Austin Bradford is the producer of Rooftop Perspectives. In this conversation, John Whaley turns the mic around.

Austin shares his full story: growing up in church, walking away at 22, hitting rock bottom while bartending, and being relentlessly pursued by a campus minister who wouldn't stop showing up at his coffee shops and parks. He talks about driving solo to Utah to learn how to hear God, sitting under a tree on a mountain in Capitol Reef National Park, and hearing one sentence: "surrender your passions." He came home to find all his camera gear stolen.

Out of that stripping-away came something unexpected — a men's Bible study he accidentally led in November 2021 that grew to 30 guys in his living room by December, and eventually to a movement of over 1,000 young adults in Knoxville doing daily community together. He shares the night a friend's doctor said he'd never walk again, the prayer gathering that felt like a mandate to meet monthly, and the moment they filled a warehouse they thought was too big with 250 people and 10 spontaneous baptisms.

Austin also speaks into what he's watching in his generation right now — the shift from hype to depth, the hunger for authentic relationship, and a simple takeaway that's reshaping how he thinks about everything: prayer is not a resource for ministry. It is the ministry.

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