Andy Kettle - The Church Is My Second Family
Exploring faith journeys and inspiring ministries that embody the good news of God. This is the Cumberland Road. I'm your host, TJ Melanosky. Today, Andy Kettle joins me on the podcast. Andy is a lifelong member of Clarksville Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Tennessee, where he is an ordained elder and a Sunday school teacher and a youth leader. He serves on several church ministry teams, and he's in regular rotation to lead liturgy and the men's breakfast devotionals. Andy graduated from Austin Peay State University with a business administration degree, and he's employed at eighty four Lumber Company as an outside sales coordinator. Some of Andy's hobbies is being an avid woodworker and a furniture maker. And several years ago, he started his own YouTube channel called the Tennessee Tinkerer, where he showcases his projects and with a little bit of humor. Andy and his wife, Ashley, have been married for twenty one years.
T.J.:Andy, thank you for joining me on the podcast. How are you?
Andy:Thank you. I'm I'm doing great. I appreciate you letting me be on here. It's a big honor.
T.J.:I am glad that you're sharing your time with me. And you're an avid listener of the podcast. You're telling me before we started recording. So you know this first opening question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. You mentioned in your bio that you're a lifelong member of of Clarksville Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but can you recall your earliest encounter with God?
Andy:Well, like a lot of your guests, you know, I've always grown up in the church. So I've never known a time where I wasn't in church, you know, where I haven't known God. I used to get kind of envious of people that could say, this is the point where I started believing. And I would say, why can't I have that? But then as I got older, said, Really, I'm the blessed one.
Andy:I've never been in a place where I didn't know God. And I owe that all to my parents and my church family and everything. Our church has a preschool program that was started almost sixty years ago and it's still going strong. It's very popular. And I was a member of that preschool class in the 70s.
Andy:And, you know, so I was here three, four years old and I remember vividly being in that class here at church. We used to have an old house that the church was built around. And the preschool was in the bottom floor of that house. I remember being in there and Miss Mary and Miss Elaine were our teachers and being with the other kids and some of the kids that I still know to this day. But that's one of my earliest memories associated with the church is being in preschool.
Andy:Of course, everybody has church camp stories. My church camp stories aren't as good as most people's because I remember going to church camp at just probably junior camp because I was in elementary school and getting really homesick. And after a couple of days and wanting to go home. I remember crying my eyes out, know, wanting to just let me call my parents. And they didn't let me, you know, because in hindsight, that's probably best.
Andy:And they talked me down off the fence, if you will. And I finished out that week at Crystal Springs and I didn't go back to camp for a while. So, you know, first encounter with church camp was not necessarily positive. But then years later, going back to church camp as a leader, and also on mission trips, Crystal Springs has just become a very special place to me, you know, and you know, to our national presbytery as well. So, know, those and, you know, the mission trips when I was a youth and then into a young adulthood.
Andy:Those were really where the pivotal time in my life as far as knowing God and knowing my purpose, I think almost in life, that's where it started to develop. And you know, just wanting to help people, wanting to volunteer and do things like that.
T.J.:And our paths, that's where our paths first crossed. We were both youth in the Nashville Presbytery area and the Presbytery had annual mission trips. And that's where we first met.
Andy:It was. I was trying to think probably at least thirty years ago, might have been March ago. So late 80s early 90s.
T.J.:Yeah, I started I think my first one was in 1990. Maybe.
Andy:It's about right. So, about
T.J.:thirty one years ago.
Andy:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah and we went on a lot of them together, didn't we?
T.J.:Just four.
Andy:You only been on four. Okay.
T.J.:Yeah. Yeah.
Andy:I went on nine of them. It just seems like seems like you were our times overlapped more than that, but yeah.
T.J.:Yeah, I graduated and then that was it. I continued to
Andy:go on them as a as a young adult leader. So I went all through college also.
T.J.:So those mission trips were formative in your faith formation? Yes. And in what way?
Andy:Well, you know, it made me it's probably the first time I realized that I enjoyed working and doing things for people, you know, just kind of volunteering, helping people out that needed help. All year long, would look forward to the mission trip. All through the school year, couldn't wait for those ten days in the summer where we go on the mission trip. And you know, I didn't look at it as a way to just get out of town. I really looked forward to doing the work.
Andy:Know, I did everything from laying block and roofing houses and painting and, laying tile and acoustic ceiling, I really did look forward to doing that kind of manual labor. Just, and even to this day, it gives me a sense of accomplishment, a sense pride in being able to do that. And so that's to go and help someone who is in need of help that can't do it themselves. It just filled me with a kind of a giving spirit in wanting to help people and wanting to do it with nothing expected in return. I try to live my life like that up to this point.
T.J.:Yeah, was going to ask you that service mentality that you have, Andy. How is that playing out in your life now in adulthood?
Andy:I'd like to volunteer to do things at church, you know. Most of your guests I noticed have been preachers, there's some that aren't, and I'm not a preacher, but you know, might be able to deliver a sermon. I don't think it would be very good, but I could do a talk on woodworking or something, it wouldn't be very biblical. Jesus was a carpenter, right? But I can do other things in the church.
Andy:I may not be able to fill the pulpit, but I can do the liturgy. I can teach Sunday school class, I can be an usher, I can serve on committees, I can be an elder, all these things that are lay person friendly, I have the ability to do that. And I wanna be involved. I love my church. I love my church family.
Andy:This is my second family. I've known this church family all my life. And so anything I can do to give back to them, it seems like I should be doing. And so I think that all started in the mission trip days, that volunteering, wanting to be a part of things, wanting to accomplish things on someone else's behalf, you know. I think that all goes hand in hand.
T.J.:You mentioned Jesus being a carpenter and obviously being able to shape things with his hands and something that you have in common. What else about Jesus Christ, having your faith in Jesus Christ that gives you purpose and and moves you through the day when you're at work and when you're at church meetings and and various things. What what is it about Jesus specifically besides being a carpenter
Andy:Right.
T.J.:That helps motivate and move you and gives you purpose?
Andy:Well, know, God has blessed me so much in my life. You know, God has given me a wonderful family, wonderful church, wonderful friends and parents. I've just on a daily basis, I'm just so thankful for the blessings in my life. And something that I try to impart to our youth, I'm not the youth leader, but I'm one of the youth helpers is I try to impart to them, you need to be thankful every day. Thank God for your blessings.
Andy:A lot of people just go to God when they're in hard times. I'm a firm believer in seeing the good, seeing the blessings and thanking God for those. And so just I see all these things in my life every day. The fact that I can go to work, that I can make a living and take care of my family and come home. These are all blessings from God.
Andy:And I have my health and a wonderful wife. God has been so good to me over the years. I just want people to know that. And I try to live my life to reflect that. I try to be a good example and give God all the glory in everything I do.
T.J.:The work that you have at eighty four Lumber, how are you able to share your faith with the public and the people that you encounter every day? What does that look like for Andy?
Andy:Well, I don't deal a whole lot with the public. I deal mostly with the salespeople behind the scenes, but I do deal with some of their customers. But we're really blessed where I work at the office that just about everyone in the office is a practicing Christian. In fact, I work with a gentleman that's a Baptist minister. Everyone in there is a Christian of some denomination.
Andy:So it's I've got it easy as far as sharing God because they know God as well. But I think as Christians we have to put forth a Christian type attitude in everything we do. It hurts our cause if we say one thing on Sunday and then during the week we do something else. So I think the key is living a Christian life every day. And in that may not necessarily be witnessing to somebody at every moment of the day, but you do a lot of witnessing in how you live your life and how you act and interact with other people.
Andy:And that's always been my goal is to set a good example and try to make God proud.
T.J.:And that is a form of faith sharing with our behaviors and our actions and treatment of other people.
Andy:Right.
T.J.:Andy, you mentioned your family earlier. Who else has had a great impact on your journey of faith?
Andy:Well, obviously my, you know, immediate family, my parents are the ones that brought me to church and my wife. But other than them, there have been a lot of people in the church over the years that have influenced me greatly. When I was in the youth group, Reverend Rusty Rustinhaven was our youth pastor for many, many years. He was the only one I knew growing up. He was a great guide and teacher for young people.
Andy:And of course, know him as well. We went on mission trips. He went on the mission trips with us. Then I don't know if you remember him from my church. Emmett Krotzer, he was an older that used to go on the mission trips with us too.
Andy:When I got into youth, Emmett was an old man. And he was a youth leader when my mom was in youth. So Emmett had been at it for a while. And he was involved up until the very end. And Emmett was one that was he was always there.
Andy:He was always given rides to the youth, to basketball games or to volleyball games or to church or softball. He was always on the field coaching. Emmett was very influential in teaching me an example of volunteering and leading. And he was very pivotal in my life. And of course, different preachers over the years.
Andy:When I was a kid, Reverend John Stiles was our preacher. And then EG Sims and Terry Maynard, Steve Louder and now Jimmy Byrd, mutual friend of ours. So all of them have lent something along the way that's led to learning for me.
T.J.:You know, I haven't thought about Emmett in a long, well, I guess thirty years. Right. But I remember thinking, what is this elderly man? Why does he want to spend his time with, you know, 80 or a hundred youth
Andy:Yeah.
T.J.:In a van or a bus for a long period of time, all the yelling and screaming. And and as I get older, I think, well, it had to be, well, a love of God and a love of, you know, youth.
Andy:Most definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And he was he was just a big kid at heart too. I don't know if you remember the pranks he used to play, you know.
Andy:One that comes to mind is he was talking on one of the mission trips, he was talking up all day about how he had bought this miracle hair tonic that's guaranteed to grow hair overnight. And then the next morning when we met in the parking lot of the hotel, he had on a black wig and he said, I
T.J.:don't remember that.
T.J.:Yeah. Yeah. He was always trying to pull one over on it.
Andy:You know, he had a he had a love of life and a love of of youth and, you know, it's something to strive for. He was a man.
T.J.:We've had some great examples of people who have crossed your path to to help you in your faith journey and help shape you and been very fortunate, very blessed. I have. Well, let's talk about the here and the now. You mentioned earlier you're not a minister. You're not a preacher, but you are in ministry.
T.J.:Let's talk about some of the the ministries that you're a part of. You've alluded to some earlier, but what is it like to be a Sunday school teacher and maybe some other additional things that you may see as a ministry?
Andy:Yeah. Well, joke that I don't know if I'm involved in everything because I want to help or if I'm just a control freak and I gotta be I've taught a Sunday school class. It's folks my age and a little bit younger. So I've taught that class for about twelve years now. I just, you know, I'm not a bible scholar.
Andy:I just, you know, I can do it and there's not a lot of people stepping up to the plate to do it and you know, I decided I would do it. I do enjoy doing it though and it might be a little bit of a being in control thing too. But, you know, committees, I'm on the youth committee. You know, I I am was the chair of the pastoral search committee that brought brother Jimmy here. So, I feel very honored to be able to lead that is the active elder on that.
Andy:I am in the liturgy rotation. I can do liturgy. I don't mind speaking in front of crowds. That limits some people. Some people have great fear of being in front of people, but I don't.
Andy:I like to I like to be up there. I get energized by, you know, speaking in in to crowds. It seems weird to some people, but
T.J.:So you've come a long way from that little fellow that was at camp and just wanted to get away and go back home to getting in front of the Clarksville church.
Andy:Most definitely. And that's even changed in the last twenty years. In high school, I wasn't real gregarious and didn't like being in front of people and I just wanted to blend into the background. I may say more about the politics of high school,
T.J.:I don't know.
Andy:But nowadays, I enjoy it. You know, I enjoy sharing. I I just I just finished a a big research project on the history of our Clarksville congregation and put together a PowerPoint presentation in hopes of giving this presentation to the church at some point. Maybe if we ever get back to potluck or anything like that. This is the one hundred and eightieth anniversary of the founding of this congregation.
Andy:I say what we can trace it back to the very first church building we bought one hundred and eighty years ago this year. So the thought is maybe we can have a big birthday celebration and I can give this history presentation. But I was fortunate to be able to give a portion of this last Saturday to the men's devotional breakfast. And I was the speaker for the month. And so it's a little bit different devotional than we're used to.
Andy:But I was able to give part of this presentation looking back at the forefathers that made our church what it is today. And I highlighted some of the preachers from the past and the church locations the building was in. And so I felt truly blessed to be able to give this presentation. And another one of those things where I can share something that I've learned with other people and maybe interests them. We have a common history here.
Andy:And it's just so fascinating to me to be able to to to find out this information, and it's even better to be able to share it with people, you know, so.
T.J.:Well, remaining in the present, we've we've talked about you and and your ministry. Where do you see God working in the world today?
Andy:I think that one thing that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church does really well is is foreign missionaries. You know, we we do a good job of supporting our missionaries and going into other countries and starting churches. I saw a statistic the other day about all the churches in the foreign countries that we have. I think that's a wonderful thing that we're able to branch out and do that. Also, working with the youth, I am continually amazed at some of the deep thinking and spiritual thinking that the youth have.
Andy:You hear so much negativity about the kids these days. They don't But they're not all like that. You're sleeping in the wrong place. We have such spiritual and godly youth that are coming up. And a lot of that is owed to their teachers in the church.
Andy:But I'm not saying I'm one of them. I'm just saying that you have to teach them well and have to bring them up in the Lord. And they have some of the most profound statements that will catch you off guard. I have good hope and faith in the future of our church because of the youth that I see coming up. It's an amazing thing.
Andy:We were fortunate enough to be able pre COVID to take our youth to Grace Convocation, which is a big event in Gatlinburg every year. And we've been doing that for the past eight or nine years. And a big gathering of youth. You've never seen such a big group of youth that are just so thirsty for the Lord. It's just amazing thing to see.
Andy:Worshiping together, singing together and fellowshipping together all weekend. It's the future of our church and we gotta gotta retain those youth and and keep growing the church.
T.J.:Well, keeping keeping in mind with this, visions for the future. What hopes do you have for the church, the church, you know, locally for our denomination and the church universal? What do you aspire for us as Christians moving forward?
Andy:The first obvious thing is we wanna get where we can worship in person again. Our church, like many churches during the pandemic, was able to set up a live stream. And so we've been live streaming since last summer and it's been very beneficial to those that can't be here. But of course, that's not a substitute for being here. It's a temporary.
Andy:And so I can't wait for the day when everyone can feel comfortable to come back and we can hug and we can have potlucks and we can get back together and worship together because there's just something about worshiping with somebody in person that's just an amazing event. So short term, let's get back together and start doing Cumberland Presbyterian things like potlucks. Long term and this seems to be a theme when I was thinking about this question. I'd like to see more people volunteer and stepping up and doing things. Pastors can only do so much and they need help from the congregation to help the daily ministries of the church.
Andy:So I'd like to see more people step up and you may not be able to do this, but you can do something else. Or you can volunteer your time. I think that's the future I think of the church is more people taking an active role in the church. Especially in a time where everybody is on social media and distance personally. Let's come together at church and not socially distance at church and get things done for the church.
Andy:I think that's the future of the church. We're a small denomination. We all know that. Wanna see the numbers going up though and not going down. That's my hope for the future.
T.J.:And and there's something to be said. The the giving of ourselves, you know, the outpouring of ourselves in terms of offering to one another and to the world, what more do we have? And what greater gift do we have but sharing our faith, our love for God, but also the giving of ourselves in terms of service. I like that, Andy. I do.
Andy:And it's something that anybody can do. It doesn't require great skill.
T.J.:You just have to be willing to do it.
T.J.:Yeah, yeah. Well, Andy, how can we continue to follow you on your faith journey?
T.J.:Well, you could tune into the Clarksville Pondland Presbyterian Church livestream. And if you wanna see me do liturgy once every three or four weeks, you can see me there. I am on Facebook. But I say I am on Facebook. I have an account.
T.J.:I'm hardly ever on there anymore. But I do you did mention it in the beginning that I do have a YouTube channel called The Tennessee Tinkerer where I do carpentry mostly, but I do a little tinkering of this and that. Woodworking mostly. And it's very family friendly content. Everything is rated G, and I like to throw in a little humor and I call it I call it doing a little shtick here and there.
T.J.:You know, just to make it fun. Know, life is life is too great not to have fun. So you can see me on that. Yeah.
T.J.:Yeah. And those videos are good. I mean, you show you've you've made bowls. You've made a bible stand for the Clarksville church. What else have I seen on there?
T.J.:A knob shifter for your lawnmower. So, I mean, it kinda covers a wide area, a wide spectrum of what what you can do with woodworking.
Andy:Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I'm I'm in my shop anyway make making projects.
Andy:And so one day I said, you know, somebody else might wanna see what I'm making, and that's developed into what I have today.
T.J.:So, yeah, check out Andy on YouTube, the Tennessee Tinkerer. And if you don't wanna see him there, then you can definitely catch him somewhere on the campus of the Clarksville Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Andy:Yes.
T.J.:I'm usually here.
T.J.:Andy, man, it was really good catching up with you and seeing you. It's been a long time. And thank you so much for sharing it with me and and sharing it with those who listen to the podcast.
Andy:Thank you, TJ. It's been an honor.
T.J.:And thank you for listening to today's podcast. Grab a friend and join us next time as we travel on Cumberland Road.
