and smaller and smaller amount of time, I have to spend more and more and more time preparing for exactly what I'm going to say.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Meanwhile, we have people being either confused in their faith or educated by people that go, so you know what I was thinking the other day? And in a minute and a half with no preparation and no thought, they just respond, yeah. And if you, you know me, I have a lot to say. We were just making a joke before we sat down about can we fill an hour where we were having the kind of pre convo and you were like, let's be careful, we might run out of things to say. And Ashley was like, it's Pastor Chris. He ain't going out of things to say. But I do not film videos of myself talking and put them on social media. And that's intentional. I do not write 15 blogs a week, and that's intentional.

Richelle Alessi:
I'm constantly saying, there is no way in heaven, there's no way that I can have a hundred great thoughts in a year that are well Thought out that are. That I have been mindful of the implicit, the implications. There is no way I can do that. And I'm somebody that some people would go, he has a lot to say. But I go, okay, but if I have to preach 15 times a year, man, am I capable of preaching 15 great messages. And then you add on that podcast, you add on that blogs, books. It's like, man, how arrogant do you have to be to think that I can get up there and say something of value in two minutes without preparing for it? And so a guy who became president was like, man, if I'm going to be given two minutes of airtime, I got to prepare for that for a week.

Richelle Alessi:
Wow.

Richelle Alessi:
And I just don't think it speaks to your credibility point. I. People aren't thinking that. Now, if you want to make funny videos, like, we follow that one couple, they're, like, talking about their kids, and they're hilarious. And they get in the car and they're telling the stories of their kids. That's hilarious. But if somebody's going to be saying something that might affect your faith, affect how you practice your faith, be mindful, right? Be mindful that even. Even pastors, when they're being put on podcasts, like, they're not sitting there like, you know, you're getting a more vulnerable version of them.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah, but that might not be something they get up and preach about. Like, so you just got to be really careful before you fully adopt a theological point from some clip. So, okay, why is that? So then let's go back to this point, because one of the reasons we're making this podcast today and talking about this is because if we don't talk about these Christian things, the only people on the airways of social media and podcasts that talk about them are the newest to the faith people.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
They're the podcasts where the people can remember the day that they got saved. And it's two years ago, three years ago, and there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, but, like, there's great podcasts started by great people who go, I need help, so maybe this will help me hold, like, myself accountable. And there's a lot of value in that. But what should those people do? Like, that guy with a great podcast who was already famous for podcasting before he got saved, you asked me, what should he do? And here's my thought. My thought is, if you have a platform and then all of a sudden you get saved, the reality is you have an expertise. So use that expertise to platform other people. Who are more experienced, who are prepared, who are ready, that might not have the expertise.

Richelle Alessi:
There are tons of people in the faith in their 40s, 50s, and 60s that were not raised in all of this world that don't have the ability to get up there and build a following and a platform the way that you have. So produce their show or don't have your show be named after you and get up there and say, I will be a part of this podcast for the sake of hearing what you think, but not giving you what I think, because I don't know what I think yet. That's what I would have loved to hear that guy say. You know, I'm new to all of this, and this is an area that's really vulnerable for me. I don't really know what I think yet. What I know is I don't want to be dependent on this the way that I wouldn't want to be dependent on anything. If he says that, then instantly you're like, lord, thank God that people struggling with marijuana have an example of a guy like that who's aiming to not be dependent on anything. Yeah, but then to sit in the seat of I know and say, it's the same as a coffee addict when a, studies show that's not true.

Richelle Alessi:
B, I don't think any kid ever goes to therapy one day and says, man, you know what it was? My dad was just addicted to coffee. I don't. I don't think that's why he's in therapy when, you know, when. When someone gets into a car accident and kills somebody, they're not checking their. Their coffee level. They're not. Were you under the influence of caffeine? It's a totally different game. And it's unfortunate because that guy.

Richelle Alessi:
And this is one of the reasons why ultimately my thoughts on this, while they may sound harsh, are actually, I care for the person more than I. Than you may realize, because I don't think anybody that fresh in their faith should have the spotlight of that many people. That's a hard thing to bear. We, you know, one of the stories I, I mentioned a lot, and I love it, but like St. Augustine, Augustus, he, He. They. They wanted to ordain him into the ministry, and the guy ran away multiple times because he knew the weight of being an ordained minister would be a heavy one. And not like, oh, I can't get married or this or whatever.

Richelle Alessi:
That's not what he was referring to. He was referring to having to be somebody who has everything in my head, not my life. In my head, well enough together to present as a teacher. That's a heavy burden. So they actually had a rule for ordination in his ministry. We're not going to ordain people that want it. We're going to ordain people that are called to it and are almost afraid of it, because that's how, you know, they respect it. And if you've got this large following, I don't.

Richelle Alessi:
I wouldn't want that on myself. Not because it could expose the hidden realities of my life. Not because, you know, I don't want the burden of having to live a good life. That's a burden of Christianity. That's living a life pleasing to God. That's not nothing to do with being an example to people. The burden of being an example to people is I have to have my thoughts together. I have to know what I'm going to teach, and I have to know the implications of what I'm going to teach.

Richelle Alessi:
For instance, I like to say that I'm somebody who can kind of look at things in new ways. I can have a different perspective on things. And I believe it's biblically based. And I believe that my homework, I've done my homework and I can prove that what I'm bringing to the table should be valued. Right? I'd like to think that. Well, there was a day early on, probably five, six years ago, when I would be teaching that, teaching something like that. My dad would go, chris, you can't keep teaching this revelation, which is solid, but like, it's replacing their religion, their. Their belief system.

Richelle Alessi:
You have to come in and introduce people and say, hey, look, I know you think, and you've been taught that this verse says A, B, and C. And you know what, what if we put new glasses on? And what if we saw it this way? And it's not that I'm replacing it, I'm just taking it deeper. So even something as simple as not what is being said, that's being that it's wrong or right, but how it's being presented, it takes a lot of coaching and a lot of teaching. I would not have wanted the eyes of the world on me when I was an even younger preacher. And so it's almost like, man, one of the greatest gifts that we can give a guy like him is to not listen to him yet give him the time to learn and develop before we put the burden of a large following on him. Because that's Paul confronted Peter. Because even Peter, as great as he was when Jesus ascended into heaven, didn't really know everything, and neither did Paul. So the reality is, is that we should all be very mindful of, like, the people that we're listening to and the people that we're hearing from.

Richelle Alessi:
And you've always said this, but, like, what is the fruit of their life? I mean, to me, the fruit of. If the fruit of your conversion is you really don't see an issue with marijuana, and I'm confused by that. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But if the fruit of somebody's life is grown kids who are healthy that love their lives, I mean, you and I don't have that fruit yet. No, I can't sit here. I cannot sit here and say that the fruit of my life should be followed the way the fruit of my dad's life is.

Richelle Alessi:
Right.

Richelle Alessi:
So what I constantly tell people is not, you can trust me because I'm trustworthy, but you can trust me because I'm submitted to my dad and he's trustworthy. I've said that for years, and I actually believe that. I even told you when we were getting married. One of the reasons. One of my greatest gifts to you as your husband is the people that I have around me that will never let me fall too far. And it's not that I'm trustworthy. It's that the people around me are. And I think I can be trusted because the people around me that I trust are trustworthy.

Richelle Alessi:
And so I think that's a huge part of this conversation. Like, not only is the person credible, but like, you know, everyone around them and all that. It's just a big part of the conversation.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
And it's. And it's. It's so good that it's funny because that day when we were talking about it, it seemed like we were arguing, like we didn't agree. And then we came to the end. I was like, no, we do. It's just there's different sides, different things to see. But ultimately comes to this, which is the education of your children and your household within your faith. And who do you want speaking into that? Because what we do realize is that one small comment can stay in the back of your mind forever, and you think, and you even forget where you heard it from.

Chris Alessi:
But it could affect years of your theology and faith in God. And here's also another thing. We can't control what the world is going to put out there. We can't. The truth is we are in a world where, praise God, if more people get saved. But that means that they might continue to do this. And if they do, as a parent or as a family, as regular people, you can't control that. You can't go to the guy and say, stop saying that.

Chris Alessi:
Like you said, first of all, he wouldn't listen to you. He doesn't know you. It doesn't happen that way. But what we can do is educate our family. And so how are we teaching our family to learn how to listen, who to listen to and not to listen to? Because there's only going to be more podcasts, more music, more things coming out.

Richelle Alessi:
Not going away.

Chris Alessi:
It's not going away. And so how do we do that? And it's about, honestly, like you said, educate your children to. Here are like, the three things you have to. Those people have to check before you say, I can trust that. Where I believe that. Because this happens even in schools. Like, this is everywhere. You're going to hear people's opinions and things everywhere.

Chris Alessi:
And how are we training our families to go out there and say, that's credible. That's not. And now just because they said, I'm a Christian, I can believe everything you said. But okay, you're a Christian, great. We're happy that you are in this part of your life. We'll pray for you. But us and for my house, these are the people that we listen to. These are the people that we surround ourselves to that if they gave us an advice, if whatever we listen to does not align with these people, then it's not for you to take.

Chris Alessi:
It's not for you to meditate on, and it's not for you to even entertain in your mind. And it was good that that conversation brought us to this thinking that we do have to be very careful to who we listen to and even our approach to when we hear some of these things. How are we approaching it? Because we also need to help people, not just think that we're going to do the same thing that the world does and just go out and be like, you're wrong and like, bashing this other person. Because then we're doing the same thing as the world, just pointing the finger. But that doesn't mean we're not going to educate and say, that was not correct. That statement is not biblically sound or even truth at all. And that just means that person does not have the fruit yet to show I can trust you and I can listen to what you're saying on the Bible. Maybe your expertise is in sports and you know what you're talking about sports.

Chris Alessi:
It does not mean they know what they're talking about on the Bible. And that's so hard because sometimes communicators, because they know how to communicate, or podcasters, or even influencers, they have such a way of making things sound magnetism that when they now go and try to talk about something that's Bible related, you think you can trust it, too. And it's not. And so maybe their expertise is on sports, great, let that be your expertise. But when you talk about this faith in God, if you're trying to teach me something about it, I'm not going to say, oh, I can trust you. I'm going to have to wait and see. Does the fruit of your life and what you're saying align with my spiritual guidance, my pastors, my parents, my, my family, us. And sometimes you're.

Chris Alessi:
If you don't know, ask. Like, like, people were sending this to you. Like, do you know? And that's even scare you. Does this. Like, I loved a couple of. We're doing the series right now, let's talk about life here at our church. And I loved it because we've been talking about as a family. It answers some really hard questions that every Christian has.

Chris Alessi:
And sometimes the world goes and tries to answer these questions for us, but it doesn't sit right with us. And we just don't know, like, is that right, Is that wrong? And what this series has done is that it has really showed us what the Bible says about these things. And it's given, I think, us Christians confidence. And on the way home from, I think two Sundays ago, when you spoke about the Bible and you did this sermon about what the Bible is, you did not get up up there and said your opinion on something or what you felt. And you even said, this is not the type of sermon that would get me excited. But I knew this was information people need. Like, I can't just get up and talk about what makes me feel good. It's like, I have a responsibility to teach, and if I'm not equipping people right, then what difference am I really making? Right? And you spoke the sermon about what the Bible is and you went on details about books and sections and what they mean and who wrote them and the purpose of them.

Chris Alessi:
And we loved it because we left and we said, now we have tools for our everyday faith. When nobody's there, when nobody but the Holy Spirit is there, we need to realize, are we giving people tools that is actually helping people hear God when nobody's around but God?

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
And they're not thinking that they're making stuff up or hearing what they want to hear because of what they heard somebody else say. But when they open up their Bible, what they're actually listening to and studying is sound because the tools were providing. So even as people who communicate about God and anything, let's think about this. Are we giving people tools to pursue their faith every day? Yeah, because you can talk and have a great thought and even with social media, sadly, sometimes now the world and the way that social media is, you think about when I'm speaking, will that make sense in 10 or 30 seconds of a clip? And so you have preachers who have all these messages who just sound good for 30 second clips. So they have great one liners. And then you think, man, this speaker, this guy is amazing. You never heard a 45 minute sermon from him. You've heard clips of his sermon.

Chris Alessi:
So that's not even the whole picture.

Richelle Alessi:
Nope.

Chris Alessi:
So even as communicators, this is for everybody. It's like this talk was like, how can we all help each other? Because if you're a communicator, you have a gift. So communicate. But are you giving people tools that they can take and use? Not just good thoughts to make them feel good, but it's not building their everyday walk with the Lord. Like now when I sit down and read my Bible and the little things that you taught us and I'm like, oh, I have a deeper understanding that when I open my Bible, this is serious. Serious. I'm not just opening it up to hear something that makes me feel good. Sometimes I'm opening it up and the Lord has something to challenge me on.

Chris Alessi:
Sometimes I really just need to be there to learn about God and not me.

Richelle Alessi:
Or part of the history.

Chris Alessi:
Or part of the history.

Richelle Alessi:
Not have a takeaway and not have takeaway.

Chris Alessi:
You know, going back to Hamilton is funny because I'll be honest. Well, I, I came here when I was 12 and I, I did home school so I learned a lot of the history and stuff later on. But here in Hamilton, I went to America. To America? Yes, sorry, to the United States of America. I was born in Costa Rica. I lived there for 12 years of my life and then I came here and so I came a little later on and I still learned about the history and things like that. But there's stuff that I've missed because I wasn't here in school since first grade to learn the things that first.

Richelle Alessi:
Graders, there's a lot of Americans who have missed a whole lot about American history. Don't Worry about it.

Chris Alessi:
So either way, we're listening to this play, and I'm like, learning some things that had happened back then in history. I'm like, chris, did this really happen? And Chris is like, yeah, this is real.

Richelle Alessi:
Chris Googles real quick. Yeah, it did. It did.

Chris Alessi:
And. But can I tell you, it made me, like, even think a little prouder of our nation. And it made me realize, man, look.

Richelle Alessi:
What it took to get here, to.

Chris Alessi:
Get here for these men. Like, they use all these different words and things. And I'm like, I'm having to go back and look it up, because I'm like, is this real? But I couldn't just believe Hamilton. I had to look it up. I had to go back to history.

Richelle Alessi:
Well, so that actually brings up a really cool point, because you want to finish filming.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah. So that made me realize there's so much I don't know.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
And I loved Hamilton, and I became, like, this new, like, Hamilton believer.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
And I was. So all I wanted to do was listen to the music over and over, because every time I heard it, I heard something different. I. There was a note with the word that just matched, and you get more of the story, and then you see it on tv and you're like, I missed that. And now I get it. And it was like I had become. It was like I was saved all over again.

Richelle Alessi:
Right.

Chris Alessi:
But, like, learning about the United States of America and some of the history of. Didn't mean. Though I could just get up now.

Richelle Alessi:
And talk about American history.

Chris Alessi:
American history. I actually, what it made me realize is how much I don't know and how much I have to go back and read and learn to know about my country. Like, this is the country I live now, and I need to know about it. Because if I don't know, we can let the history and where we came from just disappear. And then I just follow the culture. But culture is not remembering the great things that happened and what Americans had to do for us to have the freedom we have today. And the same way with the Bible, when we come and we become Christians, we have this fire to learn and to. And we just want to talk about it because we see what God did for us and what we want to do, but it only should make us realize how much we don't know yet.

Richelle Alessi:
Exactly. And listening to Hamilton does not make you a history teacher.

Richelle Alessi:
No.

Richelle Alessi:
In the same way, getting saved does not make you a Bible scholar.

Chris Alessi:
Right.

Richelle Alessi:
And I'll be honest with my master's, with, you know, let's say, 10, realistically, 10 years. I've been on staff for 14, but, you know, let's say realistically 10 years. I am nowhere near a Bible expert. Like, that's crazy to me. But one of the cool things, bringing up history and. And, you know, kind of bringing this all together. One of the important aspects of our Christian faith is what Martin Luther would have fought for. One of the things he would have fought for is the average person needs to own a Bible.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Now, here's why. At the time, the Catholic Church at the time felt like, but people will read it, misunderstand it, and then we will have way too many different beliefs out there. And they were not wrong. They were not wrong. It's happened at the same time. Martin said, yeah, but you and I can be wrong, too. The only way we can become the least amount of wrong is if the. The papacy, if.

Richelle Alessi:
If. If the. The pastors, if the teachers have the Bible and the lame men do too. They all read it, they all study it, and we all hold each other accountable to it.

Richelle Alessi:
Right.

Richelle Alessi:
What they were saying is when you deliver a sermon and you preach something wrong, the people should be able to go home, check their Bible, and say, pastor, that's not right. Not go home, see some video on tithing for two and a half minutes and think, oh, my God, that sounds so great, Pastor. This whole church is wrong on tithing. Well, we're supposed to work together. There's supposed to be an accountability.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
So if you're watching a video and it's messing you up and it's confusing you, the reality is, is, oh, shoot, I haven't been studying my Bible.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Because this threw me off. So, you know, one of the things that I constantly tell you when it comes to, like, budget or something, I'm, quote unquote, the captain of our budget. Right. So whenever you start to get nervous, I constantly say, hey, relle, am I nervous? Right? And I go, you'll be like, no. I go, okay, if I was nervous, then makes sense.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
But I'm not. So we're fine. Same kind of thing happens. Like when major things happen in life like that I don't really have an experience with. I'll look at my captain, my dad, and be like, are you nervous about this? And if he says no, Right. Then I'm fine. We're in the housing market right now. There are moments where I'm like, dad, is this a good option? Is this the kind of thing you take on? And if he says no, then I go, great.

Richelle Alessi:
He has navigated those waters before multiple times. I'm not. I'm going to listen to what he says. In the same way, if we're reading our Bible and we have a captain that we trust, that's going to help us maneuver and navigate through all the storms.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Because we'll go. Okay, hold on. I read something and it made me nervous, but is my pastor nervous? Hey, are you. Are you scared? No. Then I'm fine. One of the reasons why one of those. That video of the Catholic thing I told you about was sent to me was because the person was nervous. Is this potentially true? And the minute I said, hey, I'm not scared by that.

Richelle Alessi:
In fact, I'll write a blog about it to show you how incorrect the logic is without taking a shot at the person. Like, it cleared everything up for them. So I think it's important. Like, when you look at our history, you know, 1500 years of Christians, meaning from when Jesus ascended to basically the 1600s, they didn't own Bibles, so they just had to trust what the pastors and the leaders were saying. But then one of the great advances was they found a way to where we now live in a world where it's in every single language.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
We can all read it. We should take that. We should take advantage of that. We should read it. We should know it. We should ask questions. We should be wanting to know more about it, not leaving it to the pastors, not leaving it to the podcasters. But I, at the same time, to keep us accountable to it, we should have a pastor that we trust that's in our city, that we attend their church, that we know them.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
That we can constantly say, okay, when the storms come. When. Because you're not going to understand everything. In the first five, 10 years. I think I've read the Bible beginning to end in 40 days for the last four years. We call it the shred. We start the year reading the whole Bible. We shred through it real fast.

Richelle Alessi:
I still, when I read the Bible, go, I didn't know that. I didn't see that.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
So you want experts towards the end of their life, though, that are like, man, I've been in this for a long time.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
I've navigated these storms before.

Richelle Alessi:
Right.

Richelle Alessi:
And it's kind of like that. That we are farmers. Like, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. That's farmers. Right. Did I get that wrong?

Richelle Alessi:
So.

Richelle Alessi:
And so we're supposed to hold each other accountable. We're not Supposed to be getting these outside voices that are scaring us. But I will say just about every book Paul wrote, actually, just about every book in the New Testament, not all of them, but just about every one, was written in opposition of false teachers. Every single book. I literally just said, not everyone. Almost every single book was written because there was a false teaching out there. So they had to write in opposition to the false teaching. They had to clarify what was wrong.

Richelle Alessi:
And so I also have to remind myself that this is not something like, it's not uncharted territory for the church. The church has had people that are saying things that aren't true. Not every one of those false teachers had a bad intent. They just weren't teaching it. Right.

Richelle Alessi:
Right.

Richelle Alessi:
So, you know, this is the important thing. It's like, what would people take away from this? Well, be mindful of who you listen to. Get in your word and pick somebody like a pastor that you can say, man, I trust that person. At the end of the day, with so much to know and potentially get wrong, you're gonna have to err on the side of trusting someone. I don't want that person to be myself. Just gonna be honest with you. I also don't want that person to be a feeling that I call the Holy Spirit. I want to be able to get to heaven and be like, lord, I may have got that wrong, but I was trusting my pastor.

Richelle Alessi:
I trusted him. Because I guarantee if I do that, and I've said that before, but if I do that, I'm probably not going to be wrong about all that much, and I'm going to be all right. If I trust myself or some Internet preacher, I might get a lot wrong.

Richelle Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
So it's been a great discussion.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah.

Richelle Alessi:
Coming up on 53 minutes here. You have anything else you want to say?

Chris Alessi:
Nope.

Richelle Alessi:
Well, me neither. And that's where that's weird that I don't have anything else to say. I guess I will end by saying that, you know, I feel like on the last couple of podcasts, I've come across a little harsh. It's all passion, and it's. It's a. It's a passion for the individual's ability to man. You have access to the word, so study it. Get to know it.

Richelle Alessi:
You'll be unbelievably shocked at how much you will understand over time. So you said, and I think Ashley will understand me on this one. But you said you wanted to keep listening to Hamilton because you'd catch things you didn't see before. I've always said one of the reasons I watched the office as much as I did because, yeah, I continued to catch things I hadn't seen before. The same thing is true of Scripture. Yeah, you might not understand it. This go around to the next, go around to the next, go around. But if you get in it and you just keep listening, keep reading it, you know, audiobook it, just kind of stay in it, you'll be shocked that all of a sudden you start catching things, you start hearing things, we start preaching things and you go, oh man.

Richelle Alessi:
I knew that I had seen that. It makes the Bible more approachable for the average person and that's important. We don't make it approachable because we water it down so you can approach understand it. It's approachable because if I get in the water, I will eventually understand it and be able to swim. So thanks for joining us on this podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Like I said, I hope it made somebody cry. Maybe we'll put the name of the person in the show notes, maybe not.

Richelle Alessi:
But we want to thank you for joining us again. If you haven't subscribed, feel free to. We'd love it to be a part of the family. But thank you for joining us for this episode of the Family Business with the Alessis. You've just enjoyed another episode of the Family Business podcast with the Alessi's and we can't thank you enough for being a part of our pawdience today. Now that you've learned more about us, here's how you can join in in the Family Business. First, make sure you're following our podcast right now and download this episode so you can hear it at any time. Second, think of someone you know that might need or enjoy this episode and show share it with them.

Richelle Alessi:
You'll be helping them and helping us to spread the word about the family business. Third, go to alessifamilybusiness.com and tap the Ask the Alessi button. This is really cool. You could use it to record a voicemail comment or question and we can add your voice to our conversations. Finally, while you're on our page, tap the reviews tab and you'll see a link to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We love reading your reviews and we might even share them on the show. Thanks again for joining us and we'll see you next time at the Family Business with the Alessis. Because family is everybody's business.