Bill Gunderson 6-8-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports nine
twenty in your iHeart Radio app. I'm Mike McGivern. Look
who's back.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
It seems like that usually is our intros.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Our intro. Man, how you've been, pastor?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm great, A little tired after taking care of three
of our grandchildren down in the guests at Georgia five
and under. I didn't realize that could wear you out
like it does. But uh yeah, I couldn't have done
it done it by myself. I got Kathy with me,
but it wears her out too, So yeah, we're both
worn out.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I saw some pictures on Facebook. You were holding one
of the grand kids up over your head with this
look on your face like please get me out of here.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
It was awesome. I loved it.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
But man, OnLive, they are I mean, I love it.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Kids are demanding, and you know it's you think the
day when we were younger, we didn't make anything of it.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
We just did it right.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Man.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Now it's grandparents.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Well, we'll be up north for a week during the
summer and we take all six of the grandi's and
Katie and John and Matthew and Kara and and I
can tell you this. There are times where I've got
two grand kids on my shoulders and I'm holding one
and their parents are playing some board game and I'm like, hey,
are you somebody gonna help me? And no, No, you're good,

(01:17):
You're fine, And Terry's like, no, no, you're fine.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Just hang in there. I'm like, hang in here. I'm
going to bed. Yeah, I'm going to bet he's go swimming.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Kyle sent a picture They're up in New York at
a wedding and he takes a picture of him in
a hot tub, like relaxing. I go enjoy it because
it's about ready to turn around on you, buddy.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
No doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Hey, we are coming live from the recorded but kind
of live from the Donovant and Jorgansen Heating and Cooling studios.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Here it is.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
You know, anytime you gotta you gotta turn your AC on.
I would make sure that the boys at Donovan Jorgensen
come out and check it before you turn it on.
Go to Donovan Jorgensen dot com. So Donovan Jordanson always
very happy of being a sponsor of Faith in the Zone.
Another sponsor of Faith in the Zone alongside Brookside Baptist Church.

(02:07):
Thank you for that pastor, but BIC Automotive, BIC Automotive, Jason,
and the people over there are unbelievable. My son Matthew
went there once and he said, hey, Dad, they had
my car. They called said it was done. I went
back and they said, hey, no worries. It was a
simple fix. And Matthew said, who does that? Like I

(02:30):
drive by a place like that. It costs me one
hundred bucks. So I called Jason to say thank you. Right,
made my son two kids and right, and so I
called to say thank you and he said this is
uh is this Mike McGivern.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
I go yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
He goes, hey, I listen to your stuff, and I go,
that's awesome. Thank you. He said I'd be interested in maybe,
you know, being a sponsor on Faith in the Zone.
And I thought he was just being nice, so I
just kind of let it go.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Well.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Then he called here to iHeart and got a sales
rep who now wanted to sell him like every station
under the sun. And I went back in to get
some work done. He goes, hey, do you know that
that I called over there and they sent the sales rep.
I can't get the guy off me now, and I
go I'll take care of it. I go, so you
were serious? He goes, yeah, I played high school sports

(03:20):
at Sussex Hamilton. I love your high school stuff. I
listened to your home improvement show. I go, oh, you're
the one. And we laughed about it, and he said,
I love faith in his zone. So they have been
part of what we do here now for two years
and I send everybody I can to be ic Automotive.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Where are They located on Main Street in Waukesha, Mainstream.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
And I was there a few weeks ago and Jason said, hey,
here comes the pastor from my church. Introduced me to
Bill Gunderson. The Fox River Christian Church North campus is
where Bill is and Bill and I got to talking
and I played a little high school football and I said, hey,
we should have you on as a guest, and he

(04:01):
said absolutely, I would love that. So our special guest
for the entire hour he is Pastor Bill Gunderson. Pastor.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
How you been I'm great, man, Mike. I preally appreciate
being here with you today, and of course you too,
Pastor ken Man. I'll tell you what I've been a
fan of years, for years, kind of hanging out in
the background, and yeah, and what a treat it was
to meet you and put a face with the with
the awesome voice too.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
And you've you've heard of Pastor kN Keltner right absolutely.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
Oh see, there you go.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
I shut him up in the parking lot.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Oh yeah, I'm sure you did.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Because usually everybody I see Bill and I and I say, hey,
would you guys like sports?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Have you ever listened to?

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, I love Faith in the Zone Mike mcgiverren Man,
he's just awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
We love Mike.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
I go, well, who you know who the other guy is?
And nah, now we don't know, but Mike mcgibnern man.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Because we're he in the town most of the time,
you know. Now, like we started the show, welcome back
Pastor ken Kellner from Brookshid Baptist Church. Hey, Bill, I
really appreciate it. Where let's talk a little bit about
where I grew up, where you went to high school,
where you played some high school football.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
Yeah, I tell you what grew up in in Muskigo,
you know, with with with both my parents and and
I had three younger brothers. And while what a what
an adventure that was. You know, we're always looking at
finding new ways to get into trouble and we succeeded.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Hey, hey, my wife and I we have four boys,
and my daughter has oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. I
always tell I always tell women that have four boys,
especially the younger women with four boys. I go, hey,
you're tough. They have four boys, And they look at
me and they go, maybe, but I'm tired.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
Oh yeah, I mean those two go hand and your boys.
Oh man, Well, my brothers that I grew up with there,
Uh let's see, I'm the oldest of the four, right,
So man, what would they be now forty forty one? Uh,
fairly close? Yeah, yeah. I bet that house when oh
it was, it was rocking.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
I mean everything is competition. I mean even loading the dishwasher.
I mean that was big. And you remember Keith. Keith
was one that was Hey, I loved the dishwasher in
a quicker time than you did.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, Keith was awfully competitive.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Oh it's all competitive, man, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, you and your brother's competitive too.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
I bet in certain things. Yeah, but there was always
this gap, you know. I was I was older by
four years, okay, and then the rest of them were
two years apart. So there's always a gap. I was
always great. Yeah, but we had I mean all sorts
of stories. Always playing football in the family room and
and you know, one of my brothers hit his head
on the fireplace, split that open. Another one of my
brothers hit his head on the end table, split that open,
blood all over the ceiling. I mean, just those types

(06:34):
of stories. You know.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
My grandkids, my daughter Katie and her husband John, have
four boys. One just just finished freshman, Yere at l CL.
One was an eighth grader, going to be a freshman
next year at l CL. And then Becky's going to
be in sixth grade. And Callum is three years old.
And Callum they call Mini Mete. He's a little stocky,
dark haired kid that will hug you one second, punch

(06:57):
in a bad spot for the next second, and then go
hi pop. And it's like, tell them why why?

Speaker 4 (07:02):
I don't know. I just thought I would, you know,
just yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Very funny, you know, talking about getting with the grandkids.
Right when I sat down the little one, who's I
guess three? Little boy he lost and he looks at
me and he goes, let's play hut hut.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
I go, what's hut hut? He goes.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Run over Grandpa. Oh man, we're playing hut on the couch.
This is gonna be fun.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
No wonder you looked the way you were when you
were old, and.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
I was trying to keep it from getting hit in
a bad spot.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Did your brothers all going to Meschugo High School as well?

Speaker 4 (07:39):
Yep, yep, all four of Ussquigo High School? And uh,
you know, I grew up playing playing sports. You know,
a lot of pick up football in the neighborhood with
older kids and such, and a ton of stories. They're
a lot, a lot of fun. But when when it
got to official, you know, league play, my parents were
always really really leery about a couple things. They didn't

(08:00):
want me to get injured. You know, hey, your growth
plates are still going, you know, so they want to
guard me against that. But also, you know, there was
some experiences that my dad in particular, had grown up
and he didn't want to coach to like, you know,
form my mind, like, hey go out there and injure
that player. So they kind of shielded me from as
far as football goes, they shielded me from from league play.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Okay, you know other sports for you Yeah, but what
else did you play?

Speaker 4 (08:24):
Basketball? I mean this was prime Michael Jordan Arrow and
nineties and and just you know, and he started winning
jump him. No, no, but I wanted to and I
worked on.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
What could you shoot like Larry Bird?

Speaker 4 (08:37):
You know, I read a book by him, and I
did my darness to do exactly that. So I was,
I was, you know, I had some good I had
some good shooting games. And uh and and he shoot it.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Hey, hey, here's three three.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Let's find out if you can shoot it, because hopefully
the answer is no, and he can pass, rebound and
play defense because you and I are not.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
I will say this, Mike. I will say this because
there's a lot of ways I got answered this question right.
But I will say this. We played this. This was
this past weekend, right, just a few days ago. Uh,
my boys and I were out on the basketball court
and other family members and we played a game of
a horse, you know, and I swept them all. I
went like eighteen for twenty and they're like dah, dad,

(09:18):
And I'm like, hey, you know you got it. Yeah.
On occasion, on occasion.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Tell me about your family. How many kids do you have?

Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, So my wife and I we've been married for
a little over twenty years now, and we've got four children.
Our oldest just graduated college from Liberty University. Is so
proud of her. She rocked it, absolutely rock She graduated
in two and a half years. Who does that took
me seven years? Mike? Well, like I'm dying over here.
I'm just like, I gotta get a degree, you know,
two and a Yeah, she just rocked it. And she's

(09:45):
doing summer school. She was an online she was, you know,
out in Virginia, you know, doing She just amazing. She
gets that from her mom, her studious you know.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
The old Yeah. Yeah, Billy boy who's sitting between he
all kicked his coverage like you and he can be
on our board.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
You're the.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Chairman.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
You're the chairman.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, but I have to tell you one hundred you
know that?

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Right? Oh? Absolutely absolutely yeah, I'm married up o'k cover?
How do you want to say that?

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Man? The other three, how old are they?

Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah? So so our oldest she is, Oh golly, she's
going to be twenty one. Our son, uh, you know,
child number two, he's he's going to be twenty. And
then we've got a junior in high school, our third,
and then our youngest she's entering into the seventh grade,
you know, and so.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
There there's a gap there.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Oh, yeah, there's a gap.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
There is a gap.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yep, we just yep.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Are the kids any of them play sports?

Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yeah? All of them? Yeah, the oldest not so much.
She doesn't play sports. She's more of like just man.
You know, she sings. She has got the voice of
an angel, one of the best voices. I know. Listen,
I'm dad, I've got my favorites. You know, there's bias,
I totally admit that, But at the same time, she
has just she has one of those voices. It's it's

(11:01):
my favorite voice on the planet. Bar that's awesome. She's amazing,
and she's she's saying you know, national anthems at various
events and had some really cool opportunities. She sings at
our church and and she's just a blessing of so many.
I'm so thankful for the work that God has done
in her heart, but also the gifts that he's given her.
And she's using him for for God, which is a

(11:22):
big deal because we all got gifts, but what are
we gonna do with them? Right? So uh, and I
know that's part of the progression that that the Holy
Spirit takes us on. So but yeah, she she so,
she kind of stays away from the sports. She'll go
to a Bucks game on occasion and watch, you know,
maybe one a year, but yeah, the other ones. The
my my oldest son, he he plays basketball and he's
he's going to Whitewater right now, you w Whitewater for him. Yeah,

(11:43):
he's in various leagues and stuff. And then my son,
the junior in high school, he's playing football. He's a
inside are actually outside linebacker now, but he's at at mcgwonagall. Yeah,
his name's cad Will. He played varsity this year. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
he was starting last year as a junior, and he's
pretty psyched. He's he's he loves being a team leader.

(12:05):
He loves being aggressive and pumping his teammates.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
They put together our schedule right now for Friday night rivals.
So let me see if I can get a chance
to the sidelines watch that boy play.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
We were just talking about Moschigo and mcgonago game coming up,
you know, so literally last night we're talking about that.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Is that the rivalry?

Speaker 4 (12:21):
Oh yeah, that's that's they got a couple of them.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
But yeah, how did mcguanago do this.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Last year, they did really really well. They were a
heartbreaking thirty yards from going to the state title and
they played against Muskego and uh lost. Yes they did.
It was absolutely I don't I don't want to think
about it.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Coach coach at mcgwanago, great guy. I had a hard
time pronouncing that name for a while and he was
not happy with me. But now I've got it about like, yeah,
really really.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Really, Mike's awesome.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Man, were thanks a lot, man, I can't believe you
just brought that up. Yeah, a lot like that.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Are special guest for the entire hour and I'm gonna
be doing the rest of the show on my own
since I'm kicking Pastor Ken Keltler from a Brookside Baptist
Church out of studio After that comment, Pastor Bill Gunderson
Fox River Christian Church, North Campus, talk to me a
little bit about your your job and what you do
at church. Are you head pastor? I've watched a couple

(13:23):
of a couple of episodes on YouTube of you preaching.
My favorite is why are We Here? And the road
trip episode was so good and it just brought that
all these memories of being in the car with my
dad and siblings, and I thought driving the Muskigo from
the east side of Milwaukee was along. Oh yeah, And
and then we'd go to walk Paca and two hours

(13:45):
it seemed like forever. You guys took a trip, and
I thought you tied it back really wonderfully. And and
I was a big fan of of of that that
sermon that you get.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
I appreciate that, Mike. Yeah, I'm so thankful for the
opportunity as I get. We have. We have an amazing
teaching team at Fox Shriver and we've designed it that way.
You know, it's really easy. And we used to do
this years back, where say one pastor kind of does
the majority of the preaching, and a lot of churches
do that, and God blesses that, right, But I'm so
thankful that we have teaching teams. So it's Pastor Guy,
who's our senior pastor at Fox River. Then it's Pastor Rob,

(14:17):
who is our one of our campus pastors in Muskego.
And then I'm the other primary member of the teaching team,
and I'm campus pastor over at the North Waukesha campus.
What does a campus pastor what does that mean. Yeah,
it just means so we have streaming sites. We have
our main broadcast site which is on one sixty four
and Lonsdale and Waukeshaw, right, the big building that many

(14:39):
people refer to, and so we do our live teaching
out of there, and typically, you know, maybe fifty out
of fifty two Sundays a year, that message will be
you know, streamed to our campuses. So we'll watch a
screen and that sort of thing. We still have live announcements,
we still have live music and worship and obviously a
lot of community and fellowship and we do life together

(15:01):
and all that good stuff, but the actual message would
be streamed at our campus sites. Who is the youth
pastor at your church? Oh yeah, yeah, we've got well,
i'll tell you what, that's an interesting answer. Right now,
we've got pastor Jason. He's our family pastor and he
kind of oversees all of our family ministries, including student
ministries and kids ministries. So our student pastor right now

(15:25):
is actually Katie Eels, and she is filling in right now.
She's kind of the interim. You know, we've got just
the interesting transition period happening right now. But she's doing
a dynamic job leading our student ministry.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Because pastor is our head pastor, he's also our youth pastor.
Oh yeah, double pay.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Jesse, our intern from Palau, is really picking up a
lot of it right now. The first two years, when
we needed somebody, I stepped in. I was a youth
pastor for like twenty years, so I thought, well, and
Kathy said, you're not going out there on Turkey Bowl
Day after Thanksgiving and playing football with the teens. I go,
I am, I am? And so I got home. I

(16:09):
was kind of limping around. She goes, yeah, yeah, I
figure that that's how big I go. Here's the thing, though, Honey,
I can't believe how uncoordinated of it I've gotten. Now.
I catch a pass and I turn around to run,
and I would just fall down, maybe because I didn't
want to get a hit.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, look, Pastor Bill Gunderson,
our special guests from the entire hours, your pastor at
Fox River Christian Church, North Campus, and it was so
good to meet him again over at BIC Automotive. And
I think Jason and his family they do. Look, that's
a ministry for him. Oh yeah, It truly is a

(16:45):
ministry for him, and they are so unashamed of it.
You walk in, there's always Christian music, it's always, you
know what, there's versus everywhere. They do such a great
job of not only working on your vehicles, but then
while you're there, if you want to have a conversation,
they're not shy to talk about their their their faith
and let's talk about where you're at in your life.

(17:07):
And I'm a huge fan of Jacent's. He will not
come and see where you're sitting. Oh yeah, won't do it.
And I keep saying, look, we need to refresh our commercials.
Do you want to be the voice? Nope, but my
wife might and that go great. Have her call me?
Have not gotten out?

Speaker 4 (17:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Please? As you pastor, would you say, look, you can't
come to church here unless you get a hold of
the giverness.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
I absolutely will.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, I do that for me. I would definitely appreciate that.
How long have you been over at at Fox River
by the.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
Way, Yeah, I've been attending there close to twenty five years,
you know, ever since it opened pretty much just a
little bit after that when I met my wife and
I said, man, I got to tend here, this is,
this is I'm quite fond of this young lady. Yeah
we got married a little bit later. But yeah, I've
been attending there for just about twenty five years and
I've been working as a pastor since twenty twelve was
when I started, but I was volunteering extensively before that.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
Pray Well, we'll find out more about that journey, I'm
sure in the second segment when he asked you to
share your testimony. He is Pastor Bill Gunderson again, pastor
at Fox River Christian Church, North Campus, and I watched
a bunch of his videos today and yesterday. One of
the videos that I would highly recommend, why are We here?

(18:21):
Road Trip Episode one. If you go on YouTube Fox
River Christian Church and look Pastor Bill Gunderson up and
spend a few minutes, and I can tell you it's
about a twenty five minute sermon. If if you if
you spend five minutes, put five minutes aside, you're gonna
you're gonna listen to the whole thing. It's it's really good.
And I commend him and how he put that whole

(18:43):
trip together and and just how it it. How you
took from being in the car and asking your dad
like are we there yet? Like you know, why are
we going here? And why is it so far to
tell you how you you brought it back into how
the Lord as our you know, our father had does
that sometimes too, and I love that again. He is

(19:04):
Pastor Bill Gunderson, pastor at Fox River Christian Church. The
North Campus is where he normally is. This is Faith
in the Zone on Fox Sports nine twenty and your
iHeart Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio App.

(19:25):
I'm Mike be given alongside the head pastor at Brookside
Baptist Church, Pastor Ken Keltner. Coming from the Donovan and
Jorgansen Heating and Cooling Studios, our special guest for the
entire hour. He is Pastor Bill Gunderson. He's a pastor
at Fox River Christian Church in North Campus and uh
Muskeigo boy but now living in mcguanago. I don't know,

(19:46):
I don't know if you can do that, to be honest,
in that Classic Gate conference, I know they don't like
you a whole lot. Now, if you're a Moschigo boy,
you're supposed to stay in mesqgos. Yeah, I love that
pastor the second segment. For us, this is always our favorite,
the one that I get. In fact, we get the
most reaction from and people love that last segment. But

(20:07):
the second segment where we asked people to share their testimony,
by far, is what we get asked questions about the most.
And if you'd be so kind to share your testimony.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
With us, absolutely. Yeah. So I was raised Catholic, you know,
went to c CD, you know, first Communion, got the
suit picture, all that good stuff, Phraise got for that
and and and uh, you know, was confirmed Catholic. And
I do remember the day I got confirmed. There was
a question that I can't remember who the leader was,

(20:40):
but the leader said to the group of us, you know,
we were all in high school at the time, and
and they said something like, you know, confirmation is your
commitment to live for Christ forever. And I'm like, WHOA,
that's pretty daunting, you know, and it struck me, you know,
for some reason in that moment, I had ears to
hear and I was like, there's there's a magnitude here

(21:01):
that I'm not grasping. And then I looked around to
you know, the other students that were there, and and
everybody's just kind of like smiling and going on as
can be. I'm like, did you guys hear that? You know?
Like like so, I think that was one of the
moments that God was trying to get my attention, you know,
and and just so patient with me, you know, and
and with all of us. And I prayed, you know,
thank you Lord for that. So anyways, you know, so

(21:25):
I knew about God, and I was familiar with with
some of the things of what Christianity is and was,
and but but no real relationship, no real belief, no
real trust, you know, some of those things that I
was blind to at the time. Right, But I just was,
you know, this is this was normal. So I'm just
you know, kind of going with the flow. Right. And
then a couple of years later, and let me give

(21:47):
you know what, back up one half step. I had
a friend who she I met her in middle school,
and she was just one of these these crazy Christians, right,
and she kept inviting me to church. I mean, in
some seasons it was every single week, Hey, you want
to go to church, Billy, you know, you want to
go to church? And no no, and I said no.
The best I did as I said yes to a

(22:08):
lock in because I thought that was cool and a
cute girl was going or something, so I'm like, oh,
I get to see that girl. Got to count me in,
you know. So anyways, that was the only thing. But
for years and years and years and years she would
ask me and I would say, no, I don't want
to go to your church. I have a church. I'm
not interested in God, you know. I just kind of
want to do my thing and have some fun, you
know whatever. I don't really need God. And I finally

(22:28):
said yes. This was probably my freshman year of college.
Finally said yes, and I went, and my mind was
blown away. I'm like, wow, this is quite different. It
was a Pentecostal church. So for those of us who difference,
I mean Catholicism versus Panic, I mean that's that these
are book ends now, right. So I was just like, wow,
this is quite different. But one thing that I really remember,

(22:49):
and I love this about the church that I you know,
that that she invited me to and I said yes,
is I felt like during the sermon or the message,
I was like, I can, I can kind of underst
dan this this, this relates, you know, it's it was.
I wouldn't have described it them, but it was less
liturgical and it was more personal. And I was like, wow, okay,
this is really connecting, you know, and you know, unknown

(23:10):
to me, God is really working in my heart in
a big, big way once I finally said yes to
you know, going to her church. So anyways, I'm doing that.
I'm hearing the gospel. Not that I understood it perfectly,
but I'm hearing, Okay, Jesus Christ, you died for my sins.
And and this is again in a personal way, not
just you know, knowledge at a distance. And and these
seeds were being planted, some seeds were being watered, and

(23:32):
and I'm just you know, like kind of in this spot. Anyway,
So fast forward just a little bit a few months later.
This is like in between my freshman year and sophomore
year of college. I was going to UWM go Panthers,
all right, And anyways, so I woke up one morning
and I kid you not, I felt like and this
wasn't a physical thing. It wasn't like a heart attack. Okay,

(23:53):
so I just want to put that preface on it,
but I felt this spiritual weight on my chest. I
remember waking up. I rarely sleep on my back. I
woke up that morning laying on my back very odd,
and I just felt this weight, and I'm like, what
is going on? And I couldn't articulate it. I still
struggle to articulate it now, to be honest with you.
But but I knew I had a problem and only

(24:15):
Jesus could fix this. And that much I knew. And
it was it was because of what I'd been hearing
at at the new church I was attending, you know,
so man, that coming Sunday couldn't come quick enough. And
I man, I got my my behind over to that
church that coming Sunday morning, and and at the end
of services there they would always do what we call

(24:36):
the altar call, right, so hey, for those who want
to receive Jesus, come down to the altar at the
end of service, and and and and just kind of
pour your heart out to him. And I was just
I was just, you know, pins and neels, the entire serviceling,
and when are we going to get to this? I
got to receive Jesus, you know, because I didn't know that.
You don't need to be in a specific place or
a specific time. I just didn't understand that, right. But
but but anyway, so the end of the service came

(24:57):
and I you know, walked as quickly and effective, you know,
respectively as I could down to the altar. And I was,
you know, crying nineteen years old, just crying my eyes
out and and just asking for forgiveness. And and uh,
he he took that that spiritual weight and was that
conviction of sin. You know, I've just been doing so
many things outside of God's will. And again, he's so kind,

(25:19):
he was so patient, he was so gracious. You know,
he never stomped me like you should have. You know,
he just he just waited and was working on me,
and and and when I finally turned to him, he
was he was. He accepted me into his family, you know, forever,
and and what a journey, heymen.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
You know I say this a lot, but I thought,
and it took me a long time in my life,
very stubborn, one hundred percent Irish kind of thing. But
I thought I had to get myself all cleaned up
first and then present myself to him.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
And that's not it, no.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Right, hey, Look, he'll come to dark places, he'll come
in there if you ask him, come on in. And
that's why I don't know why anybody's waiting, like I
don't know. And I grew up in Catholic schools too,
and and somebody gave us a line on the show.
I knew Jesus Christ the same way I knew Abraham Lincoln, right.
I knew all the stories. I could do the stories,

(26:15):
but there was no relationship. There was none of that.
I just you know, I was afraid to go into
purgatory kind of yeah, man, And I you know, that's
what I was worried about it. And I loved your testimony.
Did you know early on in in in that part
of your life that you wanted to be a pastor
in the Oh no no, no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
I'd like to hear a little bit too, Bill from
that point. I mean, I know I only have so
much time, but you could kind of just give us
a capsule of then how you were, how you started growing,
and what God was doing in your life to bring
you to the point where you are now.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Yeah, I mean I'll tell you what there's there's you know,
because we've all got our different vices, we've all got
our different habits. You know, when you when you come
to Christ, we're kind of all in a different spot.
And I think it continues to be like that large
in part. Right with me. One of the things that
changed really really quick, like I mean on a dime,
was my language. You know, I would just you know,

(27:14):
like a sailor, sure drunk two times oh rabbud just
you know, cuss and and all of that. It was.
It was just the way I spoke. It was the
way you know, the people that I looked up to
at that point in life, That's how they talked, you know,
and it's just trying to emulate them. And you know,
you create habits, right. So one of the things that
that changed immediately was my language. And uh, to the
delight of many, to the absolute shock of.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Others, say somewhere shocked, like what happened to you?

Speaker 4 (27:38):
Oh yeah, and you know what, I know this is
not what you asked about pastor can. But but like
you know, when you make those changes, you know, uh,
oftentimes the quicker the change is that the more this
happens is is you know, I had people looking at me.
You know, I was so happy. I'm like, man, Christ
has gotten hold of my heart. I feel like again
struggle to articulate some this, but the Holy Spirit is
living inside of me for the first time ever. This

(27:59):
is a and I just want to tell the world.
I want to show the world how good God is.
And but but how that's communicated accidentally a lot of
times is oh you're better than me, now, huh. You know.
So there's a lot of resistance. There's a lot of pushback,
and some of the people that I cared about most
were kind of giving me a hard time to be
honest with, even within my own home, you know. And
Christ talks about bringing division, you know, to even to

(28:22):
the family where where parents and children don't get along,
there's division. Man, I was that really rattled me. Man.
But but a lot of big changes up front. Language
was one of them.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Are you a first generation Christian? Yes, Marcus Handle? Remember
Marcus Handle?

Speaker 2 (28:38):
And I was ticked.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
We had him on two or three times, and I
loved it because you were like, first generation Christians are different,
because like you said, holy spirits, I want to tell
the world, man, I want to tell everybody. And Marcus
Hannah was was was like that we need to get
him back in by the way I meant talked.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
He had, he had a Catholic background, and he was
just ticked that no one ever told him the truth,
just like Steve Pfeiffer. Yes, you know Sparky, Sparky d oh,
that's yeah, we love Sparky. And Steve told me he
goes man, I just knew I wasn't getting the truth something.
And what it is is that personal relationship. And I

(29:17):
feel for so many of my of my Catholic friends,
they don't have any kind of assurance that they'll live
with God. They're hoping they'll get to God. And that's
that's heartbreaking, you.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Know, when when and it being former Catholics, I guess yeah,
we would say that. I went to Saint Peter Paul
Parish on the east side of Milwaukee, and they would
tell us, look, you know, they're keeping track, you know,
good to bad. And so I had the score clock
of our gymnasium in my head. And once I get once,
I got to negative.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
One hundred, and I got through pretty quick.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
You know. I get in two fights on the playground,
but I'd help a lady across the streets and now
I'm down one.

Speaker 4 (29:59):
And once I got to it's one hundred.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
I thought, I'm never going to be able to get
on thrown and I just forgot about it. And you know,
that's what was going through my head. And they never
They hand us the Bible back then and taught us
how to carry it correctly and said, don't open it.
We'll tell you what's in it. But this is how
you're going to carry it, mister mcgiveret and I just
then once you've, once you find out the truth, you do,

(30:23):
you just want to get up on the biggest mountaintop
and start screaming it.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Right, Yeah, give me a megaphone list, I mean, give
me on the radio stage. I want to tell the world.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Here it is, brother, here it is, and the iHeartRadio
app so that that's awesome. Before we get to a break.
So you go through wm and and started going to
this church, did you feel like, because you've done a
lot of things, I've read your background and I've done
some research on you. One of the lines was my
family always had a good laugh because they had so

(30:52):
many different jobs throughout.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
My Oh my goodness. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
And when you said down to be a pastor, did
they giggle?

Speaker 4 (30:57):
Oh? Man? Yeah, I mean some people saw it coming
from a mile away. You know, a lot of times
when you have a calling on your life, you know
you're the last one to kind of be aware of it.
But uh, but yeah, they were, they were. They got
a good chuckle out of that. I think family members
especially are like, whoa, we didn't see this? Friends, you know, like, man,
is that the same bill that that I went to
school with? That's crazy?

Speaker 1 (31:16):
You know, yeah, that's awesome. You were a maths teacher, prayer.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
I was at Mesmer High School, Alma, yes, yeah, yes,
and there go.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
My wife and I both graduated together. She called and
asked me out the day after you graduated.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
So that's a good yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Right now she's in the car driving to Brookside shaking
her head, saying, quit telling people that, hey, I can't
lie on faith in the zone.

Speaker 4 (31:42):
That's what happened.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
She took a run of the championship, and she got.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
All, oh, yes, that's what I tell her.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
That never goes over really well in the mcgiverern household,
for sure. Talk a little bit about when you made
that decision then to to become a pastor.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
Yeah, it was a really really interesting story. Yeah, so
basically I'm going to church. I'm serving heavily in a
bunch of different ministries, and and and all of a sudden,
I'm walking through the gym. I used to sing on
the worship team. I love singing, and you know, still
singing the car every day, but it's just not as
beautiful as it once was, I suppose. But anyways, you know,
I'm walking through the gym after at our church, after

(32:22):
one of the one of the times I sang, and
somebody just kind of walks past me and they say, hey,
your name came up in uh in the elder meeting,
you know, so well, that's interesting. I know, what did
I do?

Speaker 2 (32:34):
You know?

Speaker 4 (32:34):
And I'm trying to think I couldn't and they said no,
it was for for a youth ministry position. And I
was just wow, I can't believe that. I that makes
no sense. Tell me more, you know. So so that
that began that conversation that morning, which I remember vividly.
That began this kind of uh, you know, illumination. I
think it was in there, but God kind of turned
on the light bulb and let me kind of look

(32:56):
around the room, so to say, and uh, and and yeah,
really I got Shortly after that, I got involved in
serving in the youth ministry and kind of got a
really you know, a better feel for it. And then
I just I pursued it. I started serving, and I
started taking speaking opportunities, and the speaking gift that God
had given me, you know, started to kind of bubble

(33:17):
to the surface. I said, oh, wow, this is cool,
you know, and people are I'm like overjoyed that I
get to do this. I'm enjoying it. People are being blessed,
you know, and I'm like, this is crazy. This is
working out pretty good. So that kind of gave way
to other opportunities and yeah, just really blossom from there.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Did you do some Bible training too, I'm sure they
had you doing some studying, you know, either online or yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I think And that was another big change.
When I received Jesus so many years back, you know,
in nineteen ninety eight, I started getting in the Bible.
You know. The very first thing I did that afternoon
was I got a Bible, bought it. You know, couldn't
couldn't read it worth a lick, but but I was
doing my best. I was faithful in reading it and
one making sense. I'm reading it and anyways, that was
one of the changes. And that just kind of kept continuing.

(34:01):
And as I became more mature in Christ, more years,
in more experienced with with Jesus and being a part
of the church, I just kept diving into the words.
So there was that informal study and then things kind
of went a little backwards, which is, you know, a
theme in my life sometimes. But but praise God, He's
gracious again. But but I actually after I became a
high school pastor at Fox River Christian Church, I said, man,

(34:23):
I felt these these three things that the Holy Spirit
was just telling me. I got these three things. You know,
I got to go back to school because I want
to get better at what I'm doing. I want I
want to be ready for the next thing that God
has for me. And you know what, I like learning.
So let's go, you know. And and he was faithful
to that calling. So awesome.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
He is pastor Bill Gunderson. Kay, he's a pastor at
Fox River Christian Church on the North campus. We're going
to get to a break other side the break will
continue our conversation with him. This is Faith in his
own on Fox Sports ninety twenty and your iHeart Radio App.
Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on Fox Sports

(35:03):
ninety twenty and your iHeartRadio app. I might be given
alongside Pastor Ken Keltner from Brookside Baptist Church, our special
guest Bill Gunderson, pastor at Fox River Christian Church. And
I want to thank Jason again at BIC Automotive. Is
there a better guy than this guy?

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Jason's amazing he is.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
And the company. I cannot recommend BIC Automotive enough. Main
Street and Waukeshaw and the commercial way I've running right now,
as you make your plans for summer, have them look
at the car. Don't get stuck in the middle of nowhere, right,
I mean, why do that. Have them take a look
at it, make sure it's ready to go. And big
fan of Jason, his daughter and his son and kind

(35:44):
of a family atmosphere over there.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
For sure, that is wonderful. And they've they've they've checked
out my car before trips, you know, just hey, let's
just give it a look over. And they're just so
kind of Yeah, they are really really kind. And he's
a good man. I'm gonna get him in studio one day.
Not going to be tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
But it's gonna be soon because I'm wearing him down
a little bit. I'm wearing him down. Hey, talk to
me about Fox River and the church itself. Feel pretty
good about about where you guys are at right now?

Speaker 4 (36:10):
Oh? Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I mean we're we're a non
denominational and our big thing is is man, we just
we just want to stay tied to God's word. We're
standing in God's word. And and like Jesus says in
John thirteen thirty four, He's like, hey, love one another
as I have loved you, you know, so are one
of the main parts of our mission is a hurd people,

(36:33):
a heart for people, excuse me, and a message of Jesus.
And it's all predicated upon God's love for us. He
loved us first, right, so so we just try and
love one another. We love as He loves us. And
and but yeah, we're in a really good place and
God has blessed us with a lot of good people.
And uh, and we've got a mission, and we've got
clear direction, and we've got a God who guides us.
That's so awesome.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Your favorite verse and I've oh, man, yeah, I'm I'm
looking at it. Right now, give us your face. Why
it's your favorite verse.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
I'll tell you what. There's a few that populate my
mind's right now. That's the one I've got right here.
That's what I've got. Yeah, in my head. I've actually
got that on on my my bicycle, my road bike.
I do a lot of cycling now, but I've got
that right on the side, just to remind me, just
to remind me, like, okay, this is this is not
about me. Right to live as Christ to die his game.

(37:22):
So when when I when I cross over, when you
know I passed, when I seen Jesus face to face,
you know, then then I have game. But not right now,
right now, it's about Christ.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Hey, how are you out in public being able to
share your favor I've never ever in my life been
around anybody whos talented as pastor, ken Mayfair, mall, grocery store, airline, airport,
whatever it is. He's able to kind of do that.
I struggle a little bit there.

Speaker 4 (37:52):
But he is.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
He is so comfortable in in in that setting. We
had a guy on one time that that said, look,
I I was really good in the locker room, but
outside of the locker room with my team mus a coach,
and he read a book called I'm Not a Fan,
and he'd spent an extra three bucks for that rubber bracelet.
Yeah yeah, and he wrote he was wearing it and

(38:13):
somebody in a grocery store said, who aren't you a
fan of? He said, I'm not a fan of Jesus Christ?
And she said, excuse me. He said, I'm not a
fan because fancy in the sidelines of a follower and
I tell you about it, and that for him opened
up all these doors. How have you been Has that
gotten easier for you over the years.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Yeah, I would say, yes, it's gotten easier, but it's
always an effort, you know. I always kind of like
in a healthy way, you know, I want to put
a caveat on here as a healthy way. I envy
people who are just like totally natural and totally like
wake up, and I just get after it and want
to tell people about Christ. I love that. I always
wish I was more like that.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yellow Street always sho's up my back.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
I had an opportunity flying back last night or early
in the morning, coming back from Augusta and contact. I'm
a big Oklahoma Sooner, fan, and I see this family
in a Gusta airport. The daughters weren't an Oklahoma football teacher,
and I was like, whoa boomer sooner, you know? And
so grandma and you know, her grandmother was with her,

(39:14):
and we got talking, and I could tell she went
to sleep, you know, because she she'd been with grandkids
for twelve.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Days, so she was white, yep.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
And so I just prayed to Father, I want to
share the Gospel with her, but yo, you're going to
open it up. And I looked over and she's starting
to read some things. So we got in a great conversation.
You got a chance to visit with her about Christ.
And and I always ask this too. You know sometimes
when I'm talking to folks, if I really believe in
heaven and I really believe in hell, which I do.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Should I be out talking to people about it?

Speaker 3 (39:48):
And ninety nine point nine percent people even that might
say I don't want to really talk about it. They say,
if that's what you believe, that's what you should be doing.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
And that solves it for me.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
When you said you have you get a little nervous,
or I have a yellow street, absolutely shocking to me.
It is and because I just feel like your as
good as anybody I've ever met in that space and
very comfortable to have that conversation. And it's it almost
is good to know that even you get a little

(40:18):
bit absolutely.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
I mean, I can share the gospel with someone, and
you know, David, I think I was even sharing it
with you over lunch that one day. And I always
ask does this make sense to you? And sometimes you know,
I mean, yeah, yeah, for the first time, and I'm like.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
That's the Lord.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
You know what's I've worked recently for me is if
I go get coffee or something and the young person
who is serving me the coffee as a cross chain,
and I'll say, is that's just jewel readers that mean
something to you? And I don't know where that came from,
but it's been really really helpful because there are some
some girls guys that say, you know what, my grandfather

(41:02):
left it for me. It's just it reminds me of them,
or oh no, this really means something. And I just
had a girl say do you want to know about
that part? And I go, I do. And so it
was awesome because she was comfortable enough to talk about
her faith and when she accepted Jesus Christ and why
and how? And so that for me is good. But

(41:24):
you know, Pastor, I'm glad to know that because it's
not a comfortable conversation sometimes.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
To have, you know, the six greatest questions, six greatest
words that you can never ask anybody. And I do
it all the time when we're out eating, you know,
to the server, Hey, we're going to thank the Lord
for the food. How how can we pray for you?
Opens up? I'm just amazed. I mean some people will go, well,
can I be here while you pray for me?

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (41:51):
And then that opens up gospel opportunities.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
Hey, last question.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Before you get to a break. Your wife Nicole. Is
she involved in the church or what does she do?

Speaker 4 (41:59):
Absolutely? Yeah, she she is like she does everything basically,
she's she's our weekend producer and and she you know,
she she has such great input and insight as well
as as well as oversight over so much. But she is, uh,
she has been such a blessing to me, but everybody
in our church. She has a hand in just about
everything there and and and I say that in a

(42:20):
positive sense.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
You know, Yeah, that's because Kathy, Pastor's wife is very
involved well. And and she she yells at me a lot,
but most people she doesn't.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
No no, no, no, no no no.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
When we've been going through hard times before, man, she
you've been right there for you and Terry, and she
loves you both.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
She tells me, you know, yeah, I feel like you're
an older brother and and you know, but and that's good.
Then then I coached all four of her boys in basketball,
and and uh yeah, and sometimes I would bench one
of her boys and that didn't go over so well.
But I love her to death for sure. Let's get
to a break, other side of the break, other side
of the break, we'll ask Bill Gunderson. He's a pastor

(43:03):
at Fox River Christian Church. Before we get to that.
To do yourself a favor, go on YouTube, go to
Fox River Christian Church and look up pastor Bill Gunderson.
I would recommend the why Are We here? Wrote the
road Trip episode one. Take a listen to that, and
trust me when I tell you this. Don't think you're

(43:23):
gonna kind of listen for five minutes and get out.
It's twenty five minutes. And once you start listening, you're
gonna want to stay the whole twenty five because it's
really really good. We'll ask Pastor Bill Gunderson that question.
We ask all our guests at the end of this show,
all the uniforms you've ever put on, pick out a uniform,
you get one more game, and we'll do that on
the other side of the break. This is Faith in

(43:45):
the Zone on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeart
Radio app. Welcome back to Faith in the Zone on
Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app. Our special guest,
Bill Gunderson, pastor at Fox River Christian Church, the North Camp,
Pastor management. Great having me, and again I want to
think Jason FBIC Automotive for the introduction. This last segment's

(44:07):
always short and it was a throwaway question that we
asked a couple of years ago, and I just love
the answers. All the uniforms multi sport athlete, all the
uniforms you've ever put on your entire life. We put
him into closet. You get to take out that uniform
to get one more game. What uniform is it? Who
do you play against?

Speaker 4 (44:25):
And why? What an awesome question. So you know, I
think about my daughter, my youngest daughter, Milania, and she's
in sixth grade right now, and she's a gymnastics just
all star. So anyways, I'm thinking to her as I
answer this, I go back to sixth grade. I put
on the hardball Twins uniform, and I'll tell you what.
I'm gonna take you back for a second. Bottom of

(44:45):
the sixth right six inning games, bottom of the six
bases loaded, we're down one. I'm sitting there and a
guy named Matt is the picture on the mound, and
I'm in the batter's box, and I'm ready to cue
this up. Man, I can see, you know, I hear
the music playing. Everybody I'm up on the shoulders. That's
what I'm seeing in my mind. Right. You know what happened,
Mike strikeout? Yeah, went down swinging, man, And she went

(45:10):
down swinging. Oh man. I loved baseball so much before
that moment, and I hated it so much. It was horrible,
you know. And you know, sixth grade, boy, you're not
supposed to cry. And I was just fighting back tears,
you know, riding back, you know, with my dad in
the car, just silent, just fighting bag tears welling up
all of that, and and uh, man, if I could
have one moment back. I would take that. But God

(45:30):
used it, Mike to humble me. There's certain times in
my life. This was one of them to humble me,
to bring me back down to earth. And I didn't
know Jesus he had his savior, but he humbled me.
He was doing some pre work, right. He humbled me.
He says, you're not You're not hot stuff like you
like you thought you were, you know, And and it
really I needed that. I needed that, you know. And
he's been working in that same vein ever since. So
I praised him for that, even though it was hard.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
My last game at Brookside Baptist and their softball team softball,
I got home. My wife said, isn't the ball this big?
I go, yeah, don't they throw an underhand? I'm I'm
on deck and I just subbed right and I and
I thought, I'm.

Speaker 4 (46:08):
Twelve for twelve, like I'm twelve for twelve.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
I hope I get up one more time. Oh yeah,
And I knew a bunch of guys on the other team,
the short and I go to right field. The short
Steff takes off running to the other side of second
base while the guy while the ball is in the air.
So I just my feet. All I gotta do is
hit a ground ball the short and I swang the umpire,
who's a basketball official, said mcgivernn. You missed that by
about three feet. You weren't even close. And I got

(46:33):
home and my wife has not let me forget it.
Talk about humbling. Yeah, I agree. Pastor Bill Gunderson, man,
it's so good to meet you. We will stay in touch.
If there's anything that we can do for you, please
let me know. I wanted to make sure that that
you came in studio and Pastor Ken was here, like
introducing different pastors in their area. I don't know what
you guys talk about, you know, behind the scenes, but

(46:55):
now you've got a contact, and it's so good to
meet you. I really appreciate it, Pastor, and it's going
to get me you. Thank you, Bill, you bet, David,
thank you so much. This is Faith in the Zone
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app.