Dr. Frank DeLeo is the founding Pastor of Trinity Point Church in Richland Hills, TX. He is the author of Separated by the Cross, Families Bound by the Cross, and "Jesus said follow me." Additionally, he is excited about his newest endeavor, which is soon to be released, "CPR for the Heart: A Spiritual Journey from death to life," scheduled for late fall or early winter 2026.

Frank also has a great desire to help fathers, particularly those who are estranged from their children, through his ministry called "RestoreDads," which was the focus of his dissertation.

Frank has also been a missionary to Nicaragua, where he helped reach children for the gospel through the game of baseball. Before his calling into the ministry, Frank was a Senior executive with Citigroup.

Frank and his wife Dawn, live in North Richland Hills. They have four sons and five grandchildren; his passion remains the Lord, and his love for the game of baseball, which he continues to play to this day.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rev-dr-frank-deleo-8aa7b195/

Website: https://www.trinitypointchurch.com/

Welcome to 12 Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, his creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you, Pastor Frank.

It's such a great pleasure to connect with you.

Even before just having a conversation with you, there's an energy that you carry.

But before we get going, what part of the world are you in today?

I'm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.

Tell me, in preparing for this conversation, I looked at you preaching.

And it was just, I guess the way you guys cover the service, you simply started from you preaching.

But you're there and there's an energy.

You're excited to share the word of God.

Where did that come from?

Oh my gosh, it came from my transformation, which happened when I was only 46 years old.

I was raised in the church, but didn't really have a real faith in Christ.

So I walked away from it.

And at the age of 46, I found myself in a pretty dark place and broken.

And the Lord said, are you ready to stop fooling around and try to follow me?

And I didn't know what that meant at the time, but I said, yes.

I was traveling on a plane to Orange County in my corporate life and gave my life to Jesus about 30,000 feet over New Mexico somewhere and in the bathroom of the airplane and got on my knees and gave my life to Christ.

And from that moment on, He has just infused me with the power of the Holy Spirit to share His love, to share love with one another, which He calls us to do.

And I am always excited when I get the opportunity to share Christ's love and what He's done for me unashamedly for who I was and what I represented to what He's made me today, because every one of us needs that transformation.

So for me, the Holy Spirit in me pushes out what has been in me for so many years that I can't help but be excited and thrilled about what Christ has done in me to share that truth of His to the world.

What did the audible voice of God sound like?

It wasn't a thunderous voice.

It was a soft spoken, like a father.

That's the only I can describe it, like a father speaking to me saying, are you ready to listen?

Are you ready to follow?

Are you ready to do what I've called you to do?

Because to that point, I knew He was calling me out of the corporate world, but I was so successful and I thought I can't afford to leave and to lose what I've got.

That moment in time was such a great transformation because it showed me, it required me to depend on God, not on myself any longer.

And that's when my life truly began, when I let go of myself and surrendered and allowed Him to speak over me.

And from that moment on, the voice was just, it's always been this quiet, loving, kind, gentle.

Now there was a moment when I got baptized that I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit very loudly in my heart.

And it was so loud, it was almost deafening.

But from that moment on, it's always been kind and quiet.

And even in rebukes, which we all need, that voice is still tender to me.

It's not an overwhelming thing, which is what I thought it was when I was young.

But a person who's listening, who is possibly disconnected from the conversation because they're thinking, okay, it's possible for him, but it's not possible for me.

What would you say to that person?

I used to be you.

That's what I would say to them.

I understand those feelings.

I've written a new book recently called CPR for the Heart, because I realized that there comes a time in life when our heart gets hardened to the things of God because of the circumstance experiences and how quickly we go, you know, that may be good for you, but it didn't work for me.

And what I tell them is, God is not done with you.

God still loves you.

And God wants to have this relationship with you.

And all it takes is to say, God, if you're real, show me.

And in that moment, that transformation begins to take place.

And when that happens, you start to see things differently and you start to say, wow, I never thought that God really cared or never thought God would even existed.

I just thought it was some story made up, but he's real because he's shown himself to me in a real way.

I've never seen a moment where if someone didn't say, if you're a real God, show me, and then look for him, his signs for him, that God didn't do something to show himself to them.

Were you married at the time?

Yes, I was.

And she was not raised in church.

I was raised in the Catholic church and walked away, but we got married.

And she said to me, unless we have God in our life, I don't think our marriage will work.

And I said, oh, we don't really need God.

I was still believing that I could do that.

But I say this with all sincerity, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.

But he gave me this woman to save my life from the life I probably would have been dead by now.

She changed everything.

Her heart for me was so great.

She's the one who encouraged us to go.

And we went and found a church that changed everything.

So yeah, without her, I don't know.

I'm sure God would have got me here somehow, but he used her to bring about this transformation in my life.

And now together, we have this great family.

We have this great ministry.

God has opened doors for both of us in a way that we could never experience before and changed our marriage to be so successful.

I don't mean successful in a way that the world would see it, but I meant in a way that we honor God, the way we live our lives today.

How many children?

Four sons and five grandchildren.

The grandchildren, all boys, or did you get girls as well?

I have four boys.

I have three grandsons and two granddaughters.

Because we have three sons is the reason I'm asking.

And if I went a fourth time to get the daughter, then, you know, so that's what I'm asking in terms of the grand, yeah?

Is the grand, did you get the, eventually, did your wife get the granddaughter, which is okay.

And that's great because she gets to dress her.

She buys outfits for her.

You know, the boys were always thinking like, oh, these boys think so bad.

Yeah.

I get it.

I get it.

I get it.

Yeah.

So let's imagine that for some reason, five years from today, you pick up this conversation and you're hearing yourself, right?

Because I asked you to come back onto the podcast.

So you go listen, because you didn't remember what we spoke about, right?

And you're hearing yourself, you're hearing the evolution of yourself.

If you could leave a message for future you listening five years from today, what would you say to that, Pastor Frank?

Oh, very simply finish the race.

Finish the race because it's easy to get distracted.

It's easy to fall short and fall in captivity of your mind and everything.

That's why I love the apostle Paul because he reminds me every day how we're supposed to finish the race.

And oftentimes for all of us who have come to know Christ, we're not guaranteed a life of luxury.

We're guaranteed a life that we have to pick up our cross every day and follow.

And that memory, I would say, when I look back to say these words, finish the race would mean that I'm doing everything that I have to do, not allowing the shortfalls that I have or have had to deter me from what still lies ahead of me.

As Paul says, the past is behind me, but I'm still reaching for the future.

And that's what I would hope that I would remember and keep on going regardless of how old I am, regardless of what stage of life I'm in, but to keep on going, finish the race.

CPR of the heart.

I love the title because of the fact that it still combines the concept of the medical professional, which is who you were, right?

But I would imagine I'm guessing here, right, that there's a spiritual aspect of what really brings back the heart to life.

Would you dive in for me in terms of explaining what it is?

Yeah, sure.

The physical heart quickly has the veins in it sometimes get clogged.

And oftentimes people who die from heart attacks don't have any symptoms because there's no symptoms to have.

And as a result, that plaque builds up in the heart and it clogs and then it dies.

It hardens and dies.

Well, it's the same truth with the spiritual heart for someone who's been a believer and walks away slowly.

It doesn't happen overnight, but slowly you stop getting church, you stop reading your Bible, you start to live more in the world.

And before you know it, your heart is hardened to what God has for you and you stop listening.

That's why in Romans 1, Paul says that God will turn them over to the retrograde mind because they walked away from the truth.

While they know the truth, they then accept the truth.

Well, it's the same thing.

So what happens is there are six areas.

There's suffering, there's psychological issues, there's cultural issues, there's physical issues, there's perception, and then there's perception, and then there's spirituality.

Those six things cause the heart to sometimes harden to God.

So what's the recipe for resuscitation, which is what the book talks for?

Well, simply this.

When the heart is getting hard, unless something changes, it will harden to the place of no return.

What changes in a believer is people around them, other people who have faith to talk, to testify, to encourage, to come alongside, to communicate, to bring about a transformation of that person's perspective on what they see and hear.

You see, if a person starts to walk away from God and slowly, what they'll find is that less people in the body want to be around them.

That's just the opposite of what we must do.

Our job as believers is to draw closer to the brokenhearted.

Isn't that what the Bible tells us?

That God himself has drawn to the brokenhearted.

Well, how do we resuscitate the heart?

By coming alongside our brothers and sisters and loving them through the most difficult days so they can see the love of Christ lived out in them to resuscitate the heart to see there is a way forward.

Because if it hadn't been for people like that in my life, my wife particularly, I wouldn't be here today.

My heart softened because I saw love in someone else that wanted to have this love in me.

For me, that's what CPR for the heart looks like.

These things happen in life, but there is a way and there is a point to God and to Christ if you'll just open your heart to others around you and let them love you through your difficult days because God's loving you through the most difficult times of your life too.

It's a great honor to have the opportunity to have this conversation with you.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share with our amazing audience?

I'd encourage everyone to have a Bible verse they can live by.

My verse of life is Acts 2.21 says, He who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

What's yours?

That's what I would tell people.

Get one that goes in your heart and your spirit and your mind to remind you of what we're doing here.

Our job is not to convert people.

Our job is to make disciples who love Christ, who make disciples who love Christ.

That's what I would tell.

Pastor Frank, a pleasure.

I treasure.

Thank you for being what has inspired me to open a gospel.