In this enlightening conversation, hear Jerry Pattengill recount his path from a challenging upbringing in Buck Creek to forming global initiatives that redefine how people engage with education and faith. Through anecdotes about early career choices, encounters with the Green family, and personal milestones like the grand opening of the Museum of the Bible, Jerry provides invaluable lessons on finding purpose and courage in the pursuit of one’s dreams. This episode is a heartfelt invitation to break free from the fear of failure and discover the higher calling within.
show to all the dreamers, host dr chrissandra Brunson of the calling and it is with all of you today, you we have realized that so So many people are afraid to go after the dreams that Jesus has placed inside each of our hearts because they are afraid to fail. And that is just plain wrong because if God has given us a dream and we’re not living it out, we are wasting it. And we do not want you or anyone else to die with regret. that’s why the calling we love to inspire empower and equip people to after god’s calling on their lives treat the best kind of eternal legacy possible to have immediate impact on themselves and their families we love to do this through so many different avenues through custom tools programs workshops seminars especially through this radio show where we bring on world-renowned guests to share how they’re going after their god-given dreams and how you can do the same the show. It’s great to b to see you in D. C. With So honored to be able to have you on to share how you’ve been able to go after your dreams and all the highs and lows. Jerry, would you just share with our listeners, they’ve heard your name before, and they’re familiar with it. But just in case, for someone who isn’t, can you share some of the leadership positions that you have held thus far?
JERRY PATTENGALE :
Well, I’m the father of four sons, so that probably helps a little bit. I’m probably most known. I helped start Museum of the Bible from day one in DC. And so Steve Green, one other person, and Jackie, myself, and Steve’s daughter, we got together about 16 years ago and started dreaming. And little by little, we put things in place. And so I spent the last probably 30 years of my career hiring people smarter than I. So that’s some people know me from that. I started a youth movement called J.C. Body Shop and to thriving youth program. I was at a zoo specific and United Champions became, I think, the largest event for a while. And they’re all just a lot of fun. And the Holy Land experience in Florida helped put that collection together. And then I do books. And so that’s mainly what I do out of Indiana Wesleyan University, which is just down the road. And I write from this chicken coop here. We have a golf course with the Rohrman family for Indiana Wesleyan University. We, in a way, did it to be a gift to those Christian teams.
CHRYSANDRA :
wow well we’re so excited to hear all about it and and also jerry that you wrote a new book that we are excited to hear more about and was so grateful to get a personal copy of it and it’s not released quite yet but it’s coming out soon is that right
JERRY PATTENGALE :
Yeah, it’s actually just hitting. So people can now get it. And it’s, you know, it’s actually geared to the millennials because they like beauty. And so when you go through that book, it’s it’s just filled with gorgeous pictures. And it’s the it’s the Gospels in their in their context. And it flows, hopefully. Hopefully, you’ll be the judge of that.
CHRYSANDRA :
No, Jerry, when you shared about it and you said, do you think that millennials will love this or like it? And I was like, they’re going to love it. And I know that I love it. We’ll talk more about that towards the end of this show. But just as a little hook in there, it is the historical and cultural journey, Gospels. and you guys are in for such a treat so we’re going to talk more about this a little bit later on but jerry we want to hear the beginnings we love hearing those roots of and the nutrients that jesus started pouring into your heart and soul when you were younger to now look back and say i didn’t see how he was fueling me to do what i’m doing today
JERRY PATTENGALE :
Yeah, great question. I grew up in the country in a little town called Buck Creek and was poor and ended up graduating at 16 from high school and I was homeless. And the short of it is it wasn’t, you know, I was able to sneak into Holiday Inn where I was working and i got saved at a real conservative church camp i went there to date the girls and the short the short of it is a recruiter was there on friday morning offers me a double scholarship to go to indiana university and i thought free housing free food and i did it and about the second class the professor so captivated me but i got to share one thing that’s unbelievable I’m sitting here and I was zooming the other day with the heirs of Holiday Inn. I mean, the people who built Holiday Inn’s daughters and their husbands are good friends now because of this. And Harry Hargrave was on and he was CEO at the time, now Carlos Campos. But he goes, Jerry, tell them about your connection to Holiday Inn. I said, are you serious? And when I told them about living in Holiday Inn. at 16 years old and being crying. I start crying a that hotel near Purdue U old. God knew that I’d be the very people that built the world. And Jerry, it seem experiences. Take us back what captivated your heart Well, this is kind of interesting. So let me just set this up. The professor was Dr. Glenn Martin. And Glenn Martin would lecture every summer for YWAM. He was their worldview lecturer. He was phenomenal. But first class, I tried to drop him because he was so, you know, he was such a mensa. And so the second class, he started out with a question. But the film that… that is releasing this week that I helped with and I’m in, it’s called David King of Israel. It’s produced by the founder of YWAM’s son, David Cunningham, the famous producer who did End All Wars. All these years later, I’m sitting there going, wow, because my professor lectured for his dad for 30 some years. But the lecture was, he said this, he goes, remember this, my friends, and never forget it. We see through the glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face. The truth is we see enough to know the truth. And that changed my life. He said, we don’t see clearly, but we see enough to know the truth. And then he gave a long lecture on ontology, axiology, epistemology, and teleology. And it was the beginning of my whole pursuit of higher ed. And it’s been wonderful.
CHRYSANDRA :
So Jerry, tell us what that journey was like to pursuing the higher ed. And I would like to share that you are a modern day Albert Einstein of our time. What did that look like?
JERRY PATTENGALE :
I’m just, just to put that in perspective, I’m constantly recruiting people smarter than I. And I said that once in front of about a thousand people, most of them knew me. And when I said I’ve spent my life recruiting people smarter than I, someone in the back goes, hey man, everyone laughed. you know but i just am amazed when i find people that are just so gifted and have skills so there’s a difference between god’s giftedness and skills that you hone and learn to work in my gifts and hone my skills to work in my gifts. And so many people spend their life and their skills that they’ve honed, and I think miss their gifts. And so God helped me with that. And the main thing for me, so I’m in archaeology, my PhD is in ancient Near East from the best ancient Near East historian still alive, Edwin Yamauchi, knows 30 languages, devout Christian at Miami of Ohio. I’m going to be privileged to do the history lectures there this year. But I found out, as I came out of the corporate setting, if you will, from the scriptorium and the VanCampens, it was a wonderful experience. I learned a lot. And unfortunately, Mr. VanCampen passed away young, and the Holy Land experience in Florida came out of that. But I realized that in order to help education, if you didn’t have the people in the humanities, like the arts and literature, talking to the people in education, you know, that they measure things and they’re worried about the classroom setup and everything. And the two weren’t talking. I just realized that I had to get them together. So I studied with another scholar. Our N, or our number of students, was 23,000. We studied them across the United States. Laurie Shriner is her name, and we use that research and we started what became purpose-guided education. In my books with McGraw-Hill, I talk about a life wedge. And this is part of the reason I’m able to help acquire a golf course is because of this one idea. And the motto was the dream needs to be stronger than the struggle. And that resonated. Yes. T-shirts all over the place. But it really worked. But with it, I had a graph and I had all the research to back it. And your life wedge is there’s a real wedge and an ideal wedge. And too many people They only know the real wedge and they never form an ideal wedge. And the real wedge gets pretty wide and they fill it with all kinds of things. So I help students and people all over to figure out what is the real wedge, where are they headed? And then their ideal wedge is what is it? What is your overriding sense of purpose? What is it that God really wants you to do? And in the state schools where a lot of my books were used, It’s like, what’s your overriding sense of passion? And I would have them read a lot of different stories, whether it’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or Silence or whatever. And then they would rate on a light scale, 1 to 10, what was noble and what’s ignoble. And I got a call from London, the London schools. All of UK used that model when the ISIS was heavy and they were taking brides out of London. And I think Michelle Obama had just been there. They had to teach that ISIS was wrong, was evil. And so they called on me, Lat Blaylock called on me and they used that model. that, that apparatus. And so it helped people to figure out what is it that they really want to get excited about. Now, of course, for me, it’s all laden with scripture.
CHRYSANDRA :
And Jerry, we just need to stop you right there. We need to take a short break, but everyone, you are listening to the one and only Jerry Pattengill. We’ll be right back. Twist and shout with Lee & Co. They are the premier oldies band delivering the rock and roll vibes you’ve been missing. Great songs, great memories. Book them at LeeAndCo.com. Liquid Acre is the world’s first crypto to land marketplace, allowing you to own fractional acreage through non-fungible acres. Don’t let the dream of owning a piece of the trillion dollar real estate market slip away. Visit liquidacre.com to invest in real survey land in seconds and start building your real estate legacy.
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CHRYSANDRA :
At Ignite Brilliance Coaching, you will get 34 years of science teaching, a decade of university-level instruction, and over 10 years of instructional coaching to empower educators with the tools, mindset, and confidence to thrive. Contact Ignite Brilliance Coaching on Facebook. We are back. Thank you for listening to all the dreamers radio show. I’m your radio host, Dr. Cassandra Brunson, founder and CEO of the calling. And it is such an honor to be with all of you today. We have the one and only Jerry Pattengill on with us, sharing the first segment all about how he has been able to pursue God’s calling on his life, fearlessly going from being homeless to one of the world’s most elite learners, I would say modern day Albert Einstein. Jerry, can you just share with us how you’ve been able to overcome the different Goliaths that have come in your path and truly walk through these valley seasons with perseverance and confidence to know that you are going to make it on the other side?
JERRY PATTENGALE :
Well, that’s a great question. I’ve heard you ask others that. You know, when we started the Museum of the Bible, I had turned down the requests coming from the Greens probably 20 times. I’d never met any of them. God’s will is, you know, seeking God through prayer and scripture, talking to elders and then finding a piece of heart. And I just didn’t have the peace. And I finally decided I felt a piece at least to go interview. So I went to Oklahoma City and the Holy Spirit came over me and it was just me, Steve and one other person. And I felt such peace about for such a time as this. And he promised I had two kids with chronic diseases. And he said I didn’t have to move from Indiana, didn’t know if we’re going to have a museum. and uh you know so he promised i could always have an answering line to him and so that’s how we started that um i think in the process for me i’ve had a few really tough times where because of a situation i just felt there’s anything that i was supposed to step aside and i had no plan b i mean i had no plan b and i had you know four young kids had married cindy on another show you talked earlier about doing again my wife’s story is phenomenal but in this case here i literally handed in my resignation with no plan b in the dead of winter the coldest winter in in in michigan And I handed it in. And when you’re in the corporate environment, when you do that, normally you’re escorted out the door. And it didn’t happen. I had a good relationship with the family. I still do. And 45 minutes to the minute, I get a call from the president of Indiana Wesleyan University, my alma mater. And he said, Jerry, God told me that you need to get back in the academy and I think that you should come home. He had no idea I had just resigned. And here’s what he said. He says, I want you to write down 20 things. And he said, you know, you’ve been around the world. You’ve seen a lot. He goes, that’ll be your job description if I approve it. And he scratched off one thing out of 20, football. He says, long as I’m president, we’ll never have football. And we didn’t. Well, he retires and then we have football. We have one of the best teams in the country. So that was one of the moments for me. And God helped us through. And my wife and I were on the same page. My wife and I were on the same page. That really helps. And God’s blessed us and our kids thrive. And you know what? We came back to the very church where, near it, I started JC Body Shop with God’s help in 1981. And now it’s a huge complex. It’s been a blessing, been a blessing.
CHRYSANDRA :
Well, Jerry, we can’t wait to hear more of your love story. We always are in for those and the details. God is such a romantic and to be able to orchestrate those details. We would love to know, Jerry, this journey of turning down the Green family and this concept of the Bible Museum. you know, over and over a Holy Spirit just talking time? And how did he con it and then the grand op
JERRY PATTENGALE :
Yeah, so for those of you who follow the BBC special and all, the grand opening is when I realized that some of the items had been stolen. So that played in the national news back in 2017, but I realized at that moment what had happened, and the Greens and everyone, of course, got the authorities involved, and that’s been settled. So the grand opening was a mixed blessing. We had so much press. We had a million people that first year. But one of the reasons that I felt like I wasn’t supposed to do it because I felt called, my calling was to write. And God had been giving me a lot of contracts and helping with film and everything. And it took me so much. You know what it’s like to start a media platform? You have a huge media platform, hundreds of thousands of people. And so people always talk about the number of books I’ve done, but they don’t realize it took 10 years to sign my first book. My first submission was to Baker Bookhouse in Michigan, a great publisher. So if you’re from Baker, great publisher. You guys publish great works. I got a letter back that said, God may have told you to submit your manuscript to us, but he didn’t tell us to publish it. And I’m like, that’s my first submission. I mean, I was young. I was really young. Fast forward several years and several books later, I am keynoting, guess who for? Baker Bookhouse. And they don’t know the story. And so I start off and I read, I said, before I started, I just want to read a story. And I just showed a bunch of artifacts. And I remember I just talked about Erasmus first edition and third edition, all that. And then I go and I speak and I say, When I submitted my first manuscript, once you know, it was to you all. And I got this letter back and I said, here’s what it says. God may have told you to submit your manuscript. And before I could finish it, someone in the back goes, we fired him. We fired him. All I said was this, you know, maybe that was a little too candid. Yes. But that manuscript didn’t deserve to be published and it never will be. And, you know, God used that experience for me.
CHRYSANDRA :
Jerry, can you share with us your experience with the artifacts and which ones you have discovered that have truly proven the gospel? Sure.
JERRY PATTENGALE :
Yeah, my professor, when I studied, I studied archaeology in Israel, and I studied under Gabriel Barkay. At Gabriel Barkay in 1977, he wasn’t famous or anything. Two years later, he discovered the silver amulet. It’s the earliest scripture or representation of scripture. It’s so meaningful to see that, to see something 102 years before Christ. And then the other day, the Museum of the Bible, unbelievable, had the Dan inscription inscribed. And the IAA, Israel Integrity Authority, loaned us the earliest mention of King David. We have a replica. But during this tough time and everything, they loaned us this black monumental looking thing was found in Dan. It’s the earliest mention of King David. And so, you know, that that was pretty important. Then we had some copy pieces we were working on. And on the top of one in writing that you could only see under an ultraviolet light, and it was in a passage of Luke. And on the top, it said to be read during the fast day of Abba Kelthy, which means Father Caluthus. He was a physician. When the Roman authorities came to that area of Egypt, they called him out and all they wanted to do was make a token sacrifice to the emperor to burn some incense or pay a votive offering. Basically, you know, he quotes Polycarp, who was a martyr in Smyrna, from Smyrna. And he says, all these years have I served thee and how can I forsake thee now? And they begged him. But you want us to put you to death here and make your kids orphans and your wife a widow. And he would not recant. And here I am in this ancient Coptic manuscript on the hide of an animal. And underneath of it, you could see with this ultraviolet light the name of the very person. one of the very physicians that I had studied. And in the Museum of the Bible, one of our excavations, thanks to the Greens funding, they just found the Bethesda mosaic, which is right above the house of St. Peter. There’s a first century house under a floor that was underwater for decades and decades, and no one thought it was really the right Bethesda, and then all of a sudden found the name of St. Peter in a mosaic floor right above the top of his first century house, and then recently the Megiddo mosaic. That’s the Bethesda mosaic. The Megiddo mosaic is probably the earliest church floor ever found under a prison, And the museum, through the help of the Greens, helped them to excavate that and bring it to the museum. If you go to the museum now, you will see one of the earliest church floors ever found. Some people believe it is. And just not long after Christ, you see from three women, three women paid for it. Three women, their names are on it. And it’s the earliest mention outside of the Bible of Jesus as God. It says Jesus God first.
CHRYSANDRA :
Jerry, what wisdom would you share with those tuning in that are afraid to go after what God’s called them to? They know what it is, but they are just afraid to step out in faith. What would be your encouragement?
JERRY PATTENGALE :
You know, Moses, he couldn’t go across the Jordan. God said, that’s gonna be your limit. We all have our Jordans. You have Cassandra, I have mine. In his life, it was his choices. And we need to be able to accept the fact that we’re going to know what our Jordan River is. You may not know right now, but back into the future and let God remind you of how he’s delivered you over and over again and how he’s blessed you over and over again. And when he did that with Moses, for me, he also said, and I want you to raise up someone to follow and I want you to do it publicly. And that’s Joshua. and so that’s what he did there you know i i believe in that and my my brother just stopped by abraham and we talked about our homeless days and and and the rough time and he’s a veteran and he he he served our country and just last night uh our family’s really close even though we our parents left us my mom was destitute she didn’t really have a chance at eight kids And left for Oregon for a while. But when you have faith in your family, in their own ways, my brothers found the Lord. And my brother’s raising his grandkids. And we spend as much time as we can with them. They live in Wabash. And they know the Lord. in all this journey i mean he lived in the bowels of portland oregon and then went off to the military early and had an injury early in life and had a plate in his head and and my brother my brothers are all great people. They’re all serving the Lord. And my sisters, we’re all close. And we took our mother back. She did come back around towards the last of her life. And I almost died a few years ago. I had a heart attack. I was speaking in Australia. I came back, and my wife always drives. If you knew me, you’d understand why. But anyway, I was coming back from Excelsior College, speaking there, and we decided to cut a different route from where we were at. It was a two-hour drive and stop at a store. And had we not done that, I would have been in the middle of a cornfield. Instead, I had a heart attack. right in front of the only hospital within 50 miles that could have treated me. I was literally right in front of the emergency room. It was the day before Easter when I had it. But I remember standing there, and when I finally came through it, and I remember just, it was as close to heaven. And my friend Pamela Pyle has a book, and it’s called Anticipating Heaven. You should have Pamela on. God’s blessed me to work with some extremely wealthy people, but I can tell you about the Green family. David Green, you talk to Steve Green, you talk to Mark Green, you talk to Marcy. They will give away everything they can before they die in a responsible way because they know one day they’re going to meet their maker. So whatever you’re doing, my wife and I are trying to do the David Green thing. We’re trying to gift what we can, everything basically. You know, we’ll never make a dime from the golf course that we have. We’ll never make a dime. I just feel like God has something for all of us.
CHRYSANDRA :
And Jerry, how can everyone stay in touch with you to be able to be part of this movement of helping people everywhere go after God’s calling on their lives and to be able to get in touch with you for your books that are already out, plus the movie releases and the Bible Museum and so much more? What is the best way?
JERRY PATTENGALE :
Well, right now, I just got back on social media. They told me I had one of the top 10 websites in the 90s from the Odyssey in Egypt program. And because I was working with these families, I decided to go cold turkey and I got off. So I finally, my agent, you can get calling me through her at Dupree Miller, Shannon Marvin, excuse me, outstanding agent for just LinkedIn has about everything I do right now. And so I just been back on it. You know, I’ve had good traffic. I don’t try things for the clicks. You know, I do things seem to have meaning and some of them go viral. Some of them don’t. And but I will be getting on all the platforms you are. My goodness, half the world seems to listen to you.
CHRYSANDRA :
Well, Jerry, they’re going to be listening to you. And we urge all of you to stay in touch with Jerry. Pull over on the side of the road and get in touch with him. People to go to his website to connect to purchase his upcoming books, the movie that is just released, as well as stay in touch with speaking engagements that are coming up. You don’t want to miss a second of the movement that he has started. created and rippled out throughout the world as paul said as a prisoner of the lord then i urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received till next time dreamer keep dreaming big
