TheIsleofMan.Net Interview: 'Rob Shepherd from RobShep.com'

Rob Shepherd has a website called robshep.com that you need to check out immediately if you've not already done so. His blog includes spiritual truths communicated by using humor and real-life experience.

He's a pastor, a husband, the father of twins and just an overall really cool guy.

Oh yeah. We were in a band together in high school. Don't hate.

Rob was generous enough to give up some of his very precious (and usually baby-occupied) time to answer a few questions.

Game on.

Kevin Haggerty: Rob, thanks for joining us and taking the time to be transparent with the readers about your life and who you are.

Rob Shepherd: My pleasure. The Isle of Man interviews are becoming legendary. I’m honored to be asked questions by you.

KH: For the readers who are living under an absolute boulder, please tell us a little about yourself, and about your site: RobShep.com.

RS: I’m a pastor who loves Jesus, his wife, his twins, movies, Chipotle and long walks on the beach. I feel like this is becoming an interview for eHarmony. My blog’s tagline is “Random Thoughts From A Transparent Pastor.” I blog about stuff that I think is funny, my faith and my observations about life. 

KH: The "About Me" information for your life has recently changed in a big way. If you don't mind being vulnerable, talk for a minute about the recent "adventure" that God has called you to.

RS: I’m really excited about this. This is actually my third week as a church planter. I jumped out in faith and left a really great church to a whole bunch of unknowns. I’m currently building my core team and I love every second of it. 

KH: Do you ever feel a war between being a blogger and being someone in the ministry? I know they can both be used for God's glory, but does it ever feel like a "Superman-VS-Clark Kent" kind of struggle?

RS: Nope. My motto in life is even if you were perfect someone would crucify you. One day I will finish my book with that title. I have found that people will judge you no matter what you do. You can’t please all people all of the time. All you can do is live for Jesus and try to please Him with your life. 

KH: You're the father of twins. Do you believe you will receive extra crowns in Heaven because of this?

RS: Yup. I kid, I kid. My wife and I tried to get pregnant for six years. They say that if you are going to try and fail at something at least it will be fun when it’s baby making. That’s nice in theory but it was hard waiting on God. Now that we have kids we know that it’s God’s provision and blessing. 

KH: What are some of the positives of having twins (as opposed to having one baby at a time) that you never would have anticipated before you actually had gone through the process (or at least begun to go through the process)?

RS: Well you get it all over with at the same time. We have a boy and girl, and we are not planning on having any more. When you have multiple kids it extends the diaper period for years. My kids are 10 months old and I’m ready to start potty training those suckers. 

KH: When we were in high school, you were in a band with me. We thought we were so good and ridiculously cool. In all honesty, how bad were we?

RS: We were wicked awesome! I don’t think that we were the best band ever, but for a bunch of high school kids we did well. We kept people’s attention while performing at a local theme park. We created excitement with a bunch of high school students. We opened for Newsong, give or take a few hours. I still think that the songs you wrote were incredible for that time. 

KH: Thanks man. Next question. If you had to choose between going on tour with DC Talk during a reunion tour as their tour chaplain -- or -- Have one of your articles posted on the front page of USA Today...which would you choose and why?

RS: Tour with DC Talk! For one it means that they are back together. For two it means that I’m hanging out with them. I might have been a stalker huge fan.

KH: When did you start blogging and why?

RS: Four years ago. I started because I liked the idea of sharing my thoughts with people. I was inspired by the movie Marley and Me. Owen Wilson’s character wrote about his life in a weekly article and I thought that was really cool. I tried using my weekly email to my Community Group and I found out that nobody in that group cared about my life. I also found out that I really enjoyed writing. I started reading some blogs from other pastors that I follow and decided to jump in and give it a shot. 

KH: Do you remember the meanest comment you've ever received on one of your posts? Would you share it (paraphrased)? How did you respond?

RS: Yup. I have had very positive feedback from most of my comments. I ticked off a Claymate (Clay Aiken fan) who threatened to never come to my church if they ever visited Virginia. I also really ticked off someone when I wrote a post to my wife. You can check out that post and my response here and here. 

KH: Define success in 10 words or less, with one of the words having to be a color and another having to be a Spanish word.

RS: Living for Jesus (said like Hay-suse) and not dying of gang green*. 

(*I believe Rob is referring to "gangrene" here. I spoke to the judges and they have decided to allow this, based on the difficulty of the question.) 

KH: Speaking of Spanish, you've said in the past that you try to eat at Chipotle at least once a week. Have you ever gone to counseling over this? This is step one, Rob. Embrace it.

RS: Nope. I’m up to 10 times this year and I’m loving every bite of it. 

KH: I asked Bryan Allain and Knox McCoy if they would choose Kobe or Lebron in a pick-up game. Both of them are notorious Celtics fans, and so, unsurprisingly, they both failed this part of the quiz. Your turn. Kobe or Lebron? Why? 

RS: Kobe. Larry “Legend” Bird was asked this exact question and he said that if you want to win you have to go with Kobe. He said Lebron would be more fun to play with, but if you want to win go with Kobe. I agree with Big Bird. Kobe has five titles. Nuff said. 

KH: What is your favorite TV show on the air right now and why?

RS: "The Walking Dead." It’s got great character development and a hint of faith. It’s filled a void in my life since "LOST" went off the air. 

KH: Who are your favorite bloggers that you read on a regular basis?

RS: I read a lot of blogs. If I had to rate my three favorites it would be Jon Acuff, Tyler Stanton, and Steven Furtick. 

KH: What was the most influential book you read last year? You have to pick one.

RS: You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving The Church by David Kinnaman. It’s a great read if you are a pastor, small group leader, or you work with the next generation.

KH: It's everyone's favorite part of the interview. It's word association time. I give you a name, thing or phrase and you give your kneejerk, short response. If you're unclear on how it works, I'll give you an example. 

If you said: "Jonas brothers," I'd probably respond with something like: "Not enough napalm in the world to fix that problem."

Here we go.

Benny Hinn: Charismatic. I would hope that if God could really use him to heal people that he spends just as much time working in parts of the world where they can’t pay him money.

Domino’s vs. Papa John's: Papa John’s for the win. My wife doesn’t like the taste of the sauce so I don’t get it much. When I do my taste buds always remind me why it’s the best. 

Lil' Wayne: Guaranteed hit if he guest raps on your album. He could rap on a Jonas Brothers reunion album and it would be pure gold. 

GoDaddy.com: Hate the commercials! 

Donald Trump: Creator of one of my favorite board games and the king of the comb over. My friend bought his board game for $5 bucks and I made fun of him. It ended up being really fun. 

Voting for the President: I hate politics. 

Voting for American Idol: I’ve done it. I’m not ashamed. I don’t do it every year but if I find a contestant that I like I am not afraid to pick up the phone. 

Potato Wedges: French fries on steroids. It’s too much potato for me. I like my fries skinny.

Harry Potter movies: Decent movies but they wouldn’t have made so much money if the books weren’t so popular. They are respectable and at least they tried. That’s more than I can say about the Team Jacob vs. Team Edward movies. I’ve seen most of those with my wife and it’s a chore. The commercials fool you to thinking that there is going to be some action in the movie. You get to the theater and it’s 2 hours of drab talking and 5 minutes of action. 

Android vs. iPhone: I’ve had both and I can’t tell you how much better the iPhone has been for my life. 

Monster trucks: Loud. 

Betty White: Genius. I thought she was old when I used to watch "Golden Girls" with my parents. She’s still making people laugh. I hope to do that when I’m older.

KH: If you could live in any foreign country for one year, which one would it be and why?

RS: Canada. It’s only one year so I don’t have time to learn a new language. I’ve also never met a Canadian blogger that I didn’t like. There are some great ones out there like Ironic Mom and Mandie Marie.

KH: Would you be in favor of "Scratch & Sniff" clothing? Please feel free to go into lurid detail.

RS: No. I don’t like to be tickled. Wearing something that invites people to scratch you is like asking to be in a tickle fight. I just can’t support that.

KH: You're working on a book, are you not? What will your book be about? Give us the scoop!

RS: Well I have two books that I sometimes work on. One is called robshep.com: The book before the movie. It’s a devotional type book that features some of my favorite blog posts as well as new material. I hope to finish it one day. The other one I’ve already mentioned and talking about it again reminds me of what a gigantor book writing failure I am. 

KH: You're a dad. I'm not, but I'm going to be in August. Advice, please.

RS: If you have a son, buy something to protect yourself from getting peed on. The early stages are wet. If you have a girl buy a gun a soon as possible so that even the parents that have sons know that your daughter is not to be messed with. 

KH: I'm gonna level with you. I think Bigfoot might be real. I've written about it on my blog and even guest posted about it elsewhere. Most people make fun of me. My wife destroys me over it. Where do you weigh in: Possibly real or definitely not?

RS: Not. But he does make a great Beef Jerky commercial. 

KH: If you could have mind control over any celebrity for a 24 hour period, who would you choose and what you make them do?

RS: This is a really good question. I am kind of a fan of celebrities. There are lots I could pick but I think if I could pick one right now I’d pick George Lucas and make him make a new Indiana Jones movie to make up for the last one. 

KH: I saw a commercial the other day for the 2012 Summer Olympics. I was surprised to see that the Games are being hosted by London, England. This felt odd to me. The more I thought about it, it occurred to me that every Summer Olympics should be hosted by an American city. Do you concur?

RS: Yes, but just because I’m afraid of conflict and I want you to like me. 

KH: What's the best blogging advice anyone's ever given you? What's the worst?

RS: Best = just blog. Too many bloggers start and then never update their blog. If you blog eventually you will find an audience. Even if your blog stinks someone will find it and resonate with your stank. Worst = um…I don’t know if I’ve ever got bad blogging advice. The worst thing that a blogger can do is try to be like other bloggers. Be unique. Be you. Those are the bloggers that I really like. 

KH: Last question. If the Mayans are wrong and the world, in fact, does not end this year, will you be:

A) Relieved

B) Unfazed

C) Surprised

D) Cocky...so much so that you may do something crazy like jump off the roof of a house onto a trampoline and into a pool...or go to Planet Fitness, find the biggest dumb jock in the room and tell him he reminds you of an adorable bunny rabbit.

RS: Unfazed. I never saw that documentary called 2012 that somehow has footage of the world ending in 2012. Because of that I don’t know what to expect. Until I read your question I honestly forgot that this is the year that the world is supposed to end. 

KH: Did I miss anything? Anything else you'd like to plug or promote?

RS: Yes. I’d like to plug my balding head. If someone has lots of money and a way for me not to look like a SNL skit I’d like to have my hair be less bald. 

KH: Thanks for your time!

RS: Thank you for your questions. 

Check out Rob's website HERE. Follow Rob on Twitter HERE. 

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