The Meet Hope Podcast
The Meet Hope Podcast
Second Listen: Finding Community Through Fantasy Football and Volunteering
We hope you enjoy this second listen of this episode that originally aired in August of 2023! Find all the links they talk about at meethope.org/today.
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Hello Hope Podcast listeners. We live in a fast-paced world where new material and ideas are thrown at you 24-7. Some of you told us this and said I want to listen to everything, but it's hard to catch up. Well, we're here to help. We desire to be a place that is grateful for and respectful of your precious time, and so to serve you best, we will every so often be resharing past episodes that we call Second Listen, because we think they are worth taking a second to replay. Even if you are an every-week listener, we think having a second listen to these episodes will make an impact on your weekend life, and if you have heard this one but are behind on new episodes, now is a great time to catch up on any others you have missed. Thank you, and here we go.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online. We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Hope our world for the sake of others. Welcome to Hope. Hey everyone, welcome to the Meet Hope podcast. I'm Dave Falcone, I'm the executive pastor here at Hope Church and I'm excited to be hosting today. Joining me are two of my friends, rob Finnegan and Dennis Kessler. Today I have the privilege of hosting because we're talking about one of my favorite things here at Hope, and that's community. So welcome Rob, welcome Dennis. Why don't you both take a minute, introduce yourselves and tell us how you've gotten connected here at Hope?
Speaker 4:Hi, I'm Dennis Kessler. I've been going to Hope for quite a while. I started when I was about 13 or 14 in 1996, when we were over at the high school, so it's been a little while. 13 or 14 in 1996 when we were over at the high school, so it's been a little while. My family also goes here my wife Erin, and my son Grayson, who's nine, and my daughter Ainsley, who's four. By profession, I am a DBA, which is in the IT realm.
Speaker 4:We deal with a lot of data on the back end of healthcare firms and a lot of financials and stuff like that. Um, you know, healthcare firms and a lot of financials and stuff like that. And, um, initially I started coming to hope and I connected through the youth group, um, as I mentioned, when I was in my teens, um, so that was great, having that um, that community there. And then, as I grew older, we played, we had the softball team, which I also um met a lot of, uh, the members that were already here that were a little bit older than myself but who were still, you know, in contact with, and then also the fantasy football, which is, you know, we're going to be talking about later, which is a great avenue to make connections to. So, and one of the other things is tomorrow's hope as well. The preschool here which my kids have attended staff is just great, so the community with that as well.
Speaker 5:Hi, my name's Rob Finnegan, my wife is Janet. I have two adult sons, ty and Chase, who all attend. We've been coming since around 2015. Gotten involved with fantasy football, golf, cornhole, horseshoes, and then Mount Laurel and we had the Mount Laurel campus no-transcript.
Speaker 3:And what did you do as part of the Mount Laurel campus? How did you help out?
Speaker 5:Well, rick roped me into driving. I saw my truck at a golf outing and said we need you. So I ended up towing the trailer on Sundays, bringing it over, helping everybody set up and break down at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:Awesome, Rob. You mentioned the Fantasy Football League. Dennis, you did as well. For those of you that are listening and don't know what the Fantasy Football League is, to give you a quick insight for those of our listeners that aren't sure what Fantasy Football is, it is a game in which you, as a manager, create your own team of players from real players in the National Football League. You compete against other managers in your league, so usually Fantasy Football Leagues are made up of friends or colleagues or people you know, so you compete against other managers in your league to score points based on the performance of your players in real NFL games. And then in 2016, which I believe was the first year both of you joined we changed our league format a little to accommodate more guys and still end with one winner at the end of the year. We've had as many as 60 guys in one season playing together in our league. It's fun, it's exciting.
Speaker 3:Fantasy football helps connect people on the outskirts of Hope's community because it's culturally relevant. It's fun, it's welcoming to someone who isn't heavily connected at Hope. There is no faith requirement, there is no commitment to Hope requirement. It really is just an opportunity to create some community within this Hope setting and listeners. I have to share with you that you are listening, or as you are listening. You are in the presence of greatness, because Dennis is our reigning a current reigning champion. He won the 20,. Dennis, you won the 2022 season. Correct Congratulations, Thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank you, yeah, it was. You know, in the past few years it's been a little rough. I've gotten bumped out of the playoffs early a few times, so it was good to finally sort of get over that hump there.
Speaker 3:So why? Let me ask you, Dennis, as current reigning champion, why fantasy football? You know, what is it that you like about it? What are your favorite parts about?
Speaker 4:it In general. I just I'm a fantasy football nerd regardless. You know I do a bunch of other leagues outside of this, but you know any excuse to do another, another fantasy league and I'm in. So I think the beauty of it is you know a lot of the members here and the fantasy football league in general staying connected is the biggest thing. You know if you might miss somebody you might not see them for a few weeks, but there's always fancy football. You know there's always trash talking and stuff like that, so you always are able to connect and it's and it's an easy way to connect with people. You know it's, it's a sort of bridges, the gap between you know church life here and also personal life too. So that's great. And I think the beauty of it is, as you touched on earlier is it's easy to bring in anybody, because I think there's a lot of people who are involved in fantasy and maybe they're locked into, maybe coming to church, but fantasy is an easy way to get people involved.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it is a lot of fun. It is something that we have done as just sheer joy over the years. There's no real-life impact to it, but it has developed and created some friendships. Rob, I know you've been involved with it since 2016, and I'm sure you can share a lot of the same things Dennis said about why you do it. But let me ask you this, rob what are some good stories or favorite memories that you have over the years stemming from the fantasy football?
Speaker 5:league. I've got a couple of fun times we had. Well, it was the first year when I went to the draft. I brought Hot Wings with me and you would have thought I brought caviar to the event, with the reaction from everybody as Hot Wings although I guess Hot Wings are caviar to fantasy football but yeah, it was just shocking. Everybody that jumped in and thought that was such a great thing. But the other memory which Dave will jump in on is my Le'Veon Bell story, my son. One of the reasons I joined the Hope Fantasy Football was an opportunity to play in a league with both of my sons and so that first draft my older son, ty, couldn't make it to the beginning of the draft, so he had set an auto pick and selected Le'Veon Bell and Le'Veon was actually ended up holding out for the season because he got a franchise tag on him and as a result, my son wasted his number two pick on a player that wasn't going to play.
Speaker 3:So for those of you that are listening and have no idea what Rob just said, uh, because you're not in the fantasy football realm. Uh, just to give you an idea, is you draft players and, um, and what's important about drafting players is in the first round you're probably trying to draft the best players in the league who are going to score the most points for you. So if you go ahead and draft someone who sits out a whole season and you do that in the first round, that's going to have some major implications to how poorly you're going to perform over the years. And, rob, I remember when Ty drafted Le'Veon Bell, who had very publicly announced that he was not going to play that year, and it was all over the news, it was all over fantasy football media. And still, with the second overall pick, tyler drafts Le'Veon Bell and we will never let him forget that.
Speaker 5:Well, as a dad, initially I felt bad for him, but then I saw Dave and how he jumped right on that and ended up realizing that maybe I do belong here with the level of trash talk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, and it's one of those things where you, when you find people that are similarly minded and have similar personalities but I will say this you know that was the start of the friendship between Ty and I I remember, after the draft was over, going home and Rob texting your wife and saying hey, can I have Tyler's phone number? Because I want to. I want to just send him something. And of course your, your sweet wife, was sure. You know, this is great. The pastor wants to text my son.
Speaker 4:He was one year too late on drafting him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so of course you know I'm sending him. You know, articles about how Le'Veon Bell is not going to be playing that year and and we spent the better part of two or three hours that night texting back and forth and busting each other's chops and laughing and talking about other things. But that was the start of it is something just as simple.
Speaker 5:He ended up. He respects you a lot with your knowledge on fantasy after the fact, but I know he still texts you for advice on all the leagues that he's in.
Speaker 3:So so, jumping back to the main theme of this podcast community. Uh, let me ask you guys this what is having community in your life matter to you?
Speaker 4:Uh, you know, I, I think that you know, as a guy, as an older guy, uh, relatively, um, it's sometimes hard to make connections. Um, I think guys are reluctant to get outside of their comfort zones a lot, and so the fantasy football, I think, gives, gives people a chance to, you know, find that fellowship and, just for me, just the community, knowing that they're always there to pray for me and to help out and support us and my family whenever we need it. Just, it's instrumental for our life.
Speaker 5:Uh, same I, I it's. It was a way to give back the charity. With all the different uh events that you get involved in there, it's always a uh, an organization or a charity that's behind that, that we're doing it as well as helping out in Mount Laurel and serving, and it's just an opportunity to um to give back. I've been very blessed in my life and so it's a good way to return the favors.
Speaker 4:I think the big thing for me is you know yourself and to show that you're that light in the world and to to reflect God's love to others. So just having that opportunity, you know is, is a great thing.
Speaker 5:For me, you know, it provides new perspectives on life and it allows me to, you know, see, see different things as well, as it keeps me grounded, keeps me humbled and, like I said, I, I am, uh, I'm very blessed in my life and, uh, you know, being involved in, in all the different events and and with all the different people. It just, you know, refocus me on, on what I'm really here for.
Speaker 3:So, uh, Rob, let me follow that up with a question.
Speaker 5:You know, did it click right away for you or did it take some time? Well, I I I'm not a religious guy and I followed my wife here, janet she. She was a youth leader at our, our previous church and when my sons aged out of youth the there was really not much youth left in the church, so she was kind of set afloat and didn't feel like she had a home. So when she was looking she found hope. And I had not been involved a lot with our previous church and I felt I needed to step up and support her and be with her. So I followed her to here and I really liked the format of the United Methodist Churches and then you know, jeff and Rick are great orators and the way the lesson is presented in modern-day terms. It just really attracted me and I've been to more services here than I think I've been to any church of my past, so it's a great experience for me.
Speaker 3:Well, it's been neat to see that progression of that for you, because I remember in the early years when you and your wife would attend, at the end of the service it was funny to see Rob posted up by the front door, quietly and patiently standing there with your what? Six foot five frame just waiting for your kind, sweet-hearted, loving wife to finish saying goodbye to everybody in the church community. And for those of you that don't know Janet, she is full of joy and if you spend any time with her you can see that she will hug you and embrace you and pray for you. And I remember, at the end of every service there's Rob waiting by the door and there's Janet saying hi to everybody on her way out. And you know, for that 10 or 15 minutes, uh, as Rob uh tried to kindly and patiently wait, um, seeing Janet make her way to the door. But I remember it was not too long after that the hot wings that you brought to the draft. It was the first time that you and I met.
Speaker 3:Um, I happen to be walking through the lobby after church one day, one Sunday, and I happened to have my Sixers hat on and from over in the corner of the room. I hear you're a Sixers fan Looking around. I'm like, who was that? And I see you standing by the door again, waiting patiently for your wife, and with a big smirk on your face, like you're a Sixers fan, I was like, yeah, it was like we live in the Philadelphia area. Of course I'm a Sixers fan. Ah, and then we engaged in a five, you know eight minute conversation or whatever, until Janet finally made her way to the door and and and it's been a neat to see that now, quite often Janet will be waiting by the door for you to finish your conversations with the friends that you have made over the years.
Speaker 5:I don't know about all that, but it's possible. But I do like talking sports and there's a lot of great sports fans here, but I think we have that Sixers conversation every Sunday. I'm here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the conversations right now probably aren't as good as we're still having the same Sixers conversations you had six years ago.
Speaker 3:So let me ask you both this what is something that you would share with someone new who is looking for what you found here at Hope?
Speaker 5:I would say to try new things, do things that make you uncomfortable, get out of your comfort zone, which that's for me. I'm not a I'm a behind the scenes guy, I'm not one that's on the front, but for me it was meeting the different people here, getting involved in the different events, helping set up, helping break down, and it always ends up being a fun day.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just not being afraid to step outside of your comfort zone. I mean, there's so many wonderful people here who are, you know, willing to lend a hand and to, to reach out to you and um, I think, just, um, I think the biggest thing is just not being afraid, just uh, you know, always finding, uh, try to find somewhere to volunteer. I think is the biggest thing. Um, I think that really leads to a lot of really good fellowship and um and community. So, I think, just just stepping outside of your comfort zone and just volunteer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think there's uh, uh, plenty of ways to volunteer, uh, here at hope. So, if you're looking to do so, um, there are opportunities for you to volunteer, uh, behind the scenes, like Rob, uh, setting up chairs and breaking things down because he doesn't like to be out in in the front, Uh, and, and there are plenty of ways to volunteer like Dennis does, Uh, uh, one thing we didn't mention is, uh, Dennis is on a team of people that coordinates our annual golf tournament. Uh, and so you know, I know, Dennis, you're always looking for volunteers to help out with that event, Um, and so you know I know.
Speaker 3:Dennis, you're always looking for volunteers to help out with that event, and there's plenty of other things going on here at Hope. So if you're looking to volunteer, if you're looking to be a part of a community of other like-minded people, there's probably somebody here that is like you and we'd love to help you get connected to them. So if you are interested in being a part of something like our Fantasy Football League, you can get more information for that. You can sign up for that all at meethopeorg slash football. If you're interested in being a part of the golf tournament, you can talk to Dennis or myself. You can participate as a golfer, as a sponsor, as a volunteer. There's more information at meethopeorg slash golf.
Speaker 3:We'll include some links in our show notes, like how to join both the Fantasy Football League or be involved in the golf tournament, or if you're looking to volunteer or find more ways to be a part of this community at Hope. Our goal at Hope is that there are places for everyone, which means, if you are listening, there is a place for you here at Hope. So we want places for everyone to take a next step and find community. So if you're looking, I'd love to help you. You can reach out to me at davidmeathopeorg or talk to me when you see me if you want to catch me on a Sunday morning, or I am in the building here at Hope quite often, since I work here. But we hope that this has been beneficial to you and has been inspiring and uplifting, but that's all we have for today. So I want to thank Rob, I want to thank Dennis for both of you being here I really appreciate it and for all of our listeners. Thanks for listening. I hope you have a great day and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening. I hope you have a great day and we'll see you next week.