WEBVTT 00:00:01.624 --> 00:00:01.985 Hey, what up? 00:00:01.985 --> 00:00:02.587 It's Mark Carter. 00:00:02.587 --> 00:00:03.870 I'm the pastor of Fierce Church. 00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:04.892 Welcome to our podcast. 00:00:04.892 --> 00:00:07.208 I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. 00:00:07.208 --> 00:00:16.728 I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you. 00:00:16.728 --> 00:00:17.871 Enjoy the message. 00:00:17.871 --> 00:00:23.371 Today we're talking about how to arrive at our 15-year vision. 00:00:23.371 --> 00:00:28.846 We're not actually going to arrive at the 15-year vision till, probably somewhere in January. 00:00:28.846 --> 00:00:30.210 You'll see how that shakes out. 00:00:30.571 --> 00:00:41.323 But just to give you the heads up, several years ago my wife and I and the kids we were on our way to Wisconsin Dells and we're about an hour into the trip and we got our GPS. 00:00:41.323 --> 00:00:46.466 We're going the way we're supposed to go and then suddenly, like an extra hour appears on the timer. 00:00:46.466 --> 00:00:47.427 Like what just happened? 00:00:47.427 --> 00:00:49.829 Why are we suddenly an hour further away? 00:00:50.450 --> 00:00:55.152 And, as many of you have experienced, sometimes something happens up there on the road, something. 00:00:55.152 --> 00:01:01.317 Just there's a crash or some weird traffic jam and the GPS is telling you ahead of time you can't see it yet. 00:01:01.317 --> 00:01:11.087 You're not there, but your trip's going to take a whole lot longer because there is something kind of going wrong up there Now, back in the day when we didn't have car GPS. 00:01:11.087 --> 00:01:13.596 Man, you're just out of luck, you'd get up there. 00:01:13.596 --> 00:01:14.319 You know what I'm saying. 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:27.730 You'd be wondering what's going on, and we all know what this is like, right, like you've been driving in one lane and everything's free and clear and you look over there and like it's two hours of packed up, you know jam and you're like man, those poor suckers, I'd hate to be where they are. 00:01:27.730 --> 00:01:31.183 And yet sometimes we've all been in that jam. 00:01:31.183 --> 00:01:38.368 Here's what Proverbs 22, 3 says the prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. 00:01:39.311 --> 00:01:40.094 Has this ever happened to you? 00:01:40.094 --> 00:01:43.344 Like you didn't pay the bill on time and then there's an extra charge? 00:01:43.344 --> 00:01:55.888 Or like this happens to me sometimes I don't, I don't check the fire alarms quite enough, okay, and so invariably you know it'll beep before you're, you know it'll tell you before it's totally out of juice. 00:01:55.888 --> 00:02:02.278 But invariably for me it always beeps at about 2 am, all right, and so it's like oh my gosh, now I get. 00:02:02.278 --> 00:02:05.144 Now I'm suffering the consequences because I didn't change it earlier. 00:02:05.144 --> 00:02:08.992 Or maybe you have ignored the check engine light on your car. 00:02:09.099 --> 00:02:12.751 You heard a myth that you don't even really have to pay attention to that, it'll be fine. 00:02:12.751 --> 00:02:17.151 Well, it turns out that is a myth and it's not going to be fine a lot of the time. 00:02:17.151 --> 00:02:19.382 Have you ever experienced any of that? 00:02:19.382 --> 00:02:28.737 There's something inside of us all that from time to time we're just like maybe it'll just get better on its own, like maybe we'll just it's kind of magical thinking. 00:02:28.737 --> 00:02:33.631 We're just like I don't really know how, I don't really know how that works, but I'm hoping just the problem will go away. 00:02:33.631 --> 00:02:45.593 And occasionally problems maybe do sometimes go away or we don't know why it went away, but a lot of the time they don't go away and we just stall, weinate and what needed to be fixed did not get fixed. 00:02:45.593 --> 00:02:47.125 So here's how we're going to do this. 00:02:47.185 --> 00:02:50.906 From time to time I'm going to ask a question and y'all are going to talk about it at your tables. 00:02:50.906 --> 00:02:52.951 Now remember the kind of the table etiquette. 00:02:52.951 --> 00:02:54.920 One is you don't want to dominate. 00:02:54.920 --> 00:02:57.604 You've only got six minutes, so nobody like take a half an hour to tell a story. 00:02:57.604 --> 00:03:02.128 Two is you want to actually be a little bit more vulnerable, even if you don't know the folks. 00:03:02.128 --> 00:03:05.632 See, god does something strange among the people of God. 00:03:05.632 --> 00:03:08.474 He often moves within community. 00:03:08.474 --> 00:03:12.205 I mean, it's not just the preacher, it's not just the Bible, it's as people are communicating. 00:03:12.205 --> 00:03:13.789 His spirit is present. 00:03:13.789 --> 00:03:16.205 You just want to open yourself up to that idea. 00:03:16.586 --> 00:03:21.021 Sometimes you wouldn't think this is necessarily true, but sometimes we have a problem at this church. 00:03:21.021 --> 00:03:22.402 It's true right now. 00:03:22.402 --> 00:03:24.625 It's been true in the past at different seasons. 00:03:24.625 --> 00:03:29.709 Sometimes things are going so well that we can't keep up. 00:03:29.709 --> 00:03:35.574 That is occasionally the problem here, meaning God is sending us so much to do. 00:03:35.574 --> 00:03:38.036 There are so many folks coming in. 00:03:38.036 --> 00:03:46.002 There are so many folks first-time guests here at the church. 00:03:46.002 --> 00:03:49.776 There's so many new kids that as much as we want to help everybody walk with Jesus Christ step by step, it's just overwhelming to us. 00:03:49.776 --> 00:03:57.413 You ever been to a restaurant or you've been to a store and you get in there and you're looking around and it's like man, there's only three people working this thing and there's like 50 people here. 00:03:57.413 --> 00:04:04.568 That is sometimes how it feels and pretty soon you're like we're going somewhere else because they just don't have enough to help us here. 00:04:04.568 --> 00:04:09.574 I wish it weren't true, but that is sometimes what is happening here at Fierce. 00:04:09.955 --> 00:04:21.802 A way to think about it is imagine a vineyard, imagine that there's people put in charge of running the vineyard, and that's kind of like the Fierce staff, and there's fruit growing and it's growing all around, and so we take some and we take it over to the table. 00:04:21.802 --> 00:04:23.723 I'm just going to set it right here, and so we take some and we take it over to the table. 00:04:23.723 --> 00:04:24.603 We're just going to set it right here. 00:04:24.603 --> 00:04:25.444 It's going to dry off. 00:04:25.444 --> 00:04:26.386 We wash it a little bit. 00:04:26.386 --> 00:04:38.916 I got to leave it, though, because I got to go back and get more, and sometimes the going back and getting more and running back and forth we'd like to get this out of here and ship this out of here, but there's so much that it's beginning to go bad. 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:41.000 Not all of it, but some of it. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:42.322 It's fruit that God sent us. 00:04:42.322 --> 00:04:43.785 It's folks that God sent us to help. 00:04:43.785 --> 00:04:49.172 It's people that came to get help, and yet we're unable to manage it all. 00:04:49.172 --> 00:04:54.389 I wish I didn't have to admit it, but it's unsustainable, and it's one of the roadblocks. 00:04:54.389 --> 00:04:58.521 What's the first thing we need to do to grasp a 15-year vision? 00:04:58.521 --> 00:04:59.803 It's recognize the roadblocks. 00:04:59.803 --> 00:05:05.793 Recognize the roadblocks, and what I mean is the roadblocks to the gospel. 00:05:05.793 --> 00:05:10.228 That's really what this church has been put in charge of, as have all churches. 00:05:10.971 --> 00:05:20.803 The gospel is the message that Jesus Christ invites everybody back to relationship with him and he wants to forgive them for all the ways that they have done wrong in the sight of the Lord. 00:05:20.803 --> 00:05:22.690 And he just wants to walk with them, forgive them, do life with them, bless their life wildly. 00:05:22.690 --> 00:05:29.365 The sight of the Lord, and he just wants to walk with them, forgive them, do life with them, bless their life wildly and bring them into heaven. 00:05:29.365 --> 00:05:33.050 And Jesus gives us a great picture in Luke 18. 00:05:33.050 --> 00:05:34.625 There's two characters. 00:05:34.625 --> 00:05:36.326 One is a really religious person. 00:05:36.326 --> 00:05:37.884 They've done all the things right. 00:05:37.884 --> 00:05:40.329 In fact, they go to prayer and they're bragging to God. 00:05:40.329 --> 00:05:47.276 They're like I'm so thankful that I just do everything right and I'm not like those guys and I'm just man, I'm so meticulous with obedience. 00:05:48.057 --> 00:05:51.966 And then Jesus says there's another guy who he's probably known as, like, a sinful person. 00:05:51.966 --> 00:05:55.600 He was doing tax collecting in that time and that was the way they did. 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:56.480 That was bad. 00:05:56.480 --> 00:05:59.644 And he's probably just, you know, a real scoundrel, real crook. 00:05:59.644 --> 00:06:06.968 He's the crook of the story and yet he's kneeling before God, saying God, have mercy on me, the sinner. 00:06:06.968 --> 00:06:19.177 He's so aware of his own sinfulness, he's so aware of his need for God's mercy and Jesus says it's this one that was right in God's sight, not the one who was boasting. 00:06:19.177 --> 00:06:27.930 That's what we mean with the gospel the message that people can come to Christ absolutely by grace, through faith. 00:06:27.930 --> 00:06:29.154 That's what we're supposed to be doing. 00:06:29.175 --> 00:06:29.858 And yet there's some roadblocks. 00:06:29.858 --> 00:06:30.721 Here's just a few, okay. 00:06:30.721 --> 00:06:34.129 One of them is the discipleship demands. 00:06:34.129 --> 00:06:41.028 That just means people are coming for help, but there's not enough power and ability to help as many people as need help. 00:06:41.028 --> 00:06:43.432 I wish that weren't true, but it is. 00:06:43.432 --> 00:06:45.235 Here's another roadblock. 00:06:45.235 --> 00:06:48.882 It's the obligation overload. 00:06:48.882 --> 00:06:51.810 It's obligation overload. 00:06:51.810 --> 00:06:53.276 I'm going to speak for me, okay. 00:06:53.276 --> 00:07:00.221 This is true for me, it's true for others here at the church, but it might be most visible in my life right now as the lead pastor. 00:07:00.661 --> 00:07:02.963 There's really two things that I've been doing for 15 years. 00:07:02.963 --> 00:07:11.896 I'm supposed to be the lead teacher, preacher, visionary and at the same time, the church needs managed all day, every day. 00:07:11.896 --> 00:07:16.262 The right people need to be trained in a portion and put it in place, and then evaluated to make sure they're doing the right things. 00:07:16.262 --> 00:07:22.809 And when they're not doing the right things, someone's got to come around and say you're not doing the right things, let's start to do the right things, and what it becomes like, guys, is it's two races. 00:07:22.809 --> 00:07:26.014 You ever been in two races at the same time? 00:07:26.014 --> 00:07:34.333 You don't get very far, okay, Because you're running 500 feet in this race, and then it's like, oh my gosh, I've got to get over to the other race. 00:07:34.333 --> 00:07:42.271 And so then you run over to this race and you try to run 500 feet, but then as soon as you get here, you're like I've fallen behind in that race, so I've got to come over here. 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:47.288 That's really what it is in the life of a lead pastor in churches our size. 00:07:47.288 --> 00:07:49.355 It's a constant back and forth. 00:07:49.355 --> 00:07:54.588 They're really very different skill sets and it's you know, I don't mind doing it, I'll do that for the rest of my life. 00:07:54.588 --> 00:07:57.262 All I'm saying is it holds us back. 00:07:57.262 --> 00:08:08.156 I'm not able to ever just lead, and people are never able to just manage, and that's one of the reasons why there's fruit that disappears or goes sour. 00:08:12.500 --> 00:08:18.809 A way to think about it is imagine you've got some slices of bread and you've got just enough butter to butter all those slices, and then someone comes along and says here's four more pieces of bread. 00:08:18.809 --> 00:08:21.028 You don't get any more butter, but get butter on that bread? 00:08:21.028 --> 00:08:25.329 There's only so much butter, yo, there's only so much. 00:08:25.329 --> 00:08:25.471 Carter. 00:08:25.471 --> 00:08:26.120 Yo, there's only so much Carter. 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:27.302 Yo, there's only so much. 00:08:27.302 --> 00:08:28.887 Okay, and he's like Carter. 00:08:28.887 --> 00:08:32.681 Why don't you just empower other people, dadoy? 00:08:32.681 --> 00:08:35.426 I know, you know what that is. 00:08:35.426 --> 00:08:36.769 That's managing. 00:08:36.769 --> 00:08:38.192 That's this race. 00:08:38.192 --> 00:08:40.100 That's what we've been trying to do. 00:08:40.501 --> 00:08:44.748 The problem is, while I do this for a while oh my gosh, people want to hear a message. 00:08:44.748 --> 00:08:49.240 On Sunday morning, I better run over here and have something good and not just spend 20 minutes on it. 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:52.796 It probably needs to be pretty doggone good, and so that's what it is. 00:08:52.796 --> 00:08:57.089 It's that obligation overload and that's not just me, that's different ones in the church, of course. 00:08:57.089 --> 00:08:58.611 Here's another one. 00:08:58.611 --> 00:08:59.900 It's a little bit close to my heart. 00:08:59.900 --> 00:09:01.601 It's the digital dilemma. 00:09:01.601 --> 00:09:03.943 The digital dilemma. 00:09:05.024 --> 00:09:08.347 Generation Z is about to explode. 00:09:08.347 --> 00:09:09.708 Here's what I mean. 00:09:09.708 --> 00:09:12.571 Generation Z these are people between 12 and 27. 00:09:12.571 --> 00:09:16.413 They were born between 1997 and 2012. 00:09:16.413 --> 00:09:20.836 In 2020, they were 32% of the population. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:35.794 Some of you know that I just recently finished, in the past year, a doctoral degree and my primary final project was evaluating how churches can better help Gen Z, and I found out some disturbing things. 00:09:35.794 --> 00:09:36.577 I'd like to share them with you. 00:09:36.577 --> 00:09:36.859 Are you ready? 00:09:36.859 --> 00:09:36.979 Gen Z? 00:09:36.979 --> 00:09:38.181 They're called digital natives. 00:09:38.181 --> 00:09:45.852 They live in a digital world 10.6 hours a day, every day, engaging in digital content. 00:09:46.394 --> 00:09:47.154 Now here's some good news. 00:09:47.154 --> 00:09:55.321 In 2021, a Barton study revealed, 52% of them of US teens are very motivated to come to know Jesus Christ. 00:09:55.321 --> 00:09:56.625 Like they want to find out more about Jesus. 00:09:56.625 --> 00:09:57.428 They've heard about Jesus. 00:09:57.428 --> 00:09:59.812 They don't necessarily know a lot about Jesus, but they want to know more about Jesus. 00:09:59.812 --> 00:10:07.033 If you include the people that are pseudo-interested, it jumps to 77% are interested in finding out about Jesus. 00:10:07.033 --> 00:10:18.375 Over half of them, though, who even identify with some kind of a religious background do not somebody say do not, do not want to go to church. 00:10:18.375 --> 00:10:20.346 They do not think it is relevant. 00:10:20.346 --> 00:10:21.684 They've learned that it's bad. 00:10:21.684 --> 00:10:25.120 Relevant. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:27.706 They've learned that it's bad, and so what we're saying is the very people, the next generation, that we're trying to reach. 00:10:27.706 --> 00:10:29.369 That is 32% of the population. 00:10:29.369 --> 00:10:31.212 They're not going to come here. 00:10:31.212 --> 00:10:38.264 Some of them will, a few of them will, but the strategy has changed and it's changed because they're digital natives. 00:10:38.264 --> 00:10:40.629 They live in the online world. 00:10:41.552 --> 00:10:42.640 Let me give you an example of what that means. 00:10:42.640 --> 00:10:46.865 Okay, so for those of you who are my age, or maybe a little longer, I'm a Gen Xer. 00:10:46.865 --> 00:10:48.789 Maybe you're a millennial or you're a boomer. 00:10:48.789 --> 00:10:50.402 You're somewhere in there. 00:10:50.402 --> 00:10:51.585 Here's what's true about you. 00:10:51.585 --> 00:10:54.321 You had a time in your life where there was no internet. 00:10:54.321 --> 00:11:06.784 Okay, that means you look around this room, or you look around the room you're in, wherever you're in, and you might say, oh, this is the real world when I go online. 00:11:06.784 --> 00:11:10.437 It's cool, it's neat, but it's not the real world, it's just a little computer world. 00:11:10.437 --> 00:11:16.250 If you're a digital native, though, if you're a Gen Zer, it is the world. 00:11:17.272 --> 00:11:32.644 Digital is just as much a part of the world as the real world, and because of that psychological change, the church cannot reach people the same way, years going into the future, that they have in the past, and that is a digital dilemma. 00:11:32.644 --> 00:11:34.322 We'll talk more about that, but let me give you one more. 00:11:34.322 --> 00:11:39.876 We've got a diversity deficit in leadership at this church. 00:11:39.876 --> 00:11:45.974 What I mean is and this was nobody's intention this is just the way the people that started the church and came together and did it. 00:11:45.974 --> 00:11:56.527 This is just where they were friends, and this is how it all worked out, and there's been different variations of diversity on stage, but it needs to be on stage, and right now there's not enough diversity. 00:11:56.527 --> 00:11:57.888 There's not enough. 00:11:57.888 --> 00:12:04.515 See, we want, when everybody comes in, there's, plenty of diversity in the room, but we want, when people come in or when they're watching online, we want them to see. 00:12:04.515 --> 00:12:08.520 You know, ethnicity is not everything, but it's not nothing. 00:12:08.520 --> 00:12:11.566 It should be a part of the mix. 00:12:11.566 --> 00:12:17.394 In heaven, every ethnicity, every tribe and tongue is present, and the church should want to mirror that, and the church should want to mirror that. 00:12:17.394 --> 00:12:34.791 And so, whatever we do, whatever the problems are in the next 15 years, one of the things we've got to address is diversity deficit in leadership, because we're up against our limits and we're likely to bump up against our limits year after year if we keep going the same way. 00:12:34.791 --> 00:12:45.176 We need a special season of seeking God's heart and seeking God's aims for this church for the next five, 10, and 15 years. 00:12:45.176 --> 00:13:01.114 And so we're going to go into a five-month process where we're asking everybody to pray and fast and pray so that God will give us very clear direction on the things he wants us to do, and we're going to look at scripture to get a pattern for how to do this, right. 00:13:01.655 --> 00:13:08.013 Okay, so Paul and Barnabas they're not super famous in the New Testament yet, but they've been sent on a little expedition. 00:13:08.013 --> 00:13:20.014 There was a famine that was hitting the Roman empire and so the people of Antioch, the church in Antioch, which was a great big city, third largest city in the Roman empire they send Paul and Barnabas back to provide some relief. 00:13:20.014 --> 00:13:22.398 They want to make an offering to the church in Jerusalem. 00:13:22.398 --> 00:13:31.850 Now, what this is doing is it's bridge building, it's the church in Antioch is saying hey, we know you guys are the original team and so you know we're some Gentiles over here. 00:13:31.850 --> 00:13:32.450 Y'all are Jews. 00:13:32.450 --> 00:13:33.350 We want to come together. 00:13:33.350 --> 00:13:37.135 We just want to say we get it Like you're kind of our spiritual parents on some level. 00:13:37.135 --> 00:13:40.460 We just want to connect with you and take care of you a little bit. 00:13:40.460 --> 00:13:42.797 And it was a great success. 00:13:42.797 --> 00:13:43.264 And then they return. 00:13:44.466 --> 00:14:00.255 Verse 1 of 13 says Now there were in Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers Barbas, simeon, who was called Niger, lucius of Cyrene and Menean, who had been brought up with Herod, the Tetrarch, and Saul. 00:14:00.255 --> 00:14:06.346 Why it's listing all those people is it's saying hey, man, there's a lot of people in charge here and they're all from different backgrounds. 00:14:06.346 --> 00:14:11.157 Okay, you've got people like Barnabas and Saul. 00:14:11.157 --> 00:14:14.129 Yeah, for sure, you've also got Lucius of Cyrene. 00:14:14.129 --> 00:14:16.351 Okay, he's probably from North Africa. 00:14:16.351 --> 00:14:18.676 You've also got somebody from Herod's household. 00:14:18.676 --> 00:14:19.437 Herod's an enemy. 00:14:19.758 --> 00:14:29.205 What he's saying is there's all kinds of people from all over the place coming together in this metropolis called Antioch and they're talking about the things of God and what verse two. 00:14:29.205 --> 00:14:38.613 And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them to, the work which I've called them. 00:14:38.613 --> 00:14:41.376 The Holy Spirit is the great guide in the New Testament. 00:14:41.376 --> 00:14:44.160 If you look at the book of Acts, you can chart this out. 00:14:44.160 --> 00:14:53.317 The book of Acts is kind of the story of the first early church and really it's just a story of the Holy Spirit initiating things or prohibiting things. 00:14:53.317 --> 00:14:56.927 Initiating, prohibiting he's really guiding the entire thing. 00:14:56.927 --> 00:15:02.739 If you just go ahead and read it, he's in charge of assigning stuff and he assigns Paul and Barnabas. 00:15:02.739 --> 00:15:04.171 They've been faithful with a few things. 00:15:04.171 --> 00:15:14.014 They were faithful to go bring some relief to the church in Jerusalem and now God says it's time to do some new things, stuff that I've been laying on your heart this whole time. 00:15:14.014 --> 00:15:16.149 The Holy Spirit is about to tell them. 00:15:16.149 --> 00:15:26.339 Okay, paul, you know I've prophesied to you that you're going to do some kind of important things and in my name you're going to go before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel. 00:15:26.339 --> 00:15:28.086 It says that in Acts, chapter nine, barnabas is known as the son of encouragement. 00:15:28.086 --> 00:15:29.308 He's got gifts of encouragement. 00:15:29.308 --> 00:15:32.297 He helped Paul, onboard Paul into the church. 00:15:32.297 --> 00:15:38.274 He was kind of seen as an enemy at the time and now the Holy Spirit is saying all right, guys, it's time for you to go. 00:15:38.333 --> 00:15:44.142 Verse three when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. 00:15:44.142 --> 00:15:46.326 This is the first global mission. 00:15:46.326 --> 00:15:53.629 The gospel is going global now and it's because of a time where everybody got together and they sought and prayed and fasted. 00:15:53.629 --> 00:15:59.128 They had a sense of things, but they ran up to the edge of what they knew to do. 00:15:59.128 --> 00:16:00.192 So where did they go? 00:16:00.192 --> 00:16:01.246 They went to God. 00:16:01.246 --> 00:16:03.432 They said God, we've done all we know to do. 00:16:03.432 --> 00:16:06.850 We're wondering what's next and we're asking you. 00:16:07.110 --> 00:16:10.245 And as they fasted and prayed, god showed them that's what we've got to do. 00:16:10.245 --> 00:16:17.813 We're up against our limits and we're going to ask God for a while, for a piece, for a chunk, because it takes a little bit of time to hear from God. 00:16:17.813 --> 00:16:23.701 It takes a little time for people to sense his joy and his leading in certain directions, but we're going to do it. 00:16:23.701 --> 00:16:29.537 First, we're going to recognize the roadblocks and those aren't all the roadblocks we talked about, but there's some of them. 00:16:29.537 --> 00:16:31.946 And then, number two, we're going to audaciously ask for a move of the Spirit. 00:16:31.946 --> 00:16:37.394 We're going to audaciously ask Holy Spirit, you're the same Holy Spirit you always were. 00:16:37.394 --> 00:16:42.041 Reveal your will to us, the same way that you revealed your will to them. 00:16:42.041 --> 00:16:46.349 Now, god isn't obligated to tell everybody all the details of his will and we're not demanding that. 00:16:46.789 --> 00:16:54.806 But we are saying to the degree that we can aim at what you want us aimed at, and prep and not just find ourselves down there stuck in traffic because we didn't plan ahead. 00:16:54.806 --> 00:16:58.753 We just want to know what else would you have us to do, jesus? 00:16:58.753 --> 00:17:02.519 And what's powerful about this is it gets us vision focused. 00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:06.032 We're still faithful with what we're doing, and this is about your real life too, not just your church. 00:17:06.032 --> 00:17:13.395 You're still faithful with what you're doing, but you're also looking into the future and your eyes are on God, not on your stuff and not on you. 00:17:13.395 --> 00:17:15.932 You're just God's little servant. 00:17:15.932 --> 00:17:26.188 You say okay, I know I'm doing this, jesus, but what else? 00:17:26.188 --> 00:17:26.951 What else do you want me to do here? 00:17:26.951 --> 00:17:31.744 What else have you got in terms of aims where you might want to help more and more people come to know and love Jesus Christ and learn to grow up in him and walk with him, step by step? 00:17:32.685 --> 00:17:37.156 So here's some of what the next 15 years could look like. 00:17:37.156 --> 00:17:41.268 We know some things, we have a sense of some things, but we're at the edge of what we know. 00:17:41.268 --> 00:17:43.414 Obviously, we don't know all the tech that's going to be invented. 00:17:43.414 --> 00:17:44.906 We don't know any other pandemics. 00:17:44.906 --> 00:17:47.092 Hopefully there won't be any in the next 15 years. 00:17:47.092 --> 00:17:49.505 But 15 years is a long time, man. 00:17:49.505 --> 00:17:51.105 Like a lot can happen. 00:17:51.105 --> 00:17:52.567 I mean especially the way tech is going now. 00:17:52.567 --> 00:17:53.989 Like a lot can happen. 00:17:54.509 --> 00:17:55.869 Say, why do you pick 15 years, carter? 00:17:55.869 --> 00:17:58.692 Well, honestly, because it's just a good deadline for me. 00:17:58.692 --> 00:18:03.695 In 15 years I'll be 61. 00:18:03.695 --> 00:18:06.919 That's a good time for senior pastors to pass it off to somebody else. 00:18:06.919 --> 00:18:19.892 There'll be somebody younger than who is just ready and understands the times more and just you know, I'll still be around, probably unless I'm dead, and if I'm dead I'll be cheering y'all on from the side of Jesus. 00:18:19.892 --> 00:18:22.939 But I picked 15 years, because hopefully that gives me a goal of like. 00:18:22.939 --> 00:18:34.419 Here's all the stuff Fierce and I and the staff and the elders together should try to do in the next 15 years before my turn is done on the merry-go-round. 00:18:34.419 --> 00:18:43.494 But whatever it looks like, here's what it probably should look like, as we're on the edge of what we know it's got to look like as we talked about transition to more specialized leadership. 00:18:44.547 --> 00:18:46.971 All over the church We've been generalists. 00:18:46.971 --> 00:18:52.377 We started 15 years ago some of us as generalists when we planted torch in the movie theater. 00:18:52.377 --> 00:18:56.932 We've got to become specialists, though now there's too much going wrong when it's not properly managed. 00:18:56.932 --> 00:18:59.771 That's not just me, that is other staff as well. 00:18:59.771 --> 00:19:05.935 Do you know we still don't have a full-time children's pastor? 00:19:05.935 --> 00:19:07.788 Do you know that? 00:19:07.788 --> 00:19:10.655 They'll do it because they love Jesus and they'll bleed for him? 00:19:10.655 --> 00:19:24.672 But do you know how hard it is to hold that children's ministry together, sometimes, with volunteers dropping off and on and new kids coming in and trying to manage all this stuff and teach all the right stuff and having no real full-time oversight? 00:19:24.672 --> 00:19:25.394 Dude, it's hard. 00:19:25.394 --> 00:19:26.258 They're just awesome. 00:19:26.258 --> 00:19:26.618 That's what it is. 00:19:26.618 --> 00:19:27.039 They're just awesome. 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:27.582 That's what it is. 00:19:27.582 --> 00:19:28.444 They're just awesome. 00:19:28.444 --> 00:19:33.877 But they deserve for us to bring that area into full-time management. 00:19:33.877 --> 00:19:37.115 You can clap for them because they're dope. 00:19:42.326 --> 00:19:43.952 Here's what else it's got to look like. 00:19:43.952 --> 00:19:47.961 It's got to look like digital ministry expansion. 00:19:47.961 --> 00:19:50.490 Here's the fundamental shift in thinking that has to happen. 00:19:50.490 --> 00:19:56.269 Our church has to go from thinking locally to thinking globally In one real sense. 00:19:56.269 --> 00:20:05.570 We've got to understand we now instantly have a giant mission field open to us, and I just want to read you some of these stats because they blow my mind. 00:20:05.570 --> 00:20:07.153 Okay, here's where it is. 00:20:09.095 --> 00:20:14.080 80% of Gen Zers are spending seven hours plus per week listening to podcasts. 00:20:14.080 --> 00:20:16.409 Seven hours per week. 00:20:16.409 --> 00:20:18.252 They're listening to somebody. 00:20:18.252 --> 00:20:20.568 They're open to Jesus, and guess where else they're not. 00:20:20.568 --> 00:20:28.215 They're not here, they're not listening to me or anybody else for an hour here, but they're tuned in seven hours a week elsewhere. 00:20:28.215 --> 00:20:30.127 Here's what else is incredible. 00:20:30.127 --> 00:20:30.749 Did you know? 00:20:30.749 --> 00:20:34.176 77% of people still read blogs all the time. 00:20:34.176 --> 00:20:39.752 Do you know that YouTube oh my gosh, youtube is the most used app by Gen Z. 00:20:39.752 --> 00:20:54.508 It's used daily, daily, daily, daily, daily by 77% of Gen Z. 00:20:54.508 --> 00:20:54.909 What does that mean? 00:20:54.909 --> 00:20:55.951 It means, dear heart, we've got a captive audience. 00:20:55.951 --> 00:20:57.194 We don't have to go to another country. 00:20:57.194 --> 00:21:01.753 We could and we should, but we've got a whole other country, right on your phone and they're wide open. 00:21:01.773 --> 00:21:03.526 So what do we need to do, guys? 00:21:03.526 --> 00:21:05.632 On some level, we need to become a digital publishing house. 00:21:05.632 --> 00:21:17.351 We need to keep rocking what we're doing here, but we also need to reach through podcasts, through videos, through blogs and whatever tech is coming, because it's coming through whatever we're about to find out about in three years. 00:21:17.351 --> 00:21:19.936 We've got to stay ahead of it, otherwise, why? 00:21:19.936 --> 00:21:29.134 Well, honestly, dude, I mean, not only do we get kind of opted out of our own mission, but we can't survive forever. 00:21:29.134 --> 00:21:34.548 I mean, you guys, you've all seen churches close because, honestly, dude, just frankly, they got too old, like they aged out. 00:21:34.548 --> 00:21:42.733 No one young was coming and on some levels maybe some of them it's because they didn't think ahead and go where the young were. 00:21:42.733 --> 00:21:45.688 They just waited for the young to come and baby dear. 00:21:45.728 --> 00:21:52.394 That does not work, and so we need to quit thinking that Gen Z is indifferent and we need to understand that they're hungry. 00:21:52.394 --> 00:21:55.474 We need to quit trying to just get everybody to come and we need to go. 00:21:55.474 --> 00:22:00.634 We need to be not building centric, but digital space, global centric. 00:22:00.634 --> 00:22:03.428 We need to not worry so much about physical presence. 00:22:03.428 --> 00:22:04.069 We still want it. 00:22:04.069 --> 00:22:05.393 We're still going to rock our church life. 00:22:05.413 --> 00:22:11.313 It's going to get better and better and better, but it's got to include all the folks that are out there, that God says I put them right here for you. 00:22:11.313 --> 00:22:12.237 They're right here. 00:22:12.237 --> 00:22:13.240 They're right here. 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:14.586 What are you going to do with it? 00:22:14.586 --> 00:22:16.048 What you going to do? 00:22:16.048 --> 00:22:20.536 Do that A couple more. 00:22:20.536 --> 00:22:24.729 Whatever it looks like, it's got to look like diverse leadership development. 00:22:24.729 --> 00:22:27.313 It's got to grow in diversity and, honestly, it's got to grow in development. 00:22:27.313 --> 00:22:30.577 Guys, we've got to have an internship program. 00:22:30.577 --> 00:22:31.618 That's happening. 00:22:31.618 --> 00:22:32.140 We've got to. 00:22:32.140 --> 00:22:40.614 Ultimately, we probably need to develop a leadership school where people will come from other parts of the country to learn how to do church, and maybe digital church here. 00:22:40.614 --> 00:22:42.037 You know what else we got to do. 00:22:42.037 --> 00:22:44.932 We got to interact better with the populations around us. 00:22:45.555 --> 00:22:52.653 There's no reason we shouldn't have some kind of a Spanish translation going on right now of sermons and podcasts. 00:22:52.653 --> 00:22:53.655 There's no reason why not. 00:22:53.655 --> 00:22:59.938 There's no reason we can't help additional churches start Hispanic speaking or Spanish speaking churches. 00:22:59.938 --> 00:23:01.248 We've done it before already. 00:23:01.248 --> 00:23:04.686 I don't know if you know that we need to do more of it again and again and again. 00:23:04.686 --> 00:23:06.191 What's holding us back? 00:23:06.191 --> 00:23:07.915 We need to plant more churches and, honestly. 00:23:07.915 --> 00:23:09.440 We've done it a couple of times. 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:10.723 Now we need to do it with more people. 00:23:10.723 --> 00:23:12.347 We need to help more and more people. 00:23:12.667 --> 00:23:15.535 That's stuff that we can do and it's within reach. 00:23:15.535 --> 00:23:22.653 All we have to do, my friends, oh, we got to get it right, cause we're not just right, cause we can think of it, but we can go to God. 00:23:22.653 --> 00:23:33.549 We can take the next several months, right up until January, and say God, here we are, send us All right, so fun stuff, cool stuff, but what do we do? 00:23:33.549 --> 00:23:34.173 It's right there in God's word. 00:23:34.173 --> 00:23:55.770 And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, while they were ministering to the Lord, while they were doing all the things they would normally do, while they were teaching and encouraging and building up, while they're doing all that, being faithful with what God had given them, and then fasting, the Holy Spirit said set apart for me, barnabas and Saul, I want to keep doing all we're doing and I want to set apart five months for the rest of this year to pray and fast as a church together. 00:23:55.770 --> 00:24:03.826 This isn't just so like the elders and I could have just said here's what we're going to do, guys, but I really believe God wants to speak through the entire body. 00:24:03.826 --> 00:24:10.876 So in January we're going to send out a survey and you're going to get to say everything that God laid on your heart, everything you think is weighty. 00:24:10.876 --> 00:24:18.567 Not all of that will be for the whole church, some of it will be for you, but we're going to take all that into consideration as we see where's the wind blowing. 00:24:18.868 --> 00:24:22.175 When you fast, dude, you're telling God you're serious. 00:24:22.175 --> 00:24:28.445 When you fast and listen and wait and keep your eyes on Jesus, you're telling the Lord you're serious. 00:24:28.445 --> 00:24:30.412 And I really believe this isn't just for our church. 00:24:30.412 --> 00:24:32.647 I think this is going to blow some stuff up in people's lives. 00:24:32.647 --> 00:24:35.796 I think there's going to be a great move of God just in you. 00:24:35.796 --> 00:24:36.866 It'd be worth it just for you. 00:24:37.669 --> 00:24:38.309 What about fasting? 00:24:38.309 --> 00:24:39.212 Because people are afraid of that. 00:24:39.212 --> 00:24:42.548 Well, that's why you get to do it on whatever level you're at. 00:24:42.548 --> 00:24:43.229 Okay. 00:24:43.229 --> 00:24:48.078 So for some of you, maybe you can't fast real food, but maybe you could fast TV for a day. 00:24:48.078 --> 00:24:52.095 You could fast your coffee or whatever that you love so much. 00:24:52.095 --> 00:24:53.968 Whatever makes you go, I love you. 00:24:53.968 --> 00:25:05.057 Whatever that is, fast that I'm not talking about one of your kids, but one of the items that you think is so awesome. 00:25:06.685 --> 00:25:09.335 You can also keep that little prayer tent that's for you to take home. 00:25:09.335 --> 00:25:15.048 Put that on wherever you eat and every time you eat, pray one of those prayers, or all of them, again and again. 00:25:15.048 --> 00:25:18.104 What we're doing is we're saying, jesus, we're not going to let go of you. 00:25:18.104 --> 00:25:23.884 We're knocking and asking show us what you want us to do in these and every other area that he brings to mind. 00:25:23.884 --> 00:25:29.213 Keep some kind of a journal page that is about just things that he shows you as you're fasting. 00:25:29.213 --> 00:25:33.579 Now I hope that you're also praying for revival, dude. 00:25:33.579 --> 00:25:35.895 Here's what you got to do, because I don't want you to just pray for our church. 00:25:35.895 --> 00:25:36.941 Pray for you. 00:25:36.941 --> 00:25:39.549 Pray that your heart will be so doggone on fire. 00:25:39.549 --> 00:25:40.854 Fasting makes you fiery, dude. 00:25:40.854 --> 00:25:52.563 If you'll ask for it, you'll be more on fire than you've ever been in your whole doggone life. 00:25:52.563 --> 00:25:54.061 You'll be like oh my gosh, jesus is moving in a way that I've never seen before. 00:25:54.061 --> 00:25:54.384 You can do that with those prayer tents. 00:25:54.384 --> 00:25:54.661 Some of you are familiar. 00:25:54.661 --> 00:25:56.459 We have a feed on the Echo app, so if you Google that, you can find that. 00:25:56.459 --> 00:26:00.634 It's probably on the hub, too, fiercechurch slash hub, which is our online app. 00:26:00.634 --> 00:26:02.756 That's not an app in the app store. 00:26:02.756 --> 00:26:03.457 It's just a web app. 00:26:03.457 --> 00:26:06.240 Either way, it has a lot of prayers. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:09.007 Those prayers and also many others that you can pray. 00:26:10.390 --> 00:26:22.468 However you do it, in January we're going to survey everybody and everyone's going to get a chance to weigh in and then we're going to talk about here's what, bubbled to the top, that we feel like God wants us to do. 00:26:22.468 --> 00:26:22.648 Now. 00:26:22.648 --> 00:26:23.549 Here's some things to expect. 00:26:23.549 --> 00:26:37.113 One, as you go into this it's more helpful to pray and not fast than to fast and not pray, okay, so, whatever that looks like for you, like, fasting is great, but sometimes people just oh, I forgot to eat. 00:26:37.113 --> 00:26:39.592 That was fasting, that didn't do anything, just so you know. 00:26:39.592 --> 00:26:40.689 Like that didn't help us. 00:26:40.689 --> 00:26:45.926 Okay, if you're like I'm just going to fast and then I'll just hope it goes better, do me. 00:26:45.926 --> 00:26:48.210 If you're like I'm just going to fast and then I'll just hope it goes better, do me a favor. 00:26:48.230 --> 00:26:49.211 The prayer is where the power is. 00:26:49.211 --> 00:26:56.757 The fasting is just rocket boosters on the power, okay, so expect that you're going to experience a little bit of antagonism. 00:26:56.757 --> 00:27:01.862 Okay, you have some spiritual forces that aren't necessarily liking that you're going to do this, but the Lord will protect you. 00:27:01.862 --> 00:27:03.205 You're going to be fine. 00:27:03.205 --> 00:27:04.887 They're just going to try to depress you or get you discouraged. 00:27:04.887 --> 00:27:11.438 You just say shut your face, devil, I'm doing this but you want to be looking for. 00:27:11.538 --> 00:27:19.335 As you pray, through these different priorities, which are the ones that make your heart flutter, that make you go, I get extra joy. 00:27:19.335 --> 00:27:21.184 Even if I try to suppress joy, it comes back when I think about this thing in prayer. 00:27:21.184 --> 00:27:22.647 Where are the things that you're like? 00:27:22.647 --> 00:27:23.791 You just get a deadness. 00:27:23.791 --> 00:27:24.634 You're like that, ain't it? 00:27:24.634 --> 00:27:27.686 You just get a deadness. 00:27:27.686 --> 00:27:28.228 You're like that, ain't it? 00:27:28.228 --> 00:27:37.601 No, I don't feel like God is asking us to do this, so I'm just going to make note of that, whatever those things are, and then just asking the Lord God, what do you want us to prioritize and what do you want us to prune? 00:27:37.601 --> 00:27:42.230 Maybe there's just things we need to stop doing, and the Lord might lay some of that on your heart. 00:27:42.230 --> 00:27:46.597 Your interaction with this guys this is the church we're trying to do acts right now. 00:27:46.597 --> 00:27:48.160 This is us. 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:51.374 You're really important to this process. 00:27:51.374 --> 00:27:56.497 You won't do it perfectly in your eyes, but you'll do it great for us and for Jesus. 00:27:57.865 --> 00:27:59.532 Hey, thank you so much for joining us today. 00:27:59.532 --> 00:28:08.857 If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out FierceChurch. 00:28:08.857 --> 00:28:11.855 We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person. 00:28:11.855 --> 00:28:20.173 Also, if you're looking for leadership development-related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from. 00:28:20.173 --> 00:28:23.595 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry. 00:28:23.595 --> 00:28:25.752