Nothing I Asked For, But Everything I Needed | Arsenal Stories (Week 3) | Nate Kindig

What happens when you finally learn the history of the church that raised you?

Arsenal Stories continues — the series where we stop filing people away as "the guy in the back row" and actually hear what they've lived. Chad opens by introducing Nate: one of the kindest and smartest people you'll meet, and someone who has been in church a long time.

Then Nate Kindig tells his story. He grew up Southern Baptist in Georgia, in Christian school, headed for vocational ministry — and by his own account he was *really, really good* at the order stage: he knew the rules, he met everyone's expectations, he kept the peace. Then the ground moved. He walks through the actual history of his denomination (including why it was founded in Augusta in 1845, and what it has and hasn't apologized for since), what it was like to move to the Dominican Republic and learn faith in someone else's language, and what he found on the other side of certainty — including a therapist who was "nothing I asked for, but everything I needed."

Chad closes with the story of the bodies in the river: what it cost to walk upstream, being called a heretic for it, and who was already up there tending the fire when he arrived.

In this episode:

- Chad introduces Nate — and why this series exists

- Growing up Southern Baptist: Christian school, the rules, and being good at "order"

- A history of church denominations — including the 1845 founding of the Southern Baptist Convention

- Order, disorder, reorder

- The Dominican Republic: learning faith in another language

- Looking for a therapist — and the one who showed up

- "She was nothing that I asked for, but she was everything that I needed"

- Chad: the bodies in the river, walking upstream, and the people around the fire

- "If we can't welcome people, I don't think we're teaching the gospel"

???? References: the order → disorder → reorder framework · a history-of-church-denominations chart (truthforsaints.com) · Martin Buber (quoted in Chad's close)

Series: Stories

Speaker: Nate Kindig

Date: 7/26/2026

Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX

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The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX

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