Welcome, Scripture, And Next Steps

Chris Grainger 1:43

Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I'm your host, Chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, fellas. Fun Friday. Remember Spotlight. This is going to be a good one. Get ready. Before we get to it, though, the scripture of the week this week is Revelation 21, the fifth verse. It says, And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And I took some time to unpack that idea of the throne, as well as us being made new in our spiritual kickoff episode this week, boys. So go check that out. Two back in your podcast feed. And I hope that you enjoyed that. And again, if you enjoy the spiritual kickoffs every week, and we know you guys do, hey, we do it Monday through Friday every morning. It's live. We call it the daily spiritual kickoff. And the cool part is it's free, bro. You get it, you get free, you get access to our prayer request space. It's a phenomenal way just to get connected with the lion and what we're doing. So that can be found at thelionwithin.us. All right. Now, all that's behind us. Let's get into the pump stuff, fellas. So you got this is gonna be one uh a great one, I know, because this is one of the brothers I've been uh blessed to be connected with almost since the beginning of the lion. So it's my brother Marcus Corsa. Marcus, how you doing today, man? Very good. Thanks, Chris. Man, I'm I was thinking just now, right before we hit record, like, when did we get connected, man? How long has it been?

Marcus Korth 3:04

I believe it was the summer of 21. Okay. Right, right, kind of during COVID, towards the tail end of COVID. Yep. Obviously, our we were home. I spent a lot of time on my lawnmower outside working around the yard. And at that point in time, we didn't have the community going to church. It was all online, and I just felt like something was missing in my life. And I tried a bunch of different podcasts that I just didn't really connect with. And I'm I'm an Amazon guy, so I'm on my Amazon Music, and you popped up on Amazon Music. I remember listening to listening to one of the first podcasts. I'm like, wow, I just really loved the content, and I love the fact that everything was scripture-based. Like you started out every week with some passage from the Bible, and and you had people that came in that were connected with the scripture. Your Fun Fridays brought it all back together. So yeah, I spent hours and hours on my lawnmower listening to you and kind of getting caught up. Because I I think one of the first ones might have been like maybe episode 18 or 19. So it was a long time ago.

Chris Grainger 4:17

Yeah, man. We're like 600 something now, bro. That's crazy, crazy. And then you came, you actually came to one of our events, man. We got to actually meet in person, and that was incredible just to be able to see you and hang out with you that weekend.

Marcus Korth 4:31

Yeah, that was a great weekend. It was it was just kind of fun getting out to your place from Milwaukee because we have a small, tiny airport here, which I love because I can get in and out pretty easily, but there's a lot of connecting flights. So I didn't have the privilege of being able to drive there like a lot of other people did. But once once I got there, Adam Sheets picked me up at the airport. Yeah, but um, him and I got to connect and spend some good time in the car just learning about his testimony, his journey. Uh we had we had a lot of similarities in our life that you know we talked about and shared, so it was nice.

Chris Grainger 5:07

That is awesome, man. Well, and well, and Marcus, speaking of of your testimony, share it, share a little bit about it with with the guys listening. Let them get to know you. Like, you know, first of all, you from Milwaukee, but you know, how'd you get to know the Lord and just kind of a little bit about you, buddy?

Growing Up Lutheran And Finding Gospel

Marcus Korth 5:22

Well, it I it started from a young age. My my dad was a Lutheran school teacher. I do have quite a few teachers and pastors in my family. So I was introduced at an early age, you know, going to church, you know, being that kid that was probably under my dad's desk when he was teaching, you know, in rural Minnesota back in the 70s. So that's kind of, you know, from the beginning. I went I went to a parochial grade school, high school. There was a lot of pressure for my family to have a lot of us become pastors and teachers. I was really, really pushed to be a pastor for my for my dad, for my uncle. And I got a great education, but I just the pressure of I think being a pastor and doing that, I kind of pushed back just because it was like the expectations. And at some point in time I was like, okay, what am I gonna do with my life? And I think for a little bit there, it it just trying to get away from that umbrella of all the expectations, you know, because Lutherans sometimes can be a little legalistic and a little judgmental with everything. And I kind of needed to get away and I guess listen to other viewpoints at times and just listen to other people that were tied into the scripture that weren't so much just about the law, because a lot of times it it was all law and not as much gospel. And obviously, the law is great, you know, to sh you know, to show you your sin. It's great to, I think, convict you at times, but unless you have the gospel, you know, to save you, you really don't have it all. So that's kind of kind of my upbringing with my parents, my dad. He's a retired teacher, he's in his probably mid-70s now. Okay. And I've been involved, you know, with you know, the the local church, you know, for a long time. But as you know, sometimes there's differing opinions with like the churches that you're involved with, and it becomes a little I don't have to say hypocritical, but you have to find that church where it just fits you and your family and where you're at, you know, in your current life. And unfortunately, my my wife introduced me to the church we're at right now. We've been at for 11, 11, 12 years. Great, great church, uh awesome discipleship. They're always all serving the community. There's just so much that they do, you know, to give back. And I'm just very blessed with the church that I'm involved with right now. That's so awesome, man. And you mentioned you married. How long have you been married? Um, I've been married for a little over five years. Very, I've got a similar past to you and some other people. I've got a blended family.

Chris Grainger 8:19

Yeah.

Marcus Korth 8:20

Very, very blessed with that part of it. Our oldest. She just got married last August. We have a younger daughter who's in Chicago, and I don't know if she'll listen to this. She she probably won't, but I'm sure she's gonna be getting engaged at some point in the future. Okay. There you go. And then we then we have we have two kids in college. One is at Iowa and the other's at Minnesota. So on college game days, we have a little bit of a little bit of a controversy with that divided health. That's right. They're both in the Big Ten, so I've got Iowa paraphernalia, and I also have Minnesota, so I've got a few for both.

Chris Grainger 8:53

There you go. There you go. And I know you guys are big too. You have you know you always have uh adoption and fostering, right? Yes. Yeah, it keeps you busy.

Marcus Korth 9:04

Yeah, I was thinking about that this morning in anticipation of this, where I I should know the number. My wife will know for sure because we have all the pictures, but I think I think we've had probably 17 babies over the last 10, 11 years. Probably, yeah, probably 11, 12 years.

Chris Grainger 9:26

Yeah. Wow, man. That's incredible. Good for you, bro. You got a heart. You definitely to know you is to know your heart, and you and you love people, and you just always have this glow about you, man. So uh just thank you for sharing that little bit of your testimony for sure. And you're also in our mastermind, which you helped us in the old days, the early days, kind of figure out how to even get the mastermind set up. So, I mean, kind of walk us through the journey of why you why are you still in it? Because I mean, obviously it's it's it's evolved so much, but you've been a big part of that.

Marriage, Blended Family, Foster Calling

Marcus Korth 10:00

Well, with a lot of things, you I think God presses on your heart because I remember the first invitation for a mastermind came, and sometimes you just want to make excuses. Well, I'm too busy, I'm traveling, I've got this going on, I've got meetings going on. You just have to jump in, you just have to commit. And I remember the very first ones were was some of the we'll say OG people here. Yep, yep. Because I know I I know Stephen Morris was in one of them, I believe Adam was in one of them. There a bunch of the original people, and it was almost us just sitting in a room kind of staring at each other, going, all right, what are we gonna talk about? Right. That's right. And and it was it was great because one of one of the original topics, and I and I know you're involved in this one too, was we talked about prayer. And and I think we talked about prayer for a month and a half. Yeah, yeah. Just because it's one of those things that when you go to church, you don't really talk about it that much. It it's one of those things where you're told to pray, you think you know how to pray, but as you grow in your faith, you just you kind of want to grow in your prayer life too. And and I remember I got so much out of that conversation and that topic that we had. And that was the original group, and there's been a bunch of them, you know, obviously the last few years leading up to where we're at today. And like anything, it you it kind of evolves and you you grow together. And and I think the masterminds have a parallel growth to the rest of the line, just like where the line was a couple years ago towards today. Right. You know, like you look at the daily SKO, that was that was probably something we talked about in the master in the masterminds, yeah, way back when. Yeah, and a lot of the ideas and concepts that you know you run with, I'm sure you're just like observing and listening to the people you're going to the masterminds. That's right. And I think the best part about the masterminds is it it it teaches you how to listen better. And and it really if you're present, it it opens up your heart to a lot of things that you might have been closed off on for a while. You end up just kind of uh spewing out things that you wanted to talk about. That's right. That's right. And some of the testimonies and conversations and things that we've talked about, it's just such a really comforting setting where you just feel like you're safe and you can talk to you know your brothers in Christ about a lot of different things.

Chris Grainger 13:00

Yeah. Yeah, that's been the interesting part for me, uh just seeing how guys open up so quickly, you know, and just just bring the real, raw, authentic, not trying to sugarcoat it, just just where it's at. So I mean when you look at it for you, you know, biggest impact. Like what what would be the biggest impact looking back for you?

Mastermind Beginnings And Learning Prayer

Marcus Korth 13:22

The biggest impact for me would would definitely be the community aspect of it. Yeah. And how you go along in life and you have your friends maybe from college, your friends from work, you know, the people that you might play ball with. But a lot of those relationships end up being somewhat superficial. Yeah. Is it not that they're forced, but they're just the people that you're hanging around with. And and with this, you have genuine community with people that you get to know just just at a deeper level, and and we're all sharing, you know, that same walk. Like I look at the current group that we're in now, we have a text message trail where we're sharing things on a daily basis, on a weekly basis. Sometimes it's always about food. I mean, we have some people in our group that they they love taking pictures of the brisket that they're small. The steak that we've got we've got one guy, I'm not gonna name his name because he knows who he is. He has like steak for every breakfast in the morning. Well gracious. Yeah, he likes his red meat. Like his red meat. There you go. But you get to know people on a personal level, but you're also there for them during the valley. Yeah. When they're down in the valley, you're there for them when they're climbing up that mountain and they're and they're having some really, really good moments in their life. So you're you're kind of taking that journey with them. And I think for guys out there, you can be surrounded by so many people in your day-to-day life, but you're not really connected with a lot of them in in the way that you can be connected with you know the people within the line.

Chris Grainger 15:16

That makes any sense. It does. It definitely does. And what do you think through the the conversations you guys are having, what's been the most challenging for you? Like for you personally? Or has there been any challenging parts? But I'm just I'm super curious on this.

Marcus Korth 15:33

I think the most challenging part is getting past your pride. Okay. Because sometimes you don't want to share the things that you're not good at or the things that might be your weaknesses. Right. Because we're all men and we're all we all want to be like, oh yeah, you know, the Packers are gonna go to the Super Bowl, they're gonna beat the Bears until they don't. That's right. And and I think we're all we're all weak inside, and I think we we need it's good to s to feel some of those things come out, and it seems like they come out here in these masterminds where you start talking deeper about your marriage, about parenting, about your kids, about am I being the leader that I need to be at home? You know, am I setting the right example? And we all and we all can say we are and act like we are, but but are we actually putting in the work? And are we being intentional? And I think the biggest thing that I think has come from this most recent mastermind is the accountability aspect of it. Because previous ones, you are accountable when you're on the spotlight, right? And then the next meeting, okay, great, how'd y'all do? And then you're off. You're done. That's right. Right. Which is okay, that's just kind of how it worked out. Yep. But I but I think now there's more consistent accountability because all of the things that we're collectively working on, we're kind of working on together. So that accountability is huge. And I met with Adam Rushing, I think it was like a week or two ago, and the new concept for the masterminds is even better with the app that you're putting out there, the accountability aspects of it. And the accountability, it can be physical in nature, it can be being a better leader at home, it can be your walk with Christ, it can be all those things. And there's so many things that as men, you just need those accountability partners.

Real Community Beyond Surface Friendships

Chris Grainger 17:46

That's right. That's right. Yeah, we're super excited about that new platform. And I think I'm really anxious to see how you guys, you know, utilize it because it can be, it can, it can really be helpful to your point. Chase a goal, put the goals out there, and then how do we stay accountable to it? And then how collectively, how can we do that as a group, man? So I'm pretty pumped on that one for sure. Well, when when you think about like just your personal walk with Christ since you mentioned 2021 when you've got connected with the lion, how has the lion aided that at all? And I'm not looking for, you know, like we we've done some masterful thing. I'm just curious, is there like one small thing that that the lion has introduced or or trying to just encourage you with on a regular basis that's helped you with your walk with Christ?

Marcus Korth 18:35

I think what the lion has done for me personally, as well as my family and my wife and my kids, is it's opened up my heart to know that there's more than just okay, I'm going to church on Sunday, we're gonna volunteer a couple times throughout the throughout the year, and okay, we did what we're supposed to do now, we're good. It's kind of opened up my heart to not just be that Sunday or weekend Christian, yeah, and and to get involved in more things. Because since the lion, I got involved in in a lot more volunteer things at at our church. Like I started doing we have this we have this assisted living place called Cecilia Place, where they do once a week kind of like little church services with the people that are there, and the lion kind of tugged a little bit on my heartstrings to do that. And then it's like, well, if I can do that, I can then do this. And then it's just you kind of start growing and use use the term a lot, but you can be a baby Christian in your 50s. Yeah, you can be a baby Christian, it doesn't really matter what your age is. So when are you gonna get on and serve? Right. And I think for me, it's more the lion has taught me how to really, really serve more to I guess enjoy serving more because what you get back after you serve, yeah, you can't even really explain like how it changes your heart and then how it changes your kids because because our kids are now doing the same thing where they're getting more involved, they're seeing you know the difference, and it it just I love the servant part of it, and and that's a consistent theme with the lion, and that's a consistent theme with you know the church that you know we attend. So it's it's just opened me up to a lot of different things where instead of getting involved on Sunday, now it's Sunday, now it's Tuesday, now it's Wednesday, now it's Thursday, yeah, and it's incorporating those routines into my life, which I which I we all need, and I needed that.

Pride, Weakness, And Shared Accountability

Chris Grainger 20:49

Amen, bro. Well, I mean, I'm sure you got uh guys listening, Marcus, that are like, you know, they've they've been listening, maybe they've been listening to live for a while, or this could be their first episode. I don't know how how God works sometimes. It's it's a mystery to us, right? But if you could give that guy a message or encourage him to take a step, and it could just be join the daily SKO or check out the Lions Den community, or maybe they do want to consider joining Mastermind, but but he's apprehensive, he's on the fence. Is there anything you'd like to share with that guy listening just to kind of give him some encouragement?

Marcus Korth 21:24

I would say just overcome the fear of taking that step, you know, and and let faith, you know. I talked to my wife a lot where, you know, let's get past our fear of certain things and let faith kind of jump in and take over. And I was in that fear spot for different things, you know, even with the lion initially, where you need other people to encourage you. So, and and there's definitely people here you encourage all the time. There's so many other people that encourage, take that step. Because once you take that first step, you're gonna take the second step or the third step. Yep. And the easiest step is that daily SKO. I mean, what what better way to start out your day at 7 15 a.m. for me? That's right, that's right. Than to just to just dig in, to roll your sleeves up, to listen. And once you take that first step, then you might want to jump into the to the prayer groups that we have. Then you might want to jump into the masterminds, because one step leads to the next step. And and and I really think it's just get past the fear, get past your pride, maybe, and and just really kind of embrace changing your heart because it because it really is, it really is about getting past your head knowledge and having it really, really, really be your heart knowledge. And that's that's just the big thing that I've learned from the line is your heart.

Chris Grainger 22:53

Amen, brother. Well, you definitely have a heart for serving for sure. Thank you for the kind words. And and uh anything else you'd like to share with them today before we jump into our dad jokes and stuff like that?

Marcus Korth 23:04

Uh last thing that I'm gonna share, I don't know when when this is gonna be hitting, but I I'm I'm doing better today, uh, seeing as the Bears lost, so I don't have to take any more text message, voicemails, or emails from all my family at friends south of the border. So I'm good. It was a rough week. It was a rough week last week after you know we lost, but I'm doing much better today.

Chris Grainger 23:28

There you go. There you go. There's a there's always next year, right? You know, that's what it has to say. All right, buddy. Well, look, uh a couple things, guys. We our book of the week this week is is called Conda Christian. So I kinda like that title. It says from curious to serious about Jesus. So that was our buddy Roger, uh Roger Ross. So go check that one out, fellas. And and Marcus, I got a couple of dad jokes I want to run by you, man. I'll see what you if any of them land for you, okay? So uh first one was uh who was the smartest person in the Bible? Do you you know who that was?

Marcus Korth 23:58

I do not.

Chris Grainger 23:59

All right, it was Abraham because he knew a lot.

Marcus Korth 24:03

Uh you got you though.

Serving More Than Sundays

Dad Jokes, Weekly Question, And Resources

Invitation To Join The Den

Chris Grainger 24:06

All right, you got that one, you got that one. All right, so now the second one was well, well, who was the world's first comedian? Any thoughts on that one? I don't know. I'm gonna have to go with Samson, man, because he brought down the house. Ah, alright. I like that one. Oh, you like that one? You like that one? All right, guys. So look, yeah. Well, we do these uh every week, fellas. Uh Mark has to tell you within the Lions Den community, we put a poll out every week. So you get to vote on which dad jokes is your best. So, hey, look, that's another benefit. It's a small but a funny benefit of being in the line because you get to see what who votes wrong, you know, and then you get to call them out on it. So, but anyway, that's a cool thing to check out, fellas. And then the question of the week is what past failure are you still allowing to define you? And and this is one man, uh Marcus. I I I know for me talking with so many guys in the line, this is a big one. I mean, just this morning we had guys popping in uh prayer requests about you know their f their struggle with pornography or their marriage is failing or whatever it may be, and they feel like that is you know, like it's all over. I'm like, I constantly have to redirect guys, like nope, that is that does not get you to find you, man. So that's the question of the week this week, guys. And and Marcus, man, it's been a blessing, brother, to hang out with you. Thank you so much for spending the time with us today. Thank you, Chris. I appreciate it. Man, brother, it's been great. So, guys, go to thelionwithin.us, that's where you connect with all our stuff. The stuff Marcus just talked about Daily SKO, the Lion's Den community, the mastermind. By the way, open up the Bible app, follow the lion on the Bible app. I've put a ton of effort and time every week into writing the plans for the Bible app, and and they have been such a blessing. We've been connecting with hundreds of thousands of guys all over the world uh through God's word. What's greater? I can't think of anything cooler than that. So uh check all those resources out. And then if you still got what if you want if you're interested, come to our live events. Marcus has been the one. Uh check us out, the lionwithin.us, and you can head over to events there. So give us a rating and review, guys. Have a great day. We'll see you next week. And just keep unleashing the Lion Within. Trying to find genuine resources to help grow spiritually can feel overwhelming. At least it was for me. For the longest time, the support that I was looking for didn't exist. And I knew I wasn't alone. And at the same time, God was leading me to take action. That's why we built the Lion Within Us community, which is simply a place for Christian men to grow together in an honest, practical way that's always rooted in God's Word. We've made it simple. We have our daily spiritual kickoff for that little boost to get you going. We have Bible studies focusing on discerning truth and applying it. And we have a private forum where you can speak freely amongst other guys who listen. And then we have things like Friday Forge, Couples Night, where we tackle the hard items that guys are craving to talk about, but most face settings just refuse to explore these areas. So our community is about a growth mindset, intentionality, and transparency. Simply put, leave the mask at the door and come as you are. No perfect resume, just a willing heart and a desire to lead. I believe in what we've built simply because I've seen God use it to strengthen so many men. And I'd be honored to walk alongside you. So if you're ready, visit the lionwithin.us to explore the community. Start your free trial. Look around and see how this could help you lead with clarity and courage. So your journey begins here at the lionwithin.us. I look forward to seeing you inside the den.