Anchormen Ep35 220 Conference w/Cory McCammon

RELAX, GOD IS NOT MAD AT YOU!

That was the theme at the Network 220 Conference for 2026 in Plano Texas. 

Some Anchormen attended that weekend conference and we made it back with a lot of takeaways and many great notes and thoughts.

Cory McCammon sits down with John and Todd to discuss the high spots and most interesting things that stood out for each of us. 

This was our first 220 conference but it definitely made an impact on each of us. 

Join us in this brief but thorough conversation about our experience at Network 220 Conference for 2026.

Reach out to the Anchormen by emailing us at anchoredbygrace@duck.com.

Listen or share our website to help spread the good news of being Anchored by Grace

https://anchormenanchoredbygrace.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

In our walk with God, we often experience moments when our faith is tested. It's at these times that we truly discover what it means to be anchored in faith. Our faith is like a sturdy ship anchored in the harbor. It keeps us grounded by the waves of light that tosses us around us. When we live in God in his word, we find the strength of persevere and trust in his mind. They anchor and remind us weakly that Jesus is our anchor, providing stability and assurance in the midst of authority. Together, let's dive deeper into the powerful words that encourage us, hold fast in the faith of Jesus the Father, and not rely on good words to the right to us.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

All right. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, moms and dads, boys and girls of all ages, welcome to Anchorman. Anchored by Grace. With John, Todd, and of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Dory! Do you want me to explain that? Yeah, let me know.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

We introduced him as Dory. So, Cory, why are you Dory today?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Well, we was at a conference in Dallas about grace, and my name tag ends up somehow being Dory instead of Corey. They asked me if I wanted to change it. I said, nope, just keep it as Dory, because I just want to keep on swimming. Keep on swimming. And they were they called you Dory all weekend, too. Yep. And they knew my real name, but they didn't like the tag.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah. So this is the weekend after the 220 conference that we went to down in Plano, Texas. Fantastic. Yeah, good, good experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Great people. That's what uh for me what made the conference was the people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Todd, let's just start out with prayer real quick.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

All right. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the uh opportunity to do what we do, uh, and that's to reflect you and uh in the things that we say and do. It doesn't always happen, but it's the way that we want it to, and we know that because of grace we are forgiven, Lord, and uh we just want to honor you in all that we do, and we thank you for this beautiful day that we have, and thank you for the opportunity to do this, and that uh hopefully others and enjoy it as well. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right, so kick off. We went to the 220 conference, uh what is that called? The 220 network. Yeah, network 220, isn't it? Yeah, network 220. So if anybody interested out there wants to hear about the network 220, what we went to. It's a good experience. Uh their website is pretty pretty good too. There's a lot of resources on the website. Uh it has past conferences.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

And the 220 is from Galatians 220.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

And that says, For I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

And that whole network is based around Galatians 2.20. Yep. Yeah, which is really cool because if you've never been involved in something like that, it would and and I didn't know this. It would have been going on for 20 years. Yeah. And I go, wow, I didn't know this at all. Yeah. So they they told us, you know, you guys coming back next year? I said, oh, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

And and the people that spoke and the people that we met were just absolutely fantastic. And um, you know, it it everybody's preaching on the same message, which is grace and forgiveness, and it just uh good people. Tim Chalice was the host, did an absolutely phenomenal job. It was our first time meeting Tim and even getting to know him at all. And uh just a great guy. And Andrew Farley, of course, and uh Frank Friedman, who was just Corey and I had a great, great discussion with him. Um, our great friend Larry Ice, who we love dearly and is a fellow anchorman.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

And he wore his anchorman shirt there.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Yeah, he did. That was funny when he opened up the unbuttoned shirt.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

And he unbuttoned that. I was like, man, that's a Superman with the Anchorman shirt. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

It was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

But other people like from Facebook that I've known or I'm friends with, Mark Malding was there and did a breakout session, and uh Lori and Rick Fry were there and did little mini podcasts with a lot of people, and can't wait to hear those, and they're just great people, just all those. Every one of them, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Every one of them, you could just you could talk to a stranger there, and it's like talking to a brother or sister or somebody you've known for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Everybody. You were saying like you really like the people there because they're just all good people, but I would also say like they're like-minded people, yeah. Yeah, like it's so nice to be in a building worshiping with other free people when everybody else they all know they're free, yeah. Like they all know they're forgiven.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Like it's not like just it's way different than church, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Oh, way different than church, yeah. Church, you I hate to say we've mentioned this before, but you got a lot of plastic faces at church. Yeah, facades. Yeah, facades.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

So, how does Brad Brad say it? Sad eyes and puppy dog smiles or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

They all look good on the outside, but they're broken on the inside. And and being in a room with everyone's free. Everyone's been freed from the bondage of sin. It's it's amazing. What a what a great conference. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

I met uh there was a group of four ladies that uh I I f her name escapes me, but uh the very first night Katie was the first, is that the one that was it?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Katie.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Yeah, from joining the rapid. The first night they they walked in and they were late. They came in after it already started, and there were hardly any seats, and uh they were looking for four seats in a row. And so it sort of was a little disruption. Well, then the next morning I noticed they got in late again and they were looking for seats again, and then in the afternoon session they came over and sat by us, yeah, and I mentioned to them and mentioned to her, I said, Oh, I said, So which one of you ladies is the one that caused you to be late yesterday and today? And she started to laugh and she goes, Oh, you saw that? I go, Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

But they didn't take offense to it.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

No, and then and then they proceeded to tell me that they were from Grand Rapids, Michigan, yeah, which isn't that far from us here, and you know, then we told her we were from Valparaiso, and it was nice, just a nice opportunity to meet people.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Yeah, it was it was really outstanding. Uh so let's see, who spoke? Andrew spoke, Andrew Farley, Tim Chalice spoke. Um Ralph Harris spoke. Another great one. Yep. Now, Tim Chalice, he wasn't supposed to be there. I mean, he wasn't supposed to speak, he was a last-minute film. He filled in, yeah. Yeah, John Lynch was supposed to be there. Yeah, and so it actually Jeremy White spoke twice. He was good. He was real good. Every one of those speakers was in their own way dynamic. Yeah, very, very good.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Did Mark speak or did he just do a breakout?

SPEAKER_02 8:17

He did a breakout. Mark Malding did the breakout. That's the one we've got. It was a Carl.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

He was funny. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Carl, I can't remember Carl's name, uh his last name. Hard hard last name to remember. But he he spoke too in one of the breakout rooms. There was a woman that spoke too. I can't remember her name at all. But yeah, every breakout session that we went to, there was four of us. We broke up and went to different section sessions, and they were all good. I I think they were all good. And uh we met, who was the the guy's name from uh Fort Wayne, who has a church out in Fort Wayne.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Jake.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Jake, yeah, that's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

You reminded me I meant to I meant to call him and to send him a text.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

There you go. Jake. Yeah, and he's looking, you know, he'd love to get into a church. Not Jake from State Farm either. No, not that joke. That's a make-believe Jake. Of course, I'm sure there is one, but yeah. So Corey. Yeah. The whole weekend, what stood out for you the most?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

I think, but just listening to uh people talk and it was all being shared to a good idea of that we're forgiven grace completely. And it's just that's that's I think that was just my takeaway the joy of being with uh like-minded people. Yeah, and just uh knowing that we're forgiven.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Yeah, and to see people that well when in the fall when we went down to Dallas, yeah, we went to a different, like a smaller conference that was being held at a church. Right to see some of those people again and familiar faces from there. Um at the time we went down there and I fell in the airport.

unknown 10:10

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Twice? Twice, yeah. One in the airport, one outside. Yeah. Yeah, in the rain. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you weren't laughing in the rain, you were uh falling in the rain.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

This is the book I'm gonna order. It's from Mark Malding, the one that he was talking with us, you know. Okay. It's called God's Best Cup Secret. It looked really good.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

I liked his message and what he was talking about. So I didn't hear him, so hopefully I'll be able to hear that when I get the breakout session from him. Yeah. The I ordered two books from um Frank Friedman. And I'd never met Frank Friedman before. Our good friend Dave Lesniak knows Frank, and Frank knows him. He is his um so anyway, I can see why he Dave was attracted to Frank. Very, very good uh speaker, very good relationship. Yeah, he can talk to him like he's a friend for and he loves men.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Oh he had tears in his eyes when we were talking to him and gave us a hug, and oh yeah. So real.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

He's got such a story too, he's got a testimony to share. Yes, he does. Yeah, I'd love to hear that whole testimony.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

And he spoke once for the anchormen too, through a zoom call with us. Frank did. Oh, here on our group on Thursday night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. So, Todd, what was your takeaway from the weekend?

SPEAKER_02 11:35

There was a lot, but there also was uh a good time of break to refresh your mind. And um I like Corey, I liked uh the breakout session with Mark Malding. Um, and I I really enjoyed the the speakers. I think I enjoyed Frank Friedman, um, probably the best. And then when um Andrew Farley did his uh fire hose one where he read off all that scripture, yeah, I thought that was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah, he did a great job closing closing out the whole thing. Yeah, that was really good. Did you took pictures of that, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Uh I believe so, but I think I also video recorded part of it.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Oh, okay. Yeah. Because I'd love to be able to see those the screenshots of some of the he was talking mostly he was talking about the Sermon on the Mount, so-called. Uh how Jesus just every sin, well, here's what you should be doing.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Here every sin Yeah, he gave it the the big list of the ones that you need to do.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah, yeah. Which was it was quite amazing how he had just summarized it. He didn't read the whole, obviously didn't read the whole sermon, but just summarized the points that Jesus made during that message. Uh and and just keep in mind that message, the Sermon on the Mount, was spoken pre-cross. So that cross hasn't happened yet. So keep that in mind. And he was speaking to Jews about okay, you're you're going by the law. Well, instead of if you look at somebody lustfully, well, then you should just pluck out your eye because it's causing you to sin.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah. And so here's the list of things. Um I've got it here. So here's the list of things that uh that you're required to do under the law. Cut off your hand, pluck out your eye, surpass the Pharisees, anger equals murder, looking equals adultery, get right before your animal sacrifice, give to whoever asks you, let people beat you up, pray for your enemies, hide your fasting, hide your giving, hide your prayer, and then the end was the easy one to just be perfect like God. Yeah. Matthew 5 through 7.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Boy, we all fall short of that, don't we?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah. And didn't he touch on some of those as far as like give people your money? That way he touched on it like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

And the prayer one, like where you gotta hide while you're giving your prayer, yeah. Oh, and then you're giving too.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Yeah. And something that uh Frank Friedman mentioned when he was doing his talk, he said at the end, he says, Well, we're gonna pray together. He says, But don't bow your heads. Yeah, yeah. Don't bow your heads. I want to look into the eyes of the people that I'm praying with. Yeah, it was beautiful. That was very just the way he was different. I loved it. I did too. I thought that was like freedom. That's what you call freedom.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

You see your brothers and sisters praying all together.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yeah, like instead of hiding it. Yep. And I I think my biggest takeaway was A, experiencing that with brothers. Experience everything with brothers. Because you know, a lot of people say, Well, you know, now that I'm single, they say, Oh, maybe you should go out and travel and all that. But I go, you know what? I wouldn't mind traveling by myself, but it's so much better to experience stuff like this with your brothers. Yeah. And to me, it was an experience that I am gonna be able to cherish because of Corey, you, Todd, and and Ron that went with us. And that made a a big, huge difference. And then I had not have to worry about my eyes, I could just rely on you guys to watch my guys could watch where I'm going for me.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Yeah, and I'll tell you, even though it was probably only three or four minutes, I really thoroughly enjoyed my little podcast time with the fries. Yeah, they are just so authentic and great people.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Yeah, yeah, just a couple questions they ask, and then I turned it around to them. I said, Well, let me ask you a question. I go, Uh oh, we're in trouble. But yeah, it was they're I've listened to a lot of their stuff now, and it you know, Rick went through a lot when he was uh not even too long ago, maybe a year ago. He had like a health problem he did, and he wasn't podcasting for almost what eight months or something like that. Very little. But uh he's completely turned around and he he seems to be really well. Uh just a lot of friends we made. Yeah. The the a lot of the guys that were there were selling their books. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Uh and it was just we saw Kyle Winkler there. Yeah, we didn't have anything to do but just participate, yeah. Like the rest of us. Right. Same with Larry Ice. Yep. But Larry, you know, give a shout out to Larry. He brought a bunch of his books and gave them away for free to people.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yep. And I I never did get mine. Uh but I know we've got some here too, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm gonna read that. I started reading, I I ordered two or bought two books from Frank Friedman's books.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Yeah, I bought two Frank, well, I bought one Frank Friedman book for my kids, and I've read it the last two nights. Oh, is it? It's really good. Yeah, good. Yeah, and then I um was given one by him to me when he heard about my son Brett's story. Okay, and he cried and hugged me and said, I want to give this to you, and I told him I'd only take it if he signed it. So he he signed it to me. Uh speaking of signing, he also signed one for Corey. Corey, you want to talk about that one?

SPEAKER_01 17:10

He signed my book too. He's like, What do you want me to sign? Right. He said, What do you want me to sign? He said, Well, what did he say originally?

SPEAKER_02 17:18

You said Todd's a dork.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

No, he said something first, like, no, no, that, you know, and then he's like, Well, the money. I'm like, well, Todd's a dork, put Todd's a dork.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

And you were goofing around, and then he decided to take that goof around and it's like, all right, and then you're like, he actually put it.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Like, that's great. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

But I I would say that the thing that I thoroughly enjoyed was that you went there with no expectations. We went there knowing that regardless of what happened, the four of us were gonna have great fellowship time together, and we knew we were gonna go eat and find a good place to eat. We knew we were gonna be with Larry Ice. We knew that we were gonna see some of the people that we had seen previously, and and then we wound up even meeting more. Yeah, and uh everybody was just super nice. What did what was your biggest takeout of the whole weekend, John?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Other than being with you the four of us together, I think the biggest takeaway was freedom that people had not to worry about what you say or how you feel, just be able to speak your mind and not worry about I'm gonna hurt or offend somebody if I say this. Yeah. Because we're all there because of God's grace. And it's like well, you guys mentioned it. Like-minded people, being with like-minded people, they're not gonna say anything that's gonna be offensive. Right. They're not gonna try to hurt or try to compete, and they're not doing that. Right. All they're doing is just experien telling you what they've experienced in in their life of grace.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

I I don't know how we forgot this, but to tie this in with the podcast, the best is that the place that we went to was called the Hope Center. And it was from Hebrews 6.19, which is where our anchor man comes from. And so when we were there, uh the hope center out in front has an anchor that was designed in the concrete out front as their sign. And and so um I think their their password for the uh Wi-Fi was also Hebrews 619, wasn't it? I don't know. I I believe it was.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I think it was a password 6.19. It wasn't the whole verse. Okay. Yeah, it was just the Hebrew 19.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

But yeah, so that was kind of neat how that tied in with us, you know, being the anchormen. And um, you know, later on when I first got to meet Tim Chalice, uh, he had said, Oh, you're with that that group from Valparaiso, the anchorman that Larry was telling me about at dinner last night. Like, yeah. And uh we just hit it off really, really well then, and then of course we all got pictures with those guys afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

So that's something that we can put on our Facebook, yeah. We have a Facebook page for our podcast. We can put it on there.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Yeah, I think Brad already got the pictures, and I think he uh Did he put them on the Anchorman?

SPEAKER_01 20:11

I didn't look yet. Anchorment hub. Yeah. I I told the fries that I said I feel like I was at a fam reunion, you know. If it was a good one, you know, not but if people were fighting. A real fam reunion. Yeah. But I was also thinking like all the Uber cards we took.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Oh well, I not only thought about it, I saw the damage that it did in my wallet, too. You're the only one that had that. I'm gonna leave my phone at home. See how we get around.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

I think one of the lessons I think we learned from that whole weekend is to just rent a car. Yeah. Rent a car. Rent a car. Because we end up taking Uber from the airport to the hotel, from the hotel to the conference center.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

You know, the issue is that we had Ron with us.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Oh yeah. Blame Ron. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

He's not here, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Yeah, no. He's not here to defend himself. He should have been here.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Yeah. And and uh I did buy uh a book for him too. He wanted Andrew Farley's. He wouldn't buy it. He wouldn't buy it. It was only $10. It was on sale. He was he was selling them at a loss. Yeah. And so all I had was a 20, and I knew he wasn't gonna have change, so I just bought two books.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Well, he might have you picked up a bunch of pennies.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

I'll buy it.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Thankfully, we didn't use the pool.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

We had we really didn't have time to do because I had two evening sessions.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Well, how about the lady too uh at the uh hotel? We got to pray with her.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Really cool. That's just one of those, like you said, Todd, how many times we we sometimes walk right past the mouth. Opportunity and why not stop and pray with her? She was all open to it and she just loved it. Well, she said, she's like, You're gonna pray with me?

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yeah. And then she's like, I just prayed with a coworker. Oh, she just had prayed me right before we prayed for her. Oh, I didn't know this. This is how like the it all works around. She knows. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

It's beautiful, beautiful. So anybody that gets an opportunity to go see the 220 conference next year, it's gonna probably be down at the same place.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

So I think they do it every year down there. The last couple of years at the Hope Center, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Now what was you know they did because Larry Ice knew where to eat ahead of time.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Oh yeah. Now what was did you mention that they um why they built that Hope Center? Did you know that or was it right?

SPEAKER_02 22:48

So uh Lori and Rick Fry told us that it was a um a Christian uh contractor built that facility for all nonprofits. Oh, oh okay, that's what I thought. Yeah, to use and to use like the conference center for different things.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Beautiful, wow, and so what a beautiful place it is. The big upstairs really nice. It's a really nice place. I don't even know, we didn't see the whole thing either. Yeah, we just seen a couple rooms, which was which worked out really well. Any closing remarks, guys?

SPEAKER_01 23:22

anybody? I would just recommend it if you if we're looking for the this grace message, this idea of your sins are forgiven, that uh I would look into that 220 because it's really cool. And Andrew Varley's conferences too.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yeah, I I I enjoy this because it's just like you said, like-minded people enjoying the freedom that grace brings us.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, let me uh let me close us with Hebrews 6.19, since we brought it up and it's our uh our anchorman verse. Our anchorman verse. So this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable in one which enters within the veil, has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Amen, brother. Thank you, Lord, for everything you give us. Thank you for the opportunity we have to record our podcast and spread it out to the world. Yep. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Cory, thanks, God, thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. See you guys later. Thanks for listening. Thank you for listening to Anchorman Anchored by Grace Podcast. Please share, like, and listen each week right here on our website or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to our podcast and never miss a new episode. Reach out to us at AnchoredBy Grace at Duck.com. Thank you again from John, Bob, and Todd, your anchormen for Anchored by Grace.