SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, good morning. How are you? How are you? I'm I'm I'm here. I'm good. I'm here. I slept well. I don't know why we do this first thing in the morning always. I feel like we'd be a little more. We need like half an hour more, and then we'd be like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

There is no caffeine in this body, so it's good for you.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Good for you. All right. So we are doing uh vision part four. Uh so you can follow along. So we're in vision part four. Uh so if you remember, and uh hopefully you guys got the email we sent out to kind of explain everything and kind of give you a visual of it. Uh but vision one is about making space. And I think one of the things that we want to keep going back to, because this kind of sandwiches this. If you lose sight that we're trying to reach people, none of this makes sense. This is all way too much work.

unknown 0:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Like moving to two services doesn't benefit my family at all. It doesn't benefit your family, it doesn't benefit any of the staff. All it benefits is the opportunity to make space for us to be able to invite other people in.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

I I think we have to remember that in the redemption story, when we when we look at like the children of Israel were supposed to go into Canaan land and they were supposed to be a light and assault to the worlds around. Like they were supposed to be a representation of a people who were connected to God and loved e loved him, loved each other, and that would be, you know, um and that would be inviting and like people would want that. Right. And they would come to God. Right. And we see historically, and we think this is a track record that has like since then um that people get distracted with the kingdom that they're a part of. Right. And it very quickly like can become a loss of focus on, you know, why did God bring us in here? Like, what what was God's purpose and plan? What was his intention? What is God doing? Well, the work of God is redemptive. Right. It's always redemptive. Right. And we lose sight of that. We enjoy the redemptiveness, we enjoy the blessing, we enjoy the goodness, we enjoy the fruit, we enjoy the um we enjoy it so much that we have it for us. Right. Right. Right. We become like the proverbial, you know, dead sea that, you know, everything flows into but nothing flows out of. Right. And then nothing can live.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

And I and I think it's really important to remember that because I think that's been some of the people's pushback. Well, sorry, uh, you know what? We actually have had very little pushback. That's happened. That's not right. But I think there's a natural pushback that goes with, but this doesn't make sense because it's hard. Yes, it is hard. Yep. And I don't lie about that, because even when we did look at some of the details that when you had your meeting with Sunday school teachers, and like there's just some details we don't completely know how it's gonna work yet. But what we know is what we currently get to experience is awesome. Right. Seeing on Sunday, seeing the baptism, seeing the lives changed. We want more of that. That's what that's what we want. Like we're trying to create space for that. And so if we can keep that in mind, then a lot of the rest of it doesn't seem quite as complex and doesn't seem quite as difficult. Um, so yeah, number four becomes about ascending out. And sending out, um let's quantify. I think you had said you want to talk a bit about your evangelism kind of past and kind of what you think when we think evangelism, but I want to just kind of frame it a little bit. There are multiple layers to what we're talking about. Um, one being working with other churches. Uh, we want to do a better job of that. We want to do a better job of serving other churches. Um, and that starts with our own regional churches. We have a church in Tilsonburg, we have a church in St. Thomas, um, Stratfordville. I think everybody kind of knows that we're sister churches, but there's two other smaller ones, St. Thomas and Tilsonburg. Um, that how do how do we serve? What does that look like? Right. I know in the Elmer Ministerial, me and you are a part of, and Trevor too, um, we we try our best to serve the other churches, but being intentional. So this isn't just about, you know, being sent out to um evangelize. Sometimes people make it so it's it's that. But then there is the piece of missions, and there is the piece of, you know, we sent out Benny and Esther. Or did is there a heart for some of this? There's a world suffering out there. That is one element of it. And our conference, for the if people ever look out, like the reason our conference was formed and denomination, sorry. What are we? We're a conference, right? Conference. Which one is it? We're a conference. Um, because we were formed together because we wanted to be able to better send people out. Right. So we are a missions conference. That's what we are. A denomination is built around similar beliefs, we're built around action. Um, and so that is a part of it. Um, but then there's then there's the final piece of the personal one. I think that's um one that usually only gets touched on. But we do want to touch on that one as well. So just kind of framing it, there's bigger, bigger than just go out and tell somebody about Jesus. Um, but that is a part of it.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

So I think there's many different like sides, like what you're describing in terms of like individual, corporate, you know, conference, uh, you know, how we uh how we apply all of like Matthew 28, you know, go into all the world. Right. You're supposed to be a light, you're supposed to be salt, you're supposed to love, you're supposed to um and I think that plays out in different settings depending on you know, depending on those settings and and what that takes place. Like when I look at scripture, I I see, you know, my brain, the way it works is I I see them all like huddling in Jerusalem and they were supposed to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Well, eventually Jerusalem kind of blew up because of persecution. But then what was the byproduct? Thousands of people of faith got pushed out into other regions and they got pushed out even further, and they got pushed out even further. And eventually you had a bunch of people who were going into all the world, and the byproduct of the relationship with God and loving God was sharing Jesus with people. Right. And it it just happened. Now, how with what intensity, with what passion, with what like we know the first like two, three hundred years, like the world got flipped upside down with this change that took place because of people of faith sharing the message of Jesus, and it was just so unusual. Um, we know that to be true. So then we look at what happened. Like what happened from there? I think what happened from there is I think the same kind of pattern that you see happening, you know, to the children of Israel walking into the promised land. You see the same thing happen in Jerusalem. Okay, what's supposed to be next? How is this supposed to happen? And people can fade. And the the the view becomes something more of like what does it mean to you rather than what it means to the others. Right. And then we come up with all sorts of systems and and methodologies to try to figure out how we can get people to, you know, share, you know, the gospel message. And I think some of it, you know, I mean, this is a really good conversation, you know. If I were to, if we were to take a guy like um, like Randy, I don't have to ask him who his favorite football team is. Right. Right, right, right. He's gonna tell me. Yeah. He's gonna tell me why. He's gonna tell me because he has a passion and a and a and a desire. He he loves that football team. I'm not gonna say it, Randy, but loves them, right? So then we have to ask the question, what does Jesus mean to us? What what what does he mean to us? What has he done for us? Like, and what what would hinder us for that being meaningful to express it in a conversation where we where we think, no, this is the ultimate value of everything. Like my whole life is sourced by this. Like this is literally why I I am who I am, where I am. It's because of him. I think sometimes that gets clouded because we we think it's because of us. We we think it's be you know because of our circumstances, or maybe in our culture we just have it so good that we don't realize the goodness of God that's that's poured out. I think those are all factors that we can contribute to us not really being a people that you know think about sending, not only sending others, but sending ourselves. Uh so my background, I mean, when I when I was in church, they were very much a quote unquote sending church, but it was more of a corporate kind of institutionally based sending in in the sense of um there were some people who had like a general witness of who Jesus was and they would share, but there was all sorts of kind of programming that would backstop what um being a faithful witness of Jesus would mean. Um and in many ways it was a it was a form of getting people to do the work without necessarily having the heart behind it. Right. Um so you would go out on a Saturday morning and you would go door knocking and you would invite people to ride your Sunday school bus. Um you would connect with parents that way, and that was a really easy connection because if one parent in one neighborhood, their kids were having a great time, the other parents would want you to connect. So you'd walk up to a door and you would knock on, hey, is is you know Johnny and and and Samantha coming to Sunday school tomorrow? Yeah. Hey, um Linda over there, two houses over at 45, wants to talk to you. She's got three kids and she wants to send them two. So the parents would like literally talk, and now all of a sudden I walk down and talk to Linda and you have three more kids that are coming. And then you also have an opportunity to like step into their house once a week to ask how they're doing and you know what their faith background is. And it gave you a an avenue. It was a bridge. And if it was done right, it was a really effective bridge.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

It reminds me of the time I sold air purifiers. Yeah. Please go on. This is fascinating now. So I was uh This is pre pre-COVID. No, this is pre-marriage.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Wow. So this is like there were no pandemics. All right, go ahead. This is great.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

So yeah. I was trying to find a job out of SBC or was it when I was at uh Westerveld? Anyways, it was a part-time job, and I saw an ad. And I don't know why I were.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

I could I could see this though. This is where I actually thought things would add like you yes, sales. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

So we go to I go to London and go to this. Uh I I literally do not remember where it was, but go to a place and they sell small air purifiers, big air purifiers. Now, what they've done for us is they've done all the cold calls ahead of time. So they just send us an address and we go. And so in our training, we were told, like, if you don't believe in this, like they'll read right through you. Like, you have to sell it. So one of the things we're supposed to do is supposed to bang on the the the um like the the couch or something to show all the dust and be like, look at all you have in here, and you need a purifier, blah blah. Right. And so I remember going to one of my first ones, and the things were like 2,000 bucks, we're small and like 4,000. Like, and this is whatever, this is in the 90s, right? Some talking we're talking some time. And so I remember going to one of the first ones, and buddy's like, man, like this is a lot of money. And I'm just like, yeah, no, I got it. Like I was the worst salesperson ever. Because I'm like, I have no idea. Like, I don't really care if you buy this because I wouldn't buy this. And so I never sold one, which sucked because we had a choice. We were like, okay, you can either get paid by commission or get paid hourly. And you took commission. I took commission. Because you thought you would do really well. Me, me and my Vuick Regal cruising through downtown London. Dude, we went to like a one of these 10, 10 story complexes. I'm walking through the hallways knocking on it was wild. And I never sold, I don't even think I got a bite because I didn't believe in it. Like, and so I always I always think of that. I'm like, yeah, the problem wasn't the product, the problem wasn't even any of that. It was just, I legit, if as soon as somebody pushed back, I'm like, yeah, no, I get it. And so I feel like that's how a lot of us feel about evangelism, right? Yeah. We're like, oh, we'll invite you, but as soon as you say no, we're like, you know, I get it. And so going, okay, so what then is the alternative? Because we still need to tell people. Yeah. And I think that's where people stop, though, because they have my experience and they feel like, well, I don't know what I'm gonna say. And so then you just don't. And so what what did you learn from that? Because you you're saying like there were some things done well, and that's kind of what triggered my thought with that. Like, what what would it have looked like to be done well? Because I know everybody is like negative against that.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Well, some of it was in the secret time. So we were, you know, you would promote different like events and stuff where you would you'd be giving away like you know, a bicycle to the kid that invited the most neighbors to come and stuff, and you gave them excuses to be excited about inviting people. So then you would see like blips in your timeline when you run events where you'd be running, you know, 50 kids on each school bus, and you'd have a hundred kids that weren't from church coming to church. So we'd have 130, 140 kids in a Sunday school program and a junior church ministry. It was it was nuts, it was hilarious, it was fun, it was, it was, it was great. The kids were awesome. Um but when it was done well, your your Saturday morning visits became opportunities to pray over people. Your um your your visits became, you know, moments and windows into people's lives where you could, you know, invite them to come or you could help them with a problem that they had and like i what was going on in their life. You could offer them a solution, you could offer them um when it was done well. Um and I mean there was there's there are churches who have long done it well. Right. Um I mean it but that was a season of time for when that would work. Um my my expectation is that there's no way parents in today's like there's just no like you wouldn't even let your kid go out play in the the neighborhood, let alone get on a Sunday school bus to travel somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. So like it's a it's a but I think I think when it's done well, I think everything has kind of like the same components. There's an intentionality of the person who is bringing the opportunity. There's a connection that takes place over common ground, there's a response that given, and there's like a human, like they can tell that you care. Right. And that caring and compassion bridges like most gaps. And then from there you can actually like like connect as human beings. And then like at the end of the day, humans are we're creating the image of God. If we're apart from God, we know it. So there's there's an emptiness, there's a longing for something that I know I'm empty. And if somebody's coming up saying, I think I I I might have the answer, well, relationship builds trust, right? Like connection provides opportunity, opportunity can you know bring relationship, common ground can like it's just it's real, right? And like we all struggle with the same things. Like I I look at tired parents when their kids are going through it and there's there's sickness through the household. Like, I've been there, man. I can, I'm like right there. You tell me, man, I'm just white, my brain's not here. I I'm like, I'm right there. I get it. I I've lived that like that is hard. I get it. So that we have common ground. You have kids, like you, you're struggling with the behavior issues of a child. I get it. I'm with you. I understand. Oh, have you have you guys tried? Oh, yeah, we tried that. And then they say, we actually tried this, this, and that. Oh, really? Where'd you go for that? And all of a sudden we're on the same page because we're both talking about, you know, things that are connective to us and they can see I'm human, I see they're human. And all of a sudden we we start walking down a pathway of togetherness. Well then that that that's a good thing. And all of a sudden we get knit together rather than you know, all these things that are dividing us. And I think really like some of those things are just the core. What the methodologies change as as time and seasons change in humanity. But I think us being intentional, us understanding who and you know, what Jesus, you know, who he is, what he's done, what he means to us, like, and expressing that, keeping that in front of us because it it needs to be. And that's an easy thing to get lost in, especially when like, you know, I I think about those people like running businesses, single moms, running homes, like, man, you're just like surviving. And like, oh, like the ICG, like it's it's hard to have them right in front of your face when all you're trying to do is make sure that you know the the house isn't clean enough for your kids. Like that can be hard. But I think some of those core things about you know, um just we have to build human connections, we have to be intentional, we have to, you know, and the goal isn't, you know, I'm winning people. The goal is no, I'm I'm just gonna love people like God love me.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Yeah, and I think some of that goes back to Jesus being like, love God, love your neighbor.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Like just finds you you're not gonna reach the whole world. That's not your job. Your job is to love your neighbor. And when you can have those conversations, you can create opportunities, you can create bridges. But it does take work and a lot of people avoid it, right? And I think that's part of the sending out process of recognizing, okay, yes, the goal is to um the goal is to grow in our faith. But at the end of that, it isn't just to grow for the sake of growing, like it's to grow to be able to accomplish all that God has for us.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Yeah, no farmer would say that they plant crops in the spring just to have them grow.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Right. No, they they plant their crop for a harvest. We do it with grass, just look at us, look at it grow. Yeah. Fertilize this. All right, like, but that that's exactly it. And I think that that little piece. Yeah. And so one of the things that uh I found really interesting last night, so we did our um the second last leadership uh mentoring thing, and we were talking about teams, and so we were um walking through first Corinthians 12, trying to create just a a vantage point that we're gonna look at not just teams in the church, but teams in business and the way we look at different interactions. There's a couple things that really stood out to me because you're talking about the body. Yeah. So but before we get to that, there's really something I thought was interesting. Sorry at the beginning, first Corinthians 12 goes now about the gifts of the spirit, brothers and sisters. I do not want you to be uninformed. Um, and so one of the things I did yesterday that I found really intriguing was ask people how informed they felt. And there's a couple that were like, Yeah, I'm willing to be an eight out of ten, but most kind of drop down to being about, you know, the five or six. Informed? Yeah, because everybody's hesitant, because it the spiritual gifts kind of it's a bit of a well, mm, yeah. Do I understand it? Okay. Right? And because again, once we get down to this, you're gonna, there's healing in tongues and miracles and all this stuff, and you kind of go, and so Paul is like, again, writing to people in Corinthians, these are not, this is just a letter. They don't get to study it, they don't get to do what we do, and they just get to hear it read to them. And they're like, oh, okay. And so Paul is writing, he's like, I don't want you to be uninformed about this. He goes, Okay, so um, you know, when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led away, led astray to mute idols. And that word mute has never stood out to me before. And I really feel like at the beginning of this conversation is a reminder that we are in a relationship with God, that God is not a mute God, that God does not just quietly set up there and we just aimlessly hope that we're good enough. And so at the beginning of this conversation about evangelism and spiritual gifts and all this, like going, my first job is to connect to the Father. Because if I don't do that, then all I can do is create programs and environments. But I have no idea what I'm gonna say when I get there because I have no relationship with the guy that I'm trying to connect you with. Right. And so I thought it was really interesting he points that out. And then we jump ahead and he talks about there's different kinds of gifts, and the same spirit distributes them, there's different kinds of service, but the same Lord, there's different kinds of working, but all of them and in everything, it is the same God at work. And so when you read it really fast, you just kind of go, okay, yeah, cool. But if you kind of break it down a little bit, so there's different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. And so everybody as part of this, you're gonna get something. Then there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. And so with this gift, you're going to have different abilities to serve. The question is, are you going to allow God to be Lord of that gift? And so if you start thinking about this, we always talk about getting a gift. So you've got a gift. Cool. Have you given it back to God? Like, is God Lord of that gift? So we were talking yesterday, we were talking about like if you own a business, have you given that to God? And so he gave you a gift. Is he lord of that gift? And if he's lord of that gift, then there are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everything, it is the same God at work. And so there was that little flow that I think of when you go, okay, so I'm going to get a gift. If I refuse to give it back to God, why would I expect that God's going to work through it? So the process is supposed to be the Holy Spirit gives Patrick a gift. Patrick says, God, whatever you want me to do with this, I'm willing to do. And then we see God work through it. But if you don't allow God to be Lord of that gift, then why are we so shocked that we don't see God work through us? And then he says, Oh, and now to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. And it was just this idea again that okay, so we talk about evangelism, we talk about reaching out. Um all of us play a part in reaching the community God called us to play. Not just hand out tracks. Right. Not just say you should come to church. Right. All of us play a part. The problem is, do you care enough about the common good if you take us backwards? Like, do you care enough about the community that you're a part of that you're willing to say that what I have is actually for the common good? And in our context, if you say this on a public podcast, they would call you a socialist and they would call you a communist, and they would say, Yeah, right. So that language people don't want. But Paul says, Okay, everything that you've been given, just understand this. Just for you. This is not just for you. Sorry. This is literally for the common good. So when when I think of what God wants to do in Elgin, Patrick plays a little part of that. Trevor plays a part of that. I play a part of that. Everybody who shows up on Sunday morning and would say that I am, you know, a committed follower of Jesus and have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's given you a part to play in this. Do you buy into that?

SPEAKER_02 22:23

So does that also speak to this is like a secondary question, but how we have a tendency to pull away from anything that's outside of, you know, a faith-based organization. I'm only going to play Church League baseball. I'm only going to, you know, my kids are going to attend a private school.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

My kids are going to be able to do that. But it's a bit more. It's a bit of both. Like I because and I think we get into a bit of a trick, tricky thing because I think they're unique situations. So in terms of the the sports thing, I do think often there is certainly a tendency that we have that I've seen in our region. We create something to avoid the world. Right. But I think there are times to create something because what the world created sucks. Yeah. And so, you know, when you think about the Christian baseball league that we have that runs out of Stratfordville, one of the things they do really well, it's just a lot of fun. Whole family comes out, it's one night. So there's a gap that, you know, the baseball organizations haven't done because they're more worried about the rep and the competitive and the travel. Where these guys come. So I think I don't think it's quite as black and white as people want it to be. I think the question just becomes motives. Yeah. Even I'm asking the question of is this a common good thing? But again, so that goes back to motives though. So what are you trying to create and why are you trying to create it? Right. So even with a private school, okay, so for what? I think private school does a lot to push public schools. I think there's some health in that. This is why we have a Catholic school. And I'm not an educator person. I just think for most people, you need to be able to figure out what your motive is.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

But I do like the I do like the perspective of asking myself, am I using my gift for the comic good? Am I is is this something that's benefiting me, or is this something that is beneficial to the the people around me, my neighbor. And there's a cost to that.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

And even it's not all going into my account, right? Like, so to speak. Like that's it's going out. Yep. It's being spread, right? Like it's not it's not being accumulated. And I know we the tendency would be quickly to go to the Trevor Burrus. It's a socialistic comment right there.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

But it is, but it isn't. But again, you go back to so for me.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Again, though, the motive though is like derived from love, not from someone saying you have to.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

But not just love, right? We got to be careful here because part of the problem with the way we use spiritual gifts is I use my spiritual gifts to benefit my family.

unknown 24:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

So when we think about even when we think about what we're doing with spiritual gifts or when we're praying, most of it's just me. God, I just want my life to be better. Yeah. So I think sometimes the idea of love in itself, as if if you're going by scriptural basis and everything, sure. But I think some of I live by love. No, you just love the few people. Now the context though would be love your neighbor.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

Right. Right. Like that would be your context. Right. Right. So the the the actual application of what love is is supposed to be like an outflow.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

But understanding that the gift you've been given is a part of how God believes the ministry that you're called to and the church that you're called to and the community that you're called to is going to benefit the entire community because you're there. Right. And I think when you can grasp that, it changed everything. But it changed the conversation about evangelism because now it's not just I, yeah, obviously when you have opportunities, you should be prepared. Why do you believe? We should have something. But if you don't back that up to a place of like, my relationship with God is so good that I want others to have this, then what does that look like? And that's one of our things with pathway groups. Like our hope is that you can say, look, I have some really cool connections and I've really been blessed. Like one of the things that I can say now to people is that my group over the last year has literally been a part of saving Josie and I and our family because of the weight of the challenges of adoption and the challenges that some of the other issues that we face. And then like it was a lot of complexity and having people you can go to. So I can share that. Like, you can't take that away from me. You can tell me my the church sucks. You can say whatever you want. All I can say is that for our family, this was life-giving, like unbelievably life-giving. And I think when when you can build that, and I think that's part of what we're hoping to accomplish, is like when you go and share your story, you're like, yeah, no, I I uh I have some connections that really have grown me as a person, that have really pushed me as to who I am. And and I love it. Like those are really great people in my life. Like that's something really valuable. So then evangelism isn't just I you should obey God so you don't go to hell. Like it's like, no, look, I found something. You know, I think of the the woman finding the treasure in the field, right? Like it's it's that idea of I found something so good. Can I can I invite you into it? And so then we go back to okay, so then we have to trust that A we are part of the church. I think that's hard for people. I think people would love to see just us leaders. I know they would never say it out loud, but I think everybody has a tendency to kind of go, yeah, we're a part of it, but we're not that important. If we can all buy in and say, no, we're that crucially important, and you can live in connection because God is not immune to God. So God speaks, and so you hear him speak and then you surrender what you have to him, then we're no longer running out of a program. Then we're just running out of a response to a God that we're following. And then as a church, we're all running in the same direction because this is where God has called us.

unknown 28:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

And so Mount Salem's call is unique. It's not what Sommerfeld is, it's not what EWMC is, it's not what everybody has their own community, their own whatever. But I think it changes the conversation. So when we talk about sending out, the point of us kind of drilling down on some of this is that it doesn't just become this really simple. Oh, okay, so I should tell some people what Jesus invite them. No, it's bigger than that. It's understanding that God sent you. As part of your training, you're here at the church. As part of your training, you're gonna be in a pathway group. As part of your training, you do some of these things. But the goal isn't just that you're gonna be good enough to go to heaven. The goal is that you have the skill set to be able to accomplish the things that God has created and intended for you to do, right? And I think that takes, should take a lot of pressure off. My job is just to be faithful to God. So I mean, listen to him, I follow him. And when the door's open, I mean atrocities can give me the words to speak. Is it gonna be costly? Sure it is. Is it a bit risky? Sure it is. But it's not me doing it. I'm just following. Right. And I think it I think it changes some of that. Cause I do think, yeah, I think sometimes evangelism can be this really terrifying thing of doing cold calls.

unknown 29:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Right? Of just showing up somewhere and being like, Do you believe in Jesus? No, it's supposed to be you've walked alongside somebody and you go, hey, check out what I found. You interested? And so that's good.

unknown 29:26

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Really good. Any other thoughts on this? Anywhere else you wanted to go today?

SPEAKER_02 29:30

I poured out a lot. I in my brain, I was wondering, like, we we talk about you you you keep coming back to the passage about like God is not mute. Well, if God is not mute and we're created in his image, why are we? I just think it's a good question to ask. Why are we? Why are you mute? I can't say you can't. You can.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

So why are we? If you use Randy as our experience, the reason Randy's not mute is because he's all in.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Right. Well, I think there's some He's in with every game. I think there's some obvious, like, but I also think there's some some some searching that we need to ask ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

But I I think if you just follow the simple analogy, you you go, he's all in, but he also isn't all in on everything. It's just that's that's the thing. Right. So he really loves that one sport and he really loves that one thing. And so we don't need to be all in on everything, but what is your thing? Yeah. What is it that gets you excited? And then are you willing to give that back to God? So my passion for baseball, am I willing to give that back to God? My passion for coaching. Like, am I building my own thing or am I willing to give that to God and say, God, can you use this somehow? It changes things. Yeah. Right? Your business, your interactions, your spouse, even. Right? Like, so no, I think there's a lot there. There's a lot. There's a lot on sending. I I think that uh at the end of the day, for both of us, we feel very strongly convicted that God is leading and we just need to follow. We don't know exactly where this all leads. We talk about church plants, we talk about um missions, we talk. I don't I don't know exactly. I mean, what we've been able to, what we've seen happen at Family Central is a testimony, I believe, to um people's desire to be connected to a church. What does that look like in other communities where we haven't built some of those relationships? Like that's something completely different. Um, and so I think there's m a lot of searching to be done, but um, you know, the idea of you bringing Randy up, I really like because you go, okay, so somebody in here, if God is calling us to a church plant, is going to have that passion. Somebody God is going to call. Right? God is going to do that work. That's one of his promises that the spirit distributes the gifts. I think back to when people talk about tongues, the spirit distributes the tongues. The spirit decides if miracles are going to happen. This it's not a formula that we follow. And so as we go forward in this, don't get lost in that. Go back to the God who sends and say, God, I'm willing, send me, and then see where it goes. And that's our hope with this. And so then the entire vision kind of gets sandwiched up in this. You know, we want to reach and then we want to disciple, and then we want to, you know, be in groups with people and really give people the opportunity to have growth and not be alone. And then we want to repeat that cycle. Now get out there. Where's God called you? What's your part? So there you go. That's good. Kind of wraps up um what we believe our vision is. And I know that's pretty 30,000-foot level. Like a lot of this is pretty higher level. We're not saying this is the specific things, but we're going to focus on the things that we believe are key right now, and that is making space, getting people into groups, um, and then we'll see what God does. But we're pretty excited. He has a he has a pretty phenomenal history of doing some pretty cool things. So yeah, we're pretty confident the future we're walking into is uh is one that God's already there.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

So yeah, I think there's all sorts of things that are coming, which is cool.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

All right, dude. Let's go do some work. Yeah. All right, have a great day, guys.

unknown 33:14

Bye.