Dave grew up in Toxteth, Liverpool in the 60s. In a street of 150 houses, 20 of them were Dave's relatives. He had a lot of behavioral issues growing up. He lacked aspiration and inspiration and grew up quite a broken kid. The first time he heard the word hope was when he ended up in Sunday School by accident one day. Later in life, the seed bore fruit when he tried to rob his brother but ended up becoming a Christian!
Despite of his hopeless circumstances, God made ways for him to encounter the love of God and live a life of hope and purpose. There were challenges along the way that he had to face such as his nephew being murdered. But through it all, God revealed himself more and more to him.
“Walking with God is an adventure. You'll see things and do things that you could only read about in a book if you go for it, with God.” says Dave.
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About Dave
Dave Connolly is the co-founding pastor of Frontline Church in Liverpool. Until recently, he was the pastor of Toxteth Tabernacle. Now he spends most of his time supporting church leaders, pastoring the pastors, as well as hanging out with his amazing and beautiful wife and family!
Welcome to What the story, a podcast, uh, where I get
Matt Edmundson:to chat to everyday people about their stories of faith and courage.
Matt Edmundson:And today I'm chatting with my very good friend Dave Connolly, about
Matt Edmundson:growing up in the sixties in Toxteth Liverpool, how robbing his brother led
Matt Edmundson:him to becoming a Christian, how he dealt with his nephew being murdered
Matt Edmundson:and what it's like to lead a a church.
Matt Edmundson:So much to get into, uh, in this conversation with Dave.
Matt Edmundson:But before we do that, one of the things I love to do is just to give you a few more
Matt Edmundson:episodes to sort of have a listen to just in case you've not got enough from today.
Matt Edmundson:So why not check out?
Matt Edmundson:Uh, learning how to forgive totally changed my life, uh,
Matt Edmundson:by my wife Sharon Edmundson.
Matt Edmundson:She did that talk that's on the Crowd Church website.
Matt Edmundson:Um, and also how do I resist Evil, which you did Dave actually part of
Matt Edmundson:the Alpha series, which was also great.
Matt Edmundson:You can find both of these episodes and our entire archive of episodes
Matt Edmundson:and live streams on our website for free at www dot Crowd Church.
Matt Edmundson:And whilst you're there, be sure to sign up for our newsletter
Matt Edmundson:and each week we will email you.
Matt Edmundson:These links along with the notes and links from today's conversation with Dave, it
Matt Edmundson:comes direct to your inbox, totally free.
Matt Edmundson:Totally amazing.
Matt Edmundson:Now this episode is brought to you by Crowd Online Church, Dave.
Matt Edmundson:You know as well as I do that not everybody wants to go to church and
Matt Edmundson:not everybody can even get into a church building, and that's where
Matt Edmundson:online Church works super well.
Matt Edmundson:It's a safe space to explore the Christian faith.
Matt Edmundson:And the thing that I love about Crowd Church is that you get to
Matt Edmundson:join in and shape the conversation as they don't just talk at you.
Matt Edmundson:Oh, no.
Matt Edmundson:So if you've never been to church before, or if you're looking for a
Matt Edmundson:new church, do check out Crowd Church.
Matt Edmundson:The website is www dot Crowd Church.
Matt Edmundson:Or you can email me directly at Matt Crowd Church with any questions.
Matt Edmundson:I would love to answer them for you.
Matt Edmundson:Now, Dave Connolly is one of my longest standing friends.
Matt Edmundson:He is the co-founding pastor of Frontline Church in Liverpool.
Matt Edmundson:Until recently, he was a pastor of Toxteth Tabernacle, and now he spends most of his
Matt Edmundson:time supporting church leaders, pastoring the pastors, as well as hanging out with
Matt Edmundson:his amazing and beautiful wife and family.
Matt Edmundson:You've got Julie, You've got copious amounts of grandkids.
Matt Edmundson:Dave, welcome to What's the story.
Matt Edmundson:It's great to finally have this conversation.
Matt Edmundson:, Dave Connolly: absolutely.
Matt Edmundson:Great to be with you Matt.
Matt Edmundson:There we go.
Matt Edmundson:Sorry, I just had you on mute there for a second.
Matt Edmundson:. Yeah, no, you're back.
Matt Edmundson:You're back now.
Matt Edmundson:You're fine.
Matt Edmundson:. That's what we call professionalism, ladies and gentlemen.
Matt Edmundson:Uh, forgetting to unmute the muted.
Matt Edmundson:So, uh, it's great to have you.
Matt Edmundson:So you have been, uh, in Liverpool all your life, right?
Matt Edmundson:Born and bred Liverpool.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Born and bred in Toxteth.
Matt Edmundson:So for those outside of Liverpool, uh, and maybe outside of people
Matt Edmundson:who knew what happened in the eighties, tell, tell the world what is, what is,
Matt Edmundson:what's it like growing up in toxteth?
Dave Connolly:I think growing up in Toxteth is probably like grown up
Dave Connolly:in the center of any inner city and culture, especially being a seaport
Dave Connolly:and there's great, um, Copious amounts of money in different areas
Dave Connolly:and great poverty at the same time.
Dave Connolly:Great music culture, great creativity.
Dave Connolly:Today it's just called different things than where it was.
Dave Connolly:I was born in 1957, so I don't remember anything of the fifties really.
Dave Connolly:Um, all the seventies of the eighties, but that's a different story, . Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Well I grew up in the sixties and for me life was like most of the
Dave Connolly:people in toxteth, It was tough.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:It wasn't a cool place to live.
Dave Connolly:It was just our place to live.
Dave Connolly:And, um, yeah, I grew up in a row of terraced houses, um, a
Dave Connolly:little bit like what you see on Coronation Street, but not as nice.
Dave Connolly:Um, I had a mom and dad and three siblings.
Dave Connolly:I was the youngest by seven years in.
Dave Connolly:In the row of houses where we lived in the streets, I should say there's
Dave Connolly:probably about 148 houses, but many of those houses, maybe just under 20 of
Dave Connolly:those households, we are related to us.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:And then you have those aunties and uncles.
Dave Connolly:Who aren't really aunties and uncles.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:They just drink or rob something with your dad and, you know,
Dave Connolly:did it like extended family?
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Um, yeah.
Dave Connolly:So that was the type of, of growing up in that environment.
Matt Edmundson:And was it common then that you had, um, you had your
Matt Edmundson:family living on the same street?
Matt Edmundson:Cause I mean, I, you know, my family in some respects are miles away, you
Matt Edmundson:know, But, but I always remember like TV shows like Bread, you know, growing
Matt Edmundson:up and it's, and it's like there was always sort of family members and
Matt Edmundson:everyone was inside each other's houses.
Matt Edmundson:Was that what it was actually like?
Dave Connolly:I think so.
Dave Connolly:Um, that was my experience.
Dave Connolly:Um, I mean, you know, things on TV are supposed to be entertaining or in
Dave Connolly:Brett's case, funny, and I know a lot of Liverpool people don't like Bread.
Dave Connolly:They say it's exaggeration, but it is exaggeration.
Dave Connolly:But that's entertainment is, and I humor when you exaggerate something,
Dave Connolly:um, I thought it captured my Liverpool that I, you know, even though I grew
Dave Connolly:up a little bit earlier than that.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:That's interesting.
Matt Edmundson:So you grew up in this street then where you, Sorry
Dave Connolly:Dave, go ahead.
Dave Connolly:Like a lot of hate mail now for saying
Dave Connolly:But it was, so I was
Matt Edmundson:there, the Anti Bread brigade.
Matt Edmundson:It was so, yeah, that was fair enough.
Matt Edmundson:Uh, so you grew up, um, you've got this street where 20 of the
Matt Edmundson:houses as your family, I mean, that's a big old family, uh, in the
Matt Edmundson:sixties growing up in the street.
Matt Edmundson:Um, what was that like?
Matt Edmundson:Were you in everyone's house or did you all kind of just ignore each other?
Dave Connolly:Um, well, people seemed to, everybody seemed to work, you know,
Dave Connolly:so everybody seemed to be out and, you know, you'd get up and you lit.
Dave Connolly:For me, I would go out on the street until I was called in for bed and Okay.
Dave Connolly:I think, you know, we have labels for everything today.
Dave Connolly:Um, I'd dread to think what labels I would've carried.
Dave Connolly:Um, but our family was as dysfunctional as the next, it was as broken and
Dave Connolly:dam as damaged as the next, Um, but.
Dave Connolly:I, I, as I got older, I found more grace for my mom and dad.
Dave Connolly:I think they did the best as broken people.
Dave Connolly:What little they had.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:They, um, So you, you say you found more grace for them because
Matt Edmundson:you, It's interesting, isn't it?
Matt Edmundson:I, I think about this and I think as I've got older and as I've had my
Matt Edmundson:own kids and as they've got older, I think I've become more aware of, of my
Matt Edmundson:parents and actually more appreciative of them, if that makes sense.
Matt Edmundson:Because you, you, you see it from the, you see it from their side
Matt Edmundson:a little bit more, don't you?
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:I mean, I used, they call it sofa surfing.
Dave Connolly:Now, what he did there a few years ago, a lot of my time was spent sleeping on
Dave Connolly:the sofa, the floors of relatives houses.
Dave Connolly:It was a two of two down.
Dave Connolly:I've got two older brothers and a sister and a mom and dad.
Dave Connolly:, you know, where, where do they sleep, you know, um, brightness to think.
Dave Connolly:And, um, so I would end up on the sofa.
Dave Connolly:Um, my mom was, my mom, dad were quite, we we're very rough, but my mom was quite
Dave Connolly:poorly at times and I was a handful, you know, I had behavior problems.
Dave Connolly:And Julie says, I still do
Dave Connolly:. Matt Edmundson: Dunno what she means.
Dave Connolly:I dunno what she means.
Dave Connolly:No.
Dave Connolly:So I was just out there doing my own thing, you know, and I got well
Dave Connolly:and truly damaged over the years.
Dave Connolly:I got exposed things, uh, kids, um, should never be exposed to.
Dave Connolly:And I would remally wanna protect my own children and my own grandchildren
Dave Connolly:as much as I can from being exposed to those things, you know.
Dave Connolly:. Matt Edmundson: Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And did they, those, that sort of exposure obviously shaped you
Dave Connolly:then quite dramatically as a kid,
Dave Connolly:it damaged me and broke me.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:, Um, I was dysfunctional.
Dave Connolly:I mean, occasionally went to school.
Dave Connolly:You know, it sounds funny as you get older, it sounds funny when
Dave Connolly:you tell 'em the story, you know, school was two, two streets away.
Dave Connolly:Both my primary school, my secondary school.
Dave Connolly:And, um, you know, I'd go in and get my mark and come home, you know, from
Dave Connolly:a very early age, you know, And it wasn't their fault, you know, it was me.
Dave Connolly:I, I just, I was so hit.
Dave Connolly:It was really difficult to let anybody into my brokenness.
Dave Connolly:And I was so as well.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:Because Peter damaged me, were relatives, and there were people who I
Dave Connolly:would've thought would've cared for me.
Dave Connolly:And it's not until you get older.
Dave Connolly:Don't you realize some of the stuff that you've been exposed to
Dave Connolly:and the damage that's caused you?
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:But that's not you.
Dave Connolly:I would say that would be of most of the people who I grew up with.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:And it's heart.
Matt Edmundson:It's heartbreaking, isn't it?
Matt Edmundson:Especially when you watch it, um, and, and see it from the side.
Matt Edmundson:So here you are, you're a young, broken kid growing up in the
Matt Edmundson:streets of, toxteth, in the 1960s.
Matt Edmundson:You've got two brothers, a sister, a mom, and a dad.
Matt Edmundson:And you live in a two, what we call a two up, two down.
Matt Edmundson:In other words, there was two bedrooms, uh, upstairs and two rooms downstairs,
Matt Edmundson:um, for those outside of the uk.
Matt Edmundson:So you've got a house, which is way too small for the family.
Matt Edmundson:Mm-hmm.
Matt Edmundson:Um, you sofa surfing and the 20 houses belonging to your
Matt Edmundson:family up and down the street.
Matt Edmundson:Um,
Matt Edmundson:what, what started you on your faith journey?
Matt Edmundson:What kind of led you to start going down that road?
Matt Edmundson:How did that all come about?
Matt Edmundson:. Dave Connolly: Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Quite bizarre because, um, I'm not aware of mom and dad having any faith.
Matt Edmundson:I mean, um, we were really bad Catholics and exceptionally
Matt Edmundson:bad Protestants, . Um, Okay.
Matt Edmundson:You know?
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:I don't remember.
Matt Edmundson:The only time I heard God was when it was, you know, in some form of
Matt Edmundson:swear where, um, but I remember clearly, you know, being at eight
Matt Edmundson:years old and having pain in my heart.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:You know, I mean, I was at eight years old, I was desperate, you know, it wasn't,
Matt Edmundson:I'm not putting a finger at anybody here.
Matt Edmundson:You know, broken people, break other people.
Matt Edmundson:Mm.
Matt Edmundson:It's just way life is, you know?
Matt Edmundson:And, um, I remember one Sunday afternoon, um, walking down a
Matt Edmundson:road called Princess um, Avenue.
Matt Edmundson:In Liverpool or Princess Drive, and depending on which side of it
Matt Edmundson:you're on, and it was raining and I seen all these kids queuing up,
Matt Edmundson:I thought, to get outta the rain.
Matt Edmundson:I thought they were all trying to get into this old building, um, on the corner.
Matt Edmundson:And I got in the queue and it moved in quickly.
Matt Edmundson:And I didn't realize it was Sunday school, , you know?
Matt Edmundson:And this colossus of a man put his hand on me to it got a reaction from me.
Matt Edmundson:Okay?
Matt Edmundson:And so my, a good one.
Matt Edmundson:And he said, You're not.
Matt Edmundson:And a gentleman called Richard Woods, um, I didn't know him.
Matt Edmundson:He said, I'll let him in.
Matt Edmundson:And basically he just, he said he turned to this man and he said, And
Matt Edmundson:if the guy was called Ronnie, he said, Ronnie, what color is your Bible?
Matt Edmundson:And he said, This guy looks at him and he goes, Black.
Matt Edmundson:And, and Richard said, Well, your bible should be red.
Matt Edmundson:All bibles should be read as in R-E-A-D.
Matt Edmundson:not red.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:And as he, Ronnie was just looking at him as if this guy's crazy.
Matt Edmundson:He just shook me through the door,
Matt Edmundson:And Richard said, Why don't you wanna let a sneaking in?
Matt Edmundson:Richard said to this guy, Why won't you let him in?
Matt Edmundson:He said, Well, he was trying to set fire to the building the other day.
Matt Edmundson:Oh.
Matt Edmundson:Which was true.
Matt Edmundson:You know, it was true, you know.
Matt Edmundson:Um, and anyway, I went down into the basements of this old, old church
Matt Edmundson:and Richard was speaking, and I would have to say at the age of
Matt Edmundson:eight, this guy preached on Gideon.
Matt Edmundson:And for the very first time in my life that I am aware of, I heard.
Matt Edmundson:Of hope and a future.
Matt Edmundson:And, um, you know, a lot of people in my peers, even at a very young age, had been
Matt Edmundson:written off girls written off by society.
Matt Edmundson:You know, the only thing I think most people would say would be guaranteed is
Matt Edmundson:that we'd end up either in, in, in jail, in prison, or some other crazy place.
Matt Edmundson:And, um, I went for three weeks.
Matt Edmundson:Matt and Richard spoke on Gideon for three weeks, and I can remember
Matt Edmundson:clearly each of those messages.
Matt Edmundson:Wow.
Matt Edmundson:I'm 65.
Matt Edmundson:Just That's a good preacher when you can remember.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah, Yeah, totally.
Matt Edmundson:And I still see this guy, in fact, he, he walked into the tab just
Matt Edmundson:before I had my last preach there.
Matt Edmundson:And um, every time we see each other, we just cry.
Matt Edmundson:and, um, he was telling somebody after the service on the other Sunday, he
Matt Edmundson:was saying, um, I am the only person who's ever cried at his preaching.
Matt Edmundson:And, and I did weep, you know?
Matt Edmundson:Mm-hmm.
Matt Edmundson:and to the only time I would normally cry as a child would be when I was angry.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:And, and I just heard something that never, it just forms something.
Matt Edmundson:It steered something inside of me.
Matt Edmundson:It steered that life doesn't have to go a certain way, that I'm not a mistake, which
Matt Edmundson:is something I'd hear a lot in my life, you know, that I was an afterthought,
Matt Edmundson:a mistake, labor lab, blah, blah, blah.
Matt Edmundson:You know, the story unravels not pleasant, but I did not
Matt Edmundson:think miraculous happened to me.
Matt Edmundson:Mm-hmm.
Matt Edmundson:Besides having seeds sown into my life.
Matt Edmundson:Mm-hmm.
Matt Edmundson:and I would see Richard, um, through the years.
Matt Edmundson:I would see him and it would always be affirming.
Matt Edmundson:And he's just a lovely guy, you know?
Matt Edmundson:And, um, and he'd say, I'm praying for you.
Matt Edmundson:I'm not giving up on you.
Matt Edmundson:But it wasn't until I got to my late teens, you know, and as the years had
Matt Edmundson:carried on, I'd got even more broken.
Matt Edmundson:Really?
Matt Edmundson:Mm-hmm.
Matt Edmundson:thought I helped break people to my shame.
Matt Edmundson:And my brother Mick, my younger brother, Mick, sorry, he's my
Matt Edmundson:next brother up, I should say.
Matt Edmundson:Um, I didn't really know my family that well, if I'm honest.
Matt Edmundson:Cause of all the, sofa surfing, and he was a nice guy.
Matt Edmundson:I mean, I actually thought, can't be my blood relative really.
Matt Edmundson:But he'd, he'd become a Christian.
Matt Edmundson:And, um, and I didn't know too much about that.
Matt Edmundson:And, um, he got married to this lady who was like an angel, who she was amazing.
Matt Edmundson:and they at some time passed by and they had a baby and they said to me,
Matt Edmundson:Oh, do you wanna come and babysit?
Matt Edmundson:Well, I would have to say I'm probably in my very late teens then.
Matt Edmundson:And I wasn't in a good place, you know, had a bit of, weed, bit of
Matt Edmundson:lsd, not been in a fantastic place.
Matt Edmundson:And I'm like, they've invited me some babysit and said, Yeah, I'll do that.
Matt Edmundson:and I by I got there.
Matt Edmundson:Cause I don't even, I don't remember them ever telling me where they lived.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:But I got, and they were going out, they left at six o'clock.
Matt Edmundson:They didn't have a tv, they only had Christian music, which like sounded
Matt Edmundson:the same playing it forwards and backwards, . And I remember getting
Matt Edmundson:this, I think it was like a cot sheet and putting it on the floor and I
Matt Edmundson:started to empty the drawers, but they didn't have a whole lot worth robbing?
Matt Edmundson:Anyway, if I'm honest.
Matt Edmundson:Oh, so you were emptying stuff into the cut sheet to steal it.
Dave Connolly:Oh, I need to sort it out.
Dave Connolly:You only wanna take the good stuff.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Play.
Dave Connolly:I thought you were taking notes then.
Dave Connolly:. Um, it's there only way stealing what you can sell , Your Honor.
Dave Connolly:And um, and it was bizarre because I came across this book and you know,
Dave Connolly:you're talking about, it's in the seventies, mid, early, mid seventies,
Dave Connolly:and there was a book there and it draw my attention to it because there's like,
Dave Connolly:what I thought was a semi naked lady.
Dave Connolly:I thought You Dirty Rascal.
Dave Connolly:Anyway, I opened this book and here's this book called Turned
Dave Connolly:Onto Jesus by Arthur Blessed.
Dave Connolly:Now I can categorically say to you Matt, I had never read a book
Dave Connolly:in all the time I was at school.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:And I started to read this book.
Dave Connolly:No, I think we would call it a God moment.
Dave Connolly:Mm.
Dave Connolly:I was desperately bored, so I started to read this book.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And the book was based in, um, Sunset Strip in America.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And God bless, it was like a missionary to, um, this inner city group of people.
Dave Connolly:And it was bizarre.
Dave Connolly:There was people in the, and it was like he was writing about
Dave Connolly:my friends on the street here.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:Did you Different names, you know, And, and I wasn't a star by, by the way.
Dave Connolly:I was just like sort of in the ensemble somewhere, you know?
Dave Connolly:Okay.
Dave Connolly:But I could write people, ordinary people going through very similar
Dave Connolly:things and broken like myself.
Dave Connolly:And I think, you know, some people say they found Jesus.
Dave Connolly:Nah, they didn't.
Dave Connolly:Jesus found them.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:It is clear, you know, and they heard.
Dave Connolly:A scripture calls it, you know, the gospel and their lives, complex
Dave Connolly:lives started a new direction.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:With the hope and purpose that I heard when I was eight.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:for a decade it took, for that seed to get anywhere.
Dave Connolly:But these people got this hope and this purpose that I
Dave Connolly:heard about when I was eight.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:Um, just pull this bit to an end.
Dave Connolly:And that was my brother came home with his wife.
Dave Connolly:I said, What are you doing?
Dave Connolly:You robbing me, You know what I'm saying?
Dave Connolly:You've got nothing worth robbing.
Dave Connolly:And his wife, it was gorgeous lady.
Dave Connolly:She said, What are you doing reading that book?
Dave Connolly:And I'm like, I'm not reading.
Dave Connolly:And she goes, It's okay.
Dave Connolly:I'm like, Why would I wanna read a book about Jesus?
Dave Connolly:I'm like,
Dave Connolly:brilliant.
Dave Connolly:You know?
Dave Connolly:I was, I was done.
Dave Connolly:Done.
Dave Connolly:And you know the amazing thing, Matt, you know, some people call it coincidence.
Dave Connolly:Some of us just call it God.
Dave Connolly:The guy he wrote that book was gonna be in Liverpool the following Wednesday.
Dave Connolly:No way.
Dave Connolly:In the in, in what was the boxing arena.
Dave Connolly:And I went to that meeting and shall I tell you a bit about that meeting?
Dave Connolly:God,
Matt Edmundson:do you want Yeah, No, go for it.
Matt Edmundson:Go for it.
Dave Connolly:And you know, I did go matt.
Dave Connolly:Cause I was interested to see what this guy was like.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And I got walked in and we had, it was a boxing arena.
Dave Connolly:We had seats front and center, three rows from the front.
Dave Connolly:These two dudes hippies playing the guitar.
Dave Connolly:And am I.
Dave Connolly:I was looked around and I could see people in there and I thought,
Dave Connolly:this is gonna kick off big style.
Dave Connolly:And then all of a sudden there's a guy in in the boxing ring and
Dave Connolly:I'm like, He stars and go guy.
Dave Connolly:You know?
Dave Connolly:So I think I may have shouted something cause I thought he was starting to fight.
Dave Connolly:It was Arthur Blessed, it was the preacher man.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:And he starts to tell a little bit of the story of what God had called
Dave Connolly:him to do in reaching these people.
Dave Connolly:And I just have to say, I, I'd so much hatred for this man.
Dave Connolly:Every time he opened his mouth, I thought, I wanna stab you.
Dave Connolly:I wanna hurt you.
Dave Connolly:And wow,
Matt Edmundson:why did you have so much hatred for him?
Dave Connolly:I think he was just kept saying how much God and how much.
Dave Connolly:And because God loved these people who were like me that
Dave Connolly:God had sent him to bring hope.
Dave Connolly:And, and you know, I think my brokenness was making me angry.
Dave Connolly:And then, I don't know how long he spoke for, but I, I was definitely
Dave Connolly:at tipping points of jumping in the ring, honestly, you know,
Dave Connolly:not because I'm some big bad guy.
Dave Connolly:I was just angry.
Dave Connolly:I wanted to hurt him.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And he said, Okay, that's enough for me.
Dave Connolly:I've told you about Jesus.
Dave Connolly:I've told you that he loves you and you are never gonna be good enough
Dave Connolly:to receive his love and forgiveness.
Dave Connolly:None of us are.
Dave Connolly:He says, Well, I'm gonna give you opportunity to
Dave Connolly:receive Jesus into your life.
Dave Connolly:And I thought, Oh, this is just one of those big, freaky religious things.
Dave Connolly:He says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, as I'm talking, I'm gonna count backwards
Dave Connolly:from three to one, and when I get to one, you need to be here and I'm
Dave Connolly:going to introduce you to Jesus.
Dave Connolly:He went three and I thought, No way is anybody so stupid.
Dave Connolly:Support . People are moving no way.
Dave Connolly:And I'm like, What?
Dave Connolly:I'm looking around.
Dave Connolly:I can see people, you know, um, from gangs who I was involved moving forward.
Dave Connolly:I'm like, God, Its going to kick off , he went two, and I can still see
Dave Connolly:people moving before he said one Matt.
Dave Connolly:I was stood there.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:And I just thought, if this is real, this is maybe my only chance of
Dave Connolly:finding some hope and purpose in life.
Dave Connolly:And he talked about new beginnings.
Dave Connolly:And if anybody ever needed a new beginning, I needed one.
Dave Connolly:I knew my brokenness, you know, I knew my lostness and um, And I went forward
Dave Connolly:and uh, people came to talk to you.
Dave Connolly:And this little Mr.
Dave Connolly:Ben honestly had the black suit and tie kid next to me and he
Dave Connolly:introduced himself as Pastor Angel.
Dave Connolly:Oh wow.
Dave Connolly:And I went, What?
Dave Connolly:I said, Are you for real?
Dave Connolly:He goes, Yes.
Dave Connolly:Wow, That's amazing.
Dave Connolly:And he started talking to me.
Dave Connolly:I can't tell you anything he said, Okay.
Dave Connolly:And he said, We're gonna pray now.
Dave Connolly:We're gonna invite Jesus into your life.
Dave Connolly:And he, and he was really a fairman.
Dave Connolly:He did annoy me cuz he kept calling me son.
Dave Connolly:And I had no concept of that.
Dave Connolly:Right.
Dave Connolly:And he said, you know, pray your Prayer.
Dave Connolly:I said, I don't know any.
Dave Connolly:He says, You must know a Prayer.
Dave Connolly:I said, I don't know any, you really annoy me now matey.
Dave Connolly:And um, he says, Well just have a go.
Dave Connolly:And I said to, I only know one Prayer.
Dave Connolly:He said, That's the one , okay.
Dave Connolly:I said, God, if you can get me outta this, I'll do anything
Dave Connolly:And I mean, that's probably the sum total of my Prayer.
Dave Connolly:I think he was expecting the Lords prayer or something.
Dave Connolly:And I remember him just looking at me very graciously and
Dave Connolly:saying, No, that's won't do.
Dave Connolly:Maybe just pray this Prayer after me.
Dave Connolly:And I did.
Dave Connolly:And um, you know, my, I, I think I was expecting a flash of lightning.
Dave Connolly:Um, but it, I didn't hear one, you know, I didn't hear any thunder
Dave Connolly:. And, and I remember this little
Dave Connolly:do you think you've done tonight?
Dave Connolly:And I said to him, I said, What I think I've done, I've said to
Dave Connolly:God, If you are really interested in someone like me, if you.
Dave Connolly:Really that did die with somebody like me.
Dave Connolly:I want to give you my life.
Dave Connolly:Mm.
Dave Connolly:And, and, and no, they, those words mean something now.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:But even as I'm saying you, I mean the impact of them, you
Dave Connolly:know, I am fully aware of.
Dave Connolly:And, um, I went home and that's the hard thing, isn't it?
Dave Connolly:Going back to the situation, you know, you've come out of, and I remember
Dave Connolly:laying on my bed and I remember saying, God, you know, really, really, really,
Dave Connolly:if you are interested in somebody like me, I wanna have, a go, Hmm.
Dave Connolly:And, um, it's amazing how God brings people into your life, you know?
Dave Connolly:And within days, um, I, I was, I'd met Christians and they invited
Dave Connolly:me into their, into their lives.
Dave Connolly:And I started to grow and.
Dave Connolly:Know I was still broken.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:My yearly rollercoaster, you know, those are downs.
Dave Connolly:Um, but they stayed with me and they taught me, we talk about discipleship
Dave Connolly:and the folks listening, you know, they've listened to any Crowd,
Dave Connolly:Church, we'd talk about discipleship a lot, you know, and another phrase
Dave Connolly:for that is journeying together.
Dave Connolly:And we stopped the journey and I watched how they lived.
Dave Connolly:And, um, yeah, it, it was, I was so thankful that God
Dave Connolly:put great people around me.
Dave Connolly:Life was still tough.
Dave Connolly:I'm thankful that any addictions that I had that God miraculously
Dave Connolly:broke straight away, you know?
Dave Connolly:But I definitely had enough other baggage to be dealing with.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Well, I've heard you say that before, that actually when you became a
Matt Edmundson:Christian, God set you free from addictions with medication and alcohol.
Matt Edmundson:and you stopped pretty much straight away, which is not everyone's story.
Matt Edmundson:Um, but it was is definitely your story, right?
Dave Connolly:Well, yeah, because I don't, the, the, the other end of
Dave Connolly:that sentence is, you know, I really admire people who go through rehab.
Dave Connolly:They learn things that I didn't learn.
Dave Connolly:And I think for me, God set me free without anything was
Dave Connolly:because I'm such flake . Okay.
Dave Connolly:You know, um, I was such a flake and I was just so broken and damaged and whatever.
Dave Connolly:I don't think I could have done a rehab.
Dave Connolly:You know, I think people, I have total respect for people who do rehab because in
Dave Connolly:that you journey again with people and you learn so much, but for me, my learning was
Dave Connolly:more as you go, you know, more on the job.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:But, you know, it was great.
Dave Connolly:You know, I didn't have, I just was able to stop drinking and.
Dave Connolly:And doing stuff that I shouldn't have been putting into my body.
Dave Connolly:You know?
Dave Connolly:I mean, I wasn't some super heroin addict or whatever, you know?
Dave Connolly:Um, it just wasn't good.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:So, but I mean, it's in, So right at that, so you're in
Matt Edmundson:your late teens, you know, you're, you're at this Arthur Blessed sort of,
Matt Edmundson:uh, event with Pastor Angel, which I think is one of the coolest names ever.
Matt Edmundson:Oh, phenomenal.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:And you've, you've obviously encountered God, and so God starts
Matt Edmundson:to work in your life by putting you around other Christians, by setting
Matt Edmundson:you free from a whole bunch of stuff.
Matt Edmundson:Um, so does it all become sunshine and rainbows at this point?
Dave Connolly:I would have to say totally.
Dave Connolly:Not.
Dave Connolly:Okay.
Dave Connolly:Totally.
Dave Connolly:It, it, it's this, you, you start this adventure.
Dave Connolly:I mean, it's great.
Dave Connolly:Now you have all, you know, when you've been walking the journey for a while, you
Dave Connolly:have all these words, but you know, at the time it's a bit like, hello, what?
Dave Connolly:What's happening here?
Dave Connolly:You know, cause I start to go home to toxteth, you know, there's parts of
Dave Connolly:toxteth that you can't walk through.
Dave Connolly:If you're white, there's parts of toxic you can't walk through
Dave Connolly:if you are, you know, black, you know, it was very difficult.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And there's big racial problems going on.
Dave Connolly:I mean, it, it was, it was difficult.
Dave Connolly:Um, and, you know, you have to try and do life.
Dave Connolly:And, um, for me, I became really just aware of the Bible.
Dave Connolly:You know, I'd never read really, you know, And, and I started to read the
Dave Connolly:Bible and I started to read these great stories of ordinary people
Dave Connolly:about God's plan for your life.
Dave Connolly:And he has a purpose.
Dave Connolly:So I remember Matt being sat in the back of a bus.
Dave Connolly:I didn't leave school with a swimming certificate.
Dave Connolly:Okay.
Dave Connolly:. And I remember saying, I'm sat in the back of a bus.
Dave Connolly:And I, I'm like, um, do only, do you only like religious things going on?
Dave Connolly:I'm going to a Prayer meeting.
Dave Connolly:I'm going to, and I'm like, God, I, I've never worked up to this stage by the way.
Dave Connolly:Hmm.
Dave Connolly:God give you my life.
Dave Connolly:I'll do whatever you want.
Dave Connolly:And matt as clearly as I'm sat on the back of that bus, I felt, I didn't hear,
Dave Connolly:but I thought, I want you to be a nurse.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:I probably know a nurse, one nurse.
Dave Connolly:And she was a fairly new friend.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:well friend, might be a bit of an exaggeration.
Dave Connolly:She probably walked past me once or twice in church, , no
Dave Connolly:idea what nurses do really.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:So I, um, I go to this prayer meeting and listen, girl was there and I,
Dave Connolly:and I tell her what happened on the bus and she looked at me and said,
Dave Connolly:um, you might wanna think again.
Dave Connolly:I don't think you're gonna cut it.
Dave Connolly:So I just said, Well, what would I do?
Dave Connolly:So I said, Well, you need to contact a school of nurse and, but you know, there's
Dave Connolly:a big waiting list, blah, blah, blah.
Dave Connolly:And this is the entry what you need educationally.
Dave Connolly:Um, Okay.
Dave Connolly:I don't even know what that means.
Dave Connolly:Never mind, have it.
Dave Connolly:Um, so the next day I went, you know, I rang the school of nursing and as I'm
Dave Connolly:talking, um, from a phone box by the way.
Dave Connolly:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Pre-mobile.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah, yeah.
Dave Connolly:Phone box.
Dave Connolly:And, um, I got through to the school of nursing and I said, I don't
Dave Connolly:know what to do here, but, um, I, I, I'd like to be a nurse, please.
Dave Connolly:And thinking she was gonna say yes there and then, by the way.
Dave Connolly:And she said, um, well, there's a nine month waiting list for the school of
Dave Connolly:nursing and you know, you have to have an entrance again and blah, blah, blah.
Dave Connolly:So I'm like, Yeah.
Dave Connolly:So.
Dave Connolly:When do I start?
Dave Connolly:And she goes, No, I don't think you understand.
Dave Connolly:Well, the conversation did end quite abruptly on her part, but I forgive now.
Dave Connolly:days later I got a letter inviting me for an interview.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:How many days later?
Dave Connolly:Two.
Dave Connolly:Two.
Dave Connolly:Okay.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:Two days.
Dave Connolly:And I'm thinking I've got nothing.
Dave Connolly:All I own is a couple of t-shirts, literally two T-shirts, white
Dave Connolly:t-shirts, and a couple a pair of jeans.
Dave Connolly:I don't, I'm not sure if you're allowed to wear that.
Dave Connolly:for an interview ito be a nurse doesn't get quite the right impression.
Dave Connolly:And anyway, I got some clothes and I went and, um, they said, Well,
Dave Connolly:you need these qualifications.
Dave Connolly:And I'm like, I wanna be honest with you.
Dave Connolly:I was, well, I was gonna lie, but I didn't , I haven't got a swimming
Dave Connolly:certificate, I haven't got a cycle, you know, a cycling proficiency certificate.
Dave Connolly:And he said, Well, what happened with school?
Dave Connolly:So I said, Well, we left by mutual agreements, . They didn't want
Dave Connolly:me and I didn't wanna go . Okay.
Dave Connolly:They said, Oh, right, okay.
Dave Connolly:And, um, there was no positive discrimination then at all, by the way.
Dave Connolly:Well, somehow she must have took pity on me.
Dave Connolly:And she said, Well, you could sit this multiple choice exam
Dave Connolly:and then have your interview.
Dave Connolly:Well, apparently I scorched this multiple choice thing.
Dave Connolly:I got it a hundred percent.
Dave Connolly:I didn't even know what most of those words meant, . Wow.
Dave Connolly:But I obviously did something right in the interview, but, Remember in the
Dave Connolly:interview, um, one of the interviews was as choose, and he said, Dave,
Dave Connolly:could I ask you a personal question?
Dave Connolly:Do you have special needs ? Wow.
Dave Connolly:And I, I've never heard this phrase.
Dave Connolly:I'm like, I do.
Dave Connolly:Thinking it was a great thing.
Dave Connolly:And he goes, Well, I would be a choose.
Dave Connolly:I'm sure.
Dave Connolly:Well, we might be able to get round, you know, And I, Cause I
Dave Connolly:honestly didn't know what it was.
Dave Connolly:And a couple of days later, there's a nine month waiting list.
Dave Connolly:I was told I was starting in the next school, which was four weeks later.
Dave Connolly:Oh wow.
Dave Connolly:And I have to say, God blessed me with accelerated learning
Dave Connolly:and gimme this great tutor.
Dave Connolly:who just happened to be a Christian.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:You know?
Dave Connolly:Um, so you know, sometimes when God asks you to do things or you
Dave Connolly:feel God asked you to do things and you feel totally inadequate.
Dave Connolly:I have to say, if you read the Bible, he specializes
Dave Connolly:in that.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:He's he's definitely on your side, right?
Dave Connolly:That's his specialty.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:I like that.
Matt Edmundson:Well, that's amazing.
Matt Edmundson:So you start nursing, um, so you have this encounter with God, you start nursing
Matt Edmundson:despite not having any qualifications, not a swimming certificate, which,
Matt Edmundson:uh, or a cycling proficiency.
Matt Edmundson:It still comes from me.
Matt Edmundson:It's good . Um, so, and you were a nurse, weren't you?
Matt Edmundson:For about what, 18, 19 years?
Matt Edmundson:Somewhere around there?
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:I was And you specialized in children's nursing?
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Last, in the last maybe decade,
Dave Connolly:I, um, moved to a children's hospital and was
Dave Connolly:involved in children's nursing.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Which was amazing.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:So when God called you to nurse and he, I mean, he called you right?
Matt Edmundson:I mean, there for 19 odd years.
Dave Connolly:Absolutely.
Dave Connolly:It was a real vocation.
Dave Connolly:And, um, God gave me, I mean, I, I, I have say during those times, in the
Dave Connolly:early, in the early days, I did have some struggles, you know, um, with my faith.
Dave Connolly:Not that I didn't believe in God, it was just a lifestyles, there
Dave Connolly:was a lifestyle clash again.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And I made some wrong decisions in those very early days.
Dave Connolly:And for about 12 or 14 months, maybe a bit longer, I just was making bad decisions.
Dave Connolly:And then I realized I just needed to go for God or not go for God.
Dave Connolly:Mm.
Dave Connolly:You know?
Dave Connolly:And I decided to focus and quit messing around, as my wife would say, Quit
Dave Connolly:messing around.
Dave Connolly:So she wasn't my wife.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:I was gonna say, at what point in this story did you meet Julie?
Dave Connolly:Um, I'd, I'd qualified nursing.
Dave Connolly:Um, we were going to a.
Dave Connolly:Church in an area called Everton.
Dave Connolly:And um, they used to have a great youth group and that youth group used
Dave Connolly:to do like lots of sports activities.
Dave Connolly:Julie used to play netball and hockey and, um, the guys used to play
Dave Connolly:football, used to play in different leagues and, um, not least tournaments.
Dave Connolly:And, and that was great.
Dave Connolly:That was a great way, um, for, you know, late teens, early twenties
Dave Connolly:to, to mesh together and learn.
Dave Connolly:And, um, so that was, that, that was the early days.
Dave Connolly:That was good to find some solid peers.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:So you met her at, um, you met her at youth group for, into about
Matt Edmundson:youth groups, the wrong phrase.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Um, and um, we found, um, well, I think we'd actually, I think
Dave Connolly:we'd met before I'd fallen away from God or, or was struggling.
Dave Connolly:I think we'd met and Julie like was sort of.
Dave Connolly:We're not gonna date if you're gonna mess around type of thing.
Dave Connolly:You know?
Dave Connolly:Um, well, you know, she's like, it's, let's get sorted.
Dave Connolly:Oh, yes.
Dave Connolly:and, Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And so we, we, we got married, um, early twenties, you know, still nursing.
Dave Connolly:Um, but even then I'd really felt a conviction that God was
Dave Connolly:using my time while I was nursing to really lead a church, to be
Dave Connolly:a pastor, to care for people.
Dave Connolly:And there's no finding the nursing, I would've to say you're
Dave Connolly:with people the best moments and certainly in the worst moments.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:You know?
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And I, um, loved nursing, even though it was difficult, had great
Dave Connolly:opportunities to share faith and to see God do some amazing things.
Dave Connolly:But there came a time when I just knew this is the time now to
Dave Connolly:plan to go, We call it full time.
Dave Connolly:Yeah, I'd done lots of studying, extended external studying in preparation.
Matt Edmundson:So that must have been quite a, a seismic shift.
Matt Edmundson:Right.
Matt Edmundson:I mean, just to sort of fast forward a little bit, so you obviously, um, you quit
Matt Edmundson:nursing, You, you, you start a church.
Matt Edmundson:You meet Nick Harding along the way.
Matt Edmundson:You join forces, um, what is now called Frontline comes out of that.
Matt Edmundson:Um, I, I meet you for the first time in 1992, Right?
Matt Edmundson:So 30 years ago, that's how long I, it was, I came as a fresh face
Matt Edmundson:student to Liverpool and you were helping along with Chris and Graham
Matt Edmundson:on the alive and kicking mission.
Matt Edmundson:Do you remember this at the CU University?
Matt Edmundson:Remember?
Matt Edmundson:Yeah, we had Eric Delve there and I'd just become a Christian at this point.
Matt Edmundson:And, um, and so I then stopped coming along to what was then called
Matt Edmundson:Bethany before it changed its name to Frontline, Um, and got involved
Matt Edmundson:and I've never looked back since.
Matt Edmundson:And, uh, it's been, it's been an epic journey.
Matt Edmundson:And so I know a little bit of your story, um, but throughout
Matt Edmundson:the, the, the, the time, right.
Matt Edmundson:What have been some of the key challenges that you sort of faced in life that
Matt Edmundson:you, uh, that God sort of helped you through this, you know, some of
Matt Edmundson:the, the big, the big things you've sort of had to face on that journey?
Dave Connolly:I think for, for, for me, I love the idea of being on a journey,
Dave Connolly:you know, as we read the Bible, you know, Jesus is walking here, or you
Dave Connolly:got the disciples under Themus Road and you know, The walking between places
Dave Connolly:and the stories, what they're walking from or walking to may be different,
Dave Connolly:but they're experiencing life together.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:They're experiencing eyes and the lows and, um, I think some
Dave Connolly:people feel that Christianity is for the weak and you know what?
Dave Connolly:They're probably right.
Dave Connolly:I, I had to come to the end of myself, you know, and, um, you
Dave Connolly:know, or do you might think Christianity's for losers, count me in.
Dave Connolly:Um, but you know, it is real.
Dave Connolly:You know, you're not removed from all that is going on around you.
Dave Connolly:Um, I believe that God walks with us on this journey through
Dave Connolly:the day to day stuff of life.
Dave Connolly:To the great blessings, you know, through birth, through to
Dave Connolly:deaths, through to illnesses.
Dave Connolly:You know, as a pastor, you know, you talk about meeting you guys for the first
Dave Connolly:time, you know, your generation of guy.
Dave Connolly:It's been great to see coming through.
Dave Connolly:Sorry, I'm laughing, , that's no, not going.
Dave Connolly:I'm gonna behave.
Dave Connolly:And, uh, you know, just to see you grow, you know, from these young
Dave Connolly:guys and to real men, you know, and, and, and, and finding amazing
Dave Connolly:wives and, and vice versa, you know?
Dave Connolly:And then seeing you with your own kids, you know?
Dave Connolly:And, and I know like when we were in small group together, you know,
Dave Connolly:even as a small group of many used to meet weekly, we walked through
Dave Connolly:some real difficult times together.
Dave Connolly:Oh.
Dave Connolly:. Um, we remember praying for girlfriend and them wives and, and then for children
Dave Connolly:and you know, even to see, you know, the loss of children in that group
Dave Connolly:and you know, and to see people Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Bereft.
Dave Connolly:Um, it's a real journey.
Dave Connolly:And, um, and God is, I would've to say is faithful.
Dave Connolly:And you know, even when we don't think he's there, he's there cuz
Dave Connolly:not because necessarily we feel and, but because he said he'd be
Dave Connolly:there and he is the comforter.
Dave Connolly:And, um, so for me, highs and lows, I learn more.
Dave Connolly:I'm, I'm wired.
Dave Connolly:I learn more than a low than what I do in a high.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:I take the high, you know, but I know that I, I see who I really
Dave Connolly:am, um, in those low times.
Dave Connolly:I see being a Christian, being a journey of, Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Walking with each other.
Dave Connolly:I also like the word adventure.
Dave Connolly:There's certainly nothing Bo, if you've got a medial, Christian life, if any, you
Dave Connolly:know, the folks watching this other, a medial, Christian life, you're missing out
Dave Connolly:cuz there's supposed to be an adventure.
Dave Connolly:Yeah, yeah, totally.
Dave Connolly:You know, and, um, walking with God is an adventure.
Dave Connolly:You'll see things and do things that you could only read about in
Dave Connolly:a book if you go for it with God.
Dave Connolly:We've seen the miraculous.
Dave Connolly:We're seeing God's provide, um, very practical things.
Dave Connolly:We're seeing amazing healings, you know, with a lady and up the weekend,
Dave Connolly:and we prayed with her 20 years ago when she had hiv and she's.
Dave Connolly:Completely healed.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:You know, um, we've just seen so many amazing healings.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And yet we'll walk through the valley of the shadow of death with people.
Dave Connolly:It's part of life.
Dave Connolly:So, um, yeah.
Dave Connolly:I am thankful.
Dave Connolly:I, I am, you know, I'm probably most blessed person on this planet, um, that
Dave Connolly:when we've gone through our eyes, our highs, we're able to say Thank you, Jesus.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And when those times like, um, have happened, like, um, you
Dave Connolly:know, to ourselves or to people around us, like you mentioned, my
Dave Connolly:nephew being murdered, somehow God reveals himself even in that pain.
Dave Connolly:Um, you know, it's, there's with God, there's no, just get over it.
Dave Connolly:, God has something for the moments.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:and, um, and he's forever speaking and he's forever caring.
Dave Connolly:And, um, yeah.
Dave Connolly:And I'm just thankful Matt.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:. Matt Edmundson: That's really powerful.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Super powerful.
Dave Connolly:I mean, you know, I mentioned this at the start and you, you mentioned
Dave Connolly:it about, about Paul, um, for those watching and listening, and
Dave Connolly:I'm assuming it's gonna be most of them, what actually happened there?
Dave Connolly:Because it wasn't just a case of sort of gang warfare or anything.
Dave Connolly:Was it that this was, this was, this
Dave Connolly:was awful.
Dave Connolly:This is a, He was working as a carer at the time.
Dave Connolly:He was raising a Christian family in his early twenties, was
Dave Connolly:struggling with his walk with God.
Dave Connolly:He's probably struggling more with the church, the church, you
Dave Connolly:know, as the, the establishment.
Dave Connolly:And he, he went off and he was doing his own thing.
Dave Connolly:And then a few months before this incident, he, he came back to
Dave Connolly:God and he was really seeking God and loving God and reconnecting.
Dave Connolly:And, um, he had gone to visit a friend.
Dave Connolly:I could just be the broad details.
Dave Connolly:He'd gone to visit a friend.
Dave Connolly:Um, he was off the next day, if I remember rightly.
Dave Connolly:And he'd gone to visit a friend's, play some video games
Dave Connolly:and it was nearly midnight.
Dave Connolly:Or whatever.
Dave Connolly:And the, sorry.
Dave Connolly:So I get a visit from my dog, , and, and you know, he was off the next day.
Dave Connolly:So we went to visit a friend, play some video games and there'd been some
Dave Connolly:shenanigans going on in the area with some guys causing trouble earlier.
Dave Connolly:And, um, He was going to his friends in a taxi and he just said,
Dave Connolly:Taxi driver, just drop me here.
Dave Connolly:I can cross over the road and walk down the street.
Dave Connolly:He got out of the taxi, crossed the road, and my understanding is that two guys ran
Dave Connolly:past him and stabbed him and they, I think they were craft knives and they stabbed
Dave Connolly:him and broke them off inside of him.
Dave Connolly:And basically he bled to death within minutes.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Matt Edmundson:Wow.
Matt Edmundson:And this is, this is actually the son of Mick who's your brother's house where
Matt Edmundson:you had the co sheet on the floor and reading the author Blessed about Ryan.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:His mom and Paul's mom and dad, Mick and Lynn.
Matt Edmundson:They wrote a book, um, that I think you can get it on, on Amazon, called Son of
Matt Edmundson:a Preacher Man, which tells this story.
Matt Edmundson:And, um, it was quite amazing
Matt Edmundson:this story.
Matt Edmundson:It's a, it's a remark and the stuff that's come out of it, I mean, we've, we've
Matt Edmundson:featured some of that story actually on Crowd before, but the stuff that's
Matt Edmundson:come out of it has been extraordinary.
Matt Edmundson:But in the, and, and as with all, I mean, it's easy to sit here in some
Matt Edmundson:respects and say, Well, you know, God can bring good out of both situations,
Matt Edmundson:but when you are living in that, that's, that's a very different scenario.
Matt Edmundson:Right.
Matt Edmundson:So how did you, how did you deal with that at the time?
Dave Connolly:Well, I literally flew home.
Dave Connolly:It happened when I was in America and I flew home from America.
Dave Connolly:Um, my daughter Catherine had stood in and she's a great resource, you
Dave Connolly:know, just fantastic, you know, And, um, she was just loving them
Dave Connolly:and making space to be with them.
Dave Connolly:And they, and I came home and just said, You know,
Dave Connolly:what can I do?
Dave Connolly:And really it was just to be with them.
Dave Connolly:And we talked and we cried.
Dave Connolly:And we cried and we laughed.
Dave Connolly:And then we, we planned a funeral.
Dave Connolly:And, um, that, that was, that was quite helpful in the grieving
Dave Connolly:process, I think generally speaking.
Dave Connolly:But some stories came out and that was, um, literally the
Dave Connolly:night before Paul's death.
Dave Connolly:Um, he'd been at a bar playing Snook Pool with some friends and
Dave Connolly:there was a young lady there who they, who they knew really well.
Dave Connolly:Paul was engaged, his wife was away on mission, Sorry, his
Dave Connolly:fiance was away on mission.
Dave Connolly:And um, there was a young lady there who they just knew as a friend
Dave Connolly:and she was having a bad time.
Dave Connolly:And basically she left that bar saying, I'm going home to commit suicide.
Dave Connolly:And Paul followed her because he was that concerned.
Dave Connolly:A number of people were concerned, but Paul followed her.
Dave Connolly:And um, he was knocking on her door saying, Look, let's talk.
Dave Connolly:And she's like, No, I'm just gonna kill myself.
Dave Connolly:And he said, Well, I'm gonna sit here all night talking
Dave Connolly:to you, which is what he did.
Dave Connolly:Wow.
Dave Connolly:And this young lady told that story at his fu at his funeral.
Dave Connolly:Oh.
Dave Connolly:Paula just stayed up all night to talk to her because he was concerned
Dave Connolly:that she was gonna take her own life.
Dave Connolly:And, um, that was probably one of the last things he did.
Matt Edmundson:Wow.
Matt Edmundson:That's an incredible story.
Dave Connolly:It is.
Dave Connolly:Um, you know, so.
Dave Connolly:You know, our time here on this planet, it's very short and it's very fragile.
Dave Connolly:It makes you, not necessarily fearful, but it does make you realize, you know,
Dave Connolly:life is fragile and we need to live it.
Dave Connolly:Well, recently we've heard a lot said about the queen, rightly
Dave Connolly:about life lived Well, yeah.
Dave Connolly:And I would just say, you know, life is, is shorter.
Dave Connolly:It's shorter than any of us would want it to be.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:and or fragile.
Dave Connolly:And we need to live it to the full and not waste it.
Matt Edmundson:And how do you do that?
Matt Edmundson:How would you live it to the full?
Matt Edmundson:I mean, I appreciate that's a bit of a leading question,
Matt Edmundson:but, um, I'll ask it anyway.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:And
Dave Connolly:I, I, I think my honest answer, Mark, would be
Dave Connolly:to go, go for God wholeheartedly.
Dave Connolly:You know, if you wanna achieve something, amazing, if, and I mean, I've never
Dave Connolly:done anything amazing in my life.
Dave Connolly:You know, I've never run a marathon, Julie, has you know, you don't
Dave Connolly:just decide to do it one day.
Dave Connolly:There's lots of training involved, lots of sacrifice, lots of being
Dave Connolly:focused on what you're doing.
Dave Connolly:And, and I think being a Christians like that, we need to be focused.
Dave Connolly:We need to be determined.
Dave Connolly:We need to be sold out on God and his plans and his his
Dave Connolly:purposes, and, um, and go for it.
Dave Connolly:Start trying to have one force in the world and one foot in,
Dave Connolly:you know, in, in the kingdom.
Dave Connolly:Must be like to say, you know, let's, let's be, let's be honest, let's be real.
Dave Connolly:People out there in the world, they've had enough.
Dave Connolly:They know all the flaky stuff.
Dave Connolly:They're looking for something that is authentic.
Dave Connolly:And I would say this, Jesus walk is so authentic.
Dave Connolly:At times it just hurts, but you'll never be alone.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:Purely because he said that, Yeah, the only thing you counts
Dave Connolly:on is what God says in his word.
Dave Connolly:And you know, for me, from my early days of being a Christian, there's two
Dave Connolly:places in the Bible that says this.
Dave Connolly:God says, I will never leave you or abandon you.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:, that is flipping good news for me.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:And I have to tell myself that over and over again.
Dave Connolly:And, um, you know, I, I'm not afraid to say, there are times I have to tell myself
Dave Connolly:that because I don't feel God with me.
Dave Connolly:Like in that time.
Dave Connolly:There's been other times in my life I've not felt lovely feelings of,
Dave Connolly:Not everyone wants to be around other Christians at sometimes, but I have
Dave Connolly:known of not been alone because God says in his word, I will never abandon you.
Dave Connolly:Yeah.
Dave Connolly:No forsake you and I'm like, God can't lie.
Dave Connolly:Mm-hmm.
Dave Connolly:. And that's what I, that's what I put, That's what I sold my life on Matt.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:No powerful stuff, man.
Matt Edmundson:And I would, I agree with everything that you said other than the sentence,
Matt Edmundson:I've not done anything amazing.
Matt Edmundson:I feel like actually you have, um, in some major ways.
Matt Edmundson:Um, of course, I, I, there's very few people on the planet that have had the
Matt Edmundson:impact on my life that you have had.
Matt Edmundson:Um, and you know, I'm God's favorite, so it's gotta be amazing.
Matt Edmundson:Right.
Matt Edmundson:, Dave Connolly: that's obviously after me.
Matt Edmundson:I'm just gonna explain for those listening to
Matt Edmundson:the podcast before I close it out.
Matt Edmundson:Um, we used to have this, uh, do you remember we used to have this
Matt Edmundson:thing about who was God's favorite?
Matt Edmundson:And we'd argue about it all the time.
Matt Edmundson:I'm God's favorite.
Matt Edmundson:No, I'm God.
Matt Edmundson:And, um, I went and bought the domain name God's favorite.com and
Matt Edmundson:just put a picture of me on it.
Matt Edmundson:So when you Googled God's favorite, it just came up with a photo of me
Matt Edmundson:and I remember saying to you, one day, Dave, see that Google says it's me.
Matt Edmundson:So it's gotta be right
Matt Edmundson:, Dave Connolly: obviously
Matt Edmundson:Oh, it's funny, the banter and before anybody writes, says
Matt Edmundson:yes, we know God has no favorites.
Matt Edmundson:Uh, but that's okay.
Matt Edmundson:Um,
Matt Edmundson:Say that again,
Dave Connolly:sorry.
Dave Connolly:Bible tells us we are friends of God.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah, it does.
Matt Edmundson:It does.
Matt Edmundson:His best friend.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah.
Matt Edmundson:There are some friends that you have and then there's your real
Matt Edmundson:friends and I'm one of them.
Matt Edmundson:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Matt Edmundson:Uh, love it.
Matt Edmundson:Absolutely love it.
Matt Edmundson:So, Dave, listen, thank I'm aware of time and um, I feel like we're just starting to
Matt Edmundson:scratch the surface a little bit, really.
Matt Edmundson:Um, if people wanna reach out to you, if people wanna get ahold of you, connect
Matt Edmundson:with you, what's the best way to do that
Dave Connolly:yet?
Dave Connolly:There's a number of ways, Matt.
Dave Connolly:Um, you can track me down on Facebook and you'll go to Dave Connelly, and when
Dave Connolly:you open that up, you'll see, um, it says God seekers uk or you can email me at god
Dave Connolly:seekers UK gmail.com or you can go to a really new, exciting website, which tells
Dave Connolly:you a little bit about some of the things that I'm doing at Revive Masey side dot.
Matt Edmundson:Revive me side.org.
Matt Edmundson:That's fantastic.
Matt Edmundson:And we will of course link to, uh, all those links for Dave in the show notes,
Matt Edmundson:uh, which you can get for free along with the transcript and notes at Crowd Church,
Matt Edmundson:www dot Crowd Church, or direct in your inbox if you signed up for a newsletter.
Matt Edmundson:Dave, listen, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast, man.
Matt Edmundson:Thanks for sharing your story.
Matt Edmundson:Love your loads.
Matt Edmundson:Think you're awesome, and it's just been absolutely brilliant.
Matt Edmundson:Thank
Dave Connolly:you.
Dave Connolly:Yeah, bless you man.
Dave Connolly:Lovely to see you.
Matt Edmundson:So there you have it.
Matt Edmundson:Another fantastic conversation.
Matt Edmundson:Huge.
Matt Edmundson:Thanks again today for joining me today.
Matt Edmundson:Remember to check out Crowd online church at www dot Crowd Church.
Matt Edmundson:Uh, you'll get here Dave speak in a few weeks, and there's some of his talks
Matt Edmundson:already on there, which you can also check out, uh, and just check it out even if
Matt Edmundson:you might not see the point of church.
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Matt Edmundson:helps us live a more meaningful life.
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Matt Edmundson:where you can contribute and grow.
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Matt Edmundson:podcast from, because we've got some great stories lined up and I
Matt Edmundson:don't want you to miss any of them.
Matt Edmundson:And in case no one has told you yet today, uh, let me do this.
Matt Edmundson:, you are awesome.
Matt Edmundson:Yes you are.
Matt Edmundson:It's just a burden.
Matt Edmundson:You have to bear, I have to bear it.
Matt Edmundson:Dave has to bear it.
Matt Edmundson:We're fearfully and wonderfully made and that is good news now, what the story
Matt Edmundson:is produced by Crowd Online Church.
Matt Edmundson:You can find our entire archive of episodes on your favorite podcast app.
Matt Edmundson:The team, the wonderful team that makes this show possible is Sadaf Beynon
Matt Edmundson:George McCague, Josh Catchpole as Estella Robin, and the Mighty Tim Johnson.
Matt Edmundson:Our theme song has been written by Josh Edmundson and if you would like to read
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Matt Edmundson:Totally amazing.
Matt Edmundson:So that's it from me.
Matt Edmundson:That's it from Dave.
Matt Edmundson:Thank you so much for joining me.
Matt Edmundson:Uh, have a fantastic week.
Matt Edmundson:Uh, I will see you next time.