Matthew Barnett's Intro

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Today on the Servant Leadership Podcast, we're joined by Pastor Matthew Barnett, founder of the Dream Center in Los

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Angeles, and one of the most hands-on leaders I've ever met. At just 20 years old, Matthew took over a struggling

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church in the middle of gangridden LA. What started as a temporary assignment turned into a lifelong mission to serve

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people at rock bottom. from the homeless and addicted to single moms and veterans. Under his leadership, the

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Dream Center has grown into a 247 outreach hub that provides housing, food, rehab, and life transformation to

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thousands each day. On this episode, you'll hear the real story of how the Dream Center started, what kept him

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going through burnout and crisis, and how he's built a culture of servant leadership that's changing lives one

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person at a time. Well, Pastor Matthew, thank you for being on the podcast today. Yeah, it's a great joy to be

Welcome Matthew Barnett

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here. Thank you. We are sitting at the Dream Center and it is just amazing. Uh

The Dream Center's History

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tell us about the story of how the Dream Center got started. Yeah. You know, the Dream Center is everything I never

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thought I'd be doing. You know, um I I came here at 20 years of age. My dad was a very successful pastor in Phoenix,

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Arizona. And there's a little church building that was going to be sold to the banks um in the inner city of LA.

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And so some men came to my dad and said, "Um, would you help salvage and save this cuz we don't want to lose it." And

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my dad said, uh, "Yeah, I'll do it." Um, he didn't really feel called to it. Didn't really know what to do, but he

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just said, "I don't want to lose a great property, you know, and, uh, that's been iconic in the community for years." So,

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uh, he called 10 pastors and drove him down the neighborhood, you know, and he promoted it like it's on Sunset

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Boulevard. They don't realize Sunset starts in a very bad neighborhood. Eventually gets to the the Sunset Strip.

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But, um, my dad showed 10 pastors in a van and drove them around, said, "Hey, would you like to take over?" And all of

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them said no. And my dad uh came to me at 20 years of age. He said, "Would you

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would you like to come and help me for 3 months until I can find someone?" I'm 20 years old. He's crazy. Right in the

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heart of gang warfare in LA at that time. Really a bad time. And um I said, "Yeah, I'll help you for 3 months." And

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uh then nobody took the offer. And then I was just And now it's been 30 years.

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It's supposed to be three months. So we're still looking for the real pastor probably. You know, that's what's going on. But what happened was, you know,
I
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came to LA thinking I was going to be here for 3 months and then struggling. You know, it turned into 6 months

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struggling. You leadership was I could can't really write a book on leadership because it went from 18 down to two in

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the first six months. You know, we were going backwards 900% lack of growth, whatever. And um one day I just walked

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around the city and and I just felt like um the Lord impressed upon my heart that uh I wasn't called to be a great pastor.

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I was called to be a city janitor. I saw the need. I saw the hurt. I went to Echo Park, saw young men up against police

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cars being arrested. Um, I saw families piled into small apartments, homelessness everywhere. And I just felt

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free. And something in me said, you know what? I I can die to the dream of what I

Dying To The Dream

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think success is and live to the dream of being a blessing. And I started to celebrate whatever I had. And all I had

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was a desk and a phone. and I moved on the sidewalk and talked to all the mamas of the neighborhood when they came by

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and put a jar of candy and said, "You know what? That's all I have for it. I'll just give candy away to the kids. It turned into five bags of food and and

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um and then it just began to grow. You know, we owned two houses in that neighborhood and I took in homeless guys

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that were living with me. I took them off the street and I didn't know what to do and how to do rehab, but I just said

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just come and read the Bible with us in the morning and figure it out." and that little neighborhood, you know, with my

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five-year plan went from 18 down to two with my 5-year plan. But when I just start started to love people and find a

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need and fill it and find a hurt and heal it and just be available and use every square inch of our property and my

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old desk and I was a secretary, everything moved outside. Um, that's the

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time where sometimes your dream has to hit rock bottom in order for it to be recreated into what it was meant to be.

Dream Hitting Rock Bottom

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Wow. and everything I thought from Phoenix in a great church, all that had to die. And um we always say that God

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doesn't destroy dreams in rock bottom, he recreates them. And there is a recreated dream that comes sometimes

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from everything failing. And the thing that you think it should go and then one day I was driving down the Hollywood

Buying The Building

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Freeway, see this big old hospital said for sale. I'm 23 years of age. I'm dumb enough to pull over the side of the road

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and they were filming Halloween in this hospital. They filmed Nightmare on Elm Street in this hospital. this hospital

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on this 101 freeway is slasher film century. That that's really what it is. And they were filming them for eight

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years in this hospital. And I pulled over and the Catholic church owned it and I said, "I want to buy this building. How much is it?" And they kind

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of laughed and they said, "Well, come back when you want to make a real offer." So I called my dad. I said, "Let's just check it out." So we showed

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up and we said, "We seriously want to buy this building." And they said, "Well, do you have $16 million back in 1996

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um you know to buy this building?" because that's what Parammont Studios is going to buy it. And I said, "No, but we have a dream. We have a dream of a

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24-hour church that will never sleep, that'll be open all hours of the day. Anyone's homeless in the middle of the

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night, they have a place to stay. Anybody that's in need, they have a place to stay." And the sisters cried and they said, "Make us an offer. We're

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so touched." And we didn't know what to do because we didn't expect the meeting to go that well. You know, I looked at my dad and he said, "$3.9 million, 75%

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off." And they said, "Wow, that's a low offer." and and they said, "But you know what? Would you promise to use it to

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help people?" We said, "Yes, we would." They accepted our offer for $3.9 million, and we made it with only

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$50,000 a year income coming into our church. So, it was a huge risk, but we realized that God loved the people that

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in LA that are the most broken more than we did. And if it was and if he loved them more, then he'd have to come

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through. And we've seen this happen. We've been here for 28 years in the city

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of LA in this building, 30 years total. And it took us 20 years to renovate this building. So, it's not an overnight

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success. It was learning to celebrate one room at a time, one victory at a time, and eventually getting to the

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place where it's completed today, and 700 residents live here a day, and thousands will be fed on this campus a

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day and all week long. But, um, it's everything we never thought we'd be doing. But, that dream going to that

Rebuilding The Dream

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desperate place of rock bottom was only elevated and and rebuilt the way really it should be. And the thing about dreams

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are, you know, sometimes when your dream fails as a leader and it falls and you start dreaming from a place of

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brokenness, you find that you have strengths you never knew that you had. I never knew that I loved hurting people

6:44
this much. I never knew that I love the prisoner that much. I never knew um how much ability I guess I had to do things

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that were never in my skill set that I thought. So I thank God every day that the thing that I thought I was going to

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be doing died so that something new could be reborn. Wow. Well, first off,

Taking A Risk On Risky People

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thank you because just the story of your faithfulness is unbelievable. Uh, and from a leadership standpoint, uh, there

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is so many cool lessons just along that story. One of the things that that I really appreciate walking around the

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Dream Center, and I've been here multiple times, and and you've shown me around, is uh, there are people who come

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from all around the world to come learn at the Dream Center, learn leadership skills, learn how to serve others.

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you're teaching a lot of people leadership. Uh, and on the other side, a lot of the people who work here are

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people who were completely down on their luck, who who had just terrible misfortune in their life, who went

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through the program and and now have become leaders, helping serve other people who were in their shoes. What an

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honor. H how did you even get to a point to where you could help train people to be such amazing leaders uh in both

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circumstances? Yeah, you know, we had to learn to take a risk on risky people really. And um I've had situations where

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you know our rehab program is a year long. So after about 2 years 70% of our staff are graduates um of our rehab

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program. 70%. I mean we got ex criminals. We got ex um you know drug

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dealers. We got you know everything. That's just a pastoral staff. That's including everybody else we got going on. That's what we say here. But we

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really are kind of like the Oakland A in the movie Moneyball where we're just

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constantly turning out that minor league system. But what it is, there are people that are coming through our program that

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have come through hardcore addictions. And when you give them a chance to dream, you know, uh the greatest way

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that somebody can overcome a lifelong addiction is to pour into them and and give them some momentum of being sober,

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but giving them something great to live for. There's nothing more compelling. You even the scripture in the Bible

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says, "Where there was no revelation, people cast off restraint." Which means there's no reason to have self-control.

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I mean, I I understand why a young man joins a gang. There's no reason, nothing to live for trying to find something,

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but they become a part of our team and the staff and and then we have youth groups and teams come from all over the

It's Not That Hard

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world to serve here, 6,000 a year. And the goal is when people come here to say, "Oh, that's not that hard. That's

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what we want. We want people walk out of here to say, "Oh, that's not a big deal." And they find out just how simple

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ministry is when you just start using what you have, making a big deal about

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what you have, never saying, "Oh, when we get this building, then we'll be happy." And it's it's not like serving

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is never a place where you arrive. It's it's a journey of loving everything that you have, what you have to give along

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the way, and then it just kind of unfolds the way it's going to unfold. And that's how it's happened at the Dream Center. Wow. on on this podcast we

Skid Row Experience

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talk a lot about servant leadership and one of the things even when we were first starting this podcast uh that I

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thought of was your experience on Skid Row uh can you share with our audience a

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little bit about where you were at in in the journey of the dream center and what

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you just made a crazy decision so talk about that yeah you know I yeah I love talking about it I' I've actually been

10:10
here for 30 years and I think as a leader one of the things that's most important important is is keeping your heart alive. You know, I can go to

10:17
conferences and um big events and and I get a lot of inspiration, but all of the

10:23
vision that I need is found in the valley of hurting people in the need in the walks around the community. So, I

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get my inspiration from many things, but I get really the valley, it's the need,

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it's the hurt, but I was feeling tired as a leader. I was feeling like weird, like it was robotic. And I know that you

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don't always go by feelings, but I was going by this robot body feeling for way too long. And um it was our anniversary

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of of like being a pastor here and everyone wanted to celebrate. And I said, "That

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just doesn't feel right." And I just something came in my heart and said, "I just want to go to Skid Row and live there until I feel like God wants me to

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stop." And um service was over and I grabbed a piece of cardboard and one of the guys in our rehab program said, "Hey

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man, I want to come with you and I'll show you everywhere." And so I went down to Skid Row and um I saw things I never

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dreamed I would see. I lived down there for several days and you know slept on the streets, saw rats the size of softballs like I mean just saw young

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women that were literally jumping from tent to tent for $1 doing horrible favors just to get their fix in a little

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bit more. I mean portaotties that were used as prostitution. I mean everything I saw down there was the most alarming

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thing. And when I was walking down there in the first hour, there were threats like, "You're not going to make it through here. What are you doing down

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here?" And then I just didn't know what to do. So I just kind of held up a Bible and walked around. And it was the most

11:43
unbelievable thing. Suddenly, I became like an honorary chaplain. People were yelling out to me in tense like, "Hey

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guy, the Bible, can you talk to me?" And I'd sit in the tent and they were talking about their lives. I said, "You

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know, where's your family live? Four miles down the road, but I've burned too many bridges. I can never go back." And

12:00
I talked to people needles in their arms. and and as I was even speaking to them and shooting needles between their

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toes and and just watching what was going on was the most unbelievable experience and seeing children and

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families living in the tents and and when I was on that on Skid Road and I saw all those little children living in

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the tents amongst the horrible things that were going on down there. I called the Dream Center. I said, "Look, we got

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to open up a place for families." And they said, "Yeah, well that's kind of six months down the road." I said, "I know it is, but do we have some rooms

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available? let's just take in our first family and get going right now. We took in our first family on that floor and I

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got back to the dream center and they I realized that they actually prepared 20 rooms. The whole floor they just said,

12:42
"Let's just go." And I said, "Why'd you do that?" They said, "Pastor, cuz we know you. Why don't you start talking? You're not going to shut up." So, we

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figured, "Let's just prepare all 20." But that was where we got the vision to do the the homeless family floor. And

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Skid Row is just, you know, it's a place where people just have really gone to die. There's different levels of Skid

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Row. There's places where veterans hang out. There's places where people are new to Skid Row. And there are places where

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there's literally walls where people are going to die. There's actually different levels of pain and hurt on Skidro. And

Keeping Your Heart Alive

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um that was the day that my heart broke and it brought me back to the one because as a leader, you can get so

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bogged down in the in getting the vision forward. Um but you got to keep your

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heart alive. And that's what I've chosen to do many times as a leader. Put myself in uncomfortable positions. put I put

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myself in positions where the scenery changes, where the drive home changes, where anything changes just to keep your

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heart alive because if your heart is alive, the vision will stay alive and that's what we've learned over the

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years. Wow. It I have so much respect for you. Uh, one of the things and I

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hope you don't mind me sharing this, but um, through we got to know each other a little bit over the last year and and

The LA Fires of 2025

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one of the things that I remember you saying in 2024 was how hard you've been

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pushing and one of the things that that um that would be nice was like if things

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just got a little bit easier moving into 2025 and and you were just talking about how like you've been going and lots of

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amazing God stories. Then 2025 comes along. Yeah. And uh the most tragic thing possible and

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you're in the heart of LA. Talk about what 2025 was like and has been like uh with

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the fires that have just destroyed communities and really how the Dream Center has been the thing that has saved

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tens of thousands of lives be just in the midst of chaos. Yeah. you know, leading up to 2025, it's funny because

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two uh 2022 to 24 were the most unbelievably difficult years of my life.

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I mean, I had a stroke just randomly. Um I was getting one of those chair back

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massages in the mall and then I got up and I couldn't speak. My language was completely blurred. It was the craziest

14:55
thing. And um they rushed me to the hospital, saved my life. I had three strokes in my brain and sitting in the

15:02
hospital and wondering how the dream center is going to be continue to move forward and then a day later the roof of

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our dome of our church building that we received um it was given to us uh by the four square church um the dome fell and

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we were out of our church building for a year and the stroke and coming off of the pandemics and all the struggles that

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went along with that and I really was kind of praying. I said, "God, it's been a good run, hasn't it?" Like sometimes

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as a leader you look back and you think to yourself, you know what, it's been a good run, you know, and uh you try to

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like convince other people or if you're pastor, convince God it's been a good run, you know, and and um and it was

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very very difficult and we got to 2024 at the end and I was in December 31st.

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was done in 2024. I was on my first vacation, my my family and my my father

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and everyone 10 years we were in Mexico and I was looking up at the fireworks and I said, "God, 2025, Ken, it's going

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to be the year of rest, isn't it?" And uh 2025 came around after all that we

16:03
had the fires and um right I was literally living right next to him. I

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live right next to I was going down the freeway to get away from the fire. I could see it. And I was the displaced.

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Many of our staff were displaced who lived in the Altadena area. And we showed up and so we were kind of the displaced helping the displaced. And um

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and they said, "What do we do?" And we look at the dark clouds and I was standing on the rooftop of this, you know, our hospital building. You can see

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Hollywood on fire and Aladena and M everywhere that was taking place. And um

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I said, "Guys, all that we know what to do in times of need is to show up. The ministry of showing up. What do we have?

The Ministry Of "Showing Up"

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Well, we got enough food in our food bank for a few days. And um I said, "Well, let's just announce that we have

16:45
it. People needed it. We have clothes. Let's just announce it." And little did we realize it would turn into 19,000

16:51
cars that would show up of people who had nothing. They lost everything. People from Aladena were showing up and

16:57
they would go through the line and they would just cry and they and they would get out of their cars, say, "Help, help." And that line not only became a

17:05
place of feeding but the whole city of Aladina was literally coming to us say go to the dream center and through that

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really a beautiful kind of pandemonium and chaos broke out. We had 1,200 volunteers in one day show up and I told

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our team say yes to everything. Let's don't turn away close. Let's because the goodwill of LA is is breaking forward.

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People have never passed that side of the freeway in LA and they live in their own little bubbles. I said people are

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joining together. let's just say yes to everything and let's have the ministry of inconvenience and yet let's use what

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we have to go serve people and out of that a miracles happen out of that still

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to this day we're doing four-hour feedings a day um miracles are happening

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we had a Tony Robbins show up he was looking for a place to give a million dollars to a hundred families $10,000

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and he was looking around and you know a lot of people wanted processing fees for finding the families and all that we're like 100%. You give us a h 100 checks,

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$10,000, we will I will go personally to the lots of the families to give it to them. And we did it. Hundred families.

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Ryan Serest came by did the same thing. Gave $5,000 or 20 families and and just

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goodwill started breaking out. And it's crazy that, you know, when it comes to outreach and helping people or anything,

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the perfect plan is the perfect plan as you just keep going. And we begin to see

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that unfold. And now still to this day, you know, we last week 145 families got

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$750, you know, gift debit cards with partnerships that we have now. And it just hasn't stopped. And it's it's

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amazing when you just get started and you say yes to something, you look like

18:45
an expert when the reality is all you are doing is being available. And I think even a lot of startup companies, I

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think a lot of um you know people that are successful today, they still have a

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little bit of that edge to them where you know you have structure and you have order but you have it so that it can

19:02
serve so that you can be spontaneous. That's why I tell team you know we have order we have structure all that so that

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we can be spontaneous. They're not enemies of each other. And um so we've just seen one of the greatest moments of

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our life. 2025 is completely different. 2024. I always say this to leaders, um,

19:18
be very vulnerable. There was times I max out my credit cards to pay make payroll. That's how tough it was in 30

19:24
years. Um, but as a leader, you know, you got to make those sacrifices sometimes. And then and now 2025, we're

19:30
kind of off and running and great things are happening and, you know, I I like to tell leaders about the good times, but I

19:37
also like to tell them about the struggles. You know, I tell even pastors sometimes, man, we're going through the hardest season. Things are actually

19:42
going backwards. Even during co I said you know a lot of our giving is going backwards and they're like really thank

19:48
you for sharing that I didn't know that happened to you too but I think as leaders the older you get the more you

19:54
understand that the greatest gift that you have is just honesty and vulnerability. I mean the stories of

20:01
leading in crisis uh not many people can relate to the true crisis that you have

20:06
helped lead throughout uh whether it be the fires or other things throughout the LA communities. Um, what are some of

20:12
those things that you take away, lessons, additional lessons leading through crisis?

20:18
I I think that every time that you step up in a crisis and you deliver, it gives everyone a lot more confidence. It gives

Leading Through Crisis

20:25
your team more confidence. It gives the community confidence. They start, you know, understanding what the dream

20:30
center is really all about. Um, the whole city begins to have confidence in

20:35
you because you've continued to deliver on those type of things. And I also believe that you have to allow your

20:40
heart to just get immersed into what people are feeling like, you know, even though you won't ever be able to fully

20:47
understand, relate, but you you you put yourself in what it would be like to be in that situation yourself. And um and

20:54
then as a leader, when you throw yourself into a crisis, it makes you better because there's so much uncertainty, there's so much pivoting,

21:00
there's so much things that you have to do. Um there's so many ways that you have to be It's funny, leadership is

21:05
interesting. You start on the ground floor, you do everything. And then you get to a place where you can manage and you get to a place where you're higher

21:11
profile. You can really manage. And then when a crisis hits, you're right back on the street again being the first one to

21:16
give away food. And I think crisis situations as a leader, you got to be willing to like go say, "All right, this

21:23
is the time where I got to lead by example and I got to put my heart and soul into this so that the C team sees

21:29
that there's a buy in and how much relief and disaster relief really matters." And so, um, there's situations

21:35
like that. I mean, in co 380 days straight, I was out there handing out food. 380 days in a row. Um, and then

21:43
then there's times where, you know, other people got it and they're going, but there's times where leadership always has to be that spark. You have to

21:49
jump into the fray into the battle. And that's what I've learned is never be afraid of the different seasons. As a

21:54
leader, you've got to embrace because all of it's good, all of it's important, and all of it's necessary. I've heard

Maintaining Passion And Sacrificial Love

22:00
some people talk about servant leadership with the lens of sacrificial leadership and uh there are many stories

22:07
that I that I've heard about you uh from doing allnighter free throw shooting and

22:12
all all kinds of things where where you've just given of yourself to a level that is just unbelievable. Um, how do

22:20
you manage maintaining yourself and also this passion and sacrificial love that

22:27
you have for the community and those around you? Yeah, that's been the hardest thing actually um over the all these years. Um, but there's one thing

22:34
that I've learned that's really helped me as a leader to be able to manage myself. First of all, of course, you know, prayer and loving God with all

22:41
your heart and doing the best you can. you know, get up and just be disciplined in what you do do in the in the reading

22:47
of God's word and prayer. But there's one secret that I learned that changed my life, and that is when you commit yourself to the longevity of a vision,

22:54
you're not going to get discouraged by hard times because you know that times will change, things will happen, there'll be new seasons in your life. So

23:01
when I told myself that I'm going to give the rest of my life to serving the people of LA, there's a certain kind of

23:07
freedom in that because I wasn't bound anymore to needing to be where I wanted to be in a year, needing to be five

23:12
years down the road. It's like, hey, at some point something good's going to happen because I'm all in for the rest of my life. And I think that's really

23:19
helped me to understand that people think because you know that people see this 400,000 foot hospital, they say,

23:25
"Wow, what a visionary." And the truth is I'm actually pretty patient. Like I'm

23:30
patient in the sense of I don't have to have everything um whenever I want it. Like there's things that you know

23:37
ministries that we had that took 20 years to to to come about. The right person wasn't ready yet. Now the right

23:43
person is you know we've got ministry to you know drug and alcohol rehab 210 residents. We have 200 plus residents

23:49
are homeless families. We've got veterans and all these things. But a lot of these just kind of unfolded over

23:55
time. So, I think I think the fact that when you commit yourself long-term to something um and your heart is in it,

24:02
then there's just a lot of freedom in the in the in the middle of those seasons because you know that you have

24:08
time. And that's why the Dream Centers rehab programs are one year. We call it the luxury of time. People do better

24:14
when they have time, when they're not hustling to try to survive or to try to provide for their family and they

24:21
everything's taken care of at the Dream Center. It's crazy. It's cost $150,000 a year to incarcerate someone

24:27
in Los Angeles. It costs $7,500 a year for us to rehabilitate someone. Wow. And

24:34
um I think about that number all the time. And um so, you know, we just we

24:39
patiently walk out the cause that we have been given and um and we just try

24:44
to do one thing well and move on to the next. And then we don't really think about what ministry to start because the

24:50
need finds us, shows up on our doorstep. And um we kind of feel that man's need

24:56
is God's call for the day. It it's interesting because from afar people

Motivating Volunteer Involvement

25:01
will look at the Dream Center and think this has been so instrumental in helping so many tens of thousands if not

25:08
hundreds of thousands of millions of people. So it's amazing. But sometimes when they see that they probably think,

25:13
well, the DC the Dream Center doesn't need me. uh and and they don't need us to get involved because they'll figure it out and they're going to be there

25:19
regardless of if I get involved or not. Uh how do you help motivate people to

25:24
get involved and actually understand that there is still true need? Yeah. Really what we do is make it easy to

25:30
volunteer, make it easy to serve. You know, people say, "Hey, when can I come down to the Dream Center?" I'm like,

25:35
"Right now." Because there's always something going on. It's like the Grand Central Station of ministry. you know, there'll be training lead the station

25:40
here and one day I want to put up a big old board of just like um what time minutes things are going to happen

25:47
because that's we try to make it very volunteer friendly for people to come. Our our hospital doesn't have gates, no

25:54
securityities, nothing like that. Yeah. And the reason why we do that is because the neighborhood will protect you I if

26:00
you don't like have all this, you know, fancy security gates and all that because when you're feeding their

26:05
parents, when you're feeding the gang members moms and their and their brothers and you're providing opportunities and basketball leagues for

26:11
them, uh they'll protect you. And so we've made it very easy for the community to have access to this place.

26:17
Have it made it very easy for volunteers to come in. Like we got kids coming in from Nebraska to serve and they go to

26:23
like some of our neighbors, we've been there for 30 years. Nickerson Gardens, Jordan and Down, South Central, Ramona

26:28
Gardens, East LA, really tough neighborhoods, you know, um where Training Day was filmed at the end with

26:33
Denzel, like those neighborhoods and they're like, "Oh, everybody's so nice to us there." And I never want to burst

26:39
our bubble to say anything, but we had toiled that land for so long. So, if they a kid from Nebraska shows up and

26:46
maybe doesn't understand what to do, the people of the project be like, "You're with the Dream Center. You're cool." You know, so you have to earn the right to

26:51
be heard in a community. Got to keep showing up. When I first came here to LA, people said to me, "You won't you

26:57
won't last long." And and I realized that the they were right in a sense because so many things have come and

27:03
gone left them. But one thing I realized is that the only way I was going to win them over is is longevity and being

27:10
there and standing the test of time. So I think a lot of people they said they don't need us. Oh man, we don't need

27:17
them. Our kitchen right now needs them. I mean it just things never stop here. They just keep going and going and going

27:23
all hours of the day and um and just you know every way from giving and support to volunteering just so many things go

27:30
so far for this place. Yeah. I for our listeners I would encourage them to even just check out

Maintaining Motivation

27:36
the website and figure out what what could you be called to get involved with whether it be volunteering or giving. I

27:42
mean or or somebody who needs a free rehab program. Yeah. like we'll take them in online application some fentinol

27:48
addiction free of charge and and serve your audience that way. So I mean we're here for you. How how do you keep

27:55
motivation in in in the context of our listeners? How do you keep motivation knowing that the need will always be

28:00
there? You're working to or or is the perspective maybe it won't be there. How do how do you deal with that in just

28:07
thinking people in their own lives are thinking gosh this will never end. I is it worth it? you know. Yes. I, you know,

28:13
I think about the ones who make it. That's what keeps me going because if you think about the ones who don't make it, you get discouraged. And so, but I

28:20
think about the ones that every few weeks that walk through on the stage and they make it or the young girl that was

28:27
trafficked so horrible that was block brought to us by the police, she was abused in such a way when she showed up

28:32
to the campus, she was just like walking like this with her hair down, wouldn't even look at anyone. And now she can articulate a vision more beautiful than

28:39
anything I've ever seen. I think about those because you have to as a leader,

A Culture Of Celebration

28:44
you have to keep your heart alive, too. And one of the ways to do that is is you have to create a a culture of

28:51
celebration. That's why every two weeks we make a big deal about guys who've been off drugs for two weeks. You know,

28:58
they'll come up to us and say, "How long you been sober, man? 14 days." I'm like, "That's amazing." Like, we jump up and down, make a big deal. because so many

29:04
people you know shame and condemnation are the two greatest most destructive

29:10
forces of a vision of leaders of anything and also of course people addiction. So when you make a big deal

29:16
about the wins, it's important because we we make such a big deal about the defeats in our own life. And um so

29:22
that's just kind of the culture that we we create around here. And that's what keeps me motivated is just the little

29:27
stories, man. I just before I walked in here, family was checking in. Oh, this is our eighth place we've been to. I go,

29:33
this is the eighth place where you land. You come on in. And um what what keeps me motivated is the one, believe it or

29:39
not. It's always the one in the midst of all the stuff that's going on because

29:45
you you you can you conceptualize that. You you can think about how that's

29:51
directly helping people in the midst of a big vision. M walking around the Dream Center campus probably uh I don't know

Bringing Joy Through Dreams

29:58
more than a dozen times, one of the things I love is that you could stop somebody and ask them to share their

30:04
story and it's a fascinating thing or if they're willing to and on the spot people have such powerful stories uh and

30:11
the circumstances they've been through are not so positive to get there. How do you bring joy into their life? Like they

30:18
light up when when you ask them to tell about their story. It's because the first thing we ask somebody when they

30:23
come into our rehab program who have been addicted to fentinol addiction maybe just thrown up in the garbage can

30:29
down the hall. I mean literally but the moment they get even somewhat clear we ask them the vision is this the question

30:36
is this what is your dream? And it blows their mind because how can you dare ask

30:41
me what my dream is when I'm still trying to kick off of a drug. But it's a game changer when you start asking

30:47
questions like that. you start elevating the expectations and the belief of what they can do. They're not going to get there overnight. That's why we have a

30:53
whole year because we can patiently walk them through those type of issues and um so everyone is alive to their dream.

31:00
shame is broken when they come in, you know, because we break that shame barrier and realize that their testimony

31:06
is powerful and what it does and and their testimony is a contribution to society because even though someone

31:12
can't relate to your story of overcoming a drug addiction, they can relate in some personal way in their own life, to

31:18
their own struggle. I mean, overcoming is overcoming no matter what you're going through. And um so I think there's

31:25
just a sense of your your testimony is not a shameful place. It's a place where you're helping people and people realize

31:32
that when they're sharing their testimony, they're ultimately helping people and that's a powerful thing. I love that. I want to I want to finish

Ten Rapid-Fire Questions

31:39
with 10 rapidfire questions. Oh, no. Okay. I just ask you anything and just say the first thing that comes to mind.

31:45
Okay. No right or wrong answer, but who's the first person you think of when I say servant leadership? My father,

31:51
Tommy Bernett. Wow, that's awesome. Uh, five words that most describe you.

31:57
Impulsive. reckless, caring, I think.

32:04
Um, consistent and um, tenacious. Favorite author or book?

32:12
The John Wooden book. What's it called? The success book. Uh, by it's a it's a

32:18
it's called Wooden about story of coach John Wooden. I'll have to look that up. Favorite movie?

32:24
Uh, Hot Rod. All right. Favorite food? Hot rod, chicken, bake. Okay. Okay.

32:30
Anything funny? Yeah. Favorite food? Um, I would say tacos. All right.

32:38
Favorite thing to do in your free time? Watch any sport. Okay. And watch your

32:43
daughter run. Yes. Yes. And I actually like to to look at track and field meets

32:49
so I can scout out her opponent as she's a college runner and give her information. Love that. All right.

32:56
What's a surprising fact about you? I'm a really good softball player. That is surprising. And I hit 820 in one season

33:03
one year. Only got out three times as a leadoff hitter. That's awesome. Um,

33:08
where's the favorite place you've been? Rome. Where's somewhere you want to go that you have not gone? Fiji.

33:16
And finally, what's the best advice you've ever received? Hang in there long enough and something

33:22
good will happen to you. Wow. Well, Pastor Matthew, this has been such a pleasure. Uh I'm thankful that our

33:28
audience gets to learn from you and thank you for all that you have done for millions of people around the country.

33:33
Oh, it's a joy to be with you. What an honor. And uh let's go for it. I just encourage every leader out there uh to

33:39
stay in it. Good things will happen. The tide will turn and and um days where things aren't going well, they're not

33:46
backwards days. They're just bridge days towards something new. And you're going to get there. Thank you for listening to

Closing

33:52
this episode of the Servant Leadership Podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, please give it a thumbs up and leave a

33:58
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34:04
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