SPEAKER_01 0:16

The question is, are you listening?

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Great. Welcome to the Real Strength Podcast. We're so glad you're listening in. We have a really fun topic to dive into that we've actually never discussed with PJ before, but it's a big part of our church practice and the way we like to do church life in our community of higher church. And I believe that the principle behind it is really going to strengthen and edify your life. So this is a spiritual strength podcast and a little bit of a soul strength kind of podcast. Um and this is real strength. We want to cover something along the lines of your strength in your spirit, soul, or body. So, PJ, thank you for your time, bringing your expertise and your heart and your vision behind all these topics. You know, I love meeting with you to talk about the things that are on your heart and what you want to cover as we lead into these podcasts. It's fun to hear your desire for people to have clarity, walk in strength, and to not have any places for the enemy to bring destruction or or trip them up in any way. So it's fun. I love our discussions. Sometimes I feel like our discussions leading up to it are almost just as as good as this podcast ends up being.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

But the podcast is fun too, because we kind of bring all of our ideas together. Um, but today I want to talk about what we do as a church and celebrating and having a yearly theme. Okay. Every year, our church, our our vision of our church is strengthening people for life by helping them know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference. Yes, I am talking fast, but it's because I've said that probably a thousand times, a lot of times. I know that vision. But part of helping us have a yearly theme is to bring life and strength behind that vision. Can you speak to that a little bit more?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Okay, so um uh when we started the church that became high rich, the motto of that church was a church for all people. So we wanted people to come from anywhere to come to that church. Motto, mission statement, it's you know, theme.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Yeah, it was early church too. You were figuring out a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

And what happened was is we had people coming from alternate lifestyles um telling us that our church motto meant that we were obligated to welcome them.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

And which is a fun twist on that.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yes. And so we we then realized, okay, we know we're trying to be, you know, put out a welcome map for anybody and everybody to come. Um and so we we began to move away from that, and there was a loss in my mind from the big picture theme motto and then from sub-themes. And so when when that church transitioned and became high ridge, we knew we wanted to have something that uh captured more than just anybody can come. We're a church for all people. And um, so in that process, we ended up with uh strengthening people for life was was the way we started. Strengthening people for life was our motto. And that goes back to me. Uh I've tried to have a practice in my spiritual life of getting stronger and stronger and stronger, learning more, practicing more, embracing more in my in my soulish life, my mind, will emotions, getting stronger and not weaker, uh, more readily able to resist temptation, to to uh you know, stay strong against the things in this world, and then spiritually to have my spirit man get stronger and not weaker. And so the whole strengthening people for life was there for a long time. And then the questions begin to come in, okay, so what if I'm not athletic? What if I'm not, you know, a daily Bible reader? What if I have my devotional while I'm driving to work and I and I plug in a sermon and I listen to that sermon on my way to work, and that's my quiet time. Am I getting strengthened for life? And so we just entered into a time where we wanted to have the Lord direct us to some practical steps that could connect with it. And then we came in connection with this this concept know God, find freedom to discover burns and make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Which is Highlands Church?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

That came from Church of the Highlands.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Because there's more, you're gonna people can find that vision statement in other churches because Highlands Church, part of their purpose as a church, is to equip and build up other churches. So a lot of churches have adopted those four things. A lot. But what makes us unique in its application is the prior statement strengthening people for life.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Yes. So we want to strengthen people for life by helping them know God. And know God means salvation, but it means more than that. Every time you come to a church service at High Ridge, the communicators have been charged with the task of in research and in discovery, finding something that was new to them on that topic that they will be excited to share with the 50, 60, 70-year-old Christians, you know, people that have been in Christ for 70 years, 80 years old, they met Christ when they were 10. You know, your thought would be, well, they know everything. I can't tell them anything. Know what God reveals to you in your prep time might be something they don't know yet, and that and as you give it, it can be used by the Holy Spirit to strengthen them.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Yeah. And so we want to see God for the first time or knowing God in a new way.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

In a new way. Yeah. Find freedom. We want to help you get your yesterday's dealt with. We just took that right straight from Church of the Highlands because so many Christ's followers have baggage that they just keep dragging with them. Right. And then discover purpose, that's the big question. Right. What on earth am I here for? And so we put purpose into everything we can, taking it back to the concept of the church leadership and us then being commissioned to strengthen other people.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

You're always about trying to give it away, not get more for me. Because Christianity in America right now is what's in it for me. Are you gonna make me laugh? Are you gonna entertain me? What props are you gonna have in this message? Is it gonna be something I've never seen before? Wow. Uh uh Harley Davidson ridden up on the on the stage as a part of the sermon. Yeah. Um well, I know that's been done a number of times, so that won't implicate anybody.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

I'm actually just poking fun because I'm pretty sure we've done that too. We've had someone drive a motorcycle up who's during the youth service. Have we? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

I didn't know, but anyway, so I'm making fun of us then.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Yeah, you are.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Um uh discover purpose, find out why you're here, and then make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

It should be, and and I don't know if Highlands puts it this way, but it should be that everybody becomes a leader, everybody becomes a contributor. The ultimate end of Christianity is to be like Christ, to give your life away. Yeah, to have an influence on others and not just what's in it for me. And so we're now adding to that, make a difference. We're now adding to that to be a contributor and not just a consumer.

SPEAKER_04 6:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Because when you start contributing, then you're gonna start making a difference. When you start teaching a kid's class, helping as a sponsor in youth, helping with young adults, leading a small group, leading a freedom group, being a part of community outreach, joining with the team that goes down to feed the homeless, sure, helping the widows, being a part of orphan care ministry. Yeah. Making a difference means it's more than just going and sitting down, hearing a sermon, rating the sermon in your mind, rating the songs in your mind. I didn't know that new song, I don't like that new song. Why can't we sing um, you know, yeah and and you just you're just a consumer, you're no different than the rest of the world. You're just judging everything that people are doing and not actually getting in the game yourself.

SPEAKER_04 7:41

Man, that's real.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

So we have that, we have that as our focus, and it bothers me that so many Christians that should be mature seem to be mature, but they're not making a difference.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah, and a lot of ways. They're not giving their faith away. In a lot of ways, um making a difference is where purpose is really fully realized. Yep. Fully realized.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

So, you know, someone meets Christ uh as an example, meets Christ, reads James chapter one, gets excited about taking care of orphans, and then a month later starts an international ministry of taking care of orphans. That's that's making a difference. Yeah, that's that's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

That's being alive in Christ, knowing his heart, his heart's becoming your heart, it becomes purpose, and that purpose takes action and makes a difference. So natural progression happens in little ways when we read scripture daily, happens in big ways. We make life just altering decisions on how we're gonna spend our life, make our money, even depending on what you feel called to. It'll radically change your life, it should change your life. And it isn't a one and done, it's a it's a rinse and repeat. Keep knowing God, keep discovering purpose, keep finding freedom, keep making I got them out of order, but and keep making a difference. There is even in the progress of life, you can be free and you will still need to be free again because we live in this fallen world. I'm going through freedom for the second time officially as a in the content, but I'll be a part of it for the fourth year in a row. And me and my husband are co-leading a freedom group. And it's really fun to go back through these elements of of discovering freedom in my life and finding that freedom again and seeing a different layer of freedom I needed in the same place, or a new place I need freedom in now because since life has happened, it's just natural. Like things have I've experienced hurts, or I've gone through trials, or even in some ways, have had um some unaddressed disappointments between me and the Lord about how things didn't work out the way I wanted them to. I need to find freedom to restore my relationship to its fullness, not that it's broken, but it's just a natural part of being a broken vessel. So I would just encourage people to recognize this is not a one and done. You don't get to the discover purpose part and be like, I've graduated high ridge church, I'm done. No, you rinse and repeat, and it's a weekly thing and it's a yearly thing. So when did the yearly theme start to add strength to that? Because that's pretty strong.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Well, let me add a thought real quick on uh finding freedom. So the pastor that wrote the curriculum that became finding freedom, it's got different names and different uh megachurches usually uh, you know, make it bigger and better, have the resources to do so. But the the original um author of the you know deliverance freedom, getting credit out of your life, it was called cleansing streams. And so it's out of that passage uh that we can be washed by the water with the word, that the word of God will cleanse our lives. Yeah. And so he he wrote uh godly man, theologian, um Jack Chafer, uh West Coast guy, phenomenal, phenomenal communicator and theologian to the nth degree. I respect I respect what he did because he he took things for what he discovered when he researched it and then presented. And cleansing streams, the design was to help Christians uh be washed. You said rinse and repeat, that's what set it up for me. To be washed uh and then be used, be washed and then be used. And that's what cleansing streams is all about. Once again, it took on different names in different places in different churches and stuff, but it's phenomenal material. I remember when it first came out, and I just was weeping going through my workbook on all the stuff God was dealing with me that was wrong in my life. Okay, so yearly theme. So what we just talked about is is a big and a mouthful. Strengthening people for life by helping them know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and make a difference. And then all the elements in those four, that's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

And our whole church is kind of centered on it. Every ministry, yes, every expression ties into there somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

If that was it, if that's all we existed for year in and year out, there would be a sense, and and this is why the yearly theme came in a sense of boredom, a sense of I already know that monotony, monotony, I've already taught that. Um I'm already into that. Um I'm discovering more of my purpose in a new way. Um, but I don't know if there's gonna be more of that this year. And so the yearly theme came in with me just basically out of my quiet time, um, having things that jump out at me that I think will be a body life, and I use that to describe Christians together. I'm putting, I'm I'm doing quotation marks for those of you that are listening right here. Body life, things that can happen in the life of Christians together where everybody can participate. Brand new Christian, veteran Christian, everybody can participate. I'm wearing my planted um um merch. Merch. Thank you. I was gonna say gear. Uh my merch uh got this last year because our theme was planted. And um last year was awesome. We had some great series um generated by different one of the on the communications team, uh, teaching stuff to help people get stronger in God, strengthening people for life. Yeah. And so yearly themes come up to give us kind of a sub-theme to support the big theme. And they'll be they'll always be connected to something that can help um that can help people get stronger in their faith.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Or or even uh connect back to the vision as a whole.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

It's like a fresh expression of the same vision with a honed in purpose to that year, which I find really cool and and uh has a lot of power because every year, as you've prayed, sought the Lord and bring this to the team. Every year, you don't know what that year has in store. Right. Like you you just can't anticipate it. What was the year 2020 or was it 2019 that our year was was it faithing forward? I think it was 2020. And you felt the Lord gave you faithing forward and you made faithing a a word because it's not a word.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

What would you do you'd say it was a well I I I I think faith has action to it, but we don't treat it like a verb. We we treat uh in English we treat it as a noun. Yeah, but in biblical languages, faith is always active. Yeah, faith always goes, makes so I just added the participial ending, which is not correct grammar. Yeah, but it people caught it immediately. Yes. Oh, faithing, okay. It's not something that I get, it's not something that I one time possess, it's something I'm activated in.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Yeah, and so that propel you forward.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yeah, and that one ended up being one of the stronger themes we've ever had, maybe the strongest theme.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Well, I was gonna say it's one of that stands out to me because I'm pretty sure it was the year of 2020 that you felt the Lord gave you that, and in 2020 is when churches were closing, um, communities were shutting down, people were not able to gather, and it was very hard to faith forward for expansion and growth in a church when a fourth of your church is coming back to church sporadically. It was a very weird year. But it became a really uh powerful rallying point for us because yes, the vision is true, all those things, strengthening people for life, all those things. But we needed faith to forward to push us forward. We needed to be faithing in those places to push us forward when it felt kind of bleak and very questionable of would we will we get to even be the church we've known before? What will church be like after this? There were so many question marks to it. So I love the yearly theme because it gets ahead of the year and it's putting God ahead of the year, having belief and a conviction about what God can do in that year, and then without fail, the opposition we face something happens in that year, that yearly theme becomes really important.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Right now, just we're in March and I we're our yearly theme this year is one another, and it's out of Romans, and there's well it's it's it's forty-three different places in the New Testament alone.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Right. Yes, and we're choosing to you know kind of centered on the scripture with in Romans. Um do you have that on recall? Romans 12.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Do you want to pull it up? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Um and what I'm seeing seeing that's happening in our world and seeing that it's happening in communities is there is a uh real battle against people wanting to gather with one another, people wanting to have community with one another, people willing to slow down and make space for one another. The idea of having uh family dinners even and homes and families, just being with one another, it seems to be that's where the the biggest struggle is. And then there's conflict, religious conflict, political conflict that's not new, but it feels like there's just another level of conflict that's already arisen by this point in its March that's keeping people from being able to be with, accept, make space for one another. I mean, look at Parker County. Um, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this on the podcast, and if I can't, then we'll cut it out. But even us calling it the Parker County location is to not speak specifically to any other surrounding community, Hudson Oaks, Alito, Weatherford, all that because there's some little divisions between those communities, but we wanted them to come together and say, put those divisions aside. This church is for anyone in this county, for all people in this county to come and be strengthened. Am I allowed to say that? So even with that, you know, yearly theme, getting ahead of that, it's we're for one another, we're for each other, we're for the church, we're for believers, we're for what God's called us to, not the divisions of our sub-communities, not for the divisions of our sub-beliefs, but for the for the life of Christ and for the purpose of the church.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Well, to to further expand on that, um if if you can set your vision big, and I would just I would propose this for for fellow pastors that might be listening, if you can set your vision big, then do it. Don't be afraid on if you uh if you make it to that big vision or not. Let it be known to your people, let the Lord see you with a viewpoint of of a whole county. Yeah. Of more than one, I mean six in Parker County, well, many, many little towns, but six or eight right in a right in a row right there on Interstate 20, and a little bit off to the north or to the south. And so if we were to pick one of those or p pick the one that we're in, and then that identifies us with that, but our vision is for the whole county.

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

And so, and it's Parker County, and so uh for Tarrant County, that wouldn't work because Tarrant County has Fort Worth in it and South Lake and Westlake and and Trophy Club and Massive County. Keller, massive, yeah, massive county, yeah, massive population.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

You should have a mega church in each one of those areas, and it still would be people in need of a church.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Exactly. And so uh we we are actually we're actually um closer to Benbrook, which is just right across the street, than we are to Fort Worth. But this property that we bought to build to put this campus here at that time was in the ETJ, extraterritorial jurisdiction of Fort Worth.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Is it still?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

I don't think so. That's funny. I didn't think I think it's been I think it's been brought in now that's actually in the city limits. So anyway, we just thought, okay, do we name ourselves with this little town right here that really is where most of our people come from, called Benbrook, but we're on Fort Worth property? Well, let's make the bigger statement. And so this is High Ridge Church Fort Worth at this one. And so anyway, um uh the theme this year is one another. And instead of just setting it as uh, you know, we're gonna have ten small groups in our church, and we want those ten small groups to have ten people in them, and we want you all to dig deep, to go deep, and to minister to every need that each one of you have. And we want to come out of this year with a hundred people really, really strong. A hundred people with all of their yesterdays dealt with and the ability to be able to share their faith and and able to pray and minister to other people, etc. Well, that's all great. It's just you set your focus too small. And so why not think about, yeah, getting a hundred really strong, but why not think about a thousand, ten thousand? Why not think about having your motto, your theme, your sub-themes be something that anybody and everybody can participate in? So the one another concept, here here it is in in uh Romans 12. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. And it just goes on. But there are two in that verse, in verse 10, love one another and outdo one another in showing honor. And so there are two specific applications there, and there are other places where one another or each other appears multiple times. I've taught you before, if you see something repeated in a sentence, the Holy Spirit's the author of the scripture, he's trying to say pay attention, or you see a reflexive, and God Himself, the Himself is reflecting back on God in one phrase, emphasis is given. Pay attention here, God Himself is saying to do this, or uh pay attention here, one another, the concept of one another, each other is here twice. That means to pay attention, and that is in the New Testament a bunch, a bunch, a bunch, a bunch. Not to create belly button gazers, which is which is setting in a circle and us four no more. We don't want this church to grow. We like it just the way it is. Well, that's not what God wants us to do.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Belly button gazers is such a funny term, and a saying I haven't heard in a very long time.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Well, it's an old term. I just dated myself.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

What is How does it even apply? What is a belly button gazer?

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Came out of the small group movement that began in the United States in 1985. Me and your mom to be in one of the first ten churches in the United States that started practicing cell groups, C-E-L-L. And that came out of a church. The largest church in the world at that time was in South Korea. And so their concept was instead of going to a room and sitting at a at a rectangular table and having a study, go into people's homes and sit in a circle and have ministry.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

A discussion.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

A discussion, ministry. Well, what happened was the life of the life of God fell, and like I said, we were one of ten churches that began the cell group concept in the United States, which is now small groups or home groups. I don't even think they're called home groups much anymore because they don't just meet in homes, they meet everywhere. So small groups is pretty much the term now. But what happened was within a couple years they were totally inverted. Okay, we want to start some new groups this time, and the new groups this time are just going to have two couples from the church in them, and those two couples are gonna reach a bunch of other people in the community and bring them in that small group. Man, you would have thought that we had slayed the fatted calf. You would have thought that we were speaking anathema. People got so mad. We have built, we have built body life together, we have built God's life together. We're truly living out like the people of God are supposed to, and and and we've got this great thing going, and we've got so much more to do with each other. And it became inverted and belly button gazing. You're sitting in a circle and you're just so glad you everything's going so good. Uh, but then conflict comes in. At some point or another, there's going to be conflict. Every collection of people, there's going to be conflict. And so trying to keep it the same, thinking that you won't have conflict is alive, the evil one. You will have conflict in small groups. And so, just you know, we want to keep this group us three couples or us four couples. No more. We got so much more work to do with each other. I I just said, yeah, they're just gazing at each other's belly button.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Oh, see, you made up this phrase?

SPEAKER_00 24:17

I think.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

That's even better. I make up phrases all the time. Brandon doesn't like them. He says they don't make sense. I mean, he likes them, he just thinks they're funny. And I'm like, just roll with me on it, babe. Just I make up a phrase and then you learn it and it becomes our phrase. He's like, no, that's fully a you thing. It's a breology.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

That's Bryology. I was just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

But I get it from you. Come by honestly.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

So yearly thing.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Yeah, so one another, different than the small group, like you were saying, that became a click that was um unwilling to grow, reach other people, or remain effective. Not that you don't have seasons where you're with the same group. Like we have groups in our church that are yearly, they meet all year long, but there isn't a our group no more, and there isn't a um what's the word I'm looking for? Like a we're our own little church and we're separating from the main church, a disunity. They're still, yeah, they're still um under covering, they're still connected to the vision of the house, and they're still remaining effective. The group is just more unique and specific to certain life seasons that people are in, and it serves a different kind of ministry. But one another, what I love about one another and what you just read in Romans is you look at the life of Jesus and you challenged us at the beginning of this concept to have a vision that's bigger. You look at the life of Jesus, and Jesus showed us what it looked like to care for the other, the one more, the the one that got away, like the leaving the 99, finding the one aspect and continuing to do that. He reached in his short three-year ministry. How many people do you think Jesus reached?

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Well, many. I mean there were 500 or more that saw him after he was resurrected. A lot. But but the principle swept the world.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Swept the world. Still is. And it's that it's that you reach another and and someone that you reach reaches another, and someone that you reach reaches another. If it's just one person reaching a lot, but then those people they reach don't reach anybody else, that's not effective. But if everybody in the whole community of higher age and anyone else who listens to this takes on this reach one more, reach one other person, be another person that can reach another person, and they all reach one or two. I forget the stats on that. Someone's done research somewhere and you can look it up. It's exponential, but it's exponential and it's powerful. And right now, with the divisions of our world, being able to say, My life is not about me. I have a a place and a calling and an opportunity to let somebody else be close, to minister to somebody else, to invite somebody else into my home, and to find a place of unity, commonality to love that person that it says to love, even though I I may not get anything in return. This isn't a you uh sharpen me and I sharpen you situation. This is I'm gonna serve you and love you as you are where you are, and believe that your life will change if it's the Lord's will. But I'm just gonna open my life to be accessible to other people's life and watch what God will do. That's all Jesus did. And he asked a lot of questions, he made himself available, and then as people wanted life or wrestled with life, he would just say simply, Well, do you want to be healed? Do you want to see?

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Or how do you read that, or how do you interpret that?

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Yeah, what does it mean to you? And asked questions, and it made space for people in their uniqueness and their struggle and their journey to find life. Yep. And that's what we want to regain a sight for in our church is can we embrace the different person with a new perspective, with a different struggle, with a different journey, and just be there, ask questions and shed life, bring life where they are.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

So with any yearly theme that has a body life aspect, like one another's, love one another, pray for one another, um, encourage one another, uh, bless one another, speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart, Lord, on and on I could go. There can become a circle formed. And so yearly themes are are tricky because uh while we are wanting to strengthen people for life, we're wanting to strengthen more than just us few and no more. And we're wanting to strengthen everybody for life. And so that's why we encourage body life activity like this yearly theme of one another. We want it to be so, but we also know that there's got to be a multiplication effect. So think about this. They were commissioned at the Great Commission by Jesus, go and make disciples of some people, all nations, all people groups on planet Earth. Go and reach them all. But they had had this wonderful three years with the king of the universe.

SPEAKER_04 28:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

And so they went back to the upper room, Holy Spirit was poured out, and then boom, the churches formed. People from all different walks of life. But they didn't go out, they stayed there. That small group got bigger and bigger and bigger, and so then they had to find a big enough place to meet where they could all meet on the Lord's Day. So it was Solomon's Portico right there. You've been there on the side. That's where they went and had the mass gathering every Sunday morning to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, and then they met house to house. So they kept the one another concept going. That's why we have so many one-another in the epistles.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Because they lived it out. But they were commissioned to go out and go, and Acts 1.8 captures that. Um, that that's what they were supposed to do. And the Holy Spirit falls upon you, go and make disciples. And they didn't do it. And so my thought is if you don't do Acts 1.8, then you're going to get at eight Acts 8.1. And do you know what Acts 8.1 is? No. And then persecution fell upon the church and they were scattered.

SPEAKER_04 29:55

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

So we have yearly themes, and I'm holding up my Bible. There are so many yearly themes in the Word of God, we could go from now through eternity with a theme that we would focus on for a calendar year to grow stronger in maturity, to strengthen other people, to make a difference in lost people's lives, etc. But if we're not reaching out, then there's going to be a scattering that's going to happen. So a yearly theme is not just for the members of the church, for each other. It's for the members of the church, the members of the ecclesia, the gathering of the people together on the Lord's Day in the buildings that are labeled as high ridge, but it's also one anothering everywhere. And we're going to bring that in, Lord willing, we're going to bring that in later in the year.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Yeah. I love too, and that passage you chose in Romans talks about zeal. I I know few things that will fatigue people's capacity to maintain zeal more than other people. And for this year to be about other people, and that's coming from someone who loves people. I love I love, I'm a big people person. I get I'm uh extroverted, want to be with my people, don't love being alone kind of person. Um, but still, people have a way to drain and frustrate and disrupt and all those things, and it can be a fight for your zeal, even for the zeal of attending church after spending a week with a lot of one another aspects in your week. And I think that that's another element for us to to recognize the warfare that's might come against that yearly theme that might war against us as a church community, that's an opportunity for us to get stronger and protecting the the zeal we have for the Lord and for his people, where even the conversation of healthy boundaries has to come up. At what point, you know, do you have to start bringing in healthy boundaries with people where you're not letting them run your life or run over your life or run too deeply into your life? What does that look like? We can dive into that in a future podcast because I think that's a big deal. And and probably one of our future podcasts should just be about healthy community, healthy boundaries, um, emotional, spiritual, and physical. It's a big deal for one another to be successful. And I think there's a lot we can do with that one. I think we should even have guests in to share stories. I got stories just flooding my mind right now of small groups, church communities, past church functions, things I've been in where the heart was one another, but the expression passed a boundary line that kept that keeps health and that needs to be in the body. So we'll dive into that in a future podcast. But I wanted to say one more thing about yearly theme, and I think it's important for people to know about you, is that yearly theme is not new for you as a person, it's new for us as a church. For you as a person, yearly theme has looked like a word and a scripture for the year. When did that start for you and why is it so important for your life?

SPEAKER_00 32:50

So your mom and I got married in 1984. Um, I had all kinds of ideas of how I thought it was gonna be and how I thought she was gonna be. And my strong leadership gift, uh, she cried a lot after we got married.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

The context there is just wonderful. Gave me no context. Leadership gift, my wife cries.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Um recognizing that there was something broken in me and that I was breaking her caused me to go to my knees. And that's when I started fasting. I'd done a little bit before that, but that's when it became a part, not a religious part, but uh I I'm excited to have times of fasting. And in those times of seeking the Lord to try to look more like Jesus and less like Jeff, to try to be more like Jesus to Dawn and less like Jeff to Dawn, um, he started showing me things that he uh wanted me to pay attention to more than just in that one setting. So what I heard from him, what I learned from the Lord was that he was going to give me verses that would guide me for a year. Um, and many of those verses have shaped me significantly. Um one of the ones that shaped me in being a church planter is is Galatians 6 10 to do good to all people, but especially to those of the household of faith. And that was uh that was a uh a theme verse for me one year before I started um uh my first church and became a marker for my life, and that was my theme that year. And so I just learned that um that the Lord has a lot of things still yet to do with me, and that if if I will just listen, I don't go trying to find it. I just go know I'm gonna listen to the Lord for whenever it is I start start my year seeking the Lord, fasting and praying. Inevitably something's gonna repeat itself, a theme's gonna come up, and then he's gonna show me a verse he wants me to major on that year, uh, connect into that year, or a word, the word for me for this year is righteousness. Um I just believe that there's more right that I can do, and I'm not setting myself up to be a doer, I'm setting myself up to be like Christ and Christ was righteous. And so um, so that's my theme this year, and a couple of verses that it comes out of in Corinthians. And so uh, no, it's not new to me because I've had the joy of God speaking to me from the scripture, giving me Rhema, which is when the logos are written word, jumps off the page, and you know God's speaking to you. You know that you're doing more than just studying the book, you're listening to the author who's right there with you while you're in the book he wrote for you to be able to live a blessed life. And those moments, those those quickened moments, now moments, revelatory moments, become verses for that year. Some of those verses become life marking verses, yeah, and become themes. Yeah. And um and so anyway, yeah, I've been doing that for a long time, and now I look forward to and I don't strive to make it happen. Um, but inevitably the Lord shows me something. Yeah. And it's I I'm sure there's been some repeats, I just don't remember them because I've got so many journals and so many Bibles that I've used through the course of time. I just know when it does happen, it's now.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

And even if there is a repeat, it's the Lord because his word is active and living, it doesn't mean you repeat that year. You're learning, you're living a different aspect of the same truth. Yeah. Because his truth doesn't expire.

SPEAKER_04 36:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

So yeah, I love that. And you've you've poured that into our staff. Many of our staff now will have a verse for the year and a theme or a word for the year, a lot of them. And uh, even in my friends, um, I have lots of really incredible friends in this stage of my life that live by that as well. They'll text me and say, Hey, what's your word for the year? What's your verse for the year? And they want to pray into it with me, keep me accountable in that verse. And I'm super grateful for those friends because they're doing the same for themselves. Um, staying, and it keeps you anchored, I think, in your your maturity with the Lord. It also keeps you anchored to part of the scripture that says to meditate on his word day and night. There's a pretty heavy load of meditation or attention given to a word or a scripture, word and a scripture that you revisit throughout the year to see how the Lord is maturing that truth in you that keeps you um growing in strength in your spirit, and that's vital for you as a believer. Otherwise, I think a lot of believers, though they may read scripture and and keep the the word of the Lord close to their life, may not allow it to rest on them long enough to get deep enough to change their character. And that's what I find this really does for us as a church. Our yearly theme starts to shift our character. Faithing forward shifted our character. Uh, love better shifted our character. And I can do the same thing with themes for my own life. When I really worked through those themes with the Lord, I think one year it was communion for me. And I worked through that year with the Lord, keeping in mind he was working a deep work of communion in my spirit. It changed something about my character and my DNA with with the Lord, my expression of who I am, and it was a good thing. So good.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

I think I think it's a valuable, powerful thing that we do. I think in the church community, because we've grown a lot and because so much happens in different ministries throughout the week, Sunday to Sunday, we have different series, we have our vision statement that we state, and then we have this theme, and people often will say, So what is that theme about again? And why are we doing it? And and for those people who ask that question, this is why. Because we want to instill a deeper character of God in our body of believers that the expression of the vision we feel called to takes a greater level of authority and power in the lives of the people who are carrying it out year by year.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Good. You said that well.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Yeah, I'm glad to know that that's caught on. Little something that little something, something that God did with me is catching on. That's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

And it's funny to think, you know, we talk about little things to the Lord and big things to the Lord in a way, it was kind of a little shift in your life to do that. That became a bigger shift as it gained power and authority in your life that you've then felt compelled to bring to our church that's now shifting little things in people's daily life and big things in our church community. And had you just had that moment and kept it to yourself and not allowed the Lord to mature it and to bring it out of you into our church staff, into our church community, we wouldn't be benefiting from it now, all these years later. And that started 40 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Yep. It makes me think to another one, just say this quickly. I know we're getting close to the end on this podcast. Um, there's a verse in Peter that talks about uh you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. It's actually in a marriage passage, uh talking about uh husbands and wife loving each other, etc. And I looked up that word blessing, and um it's eulogia, which is where we get our word eulogy. Right, which we wait and do after somebody passes. You know, we talk about them when they're already moved on to the next phase of eternity, and it just struck me, why don't we do that now? Um Bible says encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today. Well, when we were in yesterday, it was called today. This day that we're in now is called Today. And when we get to tomorrow, it will be called today. So encouragement works all the time, is what the scriptures are saying. Works all the time every day. So we started doing it for birthdays. I don't know if you remember, way, way back.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

This is I don't know how many years ago, I don't want to date myself again, but well, I'm 32 and we've been doing it for most of my childhood life. It's been a part of our birthday tradition.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

And so what's fun is is from our family that's gone out and it's now around the world. I hear about it happening spoken blessing at in birthdays in different countries, and and so that's exciting. Just a little, just a little prompting, just a little one another aspect, the theme for this year. That's what that one was.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

Um that's grown, it's taking on steam, and it's it's and the Lord's using it. Had that exponential effect that we hope for for this year.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

To build the body, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

So good. Well, thank you for bringing clarity and passion and authority to such a key part of our church rhythm and your personal spiritual walk and your rhythm with the Lord. It's I think really healthy and powerful, and I think people who take this and run with it are gonna find greater strength and depth in their life.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Which is make them stronger spiritually.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

Yeah. Amazing. Well, thank you guys for watching. Peace out.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

Peace out.