From playing at Willie Nelson's Picnic to viral videos, Jaron Bell shares how his love for music and comedy turned into a calling the country-singer-turned-pastor never expected.
Guest: Pastor Jaron Bell
- Jaron Bell is pastor at Brookville United Methodist Church in Kansas.
- Learn more about Jaron Bell's music,comedy and ministry at Linktr.ee./jaronbell.
- Check out this story about Jaron Bell, written by David Burke of the Great Plains Conference of The UMC.
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This episode posted on Dec. 5, 2025.
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Transcript
Discover the Last Supper by Will Willmon, a six week Lenton study exploring Jesus's table stories on the road to the cross. Experience God's mercy, invitation and grace in a fresh way. Find the book, leader guide and DVD at Cokesbury.com.
Prologue
From playing at Willie Nelson's Picnic to viral videos, Jaron Bell shares how his love for music and comedy turned into a calling the country-singer-turned-pastor never expected.
Crystal Caviness, host: Hi, my name's Crystal Caviness. I'm your host on “Get Your Spirit in Shape.” And today I'm here with Jaron Bell. I'm so excited to have you with us. Thank you, Jaron.
Pastor Jaron Bell, guest: Hey, I'm so excited to be here. I'm glad I got the call and I'm glad I could be your third choice. No, I'm just kidding. So no, I'm so happy to be here and it's such a blessing and I'm excited to do this with you this morning.
Crystal: To get started, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Jaron: Man, we got a long list. No, my name is Jaron Bell. I am what my friends and my wife would like to call a baby pastor within The United Methodist Church. I'm in my first appointment, and for years I was a touring musician in Texas, in the Texas country music scene, and then kind of COVID happened, and right before COVID I stepped away from the music business and got into the sales world. And when COVID happened, as things did, I needed to find an outlet for creativity. So I started just kind of DPing around with the internet and YouTube and funny videos. And that led to here we sit today, I'm a pastor of a small church, but I'm also a full-time touring comedian and musician. And God has been so good to me and allowed me to continue to grow my platform and honestly give it to him and let it be his platform. So yeah, so I would say if you had to sum me up, I'd like to say that I do comedy, country music and we spend a lot of time talking about Jesus. So that's kind of what I do.
Crystal: I love that. And what I really loved about your story, Jaron, when I first read this article by David Burke, who's in the Great Plains conference,
Jaron: Love David. That’s my buddy.
Crystal: Yeah, he's awesome. And I'll definitely link to that article on our episode page because it’s a great one. But what I loved about it was that you are real upfront about you kind of feel like that you're an outlier in The United Methodist Church, that you just don't fit a traditional pastor path. And I want to talk about that because that resonated with me as far as I'm not clergy at all, but what resonated with me is how God uses what he puts inside of each of us that's unique to us and we find our way and sometimes it looks real different than what we think it might look like. So I want to, maybe we can go back a little bit where you said you knew as a teenager that God had put something inside of you. Maybe you didn't recognize it as God at the time, but there was something inside of you. Can you talk about that?
Jaron: Sure, yeah. Just always when I was a younger man, I grew up in West Texas and so in West Texas you had two options during the week. You had to either stay at home and do the chores that your mom said you had to do or you got the chance to go to youth group. And so I went to youth group. And so it was in those moments, I realized when it came to, I watched worship leaders and I watched worship stuff. And so in those moments I realized I was very blessed that God had given me a gift of being able to sing and always, and I can only say this, I look back at it now, I mean then of course you don't see those things when you're there, of course. But looking back at it now, he was setting the foundations of what I have become today, which I feel is a full circle moment of who I am as an artist and who I am as a follower of Christ.
And in those early years, I like to say that I knew that I didn't have a relationship with Jesus. That's the truth. I mean, if I'm being completely transparent, I always like to say I was too busy being in a relationship with myself to be worried about having a relationship with Jesus. That's the truth. And I think we've all been there at some point. We've all been there where we're just so focused on ourselves. And so for me, in those moments I realized that as humbly as possible, man, I could sing better than most folks. That's kind of cool. And so I just took the gifts that God had given me and I just used them for myself. And I look back now and I look at all the situations I went through from, there was a time where it was me, a 1999 Nissan Sentra with a little five speed manual transmission, two trash bags of clothes, a guitar and a little PA system.
And we were just rambling. And I look at all the situations through that time and I realize that I have, in one of my songs, I say that I didn't realize that he was with me the whole time. And I get emotional thinking about that because it was a lot. I mean, when I went through a lot in the music business and chasing after myself and chasing after the world, and there were a lot of times, I always say there was a lot of times I was chasing after the world and I caught it, which was not the thing that I thought I wanted, but what I always found is no matter what success I won or what big show I played or whatever it was, there was something missing and I couldn't figure it out. And it took me years. I mean, I just couldn't understand why, man, this is what we've been working for.
Why do we feel like poop about it? Why do we feel so terrible about it? And then it was just realizing that I'm a broken person in a broken world and I needed to have a relationship with Jesus. And once I did that, I like to say that they say that paying your dues is hard. Well, I will tell you right now, it's expensive because I've been paying them for a long time. And so it's just full circle to where I'm at when my relationship with Christ now couldn't be more grateful. I hope that answers your question.
Crystal: Absolutely. No, not at all. A couple of things that I was thinking of as you were sharing that is can you just share with our audience just a few of those moments where you're like, I caught it, I got to where I want to be.
Jaron:Sure. Yeah. I mean, all the moments I played, I got to play at Willie Nelson's picnic, right? It was something I dreamed about since I was a little kid at Billy Bob's, Texas in Fort Worth. And as a kid from Texas that picks up a guitar. That's the Super Bowl. That's the Super Bowl. And so I got to do that and I heard my song on the radio for the first time. And when I lived in Fort Worth, I chased the world and for about four months was in a relationship with a Dallas cowboy cheerleader. I loved her. And so I had priorities in my life. And it's so funny that you asked me that question because with everything that's been going on with me lately, if I'm just being transparent, I haven't thought back and thought about it in so long. I haven't thought back at that time.
I haven't thought it. One of the biggest moments for me was I played a show with the Eli Young Band. They're a great country music act. Love those guys. And we were sold out 3,500 people and I was on stage. And any musician or performer or any kind of artist will know that there's moments in performance when everything's going right, it just feels special. It just feels perfect. It's just right. Everything's working. And it was one of those nights where the band was perfect. I was perfect, everything was going. And literally, I literally on stage heard the, I didn't know what it was then. I thought I was losing my mind at the time, but I heard the small still voice of God in my heart, and it was literally standing on stage in front of 3000 people, and it was like, this isn't what I gave you all this for. I just felt it and I knew it, and it put me through a downward spiral of craziness. But it's glad it happened and I'm glad we've came out on the other side of it. And so just having those moments of success and then looking back and going, man, man, I really was missing the boat. I really wasn't paying attention to what really was important.
Crystal: When you told that, Jaron, I just got chills when you said that I can't even, I'm not a performer, I'm in the audience. I always like, you got to have somebody in the audience. So that's me. I'm being in the audience. But when did these gifts quit being performance and start being ministry?
Jaron: Yeah, I think if I answered that question honestly, I think the answer would be I'm still figuring it out. That's the honest answer. The honest answer is I'm figuring it out a lot closer than I was. I heard somebody say that. They said that we think of the enemy and we think of the devil as a horned beast sometimes. And in reality, I believe that the enemy comes to you with a smile on its face, if that makes sense, and gives you all the things that you want. It doesn't try to take away from you. It really tries to give you of the world. And so my answer is it's just taking moments. I know this sounds silly. I happen to be sitting at my desk and I see it sitting here. So in a weird thing, I'm a sucker for these little baby jesuses.
I take 'em with me everywhere I go. And it's in moments where I see myself changing. I find myself being the new creation that he talks about in ways of, I still have people that, and this just happened Friday night. Friday night we played in Wichita, Kansas with my good friend Casey Donahue, and there was 2,500 people there. We were sold out. And then Casey Don, he's one of my favorite country acts. So I walked around to the crowd to hang out, and every four steps, somebody wanted a selfie and autographs and all of it. I mean, it was intense. It was intense. But eight years ago, I would've soaked that in, took that for myself, enjoyed it, felt like the king of the world at the time. But now I'm at a place where when somebody said I had multiple people say, man, man, that's the best. That's one of the best shows I've ever seen. Thank you. You're incredible. And I just said, man, praise God. God is so good.
I can't believe that I get to be alive at this time, at this place that I'm me and I get to do the things that he allows me to do. And then I met a lady that I do a little segment about. I play country music, but I do a little segment in my show about, let me take you to church. And I play a worship song and a song that I wrote. And so to answer your question, to answer your question, I know that it's ministry because now when I walk around the crowd, forgive me. If I get emotional, it means so much to me. But man, it's just really cool to walk around and see people that say great things about you, but also people to say, I think, man, I think it's so cool that you talked about Jesus while you were playing, or, Hey man, I don't really do the church thing, but your music was awesome and I really appreciate you saying that, man.
And you got me thinking. And in those moments it's like, Lord, I did exactly what you asked me to do. I planted a seed for you there you did that. And I met a lady that had just come off. She had just come off, she told me her story, and she had just come off a double mastectomy and had breast cancer and was still in pretty rough shape, had a walker. And she came to the show and it was the first show that she'd been to. It's first anything that she'd done to, they set her in the little handicap area at the back. And I happened to be walking by and they stopped me. And she said, when I got cancer, she said, I didn't believe in God. And then when I got cancer, I just started praying, but I don't really know how. And she and said, and I prayed to God that he just shows himself and lets me know that he's real.
And I hugged her and I told her, I'm here to tell you that he is. And I reached in my pocket and I had one little guy on me, and I took him out of my pocket and I said, I did like this. And she gave me her hand and I put the Jesus in her hand, and I held it. And I said, well, he told me to come tell you that he's listening and he is real. And so in those moments, it's like I have all the feelings. I feel like you feel the ego of it, you feel the pain of other people. But what I say this all the time, my encounter with Jesus and how it's changed my life and my heart, when I talk about how I feel like an outlier in the church, it's because I don't think I do everything.
And I don't think I go to the classes they asked me to. And I don't do a lot of things that the United Methodist Church tells me to do. And I'm trying, I'm learning, but at the end of the day, I know how Jesus has changed my life and all I care about, all I care about, I care about the traditions of what we do. I do. It's there for a reason, but also I refuse to let church get in the way of my relationship with Jesus. And I refuse to let it get in the way of how I tell people how Jesus changed my life, and I just want them to get one chance, one ounce of what I feel sometimes when I encounter the Holy Spirit. And I just want to give him that.
And sometimes I get too excited and I don't know how to do what I'm supposed to do, but I just go, Hey, guess what? Jesus is real. I don't know how to. So yeah, that's kind of, for me, that's how it's turned into music and to ministry is my music and my comedy. And in a fun time, sometimes it's making fun of people in a way that they're involved. Of course, I'm not a bully, but it's being able to have moments where I can stand in front of a crowd of people that want my picture and want my autograph and want a selfie and want the things and follow my TikTok, and they do all these things. But in those moments, I get the opportunity to say, Hey, man, just so y'all know, none of this happens without Jesus, none of it. And so I think that that's where the road, that's where they kind of collide because I'm making an effort to be like, Hey, something's going on here. That's kind of how they come together for me. For sure.
Crystal: Well, as we say here in the south, that'll preach, Preacher.
Jaron: Yeah. Come on. Amen. Somebody said, amen. Amen.
Crystal: Jaron, as I'm hearing you talk about this, and it's clear, it's so authentic and passionate for you. Why do you think you're connecting with people?
Jaron: Man, people have poor choices. No, I'm just kidding. Just the selfish answer. The selfish answer is I feel like the Holy Spirit is moving through me and they can't help it. That's the selfish answer. But I think the truth is, I think people connect with me, and it's weird because I've been like this my whole life. I always say I'm an old man now, but when I was 18, 19, I've always had this gifting, and God has always given me the ability that when I walk in the room, and I don't know, people pay attention. I can't help. I can't explain it, I don't know. But I think that people are connecting with me because I just think that I genuinely mean what I'm saying. And I think more than anything, I think sometimes even as pastors, I think we can, I've hung around a lot of pastors. And
Crystal: You're married to one?
Jaron: I'm married to one, absolutely. Yeah, she's awesome. But I think sometimes every pastor I've spent time with we're just a real person. I like to joke that I have a pastor that I know really well. I won't name names, and some people know him and he's incredible, and I've watched him curse at a football game. And so I think that people forget sometimes that we're all just people. I'm not saying we're, you get what I'm saying? I'm not saying that we don't have a bigger responsibility. We do as pastors, we have a responsibility to act a certain way because we are called by the, I'm not saying that's not true. What I'm saying is sometimes I think sometimes we try to over church things. I think we try to over systematically do things. Sometimes it's okay to give somebody a baby Jesus and be like, Hey, I get it. Sometimes life sucks, but guess what? Jesus is here and he will change it. So I don't know. So I think without all the words that I just spewed at you, the answer would be, I think I'm just kind of genuine with what I'm talking about. I kind mean what I say. And then if I don't know what I'm talking about, I go, man, I don't know. I don't know.
Let's take a break from our conversation with Jaron to talk about a new book. "Why did Jesus Have to Die?" In the book, Adam Hamilton invites us to look again at the mystery and meaning of the crucifixion. Despite its central place in our faith, the New Testament writers give few clear answers about how Jesus's death saves or why it had to happen that way. They offer powerful images, ransom, sacrifice, reconciliation, victory, but never one tidy explanation. What if that's because we've been asking the wrong question? What if the cross isn't a transaction to be explained, but a living word from God meant to transform who we are and how we live? Along with the book, you'll find a leader guide, DVD and sermon and worship download, making it perfect for church-wide study. Find "Why Did Jesus Have to Die?" at Cokesbury.com, your trusted source for resources that help you grow deeper in our faith. Now, let's get back to our conversation with Jaron.
Crystal: Jaron, The United Methodist Church is a big structure. It's conferences, and now we have regional conferences, and we have district offices, and we have local churches, and we have agencies, and we campuses, we have all the things. And what I see that you're doing is that you are bringing some things that all of us are connecting with even people outside of the church such as TikTok and YouTube. Social media is a part of your platform.
Jaron:Yes.
Crystal: And in a big way, I mean, I think I read half a million followers on Facebook or something like that, close to that, big numbers. How does that integrate into what you're doing? I mean, obviously it's something you were already building, but now that you're a pastor, you have a congregation. How does all of that working together?
Jaron: Yeah, I mean, work in progress. No, I'm just kidding, man. I'm so proud of where we're at. If I would've told, so the fast story is last November I put out a video that did really well, and we're talking only last November. I was already a pastor and it did really well and did like 3 million views and Barstool Sports shared it and all this other fun stuff happened. And then as that momentum grew, CDX records, CDX and Sony Orchard out of Nashville, Tennessee reached out to me. We were able to figure something out. We did a distribution record deal together. And so that continued to keep going. And when I say that I'm figuring it out, like you said, I was already building this thing and it was already, it had some momentum and we were already growing followers on TikTok. I was doing a thing called Church in the Woods where I stream a video game where I'm hunting like an animal, like hunting game, and I basically just hunted in the woods.
And it was like I took people on hunting trips with me and we laughed and we talked about Jesus, and we did this church in the woods thing. And so that grew and pushed my TikTok to a little over 25,000 followers on that. And that was growing and continuously doing that. And then I put out one video. I was, a lot of people don't know this story, I hadn't really told this story publicly, but I was at the Dylan's, it's like a Kroger, wherever you might be is our supermarket. And I was watching a video and I saw a video on TikTok and it said, when life is stressful, but you don't smoke, and somebody was blowing bubbles, that's what they were doing. Sitting outside. I literally watched that video and then I turned the corner and there was a stand of little Debbie Christmas trees sitting there, and I was like, man, that'd be funny if I packed one of those, like a pack of cigarettes, little Debbie and I did, and I made the video and I put it out at 6:00 PM and I didn't even think about it.
I just put it out. My videos were averaging a good video for me, did 10,000 views and it was awesome. And man, I woke up the next morning and it had 780,000 views the next morning, and it kept going. And then here we are 30 days later and we've had five videos do over 2 million, and we're at a little over 38, little over 38 million views in the last 40 days. So that has been crazy. And we've had big brands reach out. We've signed three partnership deals with bigger brands. And I don't know what's happening to me in my life right now, but I'm just riding the ride. But to answer how it's coming together with the church, I just want to say this. So I'm the pastor at Brookville United Methodist Church. I always joke that we are two hay bales away from being a cowboy church.
We are. We're a pretty country little church. But when I got there, there was 8, 9, 10, 11 people. And I think right now, every Sunday we average 30 32. We're growing and we're doing community events. We got a youth group of, we're right next to the high school, so we've got 25 kids, or we just did a big food drive. We did two truckloads of food for multiple families in Brookville, and we had, I think 16 kids come out and help us pass out food and do those things. And so my appointment is perfect. It's literally perfect. It is exactly where God wanted me to be when he wanted me to be there. And it is not even, it's one of those ones where you just go, Lord, I get it. Appreciate that. Appreciate you being pretty clear. That's nice. Appreciate that. Sometimes the Lord will give you things you don't know.
We're not supposed to question the Lord, but sometimes you got to go, you sure about this, Lord, you alright? But this is not one of those things. And they let me play the music I want to play. They let me do things. I very rarely ever miss a Sunday, but if I have to be on the road or something, I can't get back. I make sure I get a sub. And it very rarely happens. It hasn't happened in probably four months, but if it does happen, they're great. They treat the people that come in with super respect and they love on 'em. So yeah, I mean, for me it's just working. I don't know. It's working right now.
Crystal: Before we ever talked, I just jotted down a few questions and I wrote this question down. I've never asked this question to anyone, so I apologize in advance. You can just say, no, we're not answering that question. What have you learned about God through all of this?
Jaron: That's a great question. You should always ask that.
Crystal: Oh, okay. Alright. I'll add it to my questions.
Jaron: That's a great question. I have learned that grace is not unless you're in the faith and actively, if you're a casual follower of Jesus, which I know life is hard, but honestly it's a whole different situation when you realize that even the breath that you take is a gift that you've been given. Even so, I talk about the millions of views and I talk about the hundreds of thousands of likes and all the people and the autographs and the pictures and the stuff. But the very fact that I can wake up in the morning, the very fact that I can, I've learned two things. I've learned that God, if you sit back and listen, it says in scripture that those knock at the door, the door will be opened. Those that seek, they will find. And what I realized is most of the time it's never God.
It's never God that's keeping us at arm's length. Ever. Ever. So if you search after it, and you, man, so what I've learned about God is if you ask for him, he shows up. That's what I've learned. I've learned that we serve a God of redemption and resurrection. And it says in scripture that it even says how Jesus says himself, how important we are to them, how important we are. And I think sometimes we forget that we look at the story of the resurrection and we look at the sacrifice of Jesus and we look at all that. And sometimes we look at it because, Lord, it's like sometimes we give it that award show. I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They say that. But really sometimes I feel like we look at that if it's a story. But the truth is it's our story. And so that's what I've learned about God. I've learned that it's not about what other people think of me. It's not about, it's literally all about the fact for God so loved the world. Well, when you talk about the world, it seems too big, but the reality is, for God so loved you. That's the truth to me. That's the truth of the gospel. For God so loved the world. Okay, well, that's a pretty big no, God so loved you that he gave his only Son. That's what I've realized through all this is that he just shows up and yes, that's it.
Crystal: One, that's true, but two, it's a powerful truth.
Jaron: It is, if you think about it, if you think about it, man, sometimes we just, man, you going to get me fired up. You going to get me fired up? I ain't going to do it. But no, do it, do it, do it. No, I ain't going to get fired up. I ain't going to get fired up this morning. Ain't going to kicked me out of the conferences or something. I wouldn't be the time I'd be. But no, I just think sometimes, man, I just feel it on my heart. I just, man, sometimes we let church get in the way of just the majesty of what God is. If you really think about it, if you take a moment and you're not worried about your charge conference or your attendance or your all of it, holy smokes, man. We say God is good. It's so casual and I am guilty of it myself, but man, it is just, and because the fact that I'm sitting here on it, even the fact that if I could tell anybody anything, the fact that I'm sitting here on a podcast talking about Jesus is proof that we serve a God of redemption, that there's nothing that you can go through if he can turn Saul into Paul and a tax collector into the writer of the gospel and a country music.
Again, I'm not comparing myself to those people. By the way, I know how the internet works now. Ain't going to get me. Nope, y'all ain't going to get me. But man, I chased women and I drank booze and I played guitar, and I cursed bad and did all the things. And for him to just turn, I mean, it's insane that I'm sitting here talking to you, but it all goes back to what I learned about God. There's nothing too big, nothing. There's nothing too big that you could have done in your past. Nothing. Even if it was awful, even if it was criminal, there's nothing you can do that's too big for the grace of God. Nothing. And that's what I've learned. There's nothing that's,
Crystal: That's beautiful.
Jaron: Yeah.
Crystal: Well, I have three questions as we finish up today. I cannot sit here and look at the walls that are behind you and not ask you about the chickens. There's a portrait of chickens. There's the whole display of chickens on a poster. Tell me about the chickens.
Jaron: If we're being honest with each other. If Jesus could have rode a chicken into the big city, he would have, but they were just too small. Just too little. There's too little to answer your question without trying to be a goofball man, I just love chickens. I love them. I like having them and keeping 'em, and I like watching them. I know it sounds silly, but man, I go out there and mess with 'em and talk to 'em, and they come over to me and I give, it's just, it's cool. And if you talk about it, they're also a meat football, which is cool. They're made of, I dunno if you know this or not, but chickens under the feathers is chicken, which is awesome.
Crystal: You mean like legs and breasts and wings and all that stuff?
Jaron: Come on, somebody said Amen. Fry it up. Come on.
And by the way, just so you know, if fried chicken, if it's blessed by a pastor, the carbs don't count. That's a fun fact for y'all. I learned that. I read that in scripture. I did. It's true. And then
Crystal: We'll not link to that on the episode page.
Jaron: It's delusions. 1412.
Crystal: There you go.
Jaron: That's what that is. But yeah, they're just awesome. That's the answer. I think chickens are awesome. And when I was a little kid, when I was a little kid, Jurassic Park was my favorite movie of all time. And it's my kid's favorite movie. So the whole series is my favorite movie series of all time. And so it was always funny that when I was a kid, my grandfather bought me some chickens and I made a joke of how the chicken's feet look like dinosaur feet. And then my grandfather went out of his way to let me know that chickens are the closest living relative to a T-Rex. And so then I was like, whoa. sold!
Crystal: New favorite animal.
Jaron: Bang. And that was it. And so I've just always had to thing for 'em. And remember how we talked about chicken, they also make eggs. Who would've thought Crystal:
Multipurpose?
If you think about it, if you think of how much the chicken, of course you did not see your podcast going this way, did you? Nope. You didn't.
Crystal: You know what, I'm always open. I just let God take it where it needs to go.
Jaron: Hey, I'm going to tell you right now, God was doing something special when he pulled the chicken off. I'm just saying. I mean, the chicken has done a lot for the human race. That's all I'm saying.
Crystal: I mean, the feathers, pillows, hats, feather hats, feather
All kinds of things. Yes. Well, I'm glad I asked about the chicken.
Jaron: They're awesome. That's the answer. Chickens are awesome. And if you don't think that you don't think that, you need to go to church.
That's on you. Why wouldn't I have pictures of chickens hanging up in my office?
Crystal: There you go.
Well, the next question is, I can't imagine that there's an answer that, is there anything we didn't talk about today that you wanted to I can't imagine that there might have been.
Jaron: I thought we were going to talk about chickens more. That's frustrating.
Crystal: I'll have you back to talk about chickens
Jaron: More. That's all we're going to talk about. I'd be like, I'll just bring a chart. All right. This is :
Yeah. And then we'll just go through and I'll explain each one. No, but no, I don't think, I mean, listen, I think for me, you asked me a question at the start of this interview that was, do I feel like an outlier? Sometimes I want to be pretty transparent and say, I don't feel that way. I don't feel like that because I don't feel like I'm welcome. That's not what I mean. Oh, I shouldn't say this, but guess what? I'm going to do it anyway. I do not care. So I'm going to say it anyway.
I feel welcome. And I want to be very clear that I am a Methodist because I truly believe what we believe in theology and what we believe as a Methodist. I truly believe that despite who people are despite of our things, that every single person on the planet deserves a seat. It is not even deserves. They have a seat at the table with God as we go into, I talked about that at church Sunday. I talked about Thanksgiving isn't about the turkey, it's about the table. It's about the table. And everybody's welcome at the table. Doesn't matter who you are. But also on the other side of that, I think that I have frustrations with, I think sometimes as a church, we say things like, we want to, how do we get to young families? How do we modernize what we do here as Methodist? How do we do that? And then sometimes I feel like I'm in the corner going, ask me, ask me please. I know the answer to the question, but it's like I feel like I just don't get to ask that question. And that's okay. But I've had as humbly as possible, I've had two other denominations and a couple churches reach out and saw what I did online and everything that I'm doing.
But I said no, because they didn't have some inclusion stuff. They were pretty strict about some things. And I didn't think it would be a great fit for me. And it would've been great for my family. But sometimes I just feel like this is where I want to be. This within the United Methodist Church is where I want to plant my feet and where I want to grow, and I want to plant my feet in a pot and stuff. And I just think sometimes it would feel nice to get watered sometimes. So that's it. That's it. I just felt like I didn't answer your question when you asked me that earlier, so I wasn't being honest.
Crystal: Well, thank you. Thank you for that. Well, now I'll ask you the question we ask all of our guests on "Get Your Spirit n Shape" and that's how do you keep your own spirit in shape? I bet it includes spending time with chickens.
Jaron: It does. I got some rabbits too. I like my rabbits too. I love 'em are rabbits. So man, I keep my spirit in shape by just talking about Jesus. And I love, for some people, public speaking is terrifying, but man, if there was a giant group of people, you walk into a room, my first thought is, man, I can't wait to meet these people. Woo. I can't wait to meet all of them. And so just taking Jesus with me in that. And then also, I love hunting, hunting season is here. And I love being in the woods, man. A pastor named Joby Martin that I look up to, said it one time, and I think it's the best quote I've ever heard. He said, well, I didn't see anything hunting. I didn't see any deer. But it's really, really hard for the devil to find you in a tree stand. And I truly believe that.
Crystal: It's church, isn't it?
Jaron: It's church. Church. Amen.
Crystal: Well, Jaron, thank you. I'm glad that you choose The United Methodist Church. I'm so grateful for your ministry and that you've let God lead you here. And I just thank you for being a guest here and that we get to share your story with other people.
Jaron: I am so grateful for the opportunity. I'm man, just loving life right now and God is so good. And yeah, I'm so grateful to you and your listeners, and check me out online and holler at your boy.
Crystal: We will link to all the ways that people can plug in. So thank you.
Jaron: You're welcome.
Epilogue
That was the Jaron Bell discussing his life as a country music singer turned pastor. To learn more, go to umc.org/podcast and look for this episode where you'll find helpful links and a transcript of our conversation. If you have questions or comments, feel free to email me at a special email address just for “Get Your Spirit in Shape” listeners, gysis@umcom.org. If you enjoyed today's episode, we invite you to leave a review on the platform where you get your podcast. Thank you for being a “Get Your Spirit in Shape” listener. I'm Crystal Caviness and I look forward to the next time that we're together.
Today's episode of "Get Your Spirit in Shape" was brought to you by Cokesbury. Experience the journey to the cross in a fresh way with "The Last Supper" by Will Willimon. This six-week Lenton study invites you to travel with Jesus toward Jerusalem, through the powerful table stories he shared along the way. Stories of mercy, invitation and God's surprising grace. Discover how these parables illuminate the meaning of the Last Supper and your own place at Christ's table with a leader guide in DVD is perfect for groups or personal study. Available now at Cokesbury.com.
