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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Michael Gleb and Matthew Gleb, and Pastor Mike introduced us to his brother Matthew, who preaches in North Carolina.

Michael Gleb
Hello and welcome to Ask the Pastor. My name is Michael Gleb and I'm the pastor of Torrington Baptist Tabernacle and I'm joined today by a special co-host. This is my brother Matthew Gleb, and Matthew is from North Carolina. Matthew, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Matthew Gleb
Yeah, like you said, my name is Matt. I'm the youth pastor in Greenville, North Carolina at People's Baptist Church and I've been there now for 10 years and the Lord's really blessed in our ministry there. Excited to be a part of a staff, about six of us on staff, and we run about 450 people on Sunday morning. And I have a youth group, about 40 to 50 kids, and I just really love serving the Lord.

Michael Gleb
Amen. I think it's a unique experience that's obviously different from being a pastor, is being on staff at a church and serving under a pastor. And sometimes the pastoral staff can be underappreciated sometimes. But also, it can be a tremendous blessing and you have an opportunity to work with people that even a pastor doesn't get the opportunity to work at. But anyway again, you said that you had been on staff for 10 years at People's Baptist there in Greenville, North Carolina. Talk to us about some of the duties that you have had over your tenure there.

Matthew Gleb
Yeah, I started right out of college and we have a Christian school there. And so Pastor Butler, who's actually also my father-in-law, hired me on to teach at the school. So I taught there full-time for a couple years, and knowing that I did not wanna teach forever he, and he knew that as well. And we started to transition out of that position and I started a college ministry at East Carolina University. We called it a Turning Point College Ministry. And I had a great time doing that for several years, for four years actually, and saw a freshman class come in and work with them until they graduated and got to see several students saved. And I got to participate in a couple of their weddings and actually marry off a couple of them as well. So that was really cool to see. And then during that time our youth pastor at the time, left our church to help his father-in-law in Pennsylvania. So I started pulling double duty with being a college pastor and youth pastor, and we were able to do that for about a semester and I just could not keep up with preaching three times a week. Still teaching a little bit in the school and just all the other response was that, "come on a church staff." And so we handed off the college manager to someone else, and I was able to be a full-time youth pastor from then on out and still work a little bit in our Christian school as well. But a lot to do, a lot of different facets of our ministry. And so it's great to be a part of a little---have my hand in a little bit of each one.

Michael Gleb
Yeah. I know a little bit about your history and I know that you've coached basketball, is that right?

Matthew Gleb
I've coached all the sports, not qualified for some, but basketball, baseball, soccer.

Michael Gleb
Oh, soccer. Wow, that's an interesting one. I was an assistant coach for soccer in Fairfax, Virginia for a while, but never was the head coach. And I mean, you've done just about anything that you can do in a church ministry. You've done it, you sing in the choir.

Matthew Gleb
I was singing in the choir and with some scheduling conflicts, I sing whenever I know the song. Now, I'm not able to go to our practices, because of some scheduling conflicts in our ministry. But yeah, love singing. I never sang ever in my whole life until I went to our church: learned how to sing a little bit and learned how to read some music. But mainly I sing with our frontline music and on our church staff we have a singing all of our staff we can sing pretty well. So that's fun. But yeah, singing has become a new part of the resume.

Michael Gleb
Amen. That's good. Yeah, I know that you almost have to be sort of a renaissance man when you come in on staff somewhere. For instance, I had my education in history, history education, secondary education. But when I started teaching, it was teaching. I taught computer classes, I taught PEs, I taught health, I taught all kinds of things that I had zero experience or almost zero knowledge in by the way. So I'm sure some of those parents wouldn't like to hear that. But anyway, that's kind of how it is.

Matthew Gleb
And we really cannot forget about the most important facet of any ministry is being able to stack chairs and move tables. I can move all sorts of tables. Plastic, metal, wooden, you ask and I've done it.

Michael Gleb
Yeah, I told the congregation, I said, "pre-pastoring is 80% reminding people of the gospel and 20% setting up chairs. So yeah, I understand that. That's so true. Now, you don't forget, there is a better half to the Gleb family. And there are also should I say an offspring? Talk to us a little bit about your wife and family.

Matthew Gleb
I've been married now for nine years, her name is Casey and we met in college. We went to West Coast Baptist College, and that's where we met and started dating. We dated for about a year and a half and then I proposed to her after I graduated and she still had a year left. And so I started working at the church one year before she got there, and we enjoyed our time together alone. And then we started to want to have a child, and this may relate to some people, but it took us four and a half years before we were able to have our son. So that's pretty tough. And all of you out there that may be struggling to have a child, or it just doesn't come as quickly as it does others. It was definitely a burden for us for a while, but we were able to have a son, his name is Chandler Michael Gleb. He's the best, and I love him so much. And now we are currently wanting to have another child. And so if any listeners out there have a good prayer life, please pray for me and my wife to be able to have another kid.

Michael Gleb
As your brother, I got a little excited there. I thought there was an announcement coming to the greater part of eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska coming up there, but that's good.

Matthew Gleb
-----You would not be the first to know.

Michael Gleb
We're glad to hear that. Chandler is a special boy. I love him to death and we're excited that Chandler's in your life. He was born in 2020, and just kind of a little bit of a family history here. Our dad, Matt and my's dad passed away in late 2020 to Covid, but Chandler was born in March I believe, right? And then yeah, Chandler was born in March and so he was able to meet dad, and dad was able to hold him and that was a blessing. Now, I had you come out here and preach for me every year. We've had you here every year except for last year because we had a covid scare in our church and then there was literally Southwest Airlines canceling flights because of pilots on strike and all this stuff. So you preached to us online while we set out for a couple of weeks going to online services but you have a connection to the west. How long did you live here?

Matthew Gleb
As you told me, cause I did not know this We moved here in 93, so I was three years old. I'm a 1990 baby, and that's really fun to say these days. To say, "I was born in the 1900s," for all these young people around. But we moved here in 93, and then moved out back east in 2003. So, I was here for 10 years and then while I was in college, my parents moved back. So most of my Christmas's while I was in college were in Cheyenne.

Michael Gleb
Yeah. So, I know this is probably putting you on the spot. It's not the formative years of your life. For instance, I moved here when I was 15, so that shows you the age gap here between us. But I moved here at 15, so it was formative years for me. But can you tell us anything maybe that you like about the west or something you remember about the west, or something that you appreciate about the area?

Matthew Gleb
Yeah, I love the wide openness. You get out east and there's trees everywhere, so you can't see very far and you kind of feel enclosed. But out here it's just kind of wide open. So I do love that. I miss the western culture of the cowboys. And I miss the mountains, and being able to actually see the mountains in North Carolina. If you get into the mountains, you can't see them anymore because there's just trees everywhere. So, I love that. Love the weather. I loved winters here for a while as a kid, cause we had to play in the snow. Obviously, I didn't have to drive through it, so I know my mom hated that. And my mom and dad were on the precipice of divorce several times as dad would be forcing our car down the highway.

Michael Gleb
Know no murder!

Matthew Gleb
Yeah, he'd be forcing us down the highway. We're going to church and we only had to drive an hour to church one way. So we've seen our fair share of accidents. But yeah, I love the west, and love coming out here to visit. Love coming right here to preach to a lot of good people here. And yeah, I like the culture.

Michael Gleb
Now, you came to know Christ here in the west. Am I mistaken about that?

Matthew Gleb
Yeah, I was saved in 2001 when we were going to Cavalry Baptist Temple in Fort Collins, Colorado. And I got saved one night when my little sister was scared, that she came into our room and she was scared and I was like, "Jessica, there's nothing to be afraid of. No one's gonna get us in our house." She goes, "No, I'm not afraid of that. I'm afraid of dying and going to hell." And I've heard the gospel message my whole life. I could quote the verses, but I feel like it was truly then that the Lord convicted my heart and I realized, "Oh wow, I don't believe that I would be going to heaven if I died." And it just kind of hit me all at once. And we could not wait to talk to our parents; they were actually, I think, at the grocery store. And so when they got back, my dad took me into our computer room, and my mom took my little sister. And he led me to the Lord, and we knew the verses, talk together, and that's the night that I trusted Christ as my savior.

Michael Gleb
Yeah, it's one thing to know what the Bible says, concerning salvation. It's one thing to know all the verses, it's even another thing to believe there is a God. But to have a personal relationship with Jesus is the most important thing to accept Him personally. And so that's a great story. It just reminds us of how many people grow up in church and never truly accept Christ as their Savior.

Matthew Gleb
We actually just recently had a woman at our church, she grew up in a certain denomination, and you could say that she loved God. That she appreciated the Bible and she enjoyed bringing her family to church. But they visited our church and her oldest daughter got saved at camp, and her husband had already been saved when he was in college. But she came to a point where she realized, "I can be as sincere as I want to be about religion and about God," but she came to know that, "I never trusted Him as my savior." And sincerity will not give you everlasting life.

Michael Gleb
Right.

Matthew Gleb
Being a good person and even really pushing everything you have into your religion, really means nothing. It's all about a relationship with Jesus. And I'm so glad that, Ms. Bear is her name, she actually was saved this Summer. Yeah, that's a blessing.

Michael Gleb
Let me put you on the spot as we end up here. Churches out here are not incredibly large. There's probably a few of them. I've been to some churches, even worked on staff of some churches; churches back east that were bigger in size that oftentimes have a staff of pastors: if you will, assistant pastors, youth pastors and things of that nature. Matt, from personal experience, and I really don't mean to try to put you on the spot here, but can you give us, if you happen to be in a church with an assistant pastor, here's what I've seen before. A church member may get angry and they don't direct it towards the pastor, because of the office. And so what they do is, they almost place their anger, it's misplaced anger, onto a staff member. They feel like they can mistreat a staff member. They feel like they can mistreat a youth pastor, or such and such. So I may ask you a question, what would you recommend of being 10 years on a church staff, what would you recommend for those maybe listening that do have a larger church that have the staff? How do you treat a staff member? Is it that way out there?

Matthew Gleb
On the senior pastor?

Michael Gleb
No, no, no. If you're, I mean, as experienced, how would you treat, if you're just a regular layman, how do you treat the staff person and their family?

Matthew Gleb
Yeah. I think it's easy to overlook the staff member, because the pastor is there in front of us every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, depending on your schedule. And so he gets a lot of the due recognition and appreciation for his office, and everything that he puts into the church. And this is no bash on our church. I believe our church does a great job, but I've seen it growing up in church my whole life. Where the people who don't have the title as senior pastor, that they may be forgotten. We have a pastor appreciation month, and a lot of times we recognize the pastor, but then there's a whole other pastoral staff that is doing a lot of work as well. And picking up a lot of the work so that the pastor could just study and preach and not have to do all the ins and outs, weekly things that we do. So I believe my dad probably did the best I've ever seen out of anyone. Helping to recognize and appreciate a whole church staff. And he would give honor to the pastor, but he would quickly follow that up knowing that the other families that are involved get their appreciation as well. And he wanted to take care of them. And the church staff gets a lot of the pressure, but sometimes the compensation is not as much. And so it's almost like the balance is totally different. So it's a good thing for maybe even your church to reevaluate how you take care of your staff, how you recognize them. We're not doing this to pat them back. We're not doing this for "atta-boys." But man, they don't hurt.

Michael Gleb
Sometimes it's needed.

Matthew Gleb
Yeah, they really do help keep people on fire. It's good to know that what you said spoke to someone's heart. It's good to know that, you know, you were a blessing to somebody. So be willing to share that. Be willing to be a blessing to those families in any way, shape or form.

Michael Gleb
Well, Matt, thank you for joining us. I love you and I'm so thankful you're my brother first of all, but that you came on and helped some people.