#50 | Ministering in Hollywood, Pt. 1 | Jeremy Treat

It's watering time everybody.

It is time for Apollos Watered, a podcast to saturate your faith with the things of God so that you might saturate your world with the truth of Jesus Christ. My name is Travis Michael Fleming and I am your host and today we're having one of our deep conversations with my friend Jeremy Treat.

Let me tell you a bit about Jeremy Jeremy's childhood was spent in the arctic snows of Alaska, forging a rough hewn, living in the frozen wonderland of the North. By the age of 12, though, he'd had his quota of the icy wilderness and so he and his family moved to Seattle to experience rainy suburban sprawl.

He grew up in the church and as a teen first grasped that Christianity wasn't about what he could do for God, but about what God did for him in Christ.

That good news transformed him on the spot and ever since his life has evolved a constant process of repenting of self righteousness and growing to rely instead on the grace of God. A reading of C.S. lewis Mere Christianity in the 12th grade sparked a passion in Jeremy to dive deeper into studying theology.

This passion led him into pastoral ministry and through various institutions of higher learning as he earned a colorful variety of degrees and during that time Jeremy got married to Tiffany, the daughter of his one time basketball coach.

J, perhaps the most compelling reason to refer to him as a doctor is the fact that he once helped his wife deliver their second daughter in the front seat of their Honda Civic when they couldn't make it to the hospital on time. Whoa. Jeremy currently serves as the Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Reality la.

He, his wife and their four daughters currently reside in Los Feliz, a neighborhood marked by an abundance of Hollywood history and a scarcity of street parking. He is the Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Reality LA in Los Angeles, California.

He's an adjunct professor of Theology at Biola University and a council member of the Gospel Coalition.

He is the author of Seek first how the Kingdom of God Changes Everything, Great Book and the Crucified Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology. He and his wife Tiffany have four daughters.

I want to welcome Jeremy treat to Apollos watered as we talk about what it's like to minister in la, to talk about how we can share the truth of the Gospel in the midst of a very religious culture, but how we also fulfill the mission of Christ in our world, wherever God would have us be. So listen in to this conversation that I had with Jeremy Treat. Happy listening, Jeremy. Welcome to Apollos Watered.

Thanks for having me, Travis. Looking forward to it.

All right, just to start off, we have our Fast five. Are you ready?

Let's do it.

In N Out Burger or Chick Fil A?

Chick Fil A.

Why?

It's just better. I mean, I feel like I need to be, say, In n out to be true to California, but I gotta be honest, Chick Fil a is just better.

Okay, 80s or 90s basketball?

90S, that was the golden era for me. I mean, I grew up in the 80s and 90s, but the 90s is when I came into my own with basketball. And I mean, Michael Jordan in the 90s.

There's nothing ever been like that in the history of basketball. Doesn't get any better.

I totally agree. So here, though, since you're in California, I'm assuming. Now, are you a Lakers fan or are you a Golden State fan?

Oh, man, you just insulted me. I'm a Clippers fan. Oh, Los Angeles Clippers.

Oh, now, okay, pre. I mean, were you, like, pre. Like, I don't want to say pre, but pre Steve Ballmer, or were you a fan then?

Kenny Norman.

Kenny Norman. Danny Manning, Ron Harper. I've got a Brent Berry jersey at home. Clippers are my squad. So I grew up a Seattle supersonics fan.

And then the Sonics ceased to exist, so the Clippers moved into that number one spot.

Oh, that's good.

I rooted for the Clippers. They were my second favorite team just because they were kind of the lovable losers. Yeah, I mean, you're talking about the Louis Vaught era.

I mean, that's when you were getting all the guys that were, like, way past their primes. Dominique Wilkins. Oh, man. Okay, well, that changes my other questions then.

I can talk about the Clippers all day. Although I. I'm not necessarily a Warriors fan, but I love watching Steph Curry.

I mean, if you just want to see magic on the basketball court, like, watching Steph is amazing.

It is.

It's just not fair seeing a Guy shoot like that is insane, but okay. Taking your clippers.

Love, then.

All right, how about this? You've got Blake Griffith, Blake Griffin, or you're going to have Chris Paul.

Oh, I have. I have some bitterness towards both of those guys. I would take Chris Paul. I mean, Blake Griffin is done, basically. I mean, he's.

His game is power and dunking. He hasn't had one dunk this entire season, at least when we're recording this. And Chris Paul's doing. Doing well with the sun. So Chris Paul is. He's.

He's a leader and that I respect about him.

Yeah. Okay. Those were some fun teams to watch, man, when they got Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, man. There were some just great stuff. Okay, so here you go. Next one. Weirdest habit your wife or kids say you have.

Oh, man. Weirdest habit my wife or kids say.

Yeah.

I always. When I sit down, I always curl my toes. Like, I always put my. I curl my toes and my kids always make fun of me about that. I don't know why I do it.

I don't know where it comes from. But my kids. That's the thing that comes to mind. They always get on me about that. It's just natural.

You curl your toes. That's pretty weird.

Yeah. Like, I kind of put my rest. My foot, like, on my toes. Like, I don't know. It's weird. I'll own it. It's in my genes. I don't know.

Okay, that's good.

I like that.

Here we go. This is the last one. Last question of the Fast 5. If you were to be a place in California, what place would you be.

And why Los Angeles? Because it's the greatest city in the world. I love it.

All right, all right.

I mean, are you asking me outside of where I currently am?

Okay, let's do that. Let's do that. So you don't have to play to your base.

Okay.

Okay.

Outside of Los Angeles.

Outside of Los Angeles, I think I would go up to Carmel by the sea. I mean, Carmel is just like a little slice of paradise. And it's.

I've been able to visit there a few times, and it's the opposite of LA in so many ways. So it's a good break. It's refreshing.

Awesome.

That sounds so good right now because I'm in Illinois and we just had last night, like, another four and a half inches to go on top of the other, like, 15.

Yeah.

So we're, like, digging out and it's going to be negative two Tonight, and that's without wind chill. So just you talking about it makes me feel warm on the inside.

Well, my family, we went on a hike yesterday and I texted some of my family, I've got family all over. And I texted someone because it's cold everywhere. And I said, hey, I feel your pain about the coldness.

I had to get out my short sleeve sweatshirt today. What a jerk. It was about maybe 68 degrees here, which is pretty cold for us.

You thought My wife is from south Florida, so she's the same way. Same way. So. Okay, well, let's get after it then. So let's hear your story.

I mean, you said you grew up in Seattle, you went to college in California, but tell us your spiritual journey. Talk about how you came to follow Jesus and really pursue him and want to pursue him as not only a pastor, but.

But You've got a PhD in this, so what really led to you to really pursue and follow Christ?

Yeah, well, I'll back it up a little bit and you can just kind of interject wherever you want and ask more questions. But I mentioned Seattle, but I actually grew up in Alaska. I lived in Alaska till I was 12 years old.

A little fishing town a couple hours south of Anchorage. And my dad was a cabinet maker and really like to talk about who I am.

Today I have to talk about my dad because my dad has shaped my life more than anyone. And not only because he's just a great dad, but the way I like to put it is that my dad gave me everything that he never had.

I'll just summarize it, but my dad had a very difficult upbringing. Anything that you would hope somebody doesn't go through, my dad went through that. He took the worst that his life can give and he fought through it.

And he was able by God's grace to carry on and then start a family and like I said, give me and my siblings everything that he never had. So I share that at the beginning because I've been very blessed in so many ways. But it's come through a lot of sacrifice on my parents part.

So I grew up in Alaska. My dad owned a cabinet shop. He built it up. It was really successful. It burned down to the ground when I was 7 years old.

So he bought this store and he built it up did really well. Five years later, his store burned down. So my dad built up these two businesses, really successful. They both literally burned. And I was 12 years old.

My dad took me and my older brother and we got in the truck and started driving south looking for a new place to live while my mom stayed back in Alaska to sell the house with my little brother and sister. So, I mean, I look back on that. I talked to my dad about this. You're crazy.

Like, literally just got in the truck and started driving, not knowing where we were going to go. We ended up in Seattle. We lived in hotels for a couple months in Seattle. Mom and my little sister and brother were able to come join us.

And my dad taught himself how to code, and he ended up getting a job at Microsoft. So we settled down in Seattle suburbs. So that was. I mean, that's how I ended up in Seattle.

And then it was right after that, when I was 13 years old, that I think that the Lord saved me and gave me a new heart. I mean, I'd grown up in the church. My parents are really godly and taught us the word and modeled that in so many ways.

But the context that I grew up in were very legalistic. God just cares about your behavior and you just need to obey.

And you just, you know, I kind of learned how to play the game, to talk a certain way around the right people and do the right things in the right context. But I honestly, like, I was a little Pharisee. Like, I thought that God was lucky to have me on his team.

And I brought all this to the table and I kind of learned how to play the game, and I was good at it. And it was when I was in junior high. I mean, I first, for me, like, understanding the gospel, what had to kind of rip open my heart for that was.

Was really seeing my own sin. So I think back on that and just how vivid that was of when I first realized my need for grace. See, I'd heard about grace my whole life.

I'd heard about Jesus dying on the cross and raising from the grave. But deep down, I didn't think I needed. I thought that God was kind of helping patch things on to what I was already doing. That was really good.

And so just really understanding my sin and the need for God's grace and the gospel. So I trusted in Christ. And really from that point on, I mean, it's just been a journey of understanding more and more the depth of the gospel.

I need God's grace as much right now as I did that first day as a teenager that I understood that. So that was a little bit of my story of just kind of early, early life, first really understanding the gospel and then growing from there.

That's a pretty remarkable story. I mean, your dad, especially what your dad went through and all that he did.

And honestly, when you were saying that the second place burnt down and he pushed in the truck, in my head I'm thinking, is he going to have a conversation with his son and say, son, this is the moral of the story. I want you to be a fireman.

Yeah, right.

I mean, that, that just, that's very.

Unusual to have two.

That's wild, man. My dad's a fighter. Like, he'd never give up. I grew up watching Rocky and my dad giving me pep talks.

And like, you just when you get knocked down, you get back up and you keep going. And my dad modeled so much of that for me.

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, tell us now. I mean, you're a pastor, you've got a PhD. Usually those two things don't go together.

And then you're pastoring in LA. I mean, those are three things that I'm like, those don't. That's this and what not. That's not what people think normally go together.

Can you describe just how that works? And I know it works for you.

Yeah, but how does that work?

I mean, I'll tell you a little bit more of the backstory just to kind of like set that up. I mean, I. So I came down to Biola for college and then I ended up moving back to Seattle to help plant this church.

And when I helped plant this church, I was 20 years old and I really started full time ministry there. I started. And school became a side thing for me then. So I finished my undergraduate while I was doing ministry and then did a master's in theology.

But that was always kind of on the side. And so I really, I really enjoyed theology, but it was kind of on the side. Like I was just in the trenches.

And as I was going through seminary, where I really got excited is when I could make these connections of how to take what I was learning in seminary and teach it to these kids that I was ministering too. So I'll never forget learning about John Chrysostom. Or was it Chrysostom Golden Mouth?

Yeah, but was it, was it Chrysostom where they, they cut his tongue out? Now I'm, I'm blanking on this.

No, you're not thinking of Polycarp. No, because he was burned.

Anyway, I can't. It's something like Chrysostom. I'm blanking on it right now. It'll probably come back to me later.

But, you know, early church figure, fifth, sixth century, I think. And talking.

There's debates about the two wills of Christ and they cut his tongue out and they cut his hand off because of his beliefs in Christology, what he believed about the person of Christ. And I remember hearing that and being like, I don't think I'd take a paper cut for Christology.

And hearing this guy who believed something so much that, I mean, he got his hand cut off so he couldn't write anymore. And they cut his tongue off so he couldn't speak anymore. And, and when he did that, like, just seeing the courage there.

So I went and I told that story to these junior hires and all of a sudden they're just, they want to learn Christology. They're like, this guy's crazy. Like, what was it that he was talking about? That he'd get his tongue cut out, right?

Like, they just can't even imagine that. And so I started, I started taking the stuff that I was learning in seminary and teaching it to junior high and high school kids.

And what I found is they were eating it up like they, sure, they want to play the silly games and whatnot, but like they were, they were hungering for depth and they weren't getting it. And when I started giving it to them, they loved it. And so I had this motto.

I mean, I think it's an old Albert Einstein quote, as I was going through seminary, of, you don't really understand something unless you can teach it to a child. And so that just really started shaping the way that I did ministry.

And, and then I, when I, when I finished my master's in theology, I was kind of at this place where I didn't know what to do next. And I'd had some professors recommend that I go on and consider a PhD. And like I said, I'd never really applied myself to school that much.

I don't think I ever wrote a paper that I started before 9:00 at night. And so, you know, I was just doing ministry. And so I decided, well, I, I think I'm going to try this out and we'll see what happens.

And so I ended up at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School out in your neck of the woods. And I went there to do a THM one year and I just prayed. I said, God, if you want me to go down this academic route more then open a door.

If not, I'll go right back into ministry. That's really where my heart is. And so I spent that year at Trinity.

And then, long story short, God opened a door for me to go to Wheaton College with Kevin vanhuser, who I had met at Trinity, to Wheaton. I ended up going with him to do a PhD in theology there. So I went to Wheaton and it was just like a dream, man.

Like I even think back on that now and I was like, I had three years to be in this incredible place with an incredible cohort of men and women who are learning theology. I mean, learning from my heroes Kevin vanhooser and Doug Moo and all these incredible professors at Wheaton.

And so that was an opportunity for me really just to learn and get a theological foundation and framework. And then as I was finishing up my time at Wheaton, I was praying outside of our library one day and just saying, God, what would you have for me?

And I'd felt like over those three years that God had clarified that he gifted me to be able to bridge the world between high level theology in the church. I'd seen that, but I wasn't sure how it would play out.

Would I be a pastor who does some teaching on the side or would I be a professor who does some preaching on the side? And I was sitting outside the library praying one day and I felt like God put Reality LA into my head.

And Reality LA was just my friend's church in la. I'd never been there. I didn't really know anyone there other than one person. And so I called him up and said, hey, I was praying.

I felt like God put Realityla into my head. We kind of laughed it off, like, wouldn't that be funny?

And then that guy ended up connecting me later on with the pastor Tim Chadduck, who had planted Realityla. And it was just that kind of just started this journey where it was so clear that God was calling us here as this next step.

And then to be able, I was able to come here and pastor at this church where God had done this incredible movement before I ever got here. And then also then to be able to teach a little bit at Biola.

So that was just an incredible setup for me to be able to be anchored in the church, but to still have a foot in that world where I get to teach at Biola and be a part of what God's doing as well there. So that's kind of the story of how it led up to this, and I feel really blessed to be doing what I'm doing.

So tell us a bit more about reality la. What is like the church?

What's its makeup?

What's its ethos like? So describe the church to us.

Yeah, our church is predominantly 20s, early 30s, mostly single people. We've gotten a lot more diverse over the years in terms of when the church started. It was just a lot of early 20s, a lot of USC students.

And we've grown. I mean, we started 15 years ago, so I mean, we've grown in diversity, in terms of ethnic diversity, but also just generational diversity.

And yeah, I mean, we're.

The way I would describe us is that we're in the heart of Los Angeles and we preach the gospel, we feed the hungry, and we pray for God to bring renewal in the city, just in the same way that we've experienced that through Christ. And so our vision is that we're seeking the renewal of Los Angeles through the good news of Jesus.

And we really want that to be a comprehensive understanding of the gospel, that we want to see the lost saved, we want to see the lonely brought into family, and we want to see really the culture of this city really be impacted by the gospel. And so that's a little bit of what we're about. I mean, we. I can tell a little bit of the narrative.

Tim Chadduck planted RealityLA 15 years ago with a really simple vision to be in the city and to preach the gospel boldly. And he did that. And God did an incredible work. And it's all God.

I mean, one of the stories that we like to tell over and over again in our church just to remind people that it's God's work, is that there was early on we were small church meeting in this elementary school in West Hollywood in the Michael Jackson Auditorium. And just small, 30, 50 people. And some of them were USC students.

There was a guy named Chase who was a USC student and he was real well known on campus, just a go getter for Jesus, real connected to lots of people. He got into a skateboarding accident and went into a coma. And Tim Chattuck started leading prayer meetings and all these people started praying.

And the way that he describes it is people started questioning their own souls. And then this guy Chase ended up dying from this coma. And Tim preached his funeral. And what came out of that was a bunch of people got saved.

And it sparked this really revival where the church just started growing like crazy and just having a lot of people coming to know Christ and I mean, back then, 15 years ago, there weren't a lot of churches, at least English speaking churches in Hollywood. A lot of church plants have come here. But back then it was. I mean, we have one of our lay elders is a set designer.

And he says 15 years ago he would never run into another Christian on set. Never see that now he says he hardly ever goes to a set without bumping into someone else from our church.

So LA is really different now than it was then, but it just started this growth.

And then when I came in, seven years in, and that was at a stage where we wanted to make sure that we're not just drawing a crowd, but making disciples because we'd seen a lot of people get saved and we grew really fast. But are we discipling people? Are we caring for the hurting? Are we raising up leaders? All those kind of questions.

So we really built our staff out then. That's when I joined the team. And then a couple years after I got here, Tim Chadduck, who planted the church, really felt called to London.

And so we sent him off to Plant Reality London. And then I stepped into his position as the pastor for preaching and vision. And then over the last five years, we've been doing root work.

The way that I describe it is we've been trying to transition from being a young church plant that experienced a lot of momentum early on to, Lord willing, just being a healthy church that's making disciples from one generation to the next, that's rooted in the city.

And then just a couple of years ago, I mean, this is kind of the last piece of the story for now, I mean, is that we had another church that we had partnered with in different ways in Hollywood. They approached us two years ago and said, hey, we, we want our church to join your church and to give you all that we have.

And what that meant is that we inherited, along with just an incredible group of people, a small group of people, but we inherited a recovery ministry and a food ministry where we serve about 250 meals a day to the most marginalized in East Hollywood. And then along with that, we got an office building and a small Baptist church building that's right next to it where we do all the food ministry.

And so that for us was such a game changer.

I mean, having never owned property and renting office space all over the city and paying a fortune for that, and honestly, it being hard to be able to tangibly serve the city and now to be able to have this food ministry and recovery program, to have a Place that's our own home, where we put down roots. It's just, it's massive for us as a church and that's affecting the culture of our church.

I mean, we really are learning more how to see the image of God in every single person in this city and how to care for the hurting and the broken. And so that's just all God's grace. Like, we couldn't write it up that way. We couldn't have worked ourselves into that. And so we feel like there's.

We feel a really strong sense of stewardship of God's called us here and positioned us and given us an opportunity to make an impact for the kingdom.

That is awesome.

And I have to say, being in the Midwest and interacting with people from the Midwest, when I hear California, especially when it ever comes from a Christian perspective, I know there are some great churches there, but California largely has been a place that seems very, very dark and preaches a lot of values that are countercultural or antithetical to the gospel. But yet you're in the middle of it, being faithful. What are the few questions that I have that come to my mind?

I mean, first of all, what are the biggest blessings that you've already articulated? Some of them, because in many ways you've found a place where there are streams in the midst of the desert and God is doing a work.

He is transforming the hearts and minds of people. But it's. I mean, what's the biggest blessing you've seen in being the pastor of preaching and vision at Reality Church la?

Yeah, I mean, the answer to that is easy for me is just seeing people come to know Christ. And what we always say is that we want to see people who are far from Jesus become followers of Jesus.

And so, I mean, look, if you got people like me who grew up in the church and maybe were, you know, need to like, understand the gospel compared to their legalistic upbringing, that's awesome. Like, we praise God for any salvation, we praise God for his work that he's doing.

But seeing people who you would never think become Christians, become Christians is just incredible.

I mean, there's a woman who runs a Thai restaurant on the block that I live on, and I walked into this Thai restaurant one day, I mean, literally just to get lunch. And she comes out, Pastor Jeremy. And I'm like, I'd never even been in there before. And I said, I'm so sorry, are you a part of our church?

I don't think I've met you before. And she says, I just came to your church. And I'm a Christian now. And this woman is. She's in her 60s.

She grew up in Thailand, immigrated to the United States. She's been running this restaurant for most of her life right here. She's been a Buddhist her whole life.

Somehow she randomly ended up at one of our church services, gave her life to Christ, has gotten baptized. And I mean, I stopped by a restaurant all the time and check on her and pray for her. And I mean, just seeing her grow is incredible.

So, yeah, those kind of stories, I mean, that's what's most amazing, is just being, you know, there's a lot of hardship. This is very much like I feel the sense of spiritual warfare that comes with being on the front lines. But seeing that makes it all worth it.

What I really love about what Jeremy's doing is that he's watering his world. You know, Apollos Watered is about watering your faith so that you can water your world, wherever that world may be.

It may be in the Delta region of Nigeria, the plains of Mongolia, the suburban or the. The urban landscape of Kuala Lumpur.

In Malaysia, it might be in a small town in the middle of Iowa, the mountains of Colorado, Hollywood, or in the mountains of Peru. We all need to water our faith so that we can learn to water our worlds.

And that's what I appreciate what Jeremy's doing with the challenges that are in front of him. He is faithfully proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. In reality, LA is doing magnificent work.

I want to invite you back next week as we finish off our conversation and continue to talk about what it's like ministering in a world that is so diverse and filled with so many different religions and how everyone is spiritual but not religious. How do you share the gospel in the middle of that world? Come back next week and listen in as we discuss that.

I also want to encourage you to subscribe to this podcast, leave us a rating, a review, and share this episode with other people. We would be so honored if you did. And would you consider prayerfully supporting this podcast?

Go to our website@apolloswater.org and hit the support us button.

And there you can pick any amount that you would like to give in order to help us to continue to water the faith of people around the world so that their worlds can be watered with the truth of who Jesus is.

I also want to give a shout out to our wonderful Apollos Watered team, Brian Dana, who's our sound engineer, Eliana Fleming, and Rebecca Bedal, who are knocking it out with our social media and Kevin O'Brien, my partner in crime, who's always there to help lead the discussion and talk about how we can make our show more perfect for you so that you can water your faith and then water your world. I also want to give a shout out a plug for our sponsor, Kathy Brothers of Keller Williams Innovate.

If you're looking to buy or sell a home in the Chicagoland area, then Kathy is the person that you need to look up. She is truly great at her job. She has an amazing team as well. She comes with years of experience and loves people.

She's trustworthy and cares about her clients. I know because I'm one of them. She's my agent.

I want to encourage you, water your faith, water your world. This is Travis Michael Fleming signing off from Apollo's Watered until next week. Stay watered, everybody.