In this podcast we chat with Addison Martin, Bethany Crews and Ewen Erickson on how they see the church now and in the future. These three are all currently attending Vanguard and were able to record this podcast at their first year Activate Retreat. They have some great takes and perspectives that we think you will enjoy!
In this podcast we chat with Addison Martin, Bethany Crews and Ewen Erickson on how they see the church now and in the future. These three are all currently attending Vanguard and were able to record this podcast at their first year Activate Retreat. They have some great takes and perspectives that we think you will enjoy!
Transcript of Podcast by Multiply Network
Created to champion church multiplication, provide learning and inspire new disciple-
making communities across Canada
2019 – Vanguard Students
Paul Fraser: Welcome to the Multiply Network Podcast, a podcast created to champion church multiplication, provide learning and inspire new disciple-making communities across Canada.
Hi there. Welcome to the Multiply Network podcast. My name is Paul Fraser and I hope you are having a fantastic day. If you’re not, I can tell you this podcast is going to brighten your day because I had the opportunity to sit down with three Vanguard College students who all live in Edmonton, who are attending the school there. I had a chance to talk with them about the church, the future of the church and some of the things they are excited about, maybe some of the things they would like to see changed. It was a very good conversation. And I was so encouraged because a lot of the things they were saying I was feeling, too. I was just so surprised even, by the wisdom and the insight that they all have. They are all Gen-Z leaders so they are all under twenty and they’ve got a lot of great thoughts to say.
I hope you have your notebook out because you’re going to want to take some notes and the interview is coming up right now.
I am super excited to have this great crew of leaders from Vanguard College at the First Year Retreat. You guys are here and we’re going to hear your stories in a little bit. I’m super happy that Addison and Bethany and Ewan ---
Welcome to the Multiply Network podcast.
--- All speaking in unison. Thank you.
Q. So we’re going to start with you, Addison. Why don’t you tell us how you got here, you know, what led you to Vanguard College?
Addison: Wow. It’s a crazy story. So I was born in Brampton, Ontario all the way out East. All the way through Grade 12 I was just asking God what do you want me to do, what do you want me to do. And he just kept telling me like Addison, you’re going to go to Winnipeg. I’m like what’s in Winnipeg? (Laughter)
Q. The Jets!
A. Yes. And I’m like I really don’t want to go to Winnipeg, God. I just want to stay at home, work here and God’s like no, you’re going to Winnipeg. So while I was working at the camp out in Winnipeg God still had on my heart that you’re staying in Winnipeg. So in the last week of the summer God provided me with a car, a job and place to stay in Winnipeg. So my parents supported me throughout that and it was amazing. It was just like God provided that for me. Yes. And so then I worked at a church for that year and God worked on my heart throughout that. And the next year I’m like okay, for next year God, where do you want me to go now? He’s like all right. You’re ready for Bible College. So he called me to Vanguard by ---
I was driving one day in Winnipeg praying and asking God and I had recently just visited Vanguard and then came back. I was like, God where do you want me to go to Bible College? I stopped at a red light. A black van pulls up right beside me and in no relation whatsoever, like on the side of it, it said Vanguard, on the side of this black van. (Laughter)
And just through scripture God revealed to me I was going to Vanguard.
Q. How old are you?
Addison: I’m 18.
Q. Wow. Great. Following the courageous call of God.
Q. Bethany, how are you ending up in Vanguard College?
Bethany: Well, I am originally from Barrie, Ontario. I grew up there all my life and my dad is a pastor so I’ve been in the church, been in church circles all of my life. My brother is five years older than me and he came to Vanguard and kind of just stayed in Edmonton. So there was already a bit of a plug for Vanguard there. Just all through high school I was so interested in academics and I excelled there. There were so many different areas I could have gone to. There were so many doors I could have picked through academics and God just put it on my heart through leading worship in a small town church in a corn field that God asked what I was passionate about. I wanted to reach people by inviting them in to know who God is. Yes, just through prayer I kind of ran for a while. I had too many conflicting dreams in my life where family was saying one thing about going to school and friends and other people in my life were saying that it wasn’t necessary. I just was in limbo for a bit, wanting to make my own decision about where I was going to go. And God just softened the situation around me and kind of held me really close through a pretty rough season and then there was just this huge release and I applied to Vanguard and got accepted pretty early.
Q. Here you are!
Brittany: Yes, here I am.
Q. How old are you?
Brittany: I’m 19.
Q. 19. Ewan, why don’t you finish up the intros?
Ewan: This is so crucial, this is so cool. Like I’m hearing testimonies from my peers I’ve never heard before. This is so cool. So I’m Ewan from Pincher Creek, Alberta. It’s funny; me and Paul are from the same place. It’s cool. It’s cool.
Q. Just separate decades!
Ewan: Such a cool story but that’s for a different podcast. I’m from Pincher Creek. I grew up a Christian, pretty generic kind of theme there. I grew up in a Baptist church. We kind of went from the Baptist church. We went to a Pentecostal church: Abundant Springs. We have been there for a long time and it has been so cool because I have been growing, growing, growing, jump off the deep end, growing, growing, growing, jump off the deep end, you know, that kind of repetitive cycle until Grade 11. I stopped for a bit and I started to think maybe there’s more to this. Maybe there’s more to this Christian stuff than just playing around with Christian-ese.
And then I got baptized. Two weeks later I met this girl at a trip my school was going with and nothing really happened much. I wasn’t interested in this girl at all. I just knew though that God had a plan for her life. So I started to talk with her and we became friends and then she started to come to church with me. That fall she gave her life to Jesus at an Alpha convention. After that I remember my pastor, he looked at me one night during one of the Alpha sessions and he said to me, Ewan, I want to let you know that this girl, she gave her life to Jesus. I got out of my chair and I jumped for joy. It was the most amazing thing. And then after that I ran Alpha at my house. We saw five kids get saved. We saw three kids get healed. It was absolutely phenomenal. I had never seen anything like it in my entire life.
And I’m like Jesus, what’s the next step? I’m here now. Alpha is over. We’ve been discipling these kids. Like what do I do now? Do you want me to stay in Pincher Creek? Do you want me to go to Vanguard? I was like deciding among a few schools and I said what do you want me to do? I want you to go to Vanguard. And I was like okay, cool. Do you want me to go pay my tuition? And that’s a touchy subject. Both you and me know money is kind of touchy but I asked do you want me to go to Vanguard and pay my tuition, Jesus? By the end of the year, by graduation, I had $8,000. Then summer came and I got the receipt from Vanguard for what I had paid the bill, $7,950. Now I’m at Vanguard.
Lots of other stories. Like first day of classes was a crazy time but that’s for another podcast. (Laughter)
Q. How old are you?
Ewan: I’m 18.
Q. 18. So this is just finishing high school, you know, taking a big risk, all of you moving away from your families to follow the courageous call of God. I just want to first of all applaud you for that, that you would be willing to go.
You’ve all been raised in the church world and you see the great things. What are you encouraged by? Maybe Bethany we will start with you. What are you encouraged by of what you are seeing or what you have experienced in the church world?
Bethany: To say that I come from a small church means like two hundred people on our busiest day. And I was there for probably eleven or twelve years and the most encouraging thing about it is how much of a family atmosphere we were able to foster there. Anybody that walks through the doors, you know at least three people are going to acknowledge them. Like ask them like what they are doing with their life and how they came to come to our church. That was one thing. They also brought me up personally under their wing and gave me room to grow and to be free to explore God’s calling on my life in a safe place. That’s really encouraging for me in the church. We need churches like that and mindsets like that. Because I know you can even have that in a big church and I’ve experienced that as well. But that’s the most encouraging thing: family.
Q. Yes, feeling like a family.
Ewan, how about you. What are you encouraged by, again, growing up in church world, in a couple of different churches, what are you encouraged by?
Ewan: Oh man. Like there have been some amazing leaps and bounds. When I was a kid I was kind of in that 2000 lull. There was a bit of action there for a little bit but coming up on this last little while, this last little bit I was in church, it’s been crazy. I’ve been seeing churches in my area just want to follow Jesus. This last little bit it’s been ---
You know, there’s still a little bit of confusion sometimes. My town is very small. My church is about ---
We’ve grown from about twenty to about forty, so we’re growing but we’re a very small church. But in my church specifically I have seen that my pastor and my congregation wants to go out and be active in the community. It went from not active at all to being active. And though there are still some not in it they’ll want it there. So that’s what I’ve seen changed, is the active church movement in my town.
Q. And in the community. Right? Great.
Addison, what are you excited about the church?
Addison: Yes, like growing up in my life in Brampton, I went to an Alliance church. I think the community definitely like it was amazing, kinda like Bethany said, there would be three people greeting you before you even walk into the church, which is amazing. Like the love that I see ---
I’ve gone to many churches in my life and we’ve moved around quite a bit so the love that I saw was so evident in those churches I was into. Yes, like Bethany was saying, family. And I’m finding more and more churches are (something) into that outreach as Ewan was saying. I’m finding that they are actually laying aside like everything that they need to do in the church, in the church, in the church, and they are actually going out of the church and sometimes just like even going door-to-door. I heard a church say they go door-to-door and invite people to come out to church.
Q. You don’t mind that? You think that’s cool? You think that’s great that they are out there in the community banging on doors?
Addison: Like yes. Like and outreach things like on Halloween per se, like they have maybe ---
Q. Christmas?
Addison: Yes. They have like this invite people out for a gym night or with some hot chocolate or anything that they can do to serve their community and just like love on them totally ---
Q. So what I’m hearing is community engagement and community within the church. That family feel, that’s where you feel we’re at our best.
What do you think the church in Canada, where our growth areas, like our growth areas, where does the church need to be growing more in. Ewan, why don’t we start with you. Where are some of those edges that we need to be pushing on and making a priority for growth?
Ewan: I’ve noticed something. I think everybody here has noticed something, too. The last little while there has been relying on the ---
Can we put on a movie night to bring people in? Can we rely on I guess you would say let’s put on a coffee bar at church. That stuff is amazing but sometimes I’ve been noticing there’s been a lack of, like the Bible says, lift up Jesus’ name and they will come. Like, in some churches I’ve been in it’s been like we’re doing all this amazing stuff and it’s so good. People are coming in. They are actually coming with their friends. It’s such an opportunity for them to bring their friends in because we live in a world of skeptics now, you know, so it’s kinda nice when someone’s like yeah, I’ll get a free coffee, we’ll have some baked goods and stuff. We’ll talk. But then there’s a little bit of neglect even to, a fear almost, to share that gospel, that good news straight up.
And that’s kind of been throughout a lot of churches. I haven’t been across Canada. I know Addison has been to Winnipeg but I’ve just been in Alberta my whole life. But that’s what I’ve noticed in some of the churches I’ve been to. Pincher not so much, but coming up to Edmonton, you know.
Q. In you’re visiting other churches ---
Yes, I couldn’t agree with you more, just that idea of getting back to preaching the gospel and just clearly presenting it to those that are there. That’s really interesting. It’s a great thought.
Addison, what about you. What are some areas you think we need to grow as a church in Canada?
Addison: I think just that the power of prayer, I think just like even as ---
Denominational differences. Let’s just come together and pray. I think prayer is just so, so powerful, praying for our nation, praying for the government, praying for the world even and even like denominational stuff. Remove that for a sec. Just come together and pray, find the common things that we’re ---
Q. Praying for?
Addison: Yes, like revival across Canada. Praying for people to come to know Jesus across Canada. I think prayer is so essential for connecting the body and connecting to God.
Q. Do you think your friends have that same value for prayer? Obviously we’re all nodding our heads and saying prayer is important and we want to grow in certain areas. But do you think your age group is interested in praying?
Because we think it’s only for our grandparents. Only our grandparents. They were the prayer warriors, our moms and dads. They were prayer warriors. But do you think there is something amongst your age group that really excites them about prayer?
Bethany: I think there is actually a disconnect there. What I’ve noticed is so many people are so eager to have things happen in the church and so eager to have people know Christ but the Bible calls us to be salt and light in the world. If we’re not joining together and working together and praying together like what Addison is saying, even ignoring the boundary lines that the churches put in place, to even just division in the church, right. Like if we don’t ignore those and come together as a community there’s just a huge disconnect in the body of Christ. How are we supposed to help others to graft them into that? I think there is a disconnect because people aren’t recognizing that prayer is seeking God is actually what brings about change. It empowers us. And it is by the spirit that we do these things. It’s not by our own hands or by our own might. It is all the spirit and it is all about him and it is all because of him and all for him. Why would we skip out on that?
I see a lot of people unfortunately missing out on the power of prayer.
Q. Yes. That is so fascinating that you’re saying that because, again, that’s something that I think will actually bridge our generational differences. So we’ve got the Boomers, the Elders, the Gen-X, Gen-Z, Gen-Y and all those. What we all have in common is we can all pray together.
We don’t all like the same music. We don’t all like the same preaching. We don’t all like the same clothes and styles and everything. But here’s what we can all agree on. Can we not just come back to prayer? I always found it energizing to pray with people of all different age groups.
--- Group answers yes in unison
Q. To hear their hearts.
Addison: Can I just share a quick story? I’m helping out at Shepherd’s Care, which is like an elderly home.
Q. Seniors’ Residence. And it’s right ---
And for those who don’t know, it is right next to Vanguard College.
Bethany: It’s attached.
Q. It’s attached.
Addison: Exactly. And I like God told me to like pray with the people after I talked to them. It was one of the most moving things ever, like just praying with a person who has lived a life and served faithfully to Jesus and just uniting with that person in prayer. It was so beautiful. It was amazing. There was such a level of intimacy with God. It was just awesome.
Q. Yes. That’s great. It is something we need to build into our churches.
Why don’t you give me some thoughts about what kind of leader you think you need to be to reach Canada? I’ll just open it up to whoever is going to talk first. Okay, go ahead, Bethany.
Bethany: My biggest thing lately is that I work at Starbucks. They are a huge corporation and it can be really difficult to live as a Christian in a company like that. My biggest thing is I kind of focused in on the passage in the Bible where Jesus is talking about if they have ears to hear, let them hear. So I like to live my life in a way that is just loving on people where they’re at, not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with them but just loving them so radically that they can’t help but be drawn to what drives that in me. And then I share Jesus with them and I share Holy Spirit’s power and how that changed my life and let God do all the work there.
That’s not to say that I don’t live strongly my convictions or that I don’t live and stand up for the truth I believe in that is rooted in the Bible. But it’s just to say I build relationship first and I think that is something that is really going to move this nation. Because this nation is so political and it is also stripped of identity. There are so many people that are just missing out on who God says they are and they are searching for identity in things like sexuality or things like image or even social media can be one of the biggest hindrances to who we are.
And even in such a digital age to not have face-to-face interactions with each other where we grow together and be vulnerable and love on each other, there’s a huge disconnect. And that’s where I also feel like the rise of mental health issues. We’re dealing with anxiety and depression and mental health of all different kinds ---
Q. It has never been higher. The rates have never been higher.
Bethany: Yes. Never. And to say that I’m living in that right now is terrifying. So I want to be a leader personally, loving on people so much they can’t need anything but God.
Q. That’s great. Wow.
Ewan, go ahead.
Ewan: If I can just add to Bethany’s there.
Holy smokes. That’s a good point. I can preach.
Ewan: It’s like the whole world, not just Christian society, the whole world is holding up their identity on their back, whether it’s their sexuality, whether it is anything that—depression, anxiety -- they label themselves with these things. Even Christians do. They label themselves as depressed or anxious, though they may struggle with it, they label themselves as I’m depressed or I’m anxious or I’m stressed: not I’m a child of God.
But people who label themselves with these things hold up the world on their backs, like the Atlas statue. They hold it up on their back and they take the yoke themselves. Single yoke, when we’re supposed to take the yoke of Jesus. And the yoke of Jesus has two yokes, for two ox, to pull side-by-side, not just one by itself. We’re supposed to lift up that mantle together with Jesus and we can do it easily with Jesus.
What I think, and I’m just going off on a tangent here, holy smokes, but what I think of a leader, what I think when I see a leader, I’m thinking everybody would agree with this, is a leader that wants to bring the church into a place of action. It’s time for the age of inaction to end. This is going to be the generation, of all the generations in this time, in this season, this is the time where God wants to bring in a new light into Canada. He’s going to use people, young, old, in-between, anywhere, through PAOC, through other denominations ---
Q. Great. I totally agree.
Ewan: Through the denomination of Jesus, through all the churches. He’s going to bring an end to inaction, because I’ve been through it all. In the past, the nineties to 2000s there’s been a lot of inaction and we’re just kind of waking up now and everybody is a little bit confused. Everybody is a little bit confused. What do we do? What do we do? But now we’re coming into a time where it’s time for action.
A: So we’re looking for leaders who will lead in a way that is action-oriented. And you want to be a leader?
Ewan: Yes. I want to and I’m trying to train myself and have Jesus train me through his ---
And not just action in terms of bringing people to church, action in terms of congregations. You don’t want a pastor who is solely focused on outreach and you don’t want a pastor that is solely focused on the congregation. You need both. The pastor needs to be there. The Bible says to equip the saints for the better works of God.
Q. Yes.
Ewan: And also so that those saints can go out. Those saints can go out, so they can be equipped. It’s not the pastor’s job to preach and bring people in, though he does preach. But it’s the saint’s job to go out.
Q. Yes. We’ve got it in consumerism and it has really hurt our church: consumerism. We often come to see what we can get and not what we can give. I think there needs to be more action. But not just busy-ness.
--- All answer in unison: yes.
Q. It has to be intentional, missional activity for the purpose of reaching people far from God. Yeah, great. Addison…
Addison: Wow. Beautiful point from Ewan. That’s amazing. Yes. I think a call to action is so good. I think yes, the leader that I want to be is just a person that serves their community, just serving full out, just like serving like Jesus served. He washed his disciples’ feet. He served other people by ---
He served them, put them first.
Q. He served his enemies even, people who were against him.
Addison: Yes.
Q. We like serving people that are for us. Right. But what about the people who are maybe hostile towards us? I think serving is a huge part of that.
Addison: Yes. And just like serving in schools, serving in all different areas, wherever you are, whatever your career is, serve other people. Like whatever you do, just serve other people because that just shows Jesus lives inside. By this all men may know that you are my disciples if you love one another. So just serving, that serving piece that makes a strong leader.
Q. Yes. Good. So you guys all get a magic wand and you can wave it over the church and ‘poof’ this will happen. What do you think the future is? What do we need to do as a group? You are saying some good things. Serving and loving people where they’re at and all those are important. But just paint me a picture of a church that is effective in Canada. Paint me a picture of that. What’s that going to look like?
Ewan: That’s a tough question. You’re bringing the deep stuff out now.
Q. What do you think, Ewan? Just give me one thing. You don’t have to solve it all. Just give me one thing, one characteristic that you would like to see us as a Movement go towards.
Ewan: I want to see congregational members – not pastors – I want to see congregational members preaching the gospel out of their houses, in their schools, where they are. I want to see pop-ups everywhere. Just everywhere. It doesn’t have to be ---
You don’t have to go through the paperwork. You don’t have to go through the stuff. I just want pastors to show people in the congregation it’s time to be equipped. Equip the person. Send them out. Get a house church going on a Friday night. You know, pop-up church. Go out to a different city. I don’t know what it is. A hotel! Hey guys, look, we’re talking about Jesus tonight. That’s what I want to see. I want to see the congregation rise up in the Pentecostal Assemblies all over the country.
That would be cool. That’s what I think.
Bethany: I have noticed that church for a lot of people they seem not to be living righteously from Monday to Saturday and church is self-help. It’s just another resource for people to kind of come and clean the slate for the week and keep on going. But what I want to see is people who come to church to be equipped and to be empowered to pursue a real relationship with God. But then send them in their gifts ---
Because God makes us all unique and he gives us all gifts and talents and abilities. I want to see people empowered in those places and put in ministry positions where they are so well-suited, whether that is in their corporate secular job because that is so important. I want to see people rising up and living in a way that pursues a relationship with God, that yes, that puts some fire in them to reach other people.
I can’t live without Jesus and I know that I am empty without him. I want other people to live in that desperation as well.
Q. That’s great. Addison, what do you think?
Addison: Wow. Just going off what you were saying, like tell people about Jesus. And just equipping the saints, like if they feel led, to start a church in their homes. You look at Acts where the movement was going. The church was starting in homes and the body of Christ was not a building, it was the people. So yes, we need to build that up powerfully and invite people out.
Q. It’s interesting that you guys are bringing up this idea of a pop-up church, or starting a church and living missionally. That’s kind of a new model of church planting. Because the traditional model is, you know, rent a space and do it. But do you feel like, you know, just as we’re winding down this podcast, where do you see church planting fitting into the future of the church, and do you think it is going to look the same twenty years from now? I know that’s a big question but you guys are young and have lots of great ideas. And you don’t have to be right. But I’m just curious. What are you thinking about? Maybe Addison, I will start with you. What are you thinking about? Where does church planting fit in this?
Addison: Wow. I think I see like in the future just like churches popping out (something) and I want to do that. I think people are leaning towards more like, church planting, that’s for other people. Church planting, that’s not me.
Q. Let’s expand that. Why house churches and not more whatever?
Addison: I think a lot of people aren’t leaning more towards the huge church and the mega church and oh, like Hillsong is expanding and I’m not bashing on them at all, but like I think we need to see more house churches and an equal amount of big churches and little churches growing together. Like I said, it’s the body of Christ growing together and just ---
Q. That is one model.
Addison: Yes, exactly.
Q. Bethany, what do you think?
Bethany: When it comes to church planting I definitely think it is going to be different and especially in twenty years. Kind of taking the whole perspective, like I heard somebody saying the other day about how the church is going to come into a season of persecution like we have never been persecuted before, and how church buildings, like the tax-exempt status and things like that. What I want to see is more of a focus on ‘the’ church rather than ‘a’ church. Right.
Q. Yes. Okay.
Bethany: Sowing into the body of Christ and who we get to be as ‘the’ church so that buildings don’t necessarily carry all of the foundation for what a church is. And if buildings do lose their tax-exempt status and things like that, we’re not the church rooted in that building, that assembly, but they are rooted in what God is doing, where God is moving. I do believe having buildings is super important. But I also think that maybe if I’m dreaming, just to shift a bit more from a traditional service. Because even the world has a bitter taste from that in their mouth already and shifting it to more of ‘the’ church looking like and what are we doing to sow into the kingdom personally and in our community and in our jobs and schools and families. That’s where I want to see the revival happen.
Q. That’s great. That’s good.
Ewan: Why don’t you close us out?
Ewan: Oh man. We make church something quite interesting I think sometimes. It doesn’t cost anything to preach the gospel. We make it cost money. We make it cost time and resources. We have massive churches. It’s like the classroom issue that goes around in Canada. Big classroom sizes. You can’t get the professor around to talk to every student. You’ve got forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, up to three hundred kids in a class.
Q. Like university?
Ewan: Yes. Like in a university or in a high school they have this problem. It’s the same thing with churches. Not every church. Some churches have it pretty down with discipleship. Some churches have grown so much that the one-on-one is not there anymore. The most successful class sizes, one of the most successful schools for class sizes, is Ambrose University in Calgary. They have around fourteen to twenty kids per class and they have such a high success rate in that school because they have so little, I guess you could say students in a class, and so many teachers. It is one teacher for every seventeen students in the school, where in big universities sometimes it is one professor for every two to three hundred kids. It’s crazy.
Same thing in our churches. We need house churches. We need small churches. We need community. Even in big churches even if we could get discipleship going, one-on-one mentoring, assisting more pastors, people that are willing to equip on a smaller scale it would be so amazing.
Q. That’s the biggest challenge for bigger churches. Right.
--- All agree in unison
Q. They’re trying to get small because I think that is what many are realizing. You are identifying something that is a tension point. How do you gather people in big settings but then get them into small groups, get them into community. It’s difficult. There’s no doubt about it.
That’s something you see, Ewen, in the future; getting smaller, getting deeper connections. Maybe it’s a house church, maybe it’s a smaller church, missional communities, those types of things.
Bethany: For small groups even. Rick Warren has an amazing curriculum. I went to a Purpose Driven Church Conference in California this past June or July. It was crazy. They have one of the biggest churches in ---
Q. In the States, for sure.
Bethany: Yes. And their biggest emphasis is small groups to keep people connected. Q. Wow.
Bethany: They have this thing: you belong before you believe. They don’t expect people to take the gospel and then they can come to church. Here’s your resources for us to show you Jesus and then like we’ll make you belong here. We’ll plug you in. We’ll get to know you, we’ll love on you and introduce you to Jesus that way.
Q. Through community. Yes.
Bethany: Yes.
Q. I want to thank all three of you for jumping in today. And as I’m sitting here listening to you I’m sure others who are listening to this podcast, they are going to be blown away that eighteen-year-olds and nineteen-year-olds are pretty accurate to where the church, to where they see the church going. Because as you’re talking I’m going yes, yes, yes, and I just want to encourage you that ---
Here’s the thing. You and I know God speaks to all of us and I’m just encouraged that he’s speaking to those Gen-Zs, generation of leaders the same thing that he is speaking to Millennials, the same thing he is speaking to all the generations. I just want to say stick with it. We’re behind you. We want to see you succeed and I’m just so grateful you took the time. Thanks for being here today.
--- All reply in unison. Thank you.
Ewan: Can I add one more thing before we close the podcast?
Q. Sure.
Ewan: Just before I was here I had a little bit of an image from Jesus for the church, for PAOC, maybe other churches too. I’m not sure. But there was something really cool about this and you might know there’s lots of pastors out there who feel like they’re kind of in the dark right now. Their church might not be growing. It might actually be shrinking. There is not so much success going on. And Jesus showed me there is a time of darkness or silence almost. But he told me something hopeful. It is going to encourage a lot of pastors. He’s bringing to light this next season of regeneration and growth and he’s going to bring his light in. For whatever pastor is listening to this right now, just know that Jesus is going to be bringing upon a new season of growth and regeneration. That was really cool. I was just sitting in my cabin when he told me that. It was so cool. Man. Seriously.
Q. Okay. Thanks guys for jumping on. I appreciate it.
--- Addison: Our pleasure
--- End of Recording.