SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right, hey, good morning. Uh good morning. You probably won't be watching this in the morning, but here we are. Good morning. Good afternoon, then. We are uh part three of our vision video video series. Uh so week one, uh first one we talked about, we talked about our switch two services, which arguably isn't really a vision piece, I guess. Uh it's part of our three-year plan. We need to make space. And so some of that doesn't feel quite as vision-y as this one does. Um, I did want to address a little bit of the two service thing, um, mainly because I didn't think about it until right now, but there's some questions about what that looks like. And so just give you some thoughts. The two services are exactly the same. So we're not looking to there's churches who do like one concern or one contemporary and one modern. Um, I know back in the day, one was German, one was English. Uh, this literally will be the same service.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Uh we're looking to provide the same opportunities in both services. There'll be the same music sets, they'll be the basically the same message. There'll be um the same kids' ministry, the same.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

I do think the second message will always be better. So I'm not sure if you need to pick one. Because I just feel like once I've said it once, I'm always like, oh, you know what I could have done better?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yeah, I don't know. For me, I think I would be like the first one would be more of like, um, you know, where my jan would be at. And then the second one, I'm kind of like, I already said that. Didn't I already say that? Yeah, I'm always worried about it. Shoot, should I say that again? Wait, is this the same sort?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Like, did I tell this story in first service or did I tell it here already? Yeah. So I that that's kind of the way that's gonna go. Um we we've got uh to talking to lots of churches about how to do that well. So we have lots of good processes. I know Trevor met with his worship team to kind of figure out some of their stuff and figure out how you know our pathway groups fit into their reality because a lot of them would practice Thursdays and then they come in early Sundays still. Um, and so then if we're asking you to be in a pathway group, how does that fit? And so they had a good meeting, discussed timing, discussed, you know, what practices would look like, that kind of stuff. Uh you're meeting with kids men on Sunday or after church, I guess I don't know when you guys are watching this, but the third, they'll be meeting. Um, and I believe uh Fred and Jude are meeting with all the welcome people as well. Uh and then we'll we'll get going on the details. But overall, I think it's been really good. There's a bit of excitement, a bit of fear, a bit of nervousness. Uh, but I do think again, going back to let's go back to motive of what we're trying to accomplish. So if we can focus on making space and if everybody can bring one friend, if we kind of have like everybody we're aiming to create space for others to experience what we really like. Is coming to church the last thing we want? The goal? No, it's not the whole end goal, but we love being here. Why wouldn't we want to share that with others, right? And so we think this is valuable. We think it you know adds to our life. And so that's kind of the way the two services go. Like it's it's um, yeah, it's something that uh we're gonna play around with a little bit, but we think it'll work really well. And then we'll go from there. Um so no differential between the services. Um Did you want to talk a little bit about what we want to do with the building?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah. So one of the things that we've discussed, and we've we've said it a few times, is we wanna we like we wanna do less but better. Um so even when people hear about two services, we are trying hard to, you know, they'll be instead of a song after, they'll be uh they'll they'll just be the songs that happen, you know, prior to the the sermon part of the message, though. So uh again, like what you said about Trevor's worship team, discussing removing the the midweek practice and um creating creating space. So within the auditorium, we all we also want to do that. We want to move to a little bit less of an auditorium size uh because we're gonna go to two services. The expectation is is we'll probably end up with a 70, 30, 60, 40, whatever kind of split initially to start, which means there'll be less people within that space. Um so to create a little bit more of a um I guess accommodating space or if feel more comfortable, more like there's still lots of people within the space, we're actually gonna shrink the auditorium size uh because we have a couple different things that we want to achieve. That would be one of them to be able to create a little bit like more than we're gonna shrink the sanctuary size a little bit. The sanctuary size is gonna get a little bit smaller. Uh and the goal is in doing so, we're also going to create a foyer space that this church has long needed. So, and that foyer space will be at the back of where the existing sanctuary is. There'll be obviously a dividing wall that'll be put in, sound barrier as part of that, a new entrance door into the new um kind of auditorium space. But we wanted to create uh a space for people to be able to have uh there'll be overflow, it'll be where our next steps will be located, it'll be a space where there'll be uh ability to pray, um, but also a transition space for when people are coming from service one uh and they're they're thereafter, and maybe they're doing hangouts for 15, 20 minutes and they're just enjoying time talking. Uh service two will be coming in and there'll be some crossover that'll be able to take place within that uh space for both services to kind of uh intermingle and to have some of those connections to facilitate, you know, some some of the, you know, oh, I won't be able to see all my friends and you know, that kind of there will be opportunity for people to cross over. It'll give us that space outside of the auditorium for that to take place. It'll be like that dedicated room for that. Um, and we just think it'll create a better atmosphere overall. So right.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

And in some of these things, uh gonna this one will be hard for people to visualize. But if you think of flow um between services, if you don't create a space that's foyer related, like we're gonna have to boot people out. Like basically, as soon as service would be over, you'd have to put a 15-minute timer on and be like, you have to leave the building in 15 minutes. We really don't want to do that. And so by shrinking the sanctuary a bit, you end up with a space where people can go mingle. But then the other thing is, I mean, if we get to a place where we have overflow that is set up, that that can be overflow. Um, there's a lot of different things we can do with that. We can, you know, we've talked about doing this. Like um, you can run a little alpha course there on the side, you could run all sorts of little things there. And so the space we have is the space we have. Like it's not like we can just expand the sanctuary. We can just, you know, there's no quick, easy way of doing this. Um, so we're really excited about this design, actually. I mean, because we've talked about this for quite a while. The lack of a like this is sanctuary has been something that we feel like is missing. Like, I don't know, there's there's just something valuable as I walk to as I've gone to visit a lot of different churches where like when you walk into our building, you walk into the building, but there's no differentiation between, you know, the the front hallway and okay, now we're into the sanctuary. And I think our brains like that little space. I guess when you're at home, it's not like the rooms are different places, they're all the same place. But there is something about if I'm going to relax, I want to be in a certain room. Like it just your brain goes to a different place. And so I feel like that's you know, with a church as well, being able to go, okay, no, now we're walking into the sanctuary. And so from a flow standpoint, it's really gonna help, I think, from a even just getting us focused and set. And then also as we look forward, like we want to do some conferences, we want to do some things like that. There's there's dreams that we have for this building, and and we require a space like this. So I know those drawings will be up. It's not a complicated, it's not a very expensive um move that we're looking to make, but definitely something that we feel like is going to really make this transition easier, better. Um, and so yeah, we're we're excited about it.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah, and that goes hand in hand with the expansion of the parking lot, right? Which will create a little bit more transitional parking spaces so that uh service one, service two, it look makes it a little bit easier for both services to flow, having the additional parking spaces and connecting the the two parking lots in a way that's a little bit more efficient, also creates a little bit more like the you know, this is one place. Yeah. So that that helps as well.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

All right. So jumping in this morning, we want to talk about um part three of our vision. Um, and this is something that we have unofficially done for years, I think. I think one of the things that over the last couple of months, especially with Jonathan, seeing what we've done, really challenged us to find language that worked to explain what we're doing and help people understand the vision of it. And so for years, going way back from even the way we would see the way we ran the church baseball league back in the day, like it was a place, it was a way for us to invite friends into something churchy. Yeah. It was a way for us to go, hey, you want to come play baseball on our team? Yeah, it's a church team, but it'll be a lot of fun, like that kind of thing. Like we had a lot of that, and then you get sports camps, and you're like, all right, so we're gonna start these camps, and this is going to be a way for people to experience the body of Christ in something outside of Sunday morning. And then we started Family Central. Well, this is a way for people to value and love for people. Um, and then on the flip side, it was a way for people to experience the love of Christ in a very tangible, practical way. And then we began the work in the athletic center. And so there's a lot of things that, but they all seemed very fragmented. And they all seemed just kind of random. Oh, now we're playing sports. Oh, now we're doing this, oh now we're doing this. And so one of the things that Jonathan, who's our um consultant, um really was like, he spent a couple hours with us going, like, walk me through this, like, how does this work to really and I think that opened my eyes a lot too? Like, I I would imagine a lot of people in the church don't get this because if we can't explain it to a consultant, um, and so this this part of the vision is something that I think ties a lot of this together.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

So Yeah, we've we've experienced through these different avenues the opportunity for us to live out, um live out being the hands and feet of Jesus uh and to love on people um through various, you know, methods, whether it's you know, providing care or whether it's providing coaching or whatever it is, and to be able to like show love and kindness and um and inside of doing that, you know, they feel um cared for. Um so it creates a bridge of connection, which allows us to, you know, speak uh speak life into that connection. Uh allows us to share Jesus, it allows them to hear Jesus and it gives them an opportunity to like ask the questions or to um to be able to put like for instance this past year in the hockey team, I I got to answer a bunch of different questions just from being in the same space and time um as other people, but also like caring for their kids and you know, you know, building those relationships beyond just showing up and sitting, you know, in a bleacher seat, but like sitting down and talking and asking parents how they're doing and like you know, just you know, life questions, but that that builds, and then people ask you, so what do you do? And then that leads to a conversation about faith, and then uh well, what does that mean? What's your background? And then that you know, that opens doorways, and before you know, people are talking and and the it the barrier is removed.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Well, and I think so that we we can divide this into multiple different ways. The one being the best evangelism tool in terms of reaching the world will always be each individual person. Right. I mean, there's no no denying that there's no like there's no work around your life and the way you live and your relationships are a hundred percent key. Um so then as a church, you go, okay, so then the equipping piece and the pathway groups and the discipleship courses and all that kind of stuff, that's that's uh meant to really engage the individual. So when somebody asks you, hey, why do you believe what you believe, you have an answer. But then when we look at it from the other side, the way I've always challenged people is like, okay, so if you were to um, you know, when you think about one of the other faiths, like we we forget how hard this is for people to go, okay, well, I'm going to completely switch religions. Whether that's from atheist to Christian or whether it's, you know, from Islam to Christianity or whatever that is, we forget how insanely hard and how big of an ask we're giving. And so we kind of give a um all in or nothing approach. Like, come to church. And they're like, I'm not even remotely ready for this. Like, I remember one of my closest friends, and I I still hope one day she'll she'll come to faith, but uh worked with her at a previous job, and we were chatting about this one day, and she said, you know, if I believe this, like it would change everything in the way I am with my family and the way I am with my like it would literally change everything. And growing up in the church, I never it not like it didn't dawn on me, but you don't realize how much you're asking of people. And so when we talk about creating avenues or on-ramps or moments for people to begin that journey, um, I think it's really critical. And I think the church has as an as a whole kind of just said, okay, we'll go evangelize. And and I this doesn't replace that. Yes, go do that, go tell your friends, go live in such a way, 100%. But then when we began to look at it, we went like a lot of our relationships, because it's not like everybody loves hanging out with pastors, which I'm surprised at. I would have thought. Yeah, you would think, I mean, you would think, right? Like who wouldn't want to? But then you look at okay, so we work literally just with Christians. So how do we interact with our neighbors? How do we interact in a way? And so then we began, you know, through coaching, through sports, and some of those and go, wow, you can do some really neat relationships that again, you're not doing in a sense of look, I'm coaching to evangelize. No, no, I'm coaching because I care for these kids. I'm coaching because I love what I do. But I'm also trying to create opportunities for people to experience my hope. You know what I mean? Like to experience my joy, to experience, and then the hope is that they'll go, yeah, like, hey, um, what's that all about? And then to experience the next step. Like, I think um when it comes to like the idea of an on-ramp, um when somebody loves you, like you talk about um the usher that first met you at church. Right. So walking into church, and I think his name was Bob Bob. I was gonna say Fred. Bob Bob and the impact that that little thing had. And so then I look at people and go, okay, well, how do you reach people and impact them at different levels? So um, I was reading through the book of Acts, uh, been reading with uh with Beckett, and one of the things that stood out to me again, uh I was reading about Cornelius yesterday. And the definition that Luke gives there is he's a godly man, and the way you could tell that was the way he handled the poor. And that's mentioned multiple times. And it's just a fascinating little thing again that you go, okay, so that's one of the things when we look at, okay, if we're going to talk about reaching our community throughout the book of Acts, this is one of those things again. And so when it comes to like Family Central, you have to begin to see this as an on-ramp for those who don't know Christ, but as an off-ramp for all of us who do.

unknown 15:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

And so if you see it kind of as a an a almost a transaction where I am living out the faith that God compelled me to live, and the person I am serving gets to experience what that would feel like. Right. Right. So we view it that way where again, it's not this bait and switch where we're like, hey, come on in. If you're willing to listen to a sermon, we'll feed you a meal. It's come on in, you're loved, you're valued, eat a meal and experience something that maybe you've never experienced. And so when we think about on random, it's like I really hope we can get to that intentional or like trying to understand it in a way of not just an outreach is always one of these things, like the goal is just to get them to be Christian.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Obviously, the goal for all of us who believe should be that. Like, why would I not want someone else to experience what I've experienced? Right. Like it makes no sense. So obviously the goal is up, but you're not doing it with the motive of just getting a conversion and walking away. You're doing it from a motive of I was loved, God changed my life, and I want to tell you about it.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, it it definitely is a different it's a different vibe. Um I come from a very evangelistic kind of background. You guys did a lot of a lot of things. And it's not that they're bad on their own. Door knocking, bus routes, Sunday school, like um and a lot of it was care-based. Um but I mean, we were very much, you know, looking to evangelize without having relationship. Like a lot of cold calling, a lot of like you're almost like the uh the old school salesman that would like, you know, cold call on your door and be like, hey, your gutters, they need to be, you know, clean and fixed, and you know, your house needs to be painted and you know, all like and they st like some of that still happens today. And I bet you their their rejection rate was is similar to what it was like. But then you were out there and you felt like you were doing the work, you know, and uh and in some ways you are. Like in some ways that's that's reality. But I mean, I think when you when you go to scripture and you look at like the life of Paul, like he he got into the culture, he got into like he he wasn't just you know preaching on the street corner. Right. He he was like engaged in, you know, understanding who he was talking to and and and really building that. Like there was there was some there was a real effort to connect. Uh not just like, you know, here's a plateful of Jesus, right? But rather like like I get you on a human level and like we're the same.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

And you know, do you think because you come from this background, do you do you think a lot of what we're doing now in terms of evangelism is just um we don't like the way it was done but haven't replaced it with anything?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah. I think there's some of that. I think we I I don't know if you can't help but be reactionary that way. I feel like that's pretty much in every area of life. Much of what we see in terms of movements are all reactions in many ways to what was done poorly or what people have labeled as poor from prior. Uh so then we swing it hard back the other way because we're gonna, we're gonna make it right. Right. Um but like I I think for the most part, like when I look at some of the things we were doing, it I mean, it wasn't from a place of like, you know, we we just wanted numbers. Now, were there churches out there that I heard of that were just like, it was numbers? Like you had to go and get evangelic, like you, you had to produce, man. And the the church wanted to know how many like souls you you saved on you know your visitation this week. And like, have I heard of that stuff? Oh yeah, I was definitely there's there's extremes out there of all that, but I think most most people, like I I remember riding a Sunday school bus from Faith Baptist back in like 1981 82. Like, and they were out asking people to, you know, hey, we'll pick up your kids, bring them to church, you know. We'll like and that was an evangelistic outreach that they had as part of their ministry. Why do you think that ended? Um I I think it's unintentionally, I think it's a cheapening of what the message of Jesus is. It takes work to build connections with mom and dad. It's easy to say, hey, we'll take care of your kids for a few hours on a Sunday and you can have a break. And parents are like, yeah, that's not a bad idea. And uh, you know, we're gonna make this wildly entertaining for the kids and they're gonna want to be there. So and then hopefully the byproduct is through the connections that we have with your kids, we're gonna be able to be a light and a witness to you and you'll come to church. And that worked for a time. Um, and then I just think it I think as the generations change, and we talked a little bit about this, and parents have become a little bit more involved in like, you know, being parents. And, you know, my mom tells me that um when they were kids growing up, they would have breakfast and their parents would be like, All right, go play. Don't come home till lunch. Like, go. You're not to be in the house, you're to be out playing. And literally, like they lived across the street from a train track with a trestle, and they would walk across the trestle to Waterworks Park, down the hill, and they would go play at the park, which was like, you know, a kilometer and a half, two kilometers away. And then they would come back at lunch, they would have lunch, and then it was like go. And then they would have to go to the park again. Like, do you think a parent would let their kids go to the variety store now? Like, I remember as a kid, my parent would be like, here's a dollar, you and your brother take your bikes, and it's a kilometer away, go ride your bikes across the neighborhood. Yeah, I get that though.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

I but I I would say there's still a lot of that now. I mean I don't think anywhere near the level of what it used to be. Not not maybe in this little area, but in terms of parents being disengaged, 100%. I mean, you drive through downtown St. Thomas, you drive through some of these areas. I think it all depends on where you live, but I would argue strongly in Elmer, you see a lot of that still. I I think though, again, that that's we're going off a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

I don't know. Like I I go I go by students and I don't see seven bikes lined up with kids that are inside getting ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Now you see parents show up with their kids to get ice cream. Right. But how much of that is just kids sitting at home on their screens? I don't know. It's just a different world, right? Like it's I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

The parents I talk to are all like, I would never let my kid do that. Yeah, but we're in a different circle. No, no, but not not not parents that are in our circle. I know. Parents that are out of our circle.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Okay, but again, that that that's the point. The point is so like the who you guys would have gone to go reach would have been out of your circle. And I'm not convinced we go out of our circle.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

So how do you like right that becomes some of the question of we're not in downtown St. Thomas, we're not downtown London, we're not downtown Toronto, we are in Mount Salem. But going so we got rid of the we're not gonna go pick up kids for um Sunday school, we're not gonna go, but there was no ever replacement of okay, so what are we doing? And there was almost a removal of everything to now just, well, I just hope you show up on Sunday.

unknown 22:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

And I think that's the part that I think we just have to we have to own is Yeah, I definitely think there's been a movement to almost like a I don't know, I I don't know what the term is.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

I've heard it said, like the the uh the attraction model of church.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Yeah, the attractional model, the seeker friendly. Like there's there's a bunch of different options. But again, it it a lot of it is responsive in the time. The seeker model was let's make the church more um not so Christianese. And I think the heartbeat was right. I think it was like you would walk into a church and go, like, I don't know what the heck's going on. Right. Right. And so that doesn't help, but you can't water it down either. You want a balance. And so I think when we're talking about on-ramps, it's this conversation of figuring out, okay, what are the things that, you know, if you look at faith like a number game, and people start at minus 10 and zero is when they accept Jesus. And I realize there's there's whatever, just think of the imagery of it. How do you help somebody go from a minus 10 to a minus eight? Right? Like you look at a lot of big changes in your life. Your wife did not say yes to you on the first date. She did not commit to marrying you. Oh, she wanted to. Oh, well, I mean, you are a standard. That's very different. You know what I mean? And so I think so. That's that that idea of how do you create some of these things? Um and so that's where family center, I think, is a bit easier for people to understand. So that's an on-ramp of of trying to figure out okay, how do we actually love our community in a way where they go, man, the gospel has done some things in some people's lives. But then you go, okay, so um the athletic center is something I think people struggled more to see. They're like, all right, well, it's just sports. No, it's belonging. It's creating opportunities for people to connect. Um, and again, a lot of the way our brains work, at least, is so if you're gonna on-ramp people, you have to find a way to connect with them where they're at. The the whole way on-ramps work, if you think of the 401, it has to connect to another highway. You don't have on-ramps from a farmer's field. Right. It's from another place. And so you look and you go that you think about the 73, 401 intersection, you go, all right, there's a there's a whole highway going north-south, and we're all heading east-west, you're gonna have to create an on-ramp. And so if you think about it in that context of going, okay, we have to find places where people go and and help them connect. And then it's not a 90-degree turn. It's a it's a slow kind of a shift.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

And I think maybe the on the on-ramp discussion is also important to be had here because we've also realized that having very brief, short on-ramps is can be very problematic for for people to feel like they can get up to speed, right? Which is why they've made on-ramps to be much longer. Like some are a kilometer long, some are almost two to be able to get them up to speed and into the highway at a safe, you know, and an effective way. It makes everybody feel like they're, you know, the momentum is, you know, where it needs to be. And they can build up that speed on the on-ramp and and not feel like they, you know, aren't fitting in to the highway, so to speak. And I mean, some of the on-ramps that we're discussing do that.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Well, and I think if you can further that imagery, so when there's a longer on-ramp, there are the dotted lines that start pretty early, and people have the opportunity. So big trucks will often stay in that on-ramp longer to get up to speed because they take more time. Whereas when I'm heading somewhere, the minute that line is even remotely looking like I can cross over, I'm I'm gone, right? I got to get to that far lane. This is places to be. Yeah, I've traveled a bit. Places to be speed limit, obviously. But um very clearly. But so then if you look at this, okay, so when you look at the different things, so um a sports camp, a summer camp, is just getting someone to even turn onto the ramp. Right. They're not entering the highway yet. They're not anything. All they're doing is saying, or you could even argue it's just them slowing down and considering, maybe just signaling. But you have to get that initial turn. You have to get people to walk in, to consider, to open their eyes to something. And in so I think the church, where we get the opportunity is okay, if we love this community the way God has called us to, what are the spaces we can step into and say, Hey, I love you? And so then when when we think of you know sports camp and what that does, it's that. Yeah, it provides daycare because parents don't know what to do with their kids in the summer. Both parents work. Josie and I face that, you guys face that. It provides a safe, good place. And hopefully the kids leave there going, Man, those guys really cared for me. Like that was a fun week. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Had a good time, had great food, the great interactions. You know, I came out of a feeling like I was capable of doing some things that I didn't think I was capable of. I made a friend, you know, you know, the endless high fives and just a good time. And like the kid leaves thinking, wow, this is great. And at the end of the day, it was. Right. It was really good. And I think the parents feel like, oh wow, like my kid was safe, they were taken care of really well, couldn't ask for a better, you know.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

And we weren't tricked, we weren't anything. We just felt valued, we felt all those good things. And what that does then is in terms of a church trying to reach people for the gospel, is it opens that door a little bit to go, they actually cared about me.

unknown 27:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

And so then when you think about doing that regularly, doing that year after year, and then expanding that and going, okay, well, we have reports from Elmer, from Malahyde, from Elgin saying we need more indoor spaces. So the where the athletic center fits into that is like, and you could run so much and create so much value for people's lives. And again, is every soccer night gonna be at the end being like, all right, will you give your no, we're not gonna. What we're doing is helping people get onto that on ramp of going, even when they drive, when you drive over the 401, like there's so much to this imagery. Like you drive over the 401, you look down and there's nothing happening, or you look and you see it's packed. I think there's a piece when people drive over and look at the church and they go, Yeah, there's nothing going down. But when I drive over the 401, especially when it's a random time and it's completely packed, you're just like, What's happening? And that analogy kind of falls apart because usually it's construction or an accident. But when you think about the church and you go, Okay, you know, um, when people think about Salem Community Church, a lot of people think about camps. That's cool. Not that we've watered down the gospel knot, but that we've we've created that little framework that every time they drive over the highway, they look down and go, I enjoyed that place. Right? And then hoping, okay, so then after camps, what can we offer the kids? And so we talked a lot about the way we run junior youth and even children's church and a youth program. And how do we offer that? And so as a church, kind of going, okay, well, what are the what are the on-ramps that we can offer to our community? And so then that becomes bigger than just that. Like I know one of the things that I've been looking at, um uh onechurch.to, which is uh Jonathan's church, they have small groups that are literally on ramps. They have a basketball small group, they have a 65 plus pickleball small group. Like they have piles of opportunities like that where people are like, look, can we just can we just hang out? We're gonna hang out, and then we're gonna invite you to some places. And so he said the way that you know their pickleball group would work is basically you show up, you play pickleball, and at the end they talk a little bit and go, hey, you know what? Um we're we're gonna be at church here tomorrow. We'd love for you guys to come too. That's it. Something as simple as that, but you're you're creating an opportunity for people to maybe get on the highway. Because I feel like a lot of people will drive over the highway and you you see a couple of these, it's a road that'll go over the highway and there's no on-ramps. And so even if you wanted to go on the highway, you'd be like, I don't really know how. And so, in at least statistically, going based on what Barnardada is saying, most people would be willing to show up if somebody gave them an on-ramp. Yeah. I think the most recent data was like four or five would say yes if a friend invited them. Which is why the church. And so then going, Okay, so from a from our side of this, really trying to find a way to go. You guys good? Yep. All right, peace. From our side of it, from our side of it, trying to figure out how do we, as an organization, create some of those opportunities. Um, but then also inspiring more than that, you know, like what we're seeing at Family Central right now with um Sean taking the bull by the horns and starting a Sunday morning thing there. Stuff like that of going, okay. Well, in your circle. And so when you talk about, you know, we talk about our sports, but there's people in completely different circles. In that circle, what would an on-ramp be? How can we create those on ramps? And and that leads very much into the final conversation of going off-ramps. Somebody's got to build those on-ramps. Yeah. And that means that people are gonna have to get off the highway, take some time, we're gonna have to design, we're gonna have to build. What does that look like for you as a business owner? What does that look like for you as a neighbor? What does that look like? I don't know. Like everybody's got different passions and different places where God has called them. But if we can get into this mindset, okay, we want to create on-ramps, we want to create opportunities. Uh, I think we can do some really, really good things. And so if we can see our ministries that way, if we can see camp that way, if you can see FCA that way, if you can see, you know, the Athletic Center that way, if you can see um even youth and junior youth and some of these, and you can see them as opportunities for people to experience what we have found. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

It's a little bit of a mind shift where we're thinking about how is, you know, the the kingdom that I've built for myself, how does that work in God's kingdom? And how does that, how can that be purposed for what he's like he wants to do? It's a little bit of a a change rather than how do how do I add God to mine rather than that? It's more like how do I get in on, you know, seeing God's kingdom here on earth and what does that mean? Um and I think that's an important part of the discussion. And it's it's a little bit of a little bit of a a nuanced change. It's significant, but it it's a little bit different way of thinking when it comes to how we serve, how we make decisions, how we fill our calendar, how we spend our money, how we interact, how we so I think too, you know, growing up, the easiest or the way evangelism appeared to me at least was you hand out tracts or you go tell people the gospel.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

That's it. And this framework kind of spins that on its head where it doesn't remove that. And the way I want to explain it is the first time somebody um explained money to me. So it used to be we give 10% to the church and then we're good. Like we tithe, whatever that looks like. Then all of a sudden, somebody walked in and said, No, no, no. Yeah, you're called to do a tithe, but all of it is God's. And you're like, oh, snap, that's way harder. Yeah. And I feel like it's that way now with our lives. Like, if evangelism is just you have to hand out three tracks a week, you can do that. It might be hard, it might be awkward, you can do it. And you can be like, done. Now it's more like, no, no, your time is God's. Yeah. Use it well. How are you investing your time? How are you? And so then flipping and going, okay, well, then we got to think a lot harder. I don't get to just do, well, this is my Christian act of the week. Now I'm done. Right. No, my Christian act is my whole day. Yeah. It's my whole week. It's everything.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

It's my whole schedule.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

So, how do I use my office? How do I use my workplace? How do I use the gym? How do I use this to further your kingdom? And I think that's something that um really excites me. I think it also pulls us back to the priesthood of all believers, where all of us are on mission and people aren't just here to see a pastor. And I really think that's a part of it. But we got to start back at last week and go, we we have to get into a good place to do this. That means pathway groups have to go. That means we have to be investing in each other, growing in our faith. And then we have something to share with others, going, hey, look what I found. Right. I want to show you what I found. And so with that, I think that gives us lots to talk about. We're doing this in four weeks. This is just kind of sharing the big picture. And then we have the hard work of actually putting this in action and figuring out how some of this works. Uh, and the reason we're kind of putting all our cards out on the table is that we don't want to hide anything from anyone. We're not trying to deceive anyone, we're not trying to sneak something in. Just as we're learning this, we're sharing it with people. And and then we're like, all right, so let's chat about this. What does this look like in your life? Let's work on this together. And then the rest of this year we'll be like, all right, so how do we make this work? How do we build these things?

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Yeah. So if you're looking to connect, you got questions you want to add to the conversation, please reach out. We're available. Old joke. Old joke. But we're ready to uh have those conversations. We love to sit down and talk.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

And staff, really, really easy to find. Our name, and then at Mount Salem.

unknown 35:47

No.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

Yeah. At MSEC. At Ms E C dotchurch. So Albert, Patrick, Trevor. At MSec.church. So reach out. Yeah. Have a great day. Bye-bye.