Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Dr. Random podcast. I'm Dr. Sarah, and here's the deal. We don't do boxes here.
Every episode is different, every conversation has its own flavor, and no topic is off limits. If you're looking for predictable, this isn't it. But if you want real conversations, honest takes, and a touch of intellect in the best way, you're in the right place. This is Dr. Random Podcast.
Welcome to the Dr. Random Podcast. And I am so excited. Today I have as my guest Derick Zwerneman and he is the founder and director of Serve Source.
And we also are. We joke around long lost cousins.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: We are long lost cousins, yes.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: And Derek is joining us from Austin, Texas today. I've been to Texas, I think, twice. Once I was a baby. I think there's a picture of me on a horse down by the dams, on, like Travis or something like that, I think.
When did I come last time? I would say it was probably over 10 years ago last time I came to visit.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: So, Derek, for your story, can you share a bit about your background and what led you to surf Source?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Absolutely. And, you know, it's funny because I don't know about you, but I believe God puts us in situations to help build us up for what we're going to really be doing in our life. And that's truly what happened in my life. So, like you said, I live in Austin, Texas. My passion and my heart was always to help people. And to walk in the footsteps of my father of becoming an Austin firefighter was a big deal for me. So in 1997, Sarah, I'm older than you. I'm 51 now, so I have two kids that are married and one that's just graduating high school this year. But my whole career has been as a firefighter in Austin. And so through that time, I did a lot of different things. So I started a deck and patio business called Austin Outdoor Living, and we did some incredible projects. I learned how to use my hands and how to do woodwork and things like that. And, you know, little did I know that was going to help me in the future of even what we do with Surf Source now, because we have a long term recovery and rebuild program that I needed that knowledge for. Right. Same thing with the fire department responding to somebody's worst day and being able to bring comfort and support and, you know, some type of solution to that problem, whether it's a car wreck or a fire or gas leak, things like that. I did it over and over for 28 years. Right. And so part of that career, about 12 years of it, was on a fire truck. But I had an injury in 2008 that took me to a different position in communications.
So. And that was a turning point in my life was that fall. I fell off of a deck. I was measuring a deck for one of the patios for Austin Outdoor Living and broke my tailless bone. So you never know. And I would say to anybody out there, you never know what that moment that you think may be the worst day of your life is going to turn into. And so that was a turning point in my life.
And it was during that time that my wife and I were getting really involved with our home church, which is Celebration Church here in the Austin area.
And I was getting into men's groups. I was, you know, we were leading small groups. I was helping with events and things like that. And that's where God really got ahold of my heart. And I realized that a lot of the things that I did weren't just to be a good guy. It was really to share the love of Christ through my actions.
And so, long story short, it was during that time that April and I, we were just talking about, hey, we'd love to meet some of our neighbors. We'd love to help them connect to the local church and really find the piece that we found. And there was a flood that happened in my neighborhood. So this was in 2010, and there was a tropical storm that spun off some mean storms into the Round Rock, Georgetown area, which is just north of Austin, and that's where we live. And so as we'd been praying about this and how to reach our neighbors without being the weird Christian, right?
This flood happened. Next thing I know, I'm calling some of my buddies from the fire department, some of my buddies from church, and we're out there helping people because about 30 homes were flooded about six feet, you know, and so we're going door to door. We're helping get furniture out. We're helping to make sure people are out of their homes. And through that next week and even the next two weeks, we just started engaging the community to come out and help these neighbors. And so I had met the police chief of Round Rock at the time, and there was a Saturday coming up after this flood where he said, derek, he said, if you could come down and help us lead out this community effort, we're going to call everybody. We're going to meet at the Deepwood elementary, which is the school that my kids went to, right? And I get there at 8 o' clock in the morning and there's a sea of people. There's like 800 people there. And I walk up and it's like the mayor and the police chief and the fire chief and they're all waiting for me to get there and they're like, hey, let's come on up, you know, and Chief Tim, which was the police chief, he goes through and he introduces everybody and he gets to me and he goes, but I've got to tell you, you know, Round Rock. And we would not be in the position that we're in to be able to help these neighbors if it wasn't for the church. And he puts his hand on my shoulder and. And I just realized in that moment that there was so much more to, you know, leveraging the opportunities that God puts before you. And so we leveraged that moment and we led people out into those homes and. And from there, it really just sparked something in my heart. Long story short, my pastors were there. They asked me to come on staff at the church, bi vocationally, you know, kind of do this part time staff. And I ended up becoming the outreach pastor at Celebration Church, which is, I want to say we're now over 10,000 at our campuses here in Austin every weekend. We have a Mozambique school called School of Champions. We have Italy campuses, and it's just blown up. But I had the opportunity from 2010 to 2020 to lead as the outreach pastor. So I learned all kinds of things.
And to answer your question, that mix with emergency services really was the culmination of my life and, and what servsource is today, which is supporting those who are serving communities and bringing relationship into the coordination of major disasters. And that's what we see today. So that was a long answer to get you there, but I'm telling no, that's fine.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that's so I love that you were able to just. And I know your energy is amazing. I've always. Since that you just have this energy about you and I know that, you know, that draws people in and so it's amazing that you're able to, you know, use that gift you have and bring all this together. And I actually, I kind of want it. Is there anything about you personally you want to share before we kind of dive into everything?
More about, like with you just growing up in Texas or Austin and being a firefighter, I mean, I know I was going to ask you, how did your, you know, experience in the Austin Fire Department shape your approach to disaster response?
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Well, you know, I think A lot of that experience, you know, growing up in the fire department, I got in when I was 22 years old. And so that's, that's pretty early, right? And so I was one of the youngest in my class and going out and integrating with a bunch of old, crusty, you know, firefighters that, you know, at the time it was cool to tell the dirty jokes, to talk about the girls, to do all this stuff. And, you know, as I was walking through these steps in my life to be a good Christian boy, you know, it's like, how do I integrate and become part of this culture but not become what they are?
And so I would say, you know, just personally in my life, I've just seen opportunity after opportunity that I was put in the middle of to be able to bring some real value or some real positive change to whatever that that culture may be. One station that I get assigned to for three years, you know, I go in there with, with my hat off and just honoring what's happening. But at the same time I'm thinking, okay, I got this guy that just went through a divorce. I got this one that lost his wife last year, this one that is obviously verbally abusive to his family, you know, And I'm going, how can I just little Derek come into this atmosphere and help each one of these guys take a next step towards what they're really called to do, you know, and so whether it's be a better husband or to be a better father, you know, that's always been on my heart and I take that seriously. So, yeah, coming into the fire department is a big part of my life and changed a lot of things. And so that kind of bled into even the development of serve sources. I was became the outreach pastor at Celebration. I was taking teams into major disaster events, events and situations. And that was kind of the beginning of it because we took teams. I don't know if you remember 2011, Tuscaloosa had their super tornadoes and Alabama, Tuscaloosa. And we took a team of 30 and for two weeks we just kind of went door to door and into helping churches and communities.
And I came back with this, wow, look what just happened. We were able to go serve and help that local church, really take it to the next level. But then we also built these relationships within the 30 people that went right. I knew about six of them at the time. And when we came back, I knew everything about them. What their kids names were, what they were praying for, what their struggles were, what they were doing well in life. You Know, like, it was just amazing to see the dynamics that happen because of people taking a step to go serve other people.
And so I realized that, you know, in the fire department, we do that every day. We build camaraderie, we build, you know, that culture, we build just this. How many people don't love a firefighter? You know?
And so, I mean, hey, my wife's got some single friends. They're like, hey, will you buy me a firefighter? Oh, you know, it's like.
And it's so like, hey, I need one too. You know, it's like.
But, you know, just looking at that and looking at the dynamics of it, even as I make meetings with state leaders and government leaders. I was on the, on a call with the office of the first Lady a couple weeks ago with the policymaker for Melania Trump, and she's calling me as a representative of disaster response from the faith based community. And I'm like, wow, how am I even sitting in this call right now? Right?
It is amazing. But that's how, you know, and that's where I truly believe that, you know, you've got to pay attention to your circumstances that you're in right now. And the Bible talks about how you should consider it all joy when you meet trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith will build perseverance and strength. And that's been my scripture for life. Like, I've been through stuff, been there, seen people die, delivered babies, you know, all this stuff. But I can draw from that experience over and over again to be able to sit down with somebody on a personal level and bring some hope, you know, and that's what we do through a national platform we call Serve Source. Now. It's bringing relationships together that have one focus and mission, and that's to bring hope in times of crisis. So it's an incredible thing to get to do.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Yes. And I think that that just what you just shared, just Surf Source, you know, I heard about it and I saw, you know, everything that you guys are doing and I was like, wow, this is awesome. And I was like, so happy that, you know, we're here today sharing this on this platform for you and the Surf Source mission. What does Surf Source do and why is it needed? And can you give an example of Surf Source in action during a disaster? So I guess we'll first dive into what ServSource does and why it's needed so much.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: Absolutely. So in a nutshell, we support those who are serving communities. So if you think about that we're building technology and tools and all the things that to be able to help this relational group of incredible leaders do what they do better. Okay, so as you think about that, from day one, like, when ServSource was really just a vision planted in my heart, it was, wow, I have some really cool connections. And they're all doing incredible work, but a lot of them are doing it alone, without even communicating with anybody else. So we had all these silos. So if you think about. About some of the national organizations, like a Samaritan's Purse, Convoy of Hope, Mercy chefs, God's Pick Crew, 8 Days of Hope, 516, like, the list goes on.
And they were all doing incredible work, but there was no communication. So when a major event would happen, there would be this movement of organizations to go help. So take Moore, Oklahoma, for example. I was there on the ground. We were helping a church called Journey Church. And luckily, there was a lady in our church that owns a private jet charter company. She flew me and six other guys in to go help this church that we had a relationship with.
And because of my experience with emergency services, and remember the chief I told you about from Round Rock, Texas, he started traveling with me to go help in major disasters. So Chief Tim and I, we'd go in, we would talk to the pastoral leadership and say, hey, what do you want to do? Like, how do you feel like you could help your community?
And it's always, well, we want to do something. We just don't know what to do.
And what we discovered is that we could take that experience with emergency services and take the tools and the training that we had through emergency services, and we could help that church set up a system in a playbook that they could leverage the moment and really make a major impact. And so it's called incident Command. So basically, you have somebody in charge. You have operations, you have logistics, you have planning, you have finance. And so we'd break down those things, say, hey, who do you got? Who we can place in this position to be able to help you sustain, you know, this movement that you're doing? And so we took that and realized that it was a big deal.
And in 2015, we started a roundtable. So just a connection of other guys like me. So I was an outreach pastor. We got other outreach leaders and directors together, and we started talking about lessons learned, like, how can we do this better? How can we help other, you know, other churches or other communities as they face disaster?
And after the first year or two, we realized that, oh, my Gosh, we got to pull in the relational partners that we have around the country to make the biggest impact. And so we made an invitation to 18 of the major organizations. Some of them I just listed in, 17 of their directors and leadership showed up, which told me this is a big deal for them. Right.
And so we were able to convey the idea that we as the church want to work with you and help you, but you got to work with us. So how do we start this collaboration so that we can all do it better? That's kind of where servesource started. And so we'll actually have our 10th year conference. So we call it the Disaster Response Relational network, so the darn network for short. And it's 100% supported by serve source and it's really the serves conference these days. But all of our partners come together and Sarah, it's like a family reunion. We all come together and talk about what God did during the year and how can we do it better. And so another amazingly long story to tell you that this platform is about relationship more than the technology that we're building. The technology is catching up and it's incredible to see what AI what, you know, the different tools are that we can build through the technology that's in the world, but we're using it to undergird and support this relational network.
And that's why the state of Texas and the state of Florida and these emergency operations centers are calling us, going, hey, we got this new system we want you to, to look at and help us plug things into.
They really want the relational connections that we have, which is good.
But we're now positioned to be able to serve them and to serve the partners along with anybody that wants to get involved through a connectivity piece that we call Serve Source.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Yeah, and so did you mention Italy? You said you guys were in Italy too?
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Yes, we have two campuses in Italy through Celebration Church.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Serve Source. Now we are international. So like I was just in Jamaica a couple weeks ago, I think I talked to you when I was there. And so we will respond internationally. But the Italy campuses, those are more expressions of, of my home church Celebration.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: And as far as the collaboration and impact that you were just discussing, it's like everybody is very, sounds like envious and moved and just celebrates what you're doing. How do you bring churches, non profits and community leaders together effectively, would you say?
[00:18:30] Speaker B: And yeah, that's a really great question because fact of the matter is disasters don't happen every day, but crisis does in every city.
So coming from my experience in leading our outreach, we called it Community Impact at our church. You know, leading that, I also met other leaders that were doing amazing work. Right. And so they might have had the exact same title in their church as I did. What really stirred me up was the opportunity to be able to set the table for these type of leaders to get together. Okay, so if you go to our surf source website, there's a place for network connections. And so that's what we build out, I'd say 80% of the time.
Because fact of the matter is, is that these major disasters happen. And we've got a plan for that that we've really refined and created an incredible way for organizations to communicate. And now we have over 22,000 churches within our admin database where we can drop a pen and we can find out who's in there.
But fact of the matter is, is that if we are not building relational connections with churches throughout the country in each city, then it's going to be harder to connect. So here in Austin, Texas, we have our first model and then we have several that are already following, but it's called the ATX Outreach Connection. And that's where we get outreach minded leaders from the church together every other month. And we build relationships and we say we connect, we collaborate and we go back and we serve our churches and our communities with greater knowledge and relationships. And so if you think about that, the crisis is foster care. The crisis is single moms who lost their job and they're trying to fend for three kids. The crisis is homelessness or feeding people. Right? And so that's what we, as outreach leaders from the church get together and do as we come together. And we build relationships around the greatest needs in our city so that we can go back and serve with greater knowledge and relationships that community that God put us in the middle of. And so it's through that that we build resources. Like we've built a community connection map with over 90, I think there's 92 organizations that church partners with. And it was identified by those outreach leaders that have come together, they submit their own, you know, connections onto this map and then it's shared with others. And so if you think about that, as we go into Pensacola, we go into Fort Myers, we go into, you name it, Nashville, and we help initiate and set the table for outreach minded leaders to get together. Now we're expanding the web of relationships and it's not only about a major disaster, it's about, wow, how are we as the church meeting the crisis in our city with the greatest tools possible.
And it can only be done through connection. So servesource functions to be able to facilitate those connections over and over again. So my job this next year, I'll be in a different city every month doing a one day roundtable based on how are you going to respond to disaster? But land plane on, hey, we need a connection here, you guys.
We can support you to be able to come together every other month or quarterly and just build relationships right here. Because without that it's going to be hard because we're better together.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: So it's almost like you're the moving body of Christ as one.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: We're doing our best. You know, First Corinthians talks about the body of Christ, right? And if you think about the body and you think about what it means to have different expressions of, you know, of Christ, you got a thumb, you got a toe, you got an eyeball. But fact of the matter is the eyeball is beautiful, right? But if it's, if it's in my hand and disconnected from the body, it's gross, you know, so think about that.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: I don't want to be disconnected from the body, trying to do my own thing. Because if I'm just eyeball, you know, moving around, I'm not going to do very good work. But if I in the socket, then I'm beautiful, I'm a part of the body and I can make a real difference by bringing insightful information into this big plan that God has. So anybody that partners with us, and especially the big partners, you know, they, they found real value in our four simple things that we believe in, right? These are a value. So number one, we're Christ focused. We're, you know, we're focused on what God can do through this opportunity that he's given us. So kingdom focus number two, we believe in making the local church the hero in a time of crisis. So in order to do that, you've got to have some resources, you've got to have some connections, right? There's no need to develop a long term recovery group and put all this money into what could be and have all these people working together that never met each other. But when you already have a working group of leaders and a local church that's sustainable, like it's a sustainable solution, right? And so that's what we try to get them to. So we believe in making local church the hero. Number three, we know that we're better together, right? We can't be that eyeball and four is that if you have those three values, we value your uniqueness. So if Convoy of Hope sends truckloads of resources, I'm not going to go tell them what kind of diesel to buy or what kind of trucks they need to be running or how to do their business. I'm going to say, go, Convoy. Let's tell everybody about what you're doing and let's get you some support because you do it really well. You know, it's like, that's kind of how we function. Mercy chefs, they feed 20,000 meals a day in Kerrville or wherever. And it's like, I'm not going to tell them how to season their potatoes. I'm going to come in and say, hey, man, your potatoes are amazing. I'm gonna tell everybody else about your potatoes so that you can get, you know, like, think about it. So anyway, that's kind of how it works.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Okay. I love that. I was actually curious because I was wondering, you know, you do think about all the different other sources are out there. But I love what you guys are doing. It's so impactful and like, you know, the whole. My next question was actually, what's one story that illustrates the impact of Serve Sources Network? And I was kind of thinking of the most recent thing, right, with the flooding. But I'm sure you have some stories you want to share. But I remember I shared on my social media about what you guys were doing, and it was amazing. There's a band I listened to, secular band, Slightly Stupid, and they shared Surf Source. So I was like, that's awesome. Impacting so many people.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: So that's really what it's all about. I mean, this band. Would you say the name of the.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: Band is Slightly Stupid?
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Slightly Stupid. I love it. Like, we have.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: They're actually pretty cool music. I like their music.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: That's awesome. I'm gonna have to check them out. We'll have to tag them on this so they can connect.
But I mean, really, that's what it's all about. Like, we have a partnership with Niagara Water. So you've probably heard of Niagara. I think they're based out of California in Redding area. But.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: We are now Surf Source has become their liaison for distribution. So we've sent 60 plus truckloads of water to our partners, to the most needed areas on behalf of Niagara Water. And they trust us to be able to manage that relationship and to identify the greatest needs. That's a big deal. You know, we were contacted this year by Biolite, which they do the liquid IV packets. And that's liquid gold when you're out there working, you know. Okay, so now Serve Source is their liaison. Like we're the resource for them, you know, and it's, it's incredible to see those type of partnerships and relationships happen.
And you know, when we talk about impactful stories, I mean, there's thousands of impactful stories that we could share. But the most impactful story to me is whenever our partners, I mean, just drill down to the simple. When I said, hey, we want to do, you know, as many interviews in one day, like we had like 20 plus. I could only do 15 in that one day. That tells me a lot about the trust and the relationships that we have out there. And so if we're building this communication and resource development platform, success stories to me are the success stories of our partners. So you'll see us on our. And we just started our Instagram and we need a thousand followers. By the way, if you can follow us on at servesource.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Yes, everybody listening, follow.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: Because we found out on that day that unless you have over a thousand followers, you can't do a live video on Instagram.
And I had just done the update that morning and we. It crashed the whole thing. But anyway, I don't know anybody else that can just repost over and over again. The amazing stories of organizations. Like, we could sit there and repost all day long because there's rebuilds happening, there's families that are finding hope in a major event like on day one. But fact of the matter is, is that all the way from monitoring to assessing to responding to long term recovery, there's these moments of hope that are being delivered all the way through.
And you know, I was in Jamaica, I'll give you this story real quick. And we're going and meeting with partners. We met with, oh my gosh, the local government. There was a large. Basically it's a Cisco of America and we're meeting with their founder and director. And this guy's worth billions.
He's offered his desk to us to meet with him to talk about how to best get resources in and out. And I'm going, how am I even sitting here? It's kind of like when I got on the call with the office of the first Lady. I'm like, why are you even talking to me? But then I realized that, man, God's using us to be able to come into these situations. Well, we're driving around in Jamaica right from. It was crazy, the roads there. If you've been to Jamaica. You know, they drive on the other side of the road. It's crazy. People are passing each other. There's, like, no rules. And we stopped to ask directions to this couple, and they ended up needing to go where we were going. So it was about an hour down the road. They jump in the car, and we've got a local pastor with us. And then we got these two people, and they're telling us their story, and we're going through what happened to them during the storm. Well, by the time we get to their destination, this pastor had asked them, this young lady, hey, you know what?
We are here because we believe that God is leveraging this moment to truly transform Jamaica. Like, we may think it's the worst day in the world, but fact of the matter is, is that this shaking was needed. And this is from the local pastor. And he's like, let me ask you something, young lady. Do you know Jesus? And I'm going, man, he just went there, like, you know, and that's a boldness that you. A lot of us only pray for, right? But Pastor John's like, hey, let me ask. And she said. And she goes, not yet. Like that. And I was like, oh, my goodness. He goes, let me ask you, is your grandma a believer? You know, and. And she goes, yes, she's told me all about Jesus. She's tried to pour into my life. She said, but I'm lost right now. And he goes, I think today's the day, you know, like, he's like, totally walking her into this thing. She goes, yes, Pastor. She said, I really need. I need Jesus in my life. And he said he prayed with her, a simple prayer. And she left with money, with food, with people coming. And she was working at a grocery store that got demolished. And we are connecting her to Mercy Chefs, who is setting up a feeding program right there. And the hope is that she will get hired to work with them. And she's leaving. Like, holy cow, what just happened?
Yeah, so that's my story. I would say the story is about.
About her, you know, and it's about the one, you know, and if you look at this huge operation that's happening for each one of our partners, we truly believe it comes down to the one that they're touching over and over again.
And we want to set up the very best opportunity for that to happen. So that's what we're doing. And we're going to cross many lines. We're going to work with secular organizations. We're going to work with the state and with the government. But at the end of the day, it's really our goal to position those incredible organizations that are our partners and the local church to continue to just reach that community and share the love of Christ through their actions.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:31:42] Speaker B: How many out there are going, oh, my gosh, Dr. Random just went to another level.
I love it. I love it.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And, you know, as far as leadership and vision, so what lessons have you learned leading Surf source?
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, one of the greatest lessons that I learned is that I can't do it all by myself. Fact of the matter is, is that I have certain gifts, and then there's some things I just don't understand. Right.
And there's people that have those gifts. And so I'll give you an example. Michael Gardner is our first hire, and he was hired in January last year. And his gift is really technology and operations and doing all those things. I was building Google sheets and using Google Maps, right. He came in and really brought us into the next level of mapping tools, using AI, using the technology that are available, and making everything work together. And so as a leader, and if you're leading somebody out there or leading a team, I'm going to say this, hold on to the reins as tight as you need to. But whenever you meet the opportunity to be able to release and let somebody really flourish and what their gifts are, you really need to do that as a leader. And I've found that for me personally, releasing and just saying, Michael, here's the vision, here's where we want to go.
I just need you to get us there, you know, on this side of things and give him that piece. Don't give him every bit in detail and micromanagement, you know, like, that's. You just. You can't do it because then you're not allowing him to flourish in what he's really called to do. And so I'd say that's one of the greatest lessons, leadership lessons that I've learned is that man, I just got to turn things over. We have a young man, we have three employees. I'm one, Michael. And then a young man in Mozambique that my wife and I put through college.
He's 25 now. I met him when he was 14, and Sweden got his degree in geography and teaching.
And he came onto our team also at the beginning of last year. And we've given him tasks and then ask him for the solution. You know, it's like, hey, we need for this list to be cleaned up. And he comes back and he's like, hey. So I wrote this program and it's like, oh my God, like, we never thought to do it that way.
And so if you're micromanaging somebody and telling them what to do and you're going to miss out on the opportunity of growth that's before you. Because if they're truly supposed to be with you, then they should carry the heart, vision, the culture, and elevate your work to the next level, creating space for you. And that's the greatest lesson that I've learned is, you know, being a leader.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: I love that because, you know, my doctor is actually, you know, it's an educational psychology, organizational leadership. So what you just spoke to is so true. I'm so against micromanaging. So I was listening to one of.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: Your other pod, you know what she was talking about?
It was on a level of that, right? I mean, you were talking about, you know, different styles of leadership, things like that. And I listened to one of the podcasts I listened to is Craig Groeschel. I don't know if you've ever to Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. Oh my gosh. Like, there's so many nuggets out of that that we can all pull. But the number one thing that I continue to draw out is that I'm not the. The be all, end all for everything. You know, I've got to figure out where I'm. What I'm geared to do best and step into that lane and do it the very best that I can and trust that the people around me have the, you know, the vision and the motivation to. To level up.
Yep.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: And that's.
Yeah. And you are definitely, whether one of you yourself this way or not, you are an amazing leader. So thank you and kudos to you and I'm so proud to be part of, like your family too.
[00:36:03] Speaker B: Part of Soap Source.
Yeah.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: I'm so happy to have this platform, you know, to be able to share with everybody what you're doing and your passion with it and just everything about Surf Source. I'm hoping that, you know, the listeners, audience will listen and, you know, once we're up, you can share it with people. But the more impact and sharing, I hope that this will just kind of accelerate, hopefully be a platform that, you know, really can boost and share all you're doing and get some motivation and, you know, as far as Surf Source in the next few years, do you have any goals or visions that you see?
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, we're really Looking at automating a lot of the things that we do. You know, we're all living in this world of technology and AI and. And we're leveraging those things to be able to create space for us to. To do what we're called to do at a faster rate and to keep up. I mean, fact of the matter is, is that, you know, we all hear it, we're all in the middle of it, and if we don't embrace what's happening around us and take the good, right, dish out the bad, then we're going to miss the boat, right? I mean, I don't want to go in being ignorant about anything in this world. You know, I mean, there's a lot of things that are happening around us. And. And really, our motivation is to be able to equip and empower churches and Christian leaders over and over again and for people on the outside to see us and go, wow, like, man, maybe there is something to this God that they follow. You know, and maybe I should look into this, right? I mean, whether it's technology or it's, you know, leadership techniques, it's like God is doing something here that I believe is. Is going to impact the world in a great way. And it's not because of. Of me. It's not because of Derek, you know, that started this thing. But it's. It's about all of the relationships that consider themselves to be a part of this growing network of relationships. And we'll be able to draw from the greatest gifts of each one of them and to be able to push out and convey the heart of Christ through their actions, through their stories, you know, through. Through the dynamics that God's creating outside of things that we even know. But then it's. It's like pouring back into this funnel of bringing that hope that we. We only, you know, can know through those relationships and the relationship with. With Christ. And so that's really the goal. You know, it's. We want. Practically, we want to be able to do one day, round tables next year, one every month. And so if you. And I think we have seven of them already spoken for. But as we move into the years, I mean, I can see an outreach connection in every city in America, right? And for us to be able to support with the mapping tools. So when you zoom into this Austin community connection map, right? You got 90 map dots that all are doing some type of work that's changing the world around them, whether it's foster care, you know, pregnancy resource centers, whatever those look like and my vision is really to be able to zoom out on that map and see clusters all over the country where you could zoom in if you're in that area and you can plug in and you can find people that are geared the same way as you. Because remember, the eyeball doesn't do the same thing as the thumb. Right. And so if you're a thumb, we want to connect you to other thumbs to start putting your thumb on it and doing something about it. And so that's really my goal and my heart behind this is just continue to make those connections. And hey, when a major disaster happens, for it just to be clockwork, like boom, everybody knows that we're going to be there through the partners that are already doing it. And every one of those are going to 100x by 10 years from now. Like they're going to grow so large because of an incredible connection that they've made here or you know, outside of here with other like minded leaders. So that's really, that's pretty big vision. But hey, you got to, got to go after it. Absolutely.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: I think you guys are all going to do it as you know, the body.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: Hey, and I'm working with firefighters for Christ. So maybe we'll start some kind of dating service with firefighters.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: Hey, I'm, Come on. Jesus.
I all have a, you know, come on.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Hey, how many girls out there need a Christian firefighter?
Yeah, so anyway, that one offline, see what we can come up with.
There's got to be an AI. There's an AI computer component to that, right?
[00:40:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Surf Source Christian firefighter dating service.
[00:40:59] Speaker A: I love it. I love it.
That's awesome. And for call to action for the viewers, how can individuals or organizations get involved or support Serve Source so that they can know how to, you know, how can we get involved and.
[00:41:15] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I share on the ground for you, so I shared. We're on social media. If you go to, to YouTube or Facebook or Instagram X, we're on all of those. Just look up Serve Source and you know, if you think about how you can help us, just share, share it with other people, you know, it's, there's no hard sale with ServSource, you know, but we do have to of course raise funds. We're a 501C3 and so we've been blessed to be able to, to hire some staff to move forward as we continue to grow. Of course there's going to be other positions and, and there's going to be new technology that we're doing, there's going to be truckloads that need to be shipped. We do have a giving page with a link that shows you where every dol we are. You know, the majority of of the funds that we raise do support our team because it's heavy on touch points. Right. I mean, we have to be able to, to build that technology. We have to be able to run it every day and we've got to be able to go out and make new connections every day. So you can help us by pointing people towards servesource. Just if you know any church leaders, like we want to meet with them, we want them to come to our conference in Birmingham in February. So there's a link on our website, but it's.
Yeah. Servesource.org drrn2026 that'll take you to the page for the conference. And we want as many church leaders as we can get there. It's an incredible time. Come on, Jesus.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: Awesome. And I think we've covered a lot for everybody and.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:54] Speaker A: And I'm hoping to possibly, maybe, maybe I'll come out to the Austin area sometime. I'm wanting to come and visit again and I have some friends there too.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: Now, so come on, you can stay with my mom.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: Yes. I love your mom.
Yeah. And I think I saw that your, your daughter does stuff with wedding dresses and did some modeling.
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Hey, all my kids could do a podcast for you. They're amazing. I've got a son that's a barber. Here's my plugs. Jackson just opened a barber shop in Round Rock, Texas called Tellers and it's right downtown. It is the hub. I mean, guys just go there and hang out and so, yeah, so he's a barber. Round Rock, Texas. London is at Karina's bridal shop in Georgetown and in College Station. And she's one of the managers there. She is amazing. She's been a model. And Liberty's our 18 year old. She's at Zika Tour, which they do. They do prom dresses and stuff.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: Both of my girls, they both run the social media accounts for these organizations and they're like 50 plus thousand, you know, followers kind of thing. And so they're very talented and I love it and my wife is amazing and. Yeah. Hey.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: So anyway, Sarah, thank you so much. What an opportunity and just an honor to be able to, you know, be a part of this new podcast. Dr. Random. Someday we're going to look back and I'm gonna be like, oh my gosh, you just had Dr. Phil, you know, or what it is. And so.
And I was one of the first. Yeah.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: Yay.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: So anyway, I just speak life over it. It's going to be amazing. And just keep up the good work. You can do it.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: Thank you. Gr. As I would say. Mercy. Yeah. Praise the Lord. And thank you. Thank you so much for coming on. And I'm really stoked about just, you know, I'm like, let's just plow this surf source through the nation and internationally. And thank you again. And, yeah, thanks for joining the Dr. Random podcast today. And as always, I will say ciao.
[00:45:06] Speaker B: Ciao.
