Ask A Cop
Ask A Cop is live and unscripted. Each episode gives other officers and the community a window into a police officer's world and provides authentic community engagement with law enforcement professionals.Listeners can relate by asking questions, hearing some of their own struggles, and finding solutions. Despite preconceived notions, these men and women, who serve and protect, are approachable and eager to answer questions. This resource provides meaningful engagement for officers, their families, and the community. As chaplains, we have witnessed the immeasurable rewards of simply sitting down and having these positive conversations. Produced in partnership with Gods Way Radio.
Ask A Cop
025: Does God still do miracles and are we doing enough to take care of our officers?
Have you ever wondered how faith can intersect with law enforcement? Jonathan, a 15-year veteran of the Chattanooga Police Department and Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, is here to weave together his personal journey from the pulpit to the patrol car. He shares his inspiring story of how he transitioned from seminary to the police academy, highlighting the trials and triumphs along the way, including the miracle of his wife's survival from a massive heart attack.
You'll be intrigued by Jonathan's innovative programs designed to support his fellow officers. He takes us behind-the-scenes of his podcast, Watch Your Six Podcast, a transformative program for law enforcement. And finally, discover how he uses his ministry, Cop Church, to create a positive impact within the law enforcement community. Don't miss this insightful conversation with Jonathan about faith, law enforcement, and the power of community support.
https://www.jonathanoparker.com/podcast
Welcome to Ask a Cop. We're sitting down with members of law enforcement to have an authentic conversation aimed to give you a window into the lives of those men and women serving the community. You'll hear about how you can support us at the end of today's episode, but for now, get ready to Ask a Cop.
Speaker 2:Jonathan, give us just a little bit about yourself. What's your career? You know this is Ask a Cop. So where you're at right now, a little short history of your law enforcement career, yeah absolutely Well.
Speaker 3:First thing I want to say is good morning Miami. It's great to connect with all the wonderful folks there in Miami and so my story begins not too far from you and Savannah. Georgia was born and raised, went to school for undergraduate in criminal justice, ended up coming up to Tennessee the Chattanooga Tennessee area and was going initially for seminary to be in pastoral ministry and that's a story we'll maybe talk about later but ended up in law enforcement. I served for 10 years with the Chattanooga Police Department and then the last five years with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. So 15 years in law enforcement. I've been a patrol officer, a field training officer, school resource officer and my present assignment for the last three years is I coordinate all of our wellness initiatives. I serve as a chaplain but I coordinate our chaplains, our peer support, critical instance stress debriefing we started a great financial wellness team to help our folks with finances. So anything related to employee wellness right now is what I'm doing over these last three years.
Speaker 2:That's awesome and I know that that's a story in and of itself that hopefully we get to as well. But 15 years in law enforcement and thank you, thank you so much. And so much diversity in the positions and the assignments. So very, very cool, jonathan, I mentioned to you I love hearing you know when people got saved, how people came to know the Lord when we have, excuse me, believers on the podcast is so special, so would you mind sharing that with us?
Speaker 3:Sure I would. So I'm really very fortunate I can. I can genuinely say I was raised in a great home, great parents, christian parents. In our particular movement, the Church of God, is a Pentecostal denomination. I am a fourth generation born into the movement. But what I tell people is is I'm not fourth generation Pentecostal or fourth generation Church of God Just because of that.
Speaker 3:I'm first generation because I had my own personal encounter with God and even from a very young age I just knew that God had his hand on my life. But as a teenager I ran, I did my own thing. I thought, well, I'll get right later on, I'll do, you know, when the time comes. And as I got to be about 19, 20 years old, I literally physically was becoming sick, having problems. I couldn't explain, I was just angry at the world. And the saying goes you got sick and tired of being sick and tired. And one night my mom comes in, just a wonderful saint, and she says Jonathan, I think the Lord's trying to get ahold of you. It's time for you to come home. I told her, I said I know it, I'm tired of fighting and I'm tired of resisting him. And so I surrendered fully at about 20 years old, got back into the church and it's been an interesting journey ever since then.
Speaker 2:You know, I think that's what the Bible calls prodigal. Right, you're prodigal for a time, for a moment, and you know it's not necessarily a title to be proud of, but it's not a title to be ashamed of either, right? And I just say that because I wonder how many people are listening that they have prodigals, that they have sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, maybe even mom or dad that are aware of it. They are away from the Lord. So it's an encouragement, because we know that God is faithful, to bring those prodigals home.
Speaker 3:Yes, he is. You know, so many people talk about their testimony, and I think it's a wonderful testimony to say that I've served the Lord all my life and that I never ran from the Lord. But for those of us who were prodigals, for faithful parents who pray, just to be encouraged to know that, absolutely, you just be faithful, trust the Lord, he's going to work in their lives, and he did it in my life and brought me back to him, and so I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 2:Jonathan, that is awesome. Thank you so much and again, so much. There, just right, there, right, the students listening. You don't need to run away from the Lord. You know, if God has you in a Christian home, he has a plan for life. I mean so much, but there's more we're going to cover. So we want to get moving and, jonathan, I did mention to you that this is a call in program. We encourage people to call to text. Maybe they have a question, Maybe they have a thought they want to share, and so I want to give everyone the phone number right now. If you just tuned in, this is Ask a Cop live here at God's Way Radio, and we want to make sure you have the number so that you can participate. And it looks like Adrian's getting even more techy here. We might have some questions coming through social media. Let's see 786-313-315-786-313-315. That's the phone number to the studio. You can call or text right now.
Speaker 4:I had to join in, joey, sorry to jump in.
Speaker 2:No problem.
Speaker 4:But you know, I got to meet Jonathan I don't know Sometime last year at a conference for chaplains here in Orlando. So he came even closer than Savannah Georgia, right here to Orlando, a facility, great place. You know, you don't realize we had a mutual friend, I guess. And you don't realize that the same things God is stirring in someone's heart in Miami, is going on in Chattanooga, is going on in Indiana, is going on in Wyoming, I mean, and what God is doing in law enforcement, in the first responder, in this warrior culture of our nation, is an amazing thing. You know it could feel exhausting, but then you see that there's the same thing going on everywhere. So I got to meet him a little bit at that time and, you know, heard most of his podcasts now and you know he's also a podcaster.
Speaker 2:He is. We're going to talk about that, yeah.
Speaker 4:And so, jonathan, I'm so grateful we're able to connect here through this way, and I'm thankful we got to connect at that conference. So thanks for joining us again.
Speaker 3:Hey, I really appreciate the invitation and, adrian, you make a great point. Something I have learned is when we feel like we're out there on an island, we're all alone, that we're the only one trying to press for a good fight. It's just an excellent reminder that there are people all over this country and all over this world that God is spurring for, you know, for ministry, for whatever you're calling, but especially even in law enforcement, we're not alone.
Speaker 2:Amen, Thank you. So, Jonathan, I want to get to. Oh boy, there's so much to talk about here. You know, I like the way that you framed it. Maybe you can kind of tell it all as one story, in a sense, how you always wanted to be a pastor. The doors weren't opening. I don't know if you would say your second choice I'll let you say it in your own words in a moment you should be law enforcement, so you went into law enforcement to pay the bills, you know, but as soon as you make that decision, you have an incredible moment the birth of your daughter and then you have a tragic moment. At least when you told me originally, it sounded like it all happened pretty close together. So could you kind of tell us about that season of your life?
Speaker 3:Sure. So growing up I was, I always had a love for law enforcement. You know, I was that kid that was punching John on chips. You know California Highway Patrol and we would, you know, act that out on our bicycles in the neighborhood. I like Knight Rider, some of those great. You know classic programs growing up. So I always had a love for law enforcement. And when I went to get my undergraduate degree I earned it in criminal justice. But at the same time of all of that I used to say, well, I'll go into law enforcement, I'll be in the FBI.
Speaker 3:If God didn't have his hand on my life, call me for ministry. So my understanding of what my direction in life was going to be was full-time pastoral ministry. And of course, you know God, you know the Bible says that we directly, we order. You know we have our plan, but God orders our steps. And so I moved to Tennessee, go to seminary, graduate from seminary, and it just seemed like door after door kept closing and couldn't get an opportunity into what we thought we wanted to do. So at a certain point I'm like, okay, I've got to put food on the table, I've now got married and I've got to pay the bills, you know. So hello.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's like, jonathan, don't take anybody in law enforcement. But no, I really did. I had a passion, a love, a background for law enforcement, but I just didn't think that I would be doing it full-time. I thought maybe as a chaplain or something. But in 2007, I put in, got hired on by the police department. But the funny thing is, the day before I started the police academy we found out we were pregnant, my wife Meredith and I. And so five months of the police academy and then four months of field training. Nine months had elapsed and I was getting ready to start solo patrol. But it was time for my daughter to be born. So she was born. Olivia Grace was born on June 24th 2008,.
Speaker 3:And we were at home and eight days later, july 2nd, I was gearing up. I was getting ready to start my first day on solo patrol on July 4th. You know like what a great night to start patrol and on, you know, an evening shift out there working there at midnight. But July 2nd we had placed it, put the baby down to sleep and she starts crying. It was almost midnight and so we're new parents. We jump up, we run across the hall, check on why the baby's crying and when we do, my wife is standing there with her fingers on her neck, you know, like checking her pulse, and she says my heart's racing. And so I said, well, I'm thinking, well, it's anxiety or maybe just a shift in blood pressure. We just jumped out of the bed. We were, you know, we were shocked by what was going on, you know, with the baby crying, new parents. So we walked back across the hallway to the bedroom and when we do, she collapses back on the bed and she's dead, you know, clinically dead from what we now know as a massive heart attack.
Speaker 3:And so for the next 15 minutes, eight minutes, I performed CPR, I dialed 911, you know, here I am the responder, calling for responders to come help me, and they show up, they start shocking her, defibrillated her a total of nine times. She was airlifted to a local trauma hospital and the doctors told me that she would not live. If she did live, she would have significant brain damage and some other issues. And so at that point, you know, here I am new cop, surrounded by my church family, but also surrounded by my blue family, law enforcement family, and we're like every family.
Speaker 3:We've got problems, we've got things we need to work on the profession is not perfect. Thanks again. There are times when it really shines and in those moments they took care of me. And the short version of that story because we don't have time today is that she was literally raised from the dead. God did a miracle and she's alive today. But that's not the end of the story, and maybe we'll get to talk about it, adrian, because I had some issues later on. Life continues, even through every miracle. So that was my journey into law enforcement.
Speaker 3:And my story there as well, Joey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you mentioned now, I wonder because, the way you just said that Johnson, Adrian, I don't know if you knew that just a year later, Jonathan was looking for help for himself and you heard that part of the story.
Speaker 4:No, I didn't know, wow, so we'll get to it Half of these things I'm learning even more.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 4:And that's a great thing too, I think, when you see what happens, and really we know it right through the struggle. Well, training that we're doing in the city, but that's that post-traumatic growth, right, the fact that someone can go through all that. They got so much to offer and there's so much depth, and so just you could see in a person that life and what is developed in them, and so, no, it makes sense now, right, it makes sense that you saw those things and now you know why the story they've been through. So, yeah, I'm listening and I'm learning. Things live here on the air as well, that's right.
Speaker 2:We're live here in the studio of God's Way Radio. If you're listening later on the podcast, make sure you tune in to the premiere of Ask a Cop the first Tuesday of every month. But if you're with us, live, you know if that's you and please participate. Don't be shy, adrian. Jonathan, we always get this happens. After we find out someone was listening, they tell us wow, it was such a great program, thank you so much. And then we ask them you should have called, you should have texted. And then they'll say I didn't want to interrupt, I didn't want to take away, I was so engaged. So we understand. But it's such a blessing and it makes it that much more dynamic and special when you call or text, whether it's to say God bless you, whether it's to say, hey, I've been through that same thing, whether it's to say tell me more about the miracle, whatever it is, something about law enforcement, we're going to excuse me, we're going to get to podcasting, we're going to get to cop church. I mean, there's a lot that Jonathan's going to be sharing with us. So if you have a question or comment along the way, please, here's the studio phone number 786-313-315. Let me give it to you one more time the studio phone number you can call or text no special code, no number to opt in, just like any other cell phone number 786-313-315.
Speaker 2:Jonathan, there was one detail you let me know, and I want to let all the listeners know, that the story of that miracle is online 700 Club. I actually searched your name and it came up 700 Club, jonathan Parker, even though it was about your wife. I was able to find it that way and then and I was fortunate to see her there at the end give her side of the story. So if people want to see more and we have it on our social media as well we put it up there for people to see the link. But there was a moment there that really impacted me, and I'm using your own words here, if I may. You said that the Lord told you you can sit here and watch her die or you can do something. Could you take us to that moment?
Speaker 3:Yeah, joey, I wrote down the number so if somebody doesn't call in, I might call in myself and ask myself a question. So, absolutely, I welcome any callers and would love to hear from somebody this morning. But, yeah, absolutely, in those moments the 700 Club picked this up and you can watch the seven minute clip on YouTube. That just goes into a little more detail about this story. But in that moment I was there, had been doing CPR and the paramedics are now working on her and I had picked up the phone and I had called her parents and my parents just saying look, I don't know what's going on, you just need to pray. And it was. It was almost like the Holy Spirit was just speaking to me. You can either just stand here and watch this happen or you can take action in the middle of your crisis.
Speaker 3:And in those moments I just felt like God was directing me to go get my Bible. So I got my Bible and I actually laid it on her feet. I found out later that at least one of the paramedics was a member of the church where we attend, so it was actually at a shift change when it happened. So four paramedics, two ambulances, four paramedics and a supervisor were there, so five paramedics in total were there working on her. They had shocked her for the fourth time. I thought that I laid my Bible at her feet and I just prayed. I said, god, you know your word is life and I need a miracle. You know no fancy words in the middle of crisis, just whatever you know, he hears and he knows.
Speaker 3:And I thought they you know, I thought they shocked her the fifth time and that her heart started beating. But he later said that it was when the Bible touched her feet that her heart started back and it was an absolute miracle, and said their hair stood on end. You've never seen anything like it. And so this, this is not like you know. I'm very cautious when I tell the story because this isn't like hokey pokey type stuff fruits, nuts and flakes.
Speaker 3:I mean, this is documented things that happen along the journey, medical professionals who verify it, medical records that are behind it and still, you know, god raised Jesus, called Lazarus out of the tomb and you know, lazarus eventually one day had to die again. So real life continues and you know so. As they would start to move her, get her on the into the ambulance, the movement would stop her heart, so they'd shock her again, it'd start back and then, you know, they'd go a little ways and it's just so. That's why she had to be shocked a total of nine times. And you know, even to this day she started in the past couple of years to have some, some problems with heart rhythm issues because of the scar tissue. They had to put a defibrillator in.
Speaker 3:And the journey continues for those that are out there listening. Hey, say a prayer for us, say a prayer for Meredith, for her heart, and but that's also what you alluded to earlier is about a year later, mentally and emotionally, when the dust settled, I started really having some issues.
Speaker 2:I mean, just just take us right into that, that, that next moment, that's what I was going to ask about next 2009.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So you know, we can be people of faith, we can believe in God, we can believe in miracles, and the fact of the matter is we're human beings and so from our brothers and sisters that are out there working on the streets, the things we see we're not expected. Oh, just because you have faith, you know, go pray and you be over it. You know these things affect us. We're human beings and when we go through abnormal events, you know we talk about this with critical and stress debriefing. You know, if you go to an abnormal event and you experience abnormal stress reactions, that's perfectly normal. And for me, about a year later, I started having flashbacks of that night. I was seeing things from that night. It was hyper, I was having hypervigilance, it was like I was constantly on guard. It was almost like you know, you see those cartoons with a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, and it was like the devil was saying to me you saw how quickly she dropped dead.
Speaker 3:There was no warning, there was no pain, there was nothing. She just dropped dead. That's you today, buddy. You're going to die.
Speaker 3:And you know, at the time I didn't know who to talk to, I didn't know what to say, and, unfortunately, a lot of times, even in our churches, we don't do a great job of talking about mental health, talking about the resources that are available, and so I was really struggling.
Speaker 3:But at that moment, during that time, I had a supervisor who sent me to be a part of our volunteer network in the state of Tennessee, the Tennessee Public Safety Network, to do debriefings on others who have been in critical incidents, and part of the training is you have to be debriefed on an incident, and so I was debriefed on this situation with my wife, and we never forget the things we've seen and we've experienced, and so every year, july 2nd, it always. You know I really don't like to be awake at about 1130 to 1140 that night, but the life controlling issues were healed through that process, and so that's just the encouragement for somebody. You may be struggling. Don't suffer in silence. You may have run into walls and you wonder why me? Why am I dealing with this. There's hope and there's help available for you. You just have to know the right avenues and resources to get that help.
Speaker 2:Jonathan, thank you so much for sharing that and I'm going to get back to it. But I just think of anyone listening, right, if God, through the program, is just crying out to them, or maybe you know, maybe you're listening. You're not a believer, you wouldn't identify as a Christian, but you're thinking, man, this guy's onto something you know that sounds like me. Please, please, I don't know what other way to say it. I mean, he just said it. There are resources, there is hope, so there's a lot of ways you could do that. If it's right now, if you're thinking you know what, I'm ready to ask give me something, Text us. You could text us right now. There's a level of anonymity there. We have Chaplain Adrian in the studio, we have Jonathan on the line. We have contact information for many people, so just text us. Hey, I need help. You know I'm ready to ask for help 786-313-315. Adrian, I believe another resource is a website that you help to run as well. There's contact information there, or is there a better point of contact?
Speaker 4:You can go. Yeah, so policethinkyoucom, policethinkyoucom Anyone listening can go there. You have a little chat button and that chat button literally just sends us a message. It doesn't have any of your information other than whatever you leave for us to contact.
Speaker 2:It goes to a Chaplain right. It goes directly to a Chaplain.
Speaker 4:It goes directly to us, to me and to a Chaplain. We'll call you back immediately as soon as they get that message. So policethinkyoucom and just put the little chat, say, hey, call me back and we'll call you back. You could put that. You know how you get those Google numbers. You know Some people. They don't want us to have their number. Just put your Google number over there, but we will call you back. Reach out, there's a way to do it. And someone on Instagram. We tried for the first time alone here doing an Instagram live, and so, if you're on Instagram live, thank you for joining us, and there's already a link that someone put there. I've been to that website, rest4firstresponders and so there's many resources, so many good things out there. So, joe, you have more to go.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4:You know, go ahead. So Jonathan has done so much speaking engagements. It's almost like a little different sometimes. We just want to, I just want to. You know he's good and so I'm listening and I don't want to interrupt, so I'm just going to plug it right now. But there is, if you go to Spotify right for podcasts you want more stuff.
Speaker 4:That's where you listen to podcasts, wherever Apple, wherever you can go and get this program. Later on You'll hear it at Ask a Cop. If you search for that, you'll find it. But Jonathan did some as well and it's called Watcher Six Podcast and he put in the time, he put in the effort. There's 80 something episodes on there. All sorts of topics, all sorts of guests. We know because we kind of do it here. It's not easy, man, it's not easy.
Speaker 2:And so you know, yeah, let's jump to that and kind of the segue, jonathan, there, and actually, before I get to that, we got a text. We're getting some movement here. So, jonathan, your prayers are being answered. You can put your phone down, no, just kidding. So we got some movement on Instagram and we got a text here to the studio, dear sister, she says, wow, his story really hits home. I never expected a cop to relate to me. I usually just want to pray for them. Any response you want to share with this listener that texted yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:You know, I used to work as a school resource officer in an inner city high school. One of our most troubled a lot of gang activity, a lot of violence, and what I used to tell my kids is you know, we're a lot more alike than we are different. We're seeing trauma, we're seeing tragedy, we're seeing difficulties and we're human beings trying to process it, going through the emotions, through the struggles. And so if we would focus on our similar journeys and we would focus on our common struggle as human beings, we would find that we have a whole lot in common. And so, yes, sister, thank you so much for sending that text message. That's an encouragement to me. But, yeah, absolutely, we want you to pray for us, but know that we are praying for you. We show up on calls and we're praying for the people that we're responding to. We're trying to use our journey and our stories to help others as well, and we're not two separate communities. We are one community and learning to work together. And so that's a great text message this morning.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much, jonathan, for responding. And now this is cool. Now, this is like linking even Ask a Cop to Ask a Cop. We got another resource Never Walk Alone, miamicom and Adrian. Just briefly, we're going to hear more about that on our next episode, aren't we? We are Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 4:So there's again people that care all over and people that have been through things that are available. So yeah this afternoon at 3.30. Or if you're listening in the podcast, you'll see it in one of the other episodes and we're going to look at a little more at Never Walk Alone and some of the things going on in our community here.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So, jonathan, back to your story. Again, the phone number one more time. Now we start to get some interaction. If you're listening, we're hitting, we're going to hit 8 am here on the live program in just a moment. The phone number to the studio is 786-313-3115. 786-313-3115. And that's the studio phone number. Called or text us right now. Excuse me, jonathan. We got another question on Instagram here from an area of towns called South Miami. Shout out to South Miami. They said how can we support our officers?
Speaker 3:Hey, that's a great question. So the first thing I would say is obviously you can pray. You can support your officers through prayer, you can support them verbally, but also I caution people we appreciate the online support, but what we don't appreciate is being contentious or argumentative with other members of the community, because all that does is inflame tensions, and so we want the verbal support, but we don't want arguing for us, or at least I don't see that as being helpful.
Speaker 2:But the other things that you're doing Very good. I think that's. I just want to jump in right there. I think that's very insightful, because I think some people think they're doing a good thing, and for you to share that. So thank you, go ahead please.
Speaker 3:No, absolutely. And the other thing is is you've heard of great ministries and great organizations, even there in Miami Connect locally, offer your support. Sometimes, you know, financially it's not all about finances, but that can go a long way in providing support but connecting with those who have boots on the ground and find out what it is that God's doing where you are and then partnering with them. But then there's other ways. Like I said, I've got a website, we've got other things that we have done, and so I think it just starts out through prayer, through the verbal support, through connecting this, those things, because one of the issues that cops have is an identity issue where, over a period of time, it's I'm a cop, I'm a cop, I'm a cop, and so slowly we begin to shut out those things in our lives that aren't law enforcement related, and it's very important if cops are going to stay emotionally.
Speaker 3:Well, dr Kevin Gilmorton, in his book Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement, he talks about this and the fact that we need to maintain those connections outside of law enforcement. And so, even if there is something like what we were doing here in Chattanooga, cop Church and other organizations that are designed to reach cops, we need volunteers. We need people that are supporting and connecting who are not in law enforcement, to help us maintain a healthy view and perspective of the world around us, to realize everybody's not a criminal. That may be what I deal with all day, every day on the job, but outside of this there are still good people in this world who are doing the right thing and support us, and so we need those connections.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I'm just gonna throw this in there. I don't know that we have time to go all the way down this rabbit trail, but we've heard in different trainings, in different conversations and police officers opening up saying, yeah, you know what? That's true. Even they treat their loved ones at home like a criminal. You come home and you're treating them like they're a criminal and the wife, the child is going. I'm not a suspect. What are you doing? So for any law enforcement listening man, what a good word. Not everybody's a criminal. You gotta take your belt off. But we have another question, adrian, maybe you wanna read the question.
Speaker 4:Sure, and just to comment on that too, I know one officer after going through some changes in his life. Right, he used to be Sergeant Dad, Sergeant Dad, and he just thought, that's cool, my kid's calling me Sergeant Dad.
Speaker 4:And then I'm at a family training and the whole family is with him and remembering that point where the daughter said you know, man, I'm so glad I got my dad back. You know, just, dad, and it was impactful for me and it was impactful for everyone there to hear that and it was without him realizing it that he was just bringing that home. So you know, we often tell the guys hey, loosen your duty belt on your way home. You know, just find little things, pray. But the question. And so here's how, just like an officer doesn't know what to expect on his day, we don't know what to expect on a SCCCCCCC.
Speaker 4:So we got a question and it says could you share a little bit on how he feels about defund the police movement? We'd love to hear a Christian officer feels about that.
Speaker 2:So here you go, you're representing all Christian officers go.
Speaker 3:Yeah really, you know, landmine there. Avoid that. No, I do want to say this. I'm speaking for myself, so I'm not speaking for my agency. I'm not speaking for all cops. I'm not even speaking for all Christian cops, but I do have an opinion on that, and you know the defund the police movement. I think there's a couple of ways to look at it. One is, on its face, is not very feasible. For instance, I'm a part of our crisis intervention team, which is CIT. Some people may be familiar with that program. It's based originally out of Memphis and we do a lot of training for mental health crisis response, and so there are a lot of agencies that are moving into co-responder models for mental health crisis response, where you have an officer paired with a mental health provider.
Speaker 3:But some of the talk of oh, we don't need police to respond to this or that, oftentimes it's people that don't understand the nature of the job. And what we tell people is most people operate their daily lives with the probability that something bad will not. You know it's not gonna happen. It could, but it's probably not gonna happen. Cops operate out of the possibility. Is it possible that something bad can happen? And if it could, then we have to be prepared for it, and so these mental health calls and other issues that we're facing. We need to have more conversations to understand both sides of the perspective. But the flip side of that is is there are a lot of things that we do respond to that we shouldn't respond to. Cops are expected to be all things to all people, and so there are a lot of issues sometimes that we're responding to that we shouldn't, and I could go into some specific rabbit trails on that, but I won't. But here's the question for you If we want cops to be well-trained, if we want them to be professionals, then how can we take money away from them and not invest more money into their training, into their development? Because that's one of the criticisms is oh, it takes more time to be, you know, a cosmetologist than it takes to be a police officer. Okay, well, if that's the way you feel, then pay for more training, provide more resources for us, and so it can be a little bit ironic at times, those who are making demands of police and, at the same time, calling to be defunded. So I'm not saying there are things that we don't need to reform. There are certainly things that we do need to change about the way we do a law enforcement or being peace officers. We're not perfect. We do need to come to the table and we need to talk about it. But here's the other side of it, and this is where my heart and my passion really comes into it.
Speaker 3:If you look back to Michael Brown, the Ferguson Missouri incident and President Obama's task force on 21st century policing. If you look at as recent as May, with President Joe Biden's executive order on police reform, every major reform bill order, whatever it is, a key component of it is officer safety and wellness. If we want to improve police community relationships, if we want to enhance what we are doing in our communities, we want to build public trust, we have to take better care of our officers. And so that's where I come in and I say, hey, we need to be investing and making sure, not that we just start healthy, but that we stay healthy. We have a moral obligation, an ethical obligation to these first responders who started healthy, started happy. They went through rigorous psychological and physical testing. Now they're broken and we just want to toss them aside? No, let's invest more in taking care of them.
Speaker 3:So that's the long answer.
Speaker 2:No, no. I mean, if that was the no, no, I think you're being humble there. I think there's a lot more we could say. I thank you for giving a thorough answer and response, man, again so insightful. I mean the contradiction of police need to be better at their jobs but also take money from them, the different things that you said. And the last thing that you said is so interesting because I don't think people think like this. Now, I think that it will help if you think of the attitude that we have developed. I think maybe I'm out of touch with military right. Man, we want to take care of our veterans, we want to take care of people that have fought for our freedom. Now, if you just bring that a little closer to home, I think the same should apply to first responders. And again, it's sad to think you would have sadly and you could have this with anyone, right, people can criticize dentists, lawyers, whatever, but that you would have people say, oh, they picked it, it's their problem. Man, the word to use a duty, an obligation, ethical, moral, very interesting. I hope people listening are chewing on that and thinking on that.
Speaker 2:Jonathan, I do want to get to some more of your stories, some more of what you've done, what God has done, getting to starting the podcast right. So here's just a free go for it, plug away the podcast, your podcast. We've seen how neat it is, how it's just been a blessing. So tell us about the start of the podcast. And actually I may be a little bit out of order here, but I don't know if you mentioned this, but one thing that I wanted to highlight and these two may not be connected, so forgive me but one thing I wanted to highlight is what you said to me that stuck with me. You said that after you went through what you went through with your wife, that that was part of, or the catalyst to help law enforcement to really pursue that area of life. I hope I'm making sense, but I thought that was really important as well. So, like I said, if those two things aren't related, forgive me, but those are two things I wanted to touch on.
Speaker 3:Sure, no, it's absolutely one part, a consistent part of my story. So in those moments, obviously I have this heart and this passion for serving God and wanting to take care of people. To you know, because of that passion and love for God. But in those moments, when I was in my most traumatic, critical moments of my life, the police came around me and took care of me, and so I committed myself to say, hey, whatever I do in life, I want to give back, I want to serve them, I want to care for them in their moments of crisis and their moments of need. So out of that, two things actually happened. One is after I started getting help from my own issues is I got more and more training. It fueled this passion to say I want to focus on wellness for our law enforcement. And so during that time, at a certain point, I transitioned from one agency to another.
Speaker 3:I launched this podcast and it's the idea, the concept is called Watcher Six.
Speaker 3:We understand that, if you were kind of standing on a clock phase, that 12 o'clock is a threat that comes from the front, but behind us are all these other threats that we oftentimes don't watch out for, things like the facts, the statistics that tell us more officers are dying by suicide than are dying from felonious assaults in the line of duty every year, statistics that you know somewhat are debatable, but that the divorce rates in law enforcement are much higher than the general population, things that we see and we know about law enforcement, and so what I suggest is, for a long time we have not done a great job of taking care of the things that are really creeping up and taking us out. So Watcher Six, watcher Back, but I also suggest that there are six areas of health and wellness that we need to be intentional about focusing on. And just real quickly, I made them all start with the letter M, make them easily memorable, you know, just because sometimes there's those hose draggers out there and they need, you know, they need a real simple.
Speaker 2:Oh man, somebody respond at fire department. Somebody respond yeah, well, you know.
Speaker 4:and that's that. That's that church part of you. We got a five point with all you know alliteration. This man was made to be a pastor. But go ahead, please. Exactly right.
Speaker 2:Give us the now again. Everyone listening I mean, this is golden, seriously, everyone listening. Take note here what in your, in your opinion, in your framework, what are those six?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So those six areas that we need to watch, your six are your mental health, marital health, which is relationships. Your muscle health, which has to do with your sleep, your nutrition, your physical fitness, your money, health finances. We know so many times you know these young folks especially, but even older folks. They get, you know, get this new job, no debt, and the first thing they do is go out and get a great deal on a $700 a month payment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that. Great deal on us. That's what the salesman told them right, that was a great deal.
Speaker 3:Right. And so you know, then you're in debt and you're struggling and you enter in. It's what I call a money cycle that affects all of the other areas. But you've got your mental, marital, muscle, money. Then your missional health. You know everybody wants to be critical of their leaders, but my question is is what are you doing to become the type of leader that you wouldn't want to work for? And so your missional health.
Speaker 3:A lot of times, we know, one of the major stressors for law enforcement is not just the operational stress, the things we see and experience, but it's the organizational stress, the internal politics, the struggles, and those things can be really heavy. So what are we doing to care about that? You know self-care and practicing. But then, lastly, is your ministry, health, or this is what I call your spiritual health ministry and other governments? Minister of defense or minister of business just means a servant in this area, and there is an aspect of faith, but there's also the aspect of identity, which we alluded to earlier talking about who is your identity? Are you a cop? Or is cop what you do? Are you also dad, husband, mom, sister, daughter, church member, softball coach, whatever it may be? And so those six areas watch your six.
Speaker 3:So I started a podcast and over 80 episodes no longer recording episodes, but they're still available for download, still getting many, many downloads every week, and so each episode focuses on one of those areas of health and wellness. It is not. Although there are some episodes that deal with faith, it is not overtly a faith-based podcast, and so you can share it with your coworkers and others that maybe need wellness but they're not so much interested in the church piece of it and the watch your six podcasts. You can go to my website. You can see the episodes there, but also, like you mentioned, on your favorite podcast episodes. So the podcast was one thing that was birthed out of my own journey for desire for wellness.
Speaker 3:But the other side of that and I'll just mention it and then we can go into more if you decide but I got to a certain point where I kept thinking, hey, this is a short-term stay in law enforcement and I couldn't get out of it, and so I finally decided. You know what I said. I came home one day. I said to my wife well, we can't pastor a church like we thought we would. We're just going to do something for law enforcement. So back in 2015, we started cop church, chattanooga, and so for a couple of Tuesday nights a month, we would gather, we would have a meal, we would have a worship gathering, I would preach a message, we'd have children's church and just love on our law enforcement families in the context of a church environment.
Speaker 3:And so law enforcement training, the Watcher Six podcast, developed into an online course and a training course where I've traveled to different agencies teaching Watcher Six. Because making it home is just the beginning, you know. I say well, you know, in cop world, we say, well, brother, sister, make sure you go home at the end of your shift. And my question is what then? So what if you make it home but you're not happy, you're not healthy, you hate life, people in your home don't want you there, and so we've got to do better. And so the Watcher Six podcast fed into a course, the Watcher Six wellness course.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 3:And cop church was dealing with the relational and spiritual needs of families. And so it's just all blossomed through the years out of my own journey and my own need and desire to give back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, oh man, so much, so much, you know. So we're in the last 15 minutes of the program, jonathan, if you could believe it. I mean you, you probably know what it feels like, right, you get into a good conversation, you've done this a lot and you go. Man, where did the time go? So let me just catch everyone up.
Speaker 2:This is the Ask a Cop live from the studios of God's Way radio here in Miami, florida. If you're listening at a later date, if you're listening to the recording on a podcast somebody shared it with you you're subscribed and you just got the notification and you're listening to it as it's released. Hey, thank you. Thank you for listening, thank you for downloading, thank you for streaming, thank you for sharing. But if you're listening live and you know if that's you please don't hesitate to call or text. We've gotten some texts, some well, I don't think any calls yet, but we have gotten some texts. We've gotten some response, even on social media. Producer and Chaplin Adrian just went for it today. He went live on Instagram and I couldn't think of a joke here I was going to say I looked over and my face was there. But the point is we've gotten some interaction and if you want to participate, use the phone number to the studio 786-313-315. Again, that's 786-313-315.
Speaker 2:We did get another comment on Instagram, jonathan, just thought you would want to hear it. It's actually again a guest that we're going to have in a later episode, and they said 100%, when you have an issue in one area, it cascades to other areas. So, man, just love the. You know both of you are in that realm. You know officer wellness and there's that agreement there. So I thought that was a good comment. Jonathan, just want to reiterate some of your contact information as we get near the end here JonathanOParkercom, jonathanoparkercom and that's kind of the hub for all of your stuff your course, your podcast, copchurch and much more, and then people can go to copchurchcom directly if they want to see what that is about. Archive messages, copchurchcom. And then there's also some newer messages on the Facebook page CopChurch Chatnuga, copchurch Chatnuga. Did I get all that correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, did a great job. It seems like you've done this before.
Speaker 2:A couple times. A lot of practice, so great. So we got all that contact information and maybe we'll just repeat it quickly again near the end, but I wanted everyone to have that nice and slow, nice and clear and so they could. So they can contact you. But, jonathan and we mentioned this, you know, just kind of here in the last few minutes wanting to give you an opportunity just to look back any highlights, any great stories, maybe a guest from the podcast you know, and again, not you know, get people excited about the podcast. That's legal right. Hey, you know, if you want to hear from this person had a pretty cool guest you know. Or even a story from CopChurch, a testimony, any stories that come to mind now.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So with the podcast, when I started it I thought, you know, I need to really make a splash with this thing, and so I thought, well, who would I like to have as a guest on the podcast? And it came to me right at that time. You know the movies Courageous, fireproof, the War Room. The Kendrick brothers were producing all of these movies and a lot of them having to do with issues related to men, first responders. It's like you know, it would be really great, but I thought it probably never happened. But I'm going to send it out anyway. Sure enough, stephen Kendrick responds back and says man, I would love to do and do your podcast. And so the very first episode of the podcast is with Stephen Kendrick and he talks about what they're doing through the fatherhood commission and some other things, talking about their movies, the making of Courageous and Fireproof. So that was really a highlight and a boost I needed to get going.
Speaker 3:There are lots of great episodes. There are many great interviews and guests. There's probably too many to name, but one of the highlights for me personally was actually a couple of episodes that I did with my daughter, olivia. She was going through at school the 4-H club, and they were doing a public speaking contest, and so she had to get up and give a speech, and so I was coaching her and working with her, and so we got the idea. Well, you know what COPS are doing media presentations. They're doing community meetings, they're presenting at schools, they're doing training sessions. Cops really need to improve their public speaking skills, and that's one area where people have the greatest fear. So, whether you're a cop or not, if you would like some tips on how to improve your public speaking, to develop yourself as a presenter, you can go and listen to a couple of episodes with my daughter, olivia, and I talking about it, walking through the steps on the podcast. Just very practical stuff, but hey, I just wanted it documented.
Speaker 2:That is so cool, my daughter together, yeah. That is so cool. How old was she? I was going to say yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, she was probably 10 or 11 years old, and how old is she now? So she's 14. And she reminds me every day that there's the counting down the days until she's 15 and ready to drive.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. But it's just, yeah, it's just incredible, right, because you know, for anyone listening I don't know if this is going to make sense to anyone else, but here I go, I'm listening and I'm hearing your story. For the first time I'm thinking, oh, the baby, the baby, the baby, she ain't a baby, no more, right, and this is something that you carry in your heart, something that you know. If you missed the beginning of the program, you got to get the podcast, you got to hear the story that we're referring to. But you know this tragic experience with mom baby's just born, and this is something that impacts you to this day. I mean, just the time frame is just hitting me now. It's incredible. It's incredible. But yeah, I mean you comment on that.
Speaker 2:Or just go back to stories, testimonies, anything from cop church. I mean, like I said, I looked at some of the videos. You guys would lay hands and pray for people. I mean that's just normal church, right, we should be laying hands on each other, pray for each other. But any stories that comes to mind from cop church.
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually one of the things I had the opportunity to do was to go in some of my teaching to go to police academies, and so I went back to a police academy that was local and I spoke and there was a brother in the police academy and at the time he ended up getting deployed into the military. He went overseas for a deployment and then he comes back, he's in the Marine Corps. He comes back. They have to cycle him through another academy and my teaching had he said this is his own words my teaching caught his interest and he was like man, I want to hear more from this guy. And so the next academy he comes through, I'm teaching there in that academy.
Speaker 3:But at that point we announced cop church, that we were doing cop church, and so he his own story is is man, I wanted to hear more from this guy and God's working on his heart.
Speaker 3:But he was not a believer. And in this new academy God placed him with a guy that was ex special forces and is a believer and is starting working together. And so he gets to the point where he's like you know what? I've got a family, I've got a small child, I need to get into church. So cop church became his church and a couple of years later, on our anniversary, I was able to baptize him, and he's had two other children since then. They were able to eventually integrate into a what we call a regular Sunday church and so they got got their family in church. And even recently we've had the conversation because his oldest son that was just a small child when we first started cop church is now saying that he wants to be baptized. So this Marine Corps combat veteran cop searching cop church becomes his church. Now his whole family's destiny is totally transformed because of what has happened through cop church. So that's just an exciting testimony.
Speaker 2:Man, I would say so. I'm pumped, I'm excited, I want to go to cop church, I know, I know God has you and guys on a on a season right now, and and it's paused right as far as the meeting in person and everything but um, man, it's, that's awesome. That's awesome and and it's exactly what I was hoping for. Something like that. Just just the stories, right, it makes me think of John 21,. Right, if we were to write down everything that Jesus has done. Not all the books and all the world can contain it, but it's incredible. Jonathan, we have just moments, well, minutes, few minutes left here. Adrian, could you read that last comment? That's just an awesome encouragement that we got on Instagram, do you mind?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so this is a someone has been on a previous podcast. His podcast is called. His podcast is called. His podcast is called. His podcast is, I think, out on Spotify already. Thankful for this, brother met him, um, and then one of the local disasters here in Miami, I don't know. Anyways, uh, but his comment was hey, I'm going to my 830 mass, but we'll be praying for this great ministry and all the good work you all are doing for our first responders. Keep up the great work, guys. God bless you. Uh, this is a person that I know, part of a previously part of. You know an urban search and rescue team here locally. Uh, many, you know many.
Speaker 2:Uh, a lot of disasters under his belt, yeah.
Speaker 4:And and you know, he's at a different level now, you know very involved with the hurricanes at the West coast and a lot of the logistics there. So I'm thankful for him and we're praying for you too, brother, if you're still listening thankful for you, jonathan.
Speaker 2:Uh, any anything you want to share with this uh, this, uh this brother here respond.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I just want to say thank you, uh, to you guys, to Joey, to Adrian, god's way radio, to the church, for making this ministry possible, because what we've seen is a dynamic of brothers and sisters coming together and encouraging one another. I'm thankful for that brother, for his ministry, for his encouragement this morning, Uh, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here today to connect with you, to connect with the great people in Miami. I hope to make it down there one day soon. Um, let's go, Just be encouraged. You've been an encouragement to me as well.
Speaker 2:I was already telling Adrian. I'm telling Adrian, this guy's got it, you got to get this guy down here, got to get him down here. So I think God's up to something. Um. So so, jonathan, well, let me let me just give everyone again some information. Uh, Jonathan, if you want to be thinking of just closing encouragements, I mean I know we talked yesterday that we wanted to really talk about you, your story, your life, but, but I want to just give you a final few moments here after I give some more information, just whatever you want to share. I mean it might be, this, might be your preaching moment here. You know, you might have a scripture, you might have a something, or it might be something different. But just, totally open floor for you in a few moments.
Speaker 2:But if you've been listening, uh, we are here in the studios of God's way radio, kind of taking a step way back. If you were expecting to hear pastor Raz this morning forgive me for for not being past the rest he's out of the state, he's in New York state and, uh, I know he's praying for us and we pray for him. Uh, if you were expecting to hear a loving word our regular eight AM Bible program. Uh, then let me remind you that the first Tuesday of every month we take the opportunity to air ask a cop live from the studios, and so that kind of cuts into a loving word time. So that's what's going on there and if you knew all that and you've been listening to ask a cop, you've been enjoying and benefiting as much as we have.
Speaker 2:Well, we thank you and make sure to respond, make sure to participate If that's texting us in the last couple minutes we have, or calling. We may not be able to take the call on air, but we would still love to hear from you just the same and if you're listening on the podcast. Thank you so much. Please make sure to share. That is one of the best ways that you can support the podcast. 786-313-315 is the studio phone number for God's way radio, and I do want to give Jonathan's information again. His main website is Jonathan O Parkercom Jonathan O Parkercom. Make sure to go there. That's the hub for all of his resources, teachings and other links as well. Jonathan, about two minutes left here for you to give any closing thoughts or uh statements.
Speaker 3:You know, I just want to say to your listeners there may be somebody that's tuned in and they say I've never even listened to this before.
Speaker 3:I don't know how I landed on this radio station.
Speaker 3:Maybe they're scanning down the highway. I just want you to know that there, that that Christianity, that the church, that people of Jesus, are real people who face real problems and we find real solutions in him and in through other resources. We are not, uh, aloof people who are just out here and out of touch with reality, and hopefully my story has been able to communicate that and to know that you're not alone, that we love you, that God loves you and that if you'll give God one more chance, if you'll give his people one more chance, regardless of the division, the arguments, the things you see on social media, there are some people who love you and want to help you, if you'll just reach out. There are many resources that are available. We've already talked about it, and so there's a hundred and 1000 things I would probably want to say in scriptures, joey and Adrian, but I just want the people to hear that they're loved and that they're cared about and there are resources that are available to minister to them and to their families.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you so much. And and again, I mean, I don't know about Adrian, but I want to. I want to hear those scriptures. So we got to have you some way, some time again to get those hundred and 1000.
Speaker 2:I wonder if there's actually a hundred and 1000 verses, or maybe not, but I'm just being silly. Hey, let's end on a serious note. Let's end well, jonathan, thank you, thank you, thank you. I mean, adrian was just saying off mic here, so the Instagram family heard it. This has been a jam packed episode, to God's glory. By God's grace, adrian, just just seconds left. Oh man, this guy, he knows the computer 31,102 verses. He looked it up, so so, so we could probably get through it a little bit quicker than a hundred and 1000. Okay, okay, enough of the jokes, jonathan. Thank you. Thank you, my brother.
Speaker 3:Hey, thank you guys. I hope you have a good day and I love you and I appreciate you. Awesome, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening today. If you have any questions or would like to, get in contact with us.
Speaker 1:Visit policethankyoucom. You'll also find information on how you can support the mission of Ask a Cop. We'd also ask that you subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform and if you're enjoying these conversations, let us know. And if you're interested in our podcast, we'll be happy to help you out. Let us know, and be sure to join us again here on Ask a Cop.