Well, welcome in to our podcast series, our preacher interviews. We appreciate you being here for Strength in Things that Remain. Man, we've had just a great, great response over the last few months. Brother Jim Bowes, that we did last week, I've just heard from so many people, there's more people today about what a blessing that it was and the topic that we dealt with on last week. And so we appreciate you sharing these videos. had thousands of views online, as well as the downloads on our podcast. And just keep telling people about them. We're just gonna be a blessing, try to be a help. And we've had some great men of God, some great men of God sitting here. We got a great man of God with us again this evening, Brother Leonard Fletcher, and we're gonna be interviewing him. Let me just do a little bit of housekeeping first and say that, We're going to be doing Brother Leonard tonight, of course, and then a week from tonight, we'll have on Brother Randy Bain, and then that'll be it for the year. We may take a couple of weeks off first part of January, but we'll get started back mid-January, and then we'll just go on as long as preachers come sit down and talk to us. We'll just keep doing this, and everybody seem to be enjoying it. We'll have a good time. Brother Leonard Fletcher, he's the pastor of the Dyson Grove Baptist Church. Butler, Tennessee. Great to have you, brother. We appreciate you being here. Good to be here, brother. We want you to start off by just telling us a little bit about yourself. Tell us about how you got saved and called to preach and how long you've been a pastor and all those sorts of things. Well, I was saved when I was a young boy. I was about 10, I guess, 11 years old. Of course, in church all my life, my mom and dad were faithful to the house of God. When I was a kid, I remember getting under conviction. I was under conviction for about a year before I ever got saved, even as a young boy. Back in those days, preachers in our area, especially the mountainous area there, they preached a lot on the rapture, and they'd preach on the tribulation period. And as a young boy, when I would hear those men of God preach, and they were some great preachers, I'll say this, I was raised up in an area that had some of the most quality men, and men of high character, men that preached the Word of God with compassion and love, but yet they stayed true to the book. They would preach on that, those things, and as a young boy, I remember as a young boy when I would lay in my bed at night and I'd get to thinking about what the preacher had preached and I realized that I wasn't saved and I knew that I needed the Lord. And I got to worrying that if the Lord came back, I said, I'm gonna be left behind. And so that was weighing on my mind for about a year. And as a kid, you're just listening to what the man of God says. From my early life, I was taught great respect for God's men. My mom and dad had the utmost respect for God's men. We had them in our home. My mother had them at her table all the time. So that was really our life, being around God's men. But anyway, they were having a revival meeting in our home church over there, and they had a preacher by the name of Clarence Stanfield from Johnson City, Tennessee. Brother Stanfield's in heaven now, and he was a powerhouse of a preacher. He pastored the Harbor Light Baptist Church for many years there in Johnson City, Tennessee. And I remember that revival meeting that night. I went as far as I could go. I can't tell you what he preached that night, but I remember that night that I, I came to the end of my road and I realized that. I went to the altar that night and gave my heart to the Lord. And tonight, even all these many years later, that is so vivid in my mind, that night of what took place. I didn't understand all that took place that night, but I knew that something had changed in my life. And it was like there was a load, even though as a young boy, I had never been out in sin, gross sin of any kind, yet I felt a weight that had rolled off of me. And I remember my dad, after that, he told me, he said, now son, now that you're saved, he said, one of the fruits and the evidence of being saved is wanting to tell somebody else about it. And I remember I walked down that dirt road below our house to where my aunt and her husband lived. And at that time they weren't in church. And I walked down the road to tell them that I got saved and wanted to invite them to church. And so that's a little bit about the story about how I got saved. Swore as my call to preach, of course, saved at a young age. You know, got older. I graduated high school. The last thing on my mind was being a preacher, to be honest with you. I went straight out of high school working in supermarket business. I worked 17 years for the Harris Teter supermarket chain, located mostly in North Carolina and South Carolina. And the last thing on my mind in those days, even though I was saved at a young age, I was like a lot of people in my late teens, about 18, 19 years old in the early 20s, I really wasn't focusing on God in my life. As a matter of fact, if anything, my heart had gotten far from Him. Even though I never failed going to church, I wasn't where I needed to be with God. I got in the supermarket business there, got around a few friends there that I worked with started pulling me in wrong directions and I started following some of those wrong directions. I will say this, I never got out in alcohol or anything like that. I still, to this day, don't know what beer tastes like. I'm thankful for that. But still yet, I was not living the life that a Christian ought to live. And when I look back on some of those days in my early 20s, it brings a sadness to my heart that I disappointed the Lord like I had. But really what was the tipping point for me when me and my wife, we got married, we've been married 39 years. We got married just starting out, just young. You know how it is, you wanna make a living, you wanna have a home, you just wanna, and at that, in those days, I was just living, like a lot of people, I was living for the flesh, just what the pleasures of, what would make you happy. But then there was a day when my wife, she said, told me we're expecting a baby. And our first child was on the way, our daughter, Brittany. And something happened when the birth of our first child to me that after she was born, I had been living for myself. Even though I'd been saved at a young age, I'd been living for myself. Wasn't focusing on God at all in my life. And all of a sudden, though, the Spirit of God began to talk to me. And I remember this vividly one day, the Spirit of God spoke to my heart and looked at me and said, you know, this is not just about you anymore now. He said, there's a couple of little eyes that's looking at you and there's some little feet that are gonna follow your steps. And that day, God began me on a path to getting back where I needed to be with God. And I realized the great responsibility I had to lead my home in the right direction. And I got things right with God, even though I was still in church. See, that's the thing. Everybody thinks you gotta be out in the world, you gotta be out. But you can be far from God sitting on a church pew, and you can have the wrong focus, and I had that, and I was certainly not an example Christian. As a matter of fact, I shudder to think that some of the things and things that I did and people I hanged around with that I want to reproach now when I realize and I look back on that. But anyway, I got my heart right. I got refocused in my life and my wife as well. And we started trying to just serve the Lord. And my wife, of course, I met her how I met her. I'd never met her before, but she, her and her dad sang in churches, Paul and Linda Tester. And me and my dad at that time, back, My dad sang in a quartet as I was growing up there at the home church he was in with his brother-in-law and his sister-in-law. So I grew up around singing and music. But anyway, my dad He bought me a guitar. He said, son, I bought you a guitar. I didn't know how to play a guitar. He said, well, if you'll see your Uncle Dwight, I believe he can show you a couple of chords. So he did, and I learned to play the guitar. And it was on a Saturday night. My dad said, son, they're wanting us to come and sing over at Flat Springs Baptist Church. Brother Preacher Clyde Cornett was the pastor over there. Out in the middle of nowhere, dirt road on a Saturday night, I didn't want to go. I said, Dad, it's Saturday night. I need a girlfriend. There ain't going to be no girls at that church. And you know that type of thing. I was real spiritually minded. I was really spiritually minded. But anyway, I went that night. And my aunt went with us actually and sang. And she just recently passed away. And I did her funeral. But anyway, we got there that night and they had two or three groups singing, just one of them Saturday night singers they used to do in the Western North Carolina area. And that night, this man and lady got up and sang. She played the piano. I didn't know who they were. And after the service, I began to talk a little bit to them and got in the car and my aunt said, did you know Paul and Linda Tester? I said, no, I didn't. He said, yeah, that's Paul and his daughter Linda. I said, oh, that was his daughter. And I got really interested in that. And it wasn't long after that, my pastor was going to preach a revival meeting up there at her church, Zion Hill Baptist Church. And I got the awfulest burden to back him in revival that week. But it worked out. It worked out. And we've been married 39 years. She's been a great blessing, not only to me, but to multitudes of people. But it's when we got our life refocused, God began to deal with me about preaching. And I ran from it. I tried to substitute singing for preaching. And we were singing. We were traveling, going to different places to sing. And what really pushed me over the edge, I guess you'd say, there's an old preacher who started coming up to Johnson County that they talked him into bringing an old tent up there and setting it up and starting to have a meeting by the name of Brother Charles Worley from Providence Road Baptist Church in Maine, North Carolina. Brother Charles Worley is one of my spiritual heroes. We started that camp meeting with him bringing the tent, and for 32 years, he's preached every year at the Johnson County Camp Meeting. In Johnson County, he's greatly respected. But anyway, Brother Worley, in those days, I was just young, and he started coming up there bringing that tent. And there's some young men that came with him to help him in that. Some young preachers, Brother Terry Dietz, I don't know if you know Brother Dietz from down in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Pastors down there at Temple Baptist Church now, and Brother Freddy Helms was also. And those young men had been under the wing of Brother Daniel Buchanan. If you know Brother Daniel, a man of prayer, and them boys, they knew what it was to pray. We became friends. Next thing I knew, we were getting involved in prayer meetings and everything, and it just went from there. There was a two-week youth meeting that them two boys was preaching, and A year before that had happened, God had been dealing with me to preach, but a year before that, a preacher was preaching one Sunday, and it was like I was the only one in the building. I was sitting on the front row, and he said, some of you in here ain't doing what God wants you to do. And he just almost called my name, and he didn't know me. And that Sunday I went to the altar and got down and I told God, I said, God, I'll do what you want me to do. But this is what I done. I got up from there and I never told nobody about it. And I thought, I'll get this feeling off of me. That was just, that must just been my emotions. And so I went, I left and for a whole year, I shrugged it off for a little while. But at the end of that year is when they had that two week youth revival. And I'll be honest with you, I got in a bad way. I got to the point that I said, God, I can't preach. And I said, if I never preach anywhere, it'll be fine with me. I'd just be happy to help my pastor. But I said, God, I'm gonna get you off my back. And I did, I stood up and I told them. That night I did that, I was shaking like a leaf. Honestly, I couldn't hardly stand. Scared to death. And I surrendered the call to preach. Still working at the grocery store. My first message ever preached was from the pulpit of Dyson Grove Baptist Church. The church I pastor. First message ever preached as a young preacher, I preached over there on the scripture with Peter and John going up to the temple, the lame man there, and they said, such as I have, give I thee. My first message was, all I have to give is Jesus. So I preached that, and I preached at another church, and the preacher that knew me, He heard I'd surrendered to call to preach. We'd sang for him before and he called me and said, would you come over on Sunday night and y'all sing and I'll get you to preach. I said, okay. We got over there that night, sang. Brother Jimmy Williams pastored over at Liberty Baptist Church over just outside of Boone, North Carolina. Little country church. And after I preached that night, he's up in the pulpit talking to the crowd and he turned around and looked at me on the platform and said, are you busy next week? And I didn't know why he was asking me that. I thought maybe he's having a revival and wanted us to come back and sing for him. That's what I thought he was asking me. And I said, well, of course my schedule wasn't full then. And I said, well, no, I'm not. I said, I've got to work during the day. We're free. And he turned around and looked at the crowd. He said, well, folks, we've been praying about revival, and I believe God sent a man to preach it to me. And I hadn't preached but two sermons, and here I am now, scheduled to preach it. So that's really defined my ministry all through the years. I just started out from the get-go in preaching meetings, and my preaching's evangelistic style, I guess you'd say, even though I'm a pastor, and I have been for 28 years at Dyson Grove Baptist Church. My dad pastored Dyson Grove, the little church. When my dad first went to the church, it was nearing closing the doors. There was about 10 people left. It was basically one family left and a little white board church there and really in a state of disrepair. My dad went there. He knew they couldn't afford to pay a preacher and he went there and told them, said, I'll help you if you wanted me to help you. And so my dad, and they said, we'd like that. So my dad went there and he, for five years, he labored there, took his own money, worked on the old building, and did those things. That was my dad's heart. He had a heart for little struggling works. And he would go, I mean, he just had a heart for that. And people that would come by Dyson Grove Baptist Church now and look and see what's there, they wouldn't understand that it was because of the sacrifice of a man who went there when they couldn't give him anything. Used his own money to work on the old building. But he pastored there for about five years and he felt like God was through with him and he asked me to come down and preach. I did one Sunday after the service, he only had two deacons and had one man that was a trustee, a small congregation. They'd build it up to about 35 or 40 on a Sunday morning. And they asked me in the back room, they said, your dad has told us he feels like God's through with him here. And we was wondering if you would consider being our pastor. Well, that was a shock to me. I didn't, my dad hadn't said a thing to me about that. And I didn't know what was going on. I thought maybe, are they having trouble? Is that why Dad's leaving? I suppose I'd have to pray about that. That'd be something I'd have to, and I said, I need to talk to my dad, too. And so later that week, I went down and sat down and talked to my dad, and I asked him, I said, Dad, what's going on with the church? He said, I don't reckon nothing's going on with the church. I said, why are you giving the church up? He said, because God said it's time to. I said, you ain't got another church wanting you? No. He said, but I've done what God sent me here to do. And he said, I told them that they need to get somebody who could take it farther than what I've took it. And I said, well, they asked me. And he said, well, they asked me if I thought you'd be interested. And he said, I don't know. You'll have to talk to him about that. And so I left that day. I didn't have no desire to pastor. Honestly, I didn't. I didn't have no desire to pastor. I was preaching meetings and you know, but man that thing got in my heart and I couldn't get away from it. And I went down to the little church. And God has, he has done more than really, why he allowed me to be there while it happened, and I'm just honored that he allowed me to be there. If anybody wants to see a place where revival has happened, it's in 28 years at Dyson Grove Baptist Church, a little church that struggled and started before me with my dad. a little church that didn't have $600 in the bank when I went there. And God's allowed us 40 acres of property now, a million dollar building sitting there. And I mean, God's just done great things, greater things than I could ever imagine he would do. And it's just been a great journey. Amen. Well, Preacher, we're going to talk to you about, full disclosure, I've got you because you're famous. That's why I said that. Yeah. My daughter. So my 13-year-old Reagan, she does a podcast for school. It's one of her assignments. And it was so popular, they put it on the school website. Well, I'm riding to, we're going to, I'm taking her to my mom and dad's, and she said, Dad, she's telling me about that podcast. She said, I've hit the big time. And I said, really? She said, yeah, just like Leonard Fletcher. I said, well, I'm glad to know Leonard Fletcher is the standard of big time around my house. Does that mean more big time? Big time. Because when he called me, I told him, I said, you just want me to come because I'm famous. But it brings up a good, and we were talking about it a little bit before we started recording, it brings up a good point. Sunday morning, my youth choir sung three songs, two of them was yours. And we were talking about the ministry that you have in writing psalms and the interest that young people have in them. Tell us a little bit about that process. I'd like to hear a little bit about how the Lord brings songs to you, how that happens. Tell us about that. When did you write your first song? My first song was written when I was still working in the supermarket. It was one of the first ones I ever wrote, I'm Not Ashamed to Stand and Say that I Love Jesus, the song the Inspirations recorded. That was written on the grocery store aisle as I stocked groceries. I wrote that song that day. I was really kind of in a valley. I was trying to serve the Lord, do the best, but you know how the old accuser or the brethren is. He came to me that day, reminded me of stuff I wasn't proud of in my life. He said, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You think, you know, you're going around now and trying to sing. You ought to be ashamed of some of the stuff you did. And that day I had to agree with him. I said, I am ashamed of it. But I didn't let him do all the talking that day. I said, but I'm not ashamed to stand and say that I love Jesus. And when that phrase came to my mind, it's like words started flooding to me and I grabbed a piece of cardboard off of the shelf and I began to write words down and I wrote, I'm not ashamed to stand and say that I love Jesus. I'm not ashamed to say I'm trusting in his word. And that's how that song, I went home that day and I took the paper home and I told my wife, I said, I think I wrote a song today, let's see if we can put some music to it. And so that's how the first song really that, and we had sung it for years. Everybody knew it in our area. And first place we ever sang that song, right after I wrote it, they asked us to come and sing over at Glendale Springs, North Carolina, at Calvary Free Will Baptist Church over there on a Wednesday night. And we went over there to sing. There wasn't but about 15 people there. We sung that song that night, and they just about shouted the house down, them 15 people did, and we had to sing it three times. And I said, well, I think maybe we've got a good song. But anyway, long story short about that song, Brother Joe Arthur heard us sing that. I was in a meeting with him, and we sang it. It was another meeting, he requested, said, sing that song you wrote again. I said, okay. And after we sung it, he said, have you ever given that song to anybody? I said, I ain't never tried to. And we hadn't. I said, we just sang it. Some choirs in our area sang it. He said, I've been doing some work with the Inspirations. Would you care if I'd pitch it to them? I said, I wouldn't care a bit, Joe. I said, I don't think they'd be interested, but you can. And it wasn't long, my phone rang, and it was Brother Archie Watkins on the phone. He said, Preacher, we'd like to record you a song if you don't care. I said, care? I said, I'd be honored if you did. And they recorded that that year, and not only recorded it, but they sent it out as the single off of that, the main single off of that recording nationwide. And it actually was a top 10 song in Southern Gospel Music that year, and also nominated for Song of the Year in Southern Gospel Music. They call me from Singing News Magazine wanting to know how I wrote it. And anyway, I've got my phone going off here, but I'm gonna have to throw that thing in the floor. Anyway, they wanted to know how I wrote it. They always do an article with the top 10 songs of the year in Southern Gospel Music. And they had, in this article, they had Kyla Rowland, they had Rodney Griffith, they had Gerald Crabb, all these, and then here's some guy named Leonard Fletcher. And they said, tell us your story, how you wrote this song. I said, well, I was on the dog food aisle. And I was stocking groceries. I mean, that's the truth. I was stocking groceries. And those words came to me. And that's how that song came. And that's where the journey started with me. And I discovered, I guess, a gift or a talent that I didn't know was there. And I had a desire to write. The first song we ever recorded on a cassette tape in a studio was I'm Not Ashamed. That's the very first song we ever sang in a studio. And that started it. And there from that point, I've written just a little bit over a hundred songs now. The ones you talk about, I could probably name the ones your kids sang Sunday night. It's Under the Blood. I wrote that many years later. I call that my sequel song to I'm Not Ashamed. Because the day I wrote It's Under the Blood, I was by a certain place that I remembered from when I wasn't where I needed to be with God. And I was sitting there talking to someone, and all of a sudden, these memories started flooding back. It's like the enemy said, you remember when you were there? Hell yeah. You remember who all you were with there? And I stood there that day. I'm now a preacher, and I'm standing there, and I'm and I'm having to agree with the enemy. Yeah, I do remember. I do. But again, I didn't let him do all the talking that day. I said, and all that you've said is true. I remember all that and I'm ashamed of all of it. But there's only one thing I can say to you, it's under the blood. And that day, that's where that line came from while walking down a memory lane. of passive long ago. Old Satan came right by my side making me feel low. And so that song came and that song has blessed so many people. It's blessed young people have taken to that song for some reason. And that blesses me. I've seen videos from all over the United States, even foreign countries. I got an email two years ago from Shanghai, China. A lady that runs a school in Shanghai found my contact information and emailed me, asked if I had, she called it the music notes, and I knew she meant sheet music. And I told her I did, I could email it to her. And she said, I have three girls who want to sing it in a school program. And that blessed my heart and I said, I don't know if you have the ability to record this so I could see it, but I would love to if you have the ability to do that. And she sent me a video of three Chinese teenage girls singing It's Under the Blood in Shanghai, China in English. I ran on the video one time on YouTube just looking through music and different things and it was a big meeting somewhere. I didn't know any of these people. And a young lady got up and she was going to sing a solo. All of a sudden they started playing the music and I said, wait a minute, that's my song. I heard the notes, I heard the music. And when she started singing, she was singing in Spanish. She wasn't singing English. This was a Spanish meeting somewhere. And they were singing my song. They had translated it into Spanish and were singing it. And so how that happens, I'm amazed at how that happened. I would have never envisioned that. I will say this, of all the songs I've written, and I've had several, the Inspirations have recorded several of mine, I've had four radio singles that they've sent out of my songs. But It's Under the Blood was never recorded by any major group, and yet it's went around the world. And that's, only God can do that. The other song probably, Bring It All to Him. The day I wrote Bring It All to Him, I was having one of them Saturdays that every pastor has, Everywhere I looked, something was going wrong. Somebody's out of whack over here, somebody's crossways over here, and problems coming in every direction, and I couldn't solve none of them. And I saluted down that day. I finally went out to my place of prayer. And I just vented to God for about 30 minutes. I said, God, I can't fix this one. I can't fix that. I don't have the solution to this. What am I going to do? And it's after I got done venting, it's like God said, are you through now? Yeah, God, this is what you should have done all along. You should have brought it all to me. I went back in the house that day and I wrote the song, Bring It All To Him. Most of my songs have a story behind them, personal experience. The song God's Word Will Stand that Inspirations did. I wrote that, we were in a battle over in our county over the Ten Commandments in the courthouse. One fellow rose up, had moved there, and had dissented against the Ten Commandments. And that day, everybody in our county wanted the Ten Commandments hanging in the courthouse. But anyway, my wife came home, we was talking about that. I began to think about that. I said, you know, men have risen up against the word of God all down through the centuries. And they have all come and gone. But God's word still stands. And I went and wrote those words to God's Word Will Stand, and of course Inspiration singled that out to radio. I actually saw a video where they sang it on the Capitol steps down at Raleigh. When Dr. Beatty had the rally down there, they sang, a choir sang my song on the Capitol steps. And I thought about a little fella that thought he was really doing something big, fighting a little town in Tennessee. over the Ten Commandments plaque hanging there, and God said, watch what I'll do. I'll just get one of my preacher boys to write a song, and then they'll sing it from the capital steps of another state. But anyway, songwriting's one of the greatest joys of my life. It's a running joke at my house. My family has been appointed by God to keep me humble. You know how it is when you get a thought for a message and you're excited about it, you want to tell your wife about it or tell somebody about it, that's the way it is with a song. And man, I'll get a song that'll just be, I mean, it's just in my heart and I'll tell my family, I'll say, y'all gotta hear this new song I've written, you gotta hear this new song. And I'll sing it and most of the time it's just, Yeah, it's all right. So they've been appointed by God to keep me humble. And I keep telling them, I said, one of these days when I'm dead and gone, you're going to remember, I told you, I had some good songs if anybody just listened to me. But anyway, we laugh about that. But really, the songs are, I can't tell my story without the songs. And that's a part of the ministry that I did not I didn't know was there until God began to touch my heart. I always loved music and I knew I had, my family had a history, my wife's family had a history with music, but I didn't know that songwriting was in there like it is now. That's one of the great passions of my life, is writing songs. The greatest, Brother Lance Carpenter was a great friend of mine, great songwriter himself. Brother Lance told me one time, he said, you know the greatest joy that a songwriter has is hearing someone else sing his song. Oh, I'm sure. You were talking about the young people. I was preaching a camp meeting near Blacksburg, South Carolina, the Cherokee County Camp Meeting one year. They had a youth choir that was had come from somewhere, a big youth choir, they'd traveled a pretty good distance, and they were going to sing that night, and I'm sitting there, and this looked like 50, 60 kids, maybe more, in this youth choir, and they get up and they're singing, It's Under the Blood. And they had no clue that I wrote that. I'm sitting there and the crowd's enjoying it. And I have that quite often. That happens to me. I'll go places and people get up and sing my songs. They have no clue who wrote them. And that night after they sang, the moderator got up and he said, now, some of you don't know that, but Brother Leonard wrote the song, In Son of the Blood. And those kids that night, I'll never forget this, those kids that night in that youth choir lined up want me to sign their Bible, because that song, I guess, they felt like your daughter, they felt like I was famous, I guess you'd say. But that's the greatest honor to me, when I can touch kids. And I'll never forget years ago, I was preaching a revival meeting in East Bend, North Carolina, and I preached. Anybody knows my preaching? I've got a unique style, I guess you'd say. Weird style. I don't know. I see preaching in everything. I'm illustrative. I always have been in my preaching. That night I preached and they were lined up to shake hands with me at the end of the service coming around to shake hands. And there was a young boy, it looked like he was about 13, 14 years old, that was in line with all these adults to shake my hand. And everybody had nice things to say that night. I'll never forget what this kid said to me. As he came up, he'd waited his time in line, and when he got to me, this kid stuck out his hand, grabbed me by the hand and shook it, and all he said was, you're a cool preacher. And that was one of the greatest compliments, because that let me know that I had connected with that kid. Why the kids have taken to my songs, I don't know, but I'm glad they have, because certainly this generation needs They need some songs that they can grow up with that not only have, that are scripturally accurate. You don't hear a lot of that on the radio if you turn it on. They're worried more about the song getting in your feet than in your heart. But I'm thankful that God's used it among young people like that and everything. But like I said, I've written some other songs. Sometimes people ask me what's my favorite song I've ever written. And they're all my favorite, I guess. Most people would be shocked if I told them that It's Under the Blood is not my favorite one that I've ever written. Bring It All to Him is one. The song I wrote called I Found a Faithful Friend. I wrote that in a dark place. I was in a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. And we were going through some issues. My wife and I were carrying a burden for some issues about things we couldn't. It wasn't anything we did, but we were just under a real heavy load for somebody we loved. And it was a time in our life we was doing a lot of weeping, crying, begging God to change things. And didn't seem like nothing was changing. And that night, we were in the hotel room, it was back when the ice storm hit Atlanta down there. I got one night of the meeting and I was down there and we were shut in at the hotel and couldn't go anywhere. That night my wife had finally went to sleep and I got up, I couldn't sleep, so I went in the motel room restroom there and just sat down and was trying to find God. I was trying to find Him. Just seemed like there was a darkness. A lot of times if I'm hurting, if I'll write something, it's therapeutic to me. I wasn't intended to write a song that night. That was the last thing. I was just trying to live. I said, God, if there's some way I could open my chest up and get the pain that I feel inside me and let it pour out. I said, that's what I'd like to do. But he let it pour out through a pen that night. And I sit in there and it's like something said, why don't you write something? I said, I don't even know what to write. And then it's like the Lord spoke to my heart and said, why don't you write how you feel right now? And that stunned me because I thought, how do I put in words? how I feel here at three o'clock in the morning in a hotel room with a heart broken in a thousand pieces. And all of a sudden the first line came, when the hurt goes deeper than the deepest place your heart has ever known. When you're standing in your darkest trial and it seems as though you're standing all alone. When the tears fall down like bitter rain, and you're wondering if the sun will shine again, in the midst of disappointment, look around, you'll find a faithful friend. So that's one of my favorites, the inspirations recorded that time, Brother Matt Dibler and Melton Campbell was singing with them. When they heard the song, they immediately called me and said, we want to do this song. But they told me both those boys had been through some valleys. And this is what they told me. They said, we when we was recording that song, it said we got, Melton sang the verses and he said, I had to stop, we had to stop the recording. He said, I was so overcome while I was trying to sing that, he said, I had to go outside the studio and just cry. And I've had more people that that song has helped, I guess, because it was written in a dark time. I was listening, somebody sent me this. I didn't know this had happened, but somebody sent me, a lot of people have heard of the Gospel Grace with Paul Heil. It's a syndicated radio program. On that show, they have a segment every time they have the show of listener favorites, and they'll have someone call in from somewhere, and he'll play, this is this listener's favorite song. And someone sent me this, they recorded that, I didn't even know it had happened, and they sent me this clip from that show, and he said, now it's time for our listener's favorite, and said, and this was a man from up in one of the northern states, I can't tell you where, and he said, His favorite song is by the Inspirations, I Have Found a Faithful Friend. And this man began to testify. He said, Paul, a few years ago, I lost my eyesight. He said, totally blind now. And he said, it's been a struggle for all of the time since I lost my eyesight. But I found this song is true, that I have found a faithful friend. And so God has used, you know, those songs more than I ever imagined. I'll be honest with you, preacher. I was sitting here trying to think of that. I heard you tell about that song. It was in the media and you was preaching and you told about God giving you that song. And I was trying in my mind to remember which one that was. I was going to ask you the one you wrote in the motel room. And that touched my heart that night you told that. And then you sung the song. And boy, we were in a low spot in that meeting. God helped us and gave us a blessing. Amen, brother. Well, I wrote another song, too, that's been a help to a lot of people that's been in low places, and we've sung this song probably at more funerals. a song called Somewhere the Birds Are Singing. And how I wrote that song one Sunday morning, I was getting ready for church, beautiful sun, shiny Sunday morning, and the phone rang, and it was a dear friend of ours, a lady who was going through a battle with cancer. She wasn't a member of our church, but she was a friend. She called me that morning, she said, Preacher, I'm calling all my friends today. She said, I'm so low, I don't know how much longer I can make it through this. She said, I just want to ask you to pray for me. And I did, I prayed with her over the phone and wept. And after I got off the phone, I'm still getting ready for church and my mind is on her. And all of a sudden, as I was getting ready that day, outside the window where I was at there in the bathroom, Was a little bird sitting there and all of a sudden began to sing the most beautiful song Loud and the sun shining on a Sunday morning And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking about the child of God I've just been on the phone with who's in a darkness and I said God I don't understand I said, I just got off the phone with one of your children that's in a dark place, and the birds ain't singing where she's at. And that morning, it seemed like he spoke to me and said, you know, just because the birds ain't singing where you're at, don't mean they ain't singing somewhere. There's a land, and I wrote that about heaven, somewhere the birds are singing. And that has given comfort to a lot of people in dark places and low places. So anyway, I could talk for two hours about the songs and the songwriting. I've actually written some new stuff this year. We've been working to try to get a new project. Before I came over here, I asked my wife, how many recordings have we made down through the years? And we had to go back. We're getting old. Our memory ain't as good as it used to be. We started out recording cassettes. But we've recorded, I guess, 11 projects, if I'm not mistaken. And most of the songs on all those are songs I've written. I've got a new one this year that I've written some new songs that I think I've got some good songs on it. And we're hoping to complete it and maybe into next year. My family don't get to travel with me like they used to. When I was little, I drug them all over the country. They'd do homework in the car and that type thing. But we still, once in a while, we'll get to sing somewhere. Mostly now we record our projects just so I can get my songs out to other people so they can sing them. We're glad you're writing them Preacher because you know we were talking before we got started there's this ideal that the only kind of music young people like is contemporary music. It's just not true. They love your music, my young people love your music, they love Mark Wheeler, they love his music. And I'm glad you guys are riding that God's given you the talent to do it so that we've got something foundational and fundamental for these young people to enjoy. Well, you know, you talk about Mark, he's a good friend of mine, great songwriter. Brother Stacy Piercy, another friend of mine. Matter of fact, he texted me today. He's going to record one of my songs on a project he's doing. And these are all sound men. These are men that are sound. They're not only good songwriters, but they're good preachers. And that forms the basis of good songs. But growing up as a kid, I grew up on Inspirations and the Spencers, and I think about the Happy Goodmans on Sunday morning. And my kids grew up on that. And I've noticed this, we just recently had the fellows, the Young Inspirations came to our church. And man, our kids, our young people loved it. Our kids loved that music. And so everybody thinks it's got to be, you know, what is the rage today, or that's what they're telling us, but the truth of the matter is there's a lot of kids, I found this to be true most of the time, youngins will love what their mama and daddy loves. Yeah, that's right. And so if mom and daddy loves the right kind of music, It'll put so a seed in there. Yeah. Exactly. That'll come up at some point. We've seen God move. I mean, in these songs, in your songs and others, you know, in meetings. Yeah. It seems like every time it's under the blood of the Son, God just shows up. Yeah. But I think, you know, talking about what you mentioned a moment ago about the foundation is scriptural songs. Yeah. You know, and a lot of songs, especially a lot of this New Age, You know, it's not scriptural, it's not even, it's not sound, you know, biblically. Right, it's just playing on emotions and that type of thing. And God blesses His Word, you know, in music that is sound scripturally, God's got His hand on it. Yeah. You remember last year when we was down there at Brother David's meeting and the Daughters of Calvary started singing that Bring It All to Him? Oh yeah. And I bet they sung it for three hours. And just wave after wave of people would move, and they all got just working at it. It was a blessing. It was a blessing. Anyway, well, it's a blessing to me when I hear stories like that. I see some of it on social media when people post videos and that type of thing, and they'll tag me in them. And that's a blessing. Prior to social media, I would have never known any of that. But it's a blessing. I don't take that lightly that God allowed me, and I certainly don't consider myself a great songwriter at all. I just write, and God somehow or another touches it. Well, he's able to do that, isn't he? He is able to do that. Preacher, it's been our honor to have you in. We didn't even get to get into some of them messages, the Waffle House, the church, and all those things. Might have to have you back. Well, I will say this about my preaching. A lot of people, them unusual messages, unusual titles. I am creative, and God created me that way, and I see preaching in everything. And so I paint pictures with words. A lot of people don't know that growing up in school, my teachers were trying to encourage me in the field of art, because I was very good at painting, drawing. I used to do local cartoons for our local paper, editorial cartoons. and have my own characters and everything. And so that's what I thought would go. But now I paint pictures with words. And so. Lord sure uses you to do that. That is true. You know, sometimes those titles, they remember the title more than they do the message. I can't remember. I was somewhere and you preached on it. I told you about it earlier. You preached on sometimes I feel like a bug on a winch. Sometimes you feel like a bug on a winch. And I think we were at Brother Gravely's meeting and I think he had maybe even asked you to preach that message if the Lord would allow it. I believe he did. I believe he did. And I never will forget, somebody called me and asked me about the meeting. I said, Brother Fletcher preached great. They said, what did he preach? And I told them the title. And they was like, what in the what? I mean, what was he talking about? See, we never passed by one of those car hauling 18 wheelers that I don't see. There's a Baptist preacher. You know, that's the thing. God has given me some great illustrations. Just in my everyday living, you know, when I passed by that car hauler that day, I looked at my wife and I said, there goes a Baptist preacher. I said, that whole crowd's a-riding. He's the only one that's getting any miles on him. We stopped at a gas station one night, and there was one of them car haulers across the way, and it was the fanciest thing I'd ever seen. I mean, it had lights and chrome, and I told Rachel, I said, there's a fancy, that's what a fancy man is made of. That's funny, because stuff like that will stick with you. Every time I get in a vehicle and there's a bug on my windshield, that's the first thing I think of. People never forget that. And I've had so many of those messages down through the years, some that people have never heard. I preached one years ago on the real thing. I preached it with Coke bottles. And people never forgot that message on being the real thing, a vessel of honor. being the real thing. And so I've preached a lot of those, the funnel and the straw. I don't know if you've all ever heard the Ministry of Helps. I had a plastic funnel and a plastic straw. I said both of them work on the same principle. One is used to fill other vessels, and one is used to drain other vessels. And I said, you've got a choice on which you're going to be, a giver or a taker. Oh, that's good. People don't ever forget that. It's a practical illustration that illustrates a heavenly truth. Yeah, how about that. And so, anyway, that's just, that's my, sometimes, I feel, honestly, I used to, as a young preacher, tried to stifle that. Because I got worried that the brethren wouldn't take me seriously, that they'd think I was just a gimmick preacher. And I tried to stifle that, who God made me to be, and I would shy away from preaching some of that, I guess, because I wanted the acceptance of the brethren. But I finally realized God made me like I am for me to use that gift. And so I've tried to do that, you know. Wonderful. Well, we appreciate you being with us. We appreciate you joining us. I know you've enjoyed this podcast. Remember to share it. Can I just say something? You were talking about your recordings. Can people out there find your recordings? Right now they can't on the internet and we don't have a website or anything. Hopefully, when we get the new recording done, we're going to try to get it up so that people can go to iTunes, download it, and that type of thing. So that'll be next year sometime. But as of right now, the only place they can get any of our music is through me. And we're kind of primitive in that respect. We're not high tech, and we're still recording CDs. And I realize everything's even changing away from that now. But anyway, but right now, just best places through me or we'll have it on the internet at some point next year. Amen, amen, preacher. Well, we appreciate you being with us. Remember, like, share the video. And I got brother Randy Baines, gonna be here next Monday night. And so you just keep praying for us, pray for these preachers that we have on, God continue to use them. Brother Leonard, we appreciate you being here, brother. Thank you, thank you for the invitation, brother. God bless y'all, we'll see you next time.