Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Hosts Pastors' Lee and Jim.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
The Room Matters: Embracing Presence and Unity in Church Community
What if your presence could change the dynamic of your local church community? In our latest episode of Beyond Sunday, Pastor Lee and I, Pastor Jim, explore this intriguing concept through the lens of "The Room Matters," inspired by 1 Corinthians 12:12-19. We promise you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your unique role within the church body and the irreplaceable value of being physically present in your faith community. As online services become more prevalent, we make the case for returning to in-person gatherings and bringing your God-given gifts to share with others.
Throughout our conversation, Pastor Lee shares his personal journey of feeling called to address the importance of presence, a journey that has led him to author a book on the subject. We reflect on the unity that diversity brings within the church, emphasizing the critical nature of each member fulfilling their God-appointed roles. The impact of absence and the burden it places on others to step up is a key topic, as we stress nurturing mature believers who are eager to grow and serve, enhancing both individual and collective spiritual growth.
We conclude by discussing the profound impact of corporate presence. Drawing parallels between marriage and church, we highlight the mutual support and belonging found in a congregation, emphasizing that being part of a church extends beyond Sunday services. Drawing inspiration from Romans 12:4-8, we explore the diverse gifts within the church body and the importance of sharing these gifts. We offer a heartfelt prayer for those feeling disconnected, encouraging them to rediscover their purpose and blessings within their faith community. Join us as we inspire and uplift, fostering an environment of love and shared experiences in the house of God.
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week With your hosts, pastors Lee and Jim. It's time to inspire, uplift and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now.
Speaker 2:Hey, what's going on, guys? What if I told you that you've been appointed by God for a role that only you can fulfill in your local church? If you're not there, something is missing. So what's keeping you from stepping into the room and stepping into your God-given purpose? Hold on tight, because that's what we're going to get into today.
Speaker 1:All right, man, the room, the room matters. I think that if you've been coming to our church for any length of time, you've definitely heard that phrase the room matters. So why don't you talk to us a little bit about what that means? Yeah, absolutely man.
Speaker 2:So you know, good morning to you, Pastor Jim. How you doing, brother, yeah, I guess we should have gone through that first. Oh, it's all good, man, it's all good. So you know the room matters.
Speaker 2:So the Lord really has been ministering to me, uh, on this topic, and he had me preach about it uh sometime last year and I kind of just kind of put it in my back pocket a little bit, uh when when the sermon was over, but the whole time just feeling like the Lord just was stirring this topic in me.
Speaker 2:Um, and then recently this year, you know, the Holy spirit just began to minister to me and call me to write this book and to put it down on paper. So that's what I've been working on lately and just recently finished and been talking with the publisher and going to start to kind of shop it around and just see what happens with it. But you know the Lord is doing a work and long story, long story, short it. It. It basically addresses the importance of people being in church and they need to be there, you know. So I think when COVID hit, uh, people, people really used it as a reason to kind of just stay home and online services really blew up and and it was so convenient and easy for people, uh, to just keep it at the house. You know, and unfortunately that that that habit continued to to go, and we're you know that the church body really needs to understand that they're needed at church.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause it's not just about being in a room, it's about bringing what God's gifted you right and what your abilities are and what he's purposed you for. You're bringing those to the room. Yeah, the church can't survive without all of the moving parts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, man, and really the topic we're going to be addressing today is found in the third chapter of the book, the Room Matters. That the title of the book actually is the Room Matters, and so Does your Circle, and maybe we'll get into the circle side of things on another podcast. But as far as today, you know that the main piece that we want to address today is the room matters and the importance of us being there. And it's found where Paul is writing in 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 12 through 19. And this is what Paul writes for, just as the body is one and has many members, and all of the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But, as it is, god arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be?
Speaker 2:As it is, there are many parts, yet one body, and really what pops out to me there, pastor Jim, is Paul is saying your local church needs you. You know, not only does the local church need you, paul is letting you know that God has assigned you. He literally has assigned you to the local church body, and so that means that we have a position, we've got a mission, we've got a purpose there in the local church body, and if we're not showing up, one or two things are happening. You want to go over those. I mean, what do you think when it comes down to a couple of options that we've already discussed?
Speaker 1:Well, I think the biggest thing that stands out to me in that passage is that there's unity in diversity. See the fact that all of us are different people. We have different upbringings, we have different things that we can bring to the church, different giftings that we can bring to the church. The church is just like the body, right, it's one unity, one, one thing moving, but every different part is different. No matter how how small or or how unseen, every part brings something to the table. So the unity in the body comes from the different diversity of all the people bringing their giftings to the room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the beauty of it, right, it's like one large melting pot. You know what I mean when we all get into the room together, and that's why the room does matter, you know, because if you're absent, or if I'm absent or a brother and sister in the Lord is absent from the room, then there's an empty space and something isn't getting done, and people are at the end of the day. Then there's an empty space and something isn't getting done and people are at the end of the day. Right, people are missing out from you or me or anyone else you know, from not being in the house, because we all carry a purpose and a gifting from the Lord that we should be contributing to the body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, unique backgrounds, unique gifts, unique personalities it's all part of God's design. Yeah, yeah, but something that you just said there, it kind of help segue into the next point about the consequence of the absence when someone's not there. Right, when someone's not present, I think the church can suffer.
Speaker 2:What do you think? Yeah, absolutely, man. And it suffers in the way as in, someone else has to step up, right, They've got to be next man up, you know. Next woman up, you know. If I've got a gifting and I don't show up to church on a particular day when the body is there, then I'm not there to fulfill my gift, right. But so the church cannot lack. So somebody has to be there to step up and be next person in that position. So what it means is Pastor Jim is somebody's got to come in and help fulfill that role. But there's something else happening there. While they're doing your role or my role, where they're filling in, they're not able to completely do their role at 100% because they've got to engage in this additional role. So there is no absence. They've got to fill in the void there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that illustration where, if the heart or the lung just decided not to work one day, the whole body would struggle.
Speaker 2:You make a great point at it, Like on the 18th verse. Let's just look at that for a moment. Okay, For those that are following along with the Bibles, it's found in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 18, and Paul is actually saying this. He says and I want everybody to pay close attention, it's so good, he says, but, as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. I mean, think about that man.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's mind blowing, you know, and that's really what I'm focusing on in this third chapter of this book. You know, like, have we ever considered that? Or has that been one of those verses that we quickly just glance over and read through? But I mean, listen, God arranged the members in the body. And then it says not only did God arrange the members and this is the beauty of it, right it says God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. So God has chosen these places, these areas in ministry for every one of us, as brothers and sisters in Christ, not just to show up but to be a part of the body. And that's huge, brother, that's huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, You've been placed in this church for a reason, so don't let the body suffer because you're missing right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, there's a role for every person to partake in. You know, this past Sunday we had our leadership come up as a new year in 2025, and we wanted to pray over our ministry leads here at CFO, and you know almost 40 leaders that we have in this church, but it goes beyond the leaders. It goes down into the hands and feet that are also serving to help those leaders run their ministry successfully. It really is an entire team here. We don't want a church of hundreds of people that just come and rely on 40 or 50 people to do the job. We want everyone here to be a part, because God has chosen every person a position in the body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of my favorite things about coming to CFO specifically is a lot of people talk about man. The church is getting bigger. The church is getting bigger, and you and me have had these conversations before where I've told you man to me and what I've just really been feeling is it's not even about the quantity of people coming in, but the quality of growth in their walks, yeah Right. So I love that when someone comes into this church, they're not just seeing a group of large numbers, they're seeing seasoned, mature believers who are hungry for growth, and that's special.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, man. And the really cool thing is is that right? We none of us just showed up already. You know where we needed to be. You know what I mean. Like it really is a growth pattern that we see that God is doing here and it should be like that in every church, right? And I hope and pray that it is, you know, because at the end of the day we need each other. You know I need you, you need me. You know we need every person in this building and every church out there. You know we're not just speaking just to CFO here. We want every church alive and thriving in the Lord.
Speaker 2:And you know busting at the seams, you know at the end of the day, there's not enough churches in our references in the book in a different chapter. You know there are more people that live in our town here than there are chairs in churches, you know. So, at the end of the day, I want to see every chair in every church. That's God honoring. I want to see it filled. You know like my heart is to see one of two things I want to see the churches so full that either A churches have to build bigger buildings and they've got to go through expansions or B, they've got to add additional service times, right? So really, that's where my heart's at. You know, the people of God need to know that God has assigned them a local church to be a part of them, a local church to be a part of, and Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 21,.
Speaker 2:Paul goes on to say this, and this speaks to the importance of us needing one another. Paul writes that I cannot say to the hand I have no need of you. Nor again, to the head, to the feet, I have no need of you. So we have a job to know. Every person that is a part of the body of Christ has been assigned a job, and God wants you and God wants me, and God wants every person listening to be the one to do it.
Speaker 1:You know, not just a selected handful or few, which is why showing up in the room strengthens the whole church body. Yeah, you know, in the beginning of the podcast you talked about COVID, kind of inspiring this book about the room mattering because COVID made everyone go home and then that became this big eruption of online church services, an online church. It's great for convenience and that's what COVID did. It made a whole lot of laziness convenient because, at the end of the day, it doesn't replace the power of our physical presence in church, the Holy Spirit moving on the body of believers when they're in person. Ephesians 4 talks about this and it says in Ephesians 4, 15 and 16 says, rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him, who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know that just comes down to the whole piece, right about being present and active at church not only helps keep the body together, but you and I and every other person being there fulfilling our role also contributes towards the church being built up and strengthened in love. And look, let's just call it for what it is man, At the end of the day, satan does not want any one of us understanding how important our attendance at church is. Because here's the deal Our attendance is not just about us, right? It's about being there for one another. You're part of the body working to help my part of the body, and it all functions into one piece.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's a lot to be said about being in person. You know one thing that COVID changed even in my workplace if I can just talk about secular work for a moment we went from meeting in person regularly and getting on the plane and traveling to different locations and meeting people regularly to all of a sudden going through these meetings that were online and these online meetings they're great for convenience of just saying, yeah, I got these meetings. I'm checking boxes, but a lot of people what I found is when they get into that meeting, there's a lot of distractions because I don't have to be seen. So now I'm on this meeting and people are talking, but I'm doing about four or five different other things instead of paying attention to the meeting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had people that come to church here regular that would have to miss with vacation or something like that comes up and obviously they're out of town and they cannot make it. And they'll come back to me the following week when they're able to attend again and they say hey, pastor Lee, we saw the sermon online. We watched it when you guys published it to your YouTube channel. It was great, you know, great word, really enjoyed it. But we got to tell you it's just not the same as being there in person. So for someone who's used to being in the house and receiving it in person, they do experience the difference of not being here.
Speaker 2:And I guess what you know part in another chapter in my book. What I reference is you know there's a corporate anointing with a corporate word, right, and you know I want that fresh oil. You know like I want to be in the house with a fresh presence, with a fresh anointing. You know, and that's why I don't ever want to miss. You know, I tell, I tell Erica all the time. You know I was like baby, even if I wasn't a pastor of a church, we still wouldn't be missing services. You know like I want to see God show up corporately with his people and do a corporate work with a corporate word, with a corporate anointing. And you know I want to grow with the church.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I like how you just kind of brought marriage into it, because the truth is, man, there's like this idea of mutual belonging together yeah. Right Romans talks about this where we belong to one another and our gifts are meant to build up the church. I just couldn't imagine being in a marriage where it was long distance through conversations, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, absolutely man. Matter of fact. Romans 12, 4 through 8, I believe, is what you're referencing, and Paul writing to the church you know it's so good. He says again Romans 12, 4 through 8, for as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. I mean, think about that. What Paul is saying here is individually members of one another, you know, I mean, that's what we are, and have we slowed down enough in life to think about that? We belong to one another.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it could be even small acts. It's not even these gifts that are outlined inside of the Bible. But it could be a simple smile or a simple question as to say, hey, how are you doing and you don't get that online. You know, when you're in the room, you don't get an opportunity to pour into one another, when someone may need to get poured into because you're not being able to see it on them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, man, like I don't understand. If, like you know, I don't know, rather, if I guess it's a better word to put it I don't know if people really get the joy and grasp this, this, this topic of of being in the room does matter. You know, like the person in the back row belongs to the person in the front row just as much as the person in the front row belongs to the person in the back row.
Speaker 1:you know, and we have that responsibility to be there for and with one another in the room and it begs the question, if you're listening, what gifts are you withholding from your church body when you don't show up every single Sunday and beyond Sunday, right, I mean, even as we look past just gathering on Sundays. Being a part of the church is more than showing up on Sundays. Being a part of the church is more than showing up on Sundays and I don't know if we're touching on a whole new podcast topic or not, but it's not just Sundays. We don't show up for worship and prayer and the Word. What about men's Bible study? What about women's Bible study? What about getting plugged into the different ministries that we're going to be offering?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And you know, let's talk for a moment if we can kind of transition into something additional here, like, you know, what we bring to the table, right, like so why should I? Right, we've talked a lot about why we should come and the purpose of being in the body, but let's talk about, like, some things offered for a moment, because maybe there's some people out there that just think, well, they don't recognize me or they don't see me there. You know, the people don't even know I'm in a room, you know, especially when it's a larger size room. Let's talk about a moment some things that we offer one another. When we come, for instance, we're to share the love of Christ with one another. We're to share smiles with one another, laughter, joy, testimonies, moments of prayer with one another, hugs with one another and so much more.
Speaker 2:When we operate in even our spiritual gifts which we really haven't touched on that really here today but when we operate in our spiritual gifts, those spiritual gifts are meant to be shared together to edify the body, yeah, and grow it and strengthen it, yeah. And what we can't do, pastor Jim, we can't, we can't operate in those gifts to edify the body sitting at home. You know I can't love someone from my living room. You know when I'm, when I'm absent from the room. You know the, the one room that matters. You know and, and it's very easy to think, well, if I don't show up today, no one's going to know that I'm not there. But the truth is is that you will be missed if you are someone that comes in and operates in those gifts.
Speaker 1:You absolutely will be missed. Yeah, and it takes a shift of perspective to see that Instead of asking what am I getting from church, you got to ask yourself what can I give back? What can I give the church?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, when we come into the room on Sundays or Thursdays or Mondays or Wednesdays, depending on whatever it is, whatever type of service we're attending, you know we should always come in here with great expectation that God's about to do great things. But then we should also have a secondary thought, you know, like how can I engage? You know, not just how can I be filled and how can I be recharged and refreshed, but how can I help recharge other people here.
Speaker 1:That's like the call to action right? You've been appointed by God for a purpose that only you can fulfill. So we can't let fear, we can't let doubt, we can't let the convenience of staying at home keeping us from stepping back into the room. Right, because our roles matter, your presence matter, and when you show up, lives, not just your own, will be changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, man, absolutely. You know. At the end of the day, you know, the devil wants to keep people at the house. He wants to keep them, you know, disengaged. You know, oftentimes and I've heard people liken it to this before and oftentimes I've shared it this way too, you know, watching church from home is just like finding that channel on your local satellite company and turning on the image of the fireplace burning. You know, we can see it, we can hear it, we can enjoy it visually, you know, and maybe even emotionally, but we really truly do not get much benefit any deeper than that, you know. So again, church, church on TV, you know. Church on the Internet it's going to go, but so far, you know, and then it won't provide anything else, and I think it has its place.
Speaker 1:It just can't be relied upon as your primary source of connecting with the body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know, you're exactly right, pastor, jim. I mean, what it cannot do is replace the purpose of us being in the room, because we are called by God to be in the room, chosen by God to be in the room and given a specific purpose and function by God to operate in the room. So I tell you what, man, why don't we do this? We're kind of wrapping up right here at the end of this particular podcast. Let me close this in prayer, if that's fine for the people, and then we'll be good to go.
Speaker 2:Father, I pray, in the name of the blood of Jesus, that anyone listening to this podcast today, father, that maybe they've lost purpose in their church, Maybe they've lost hope in their local church, maybe they just haven't understood the need to be in their local church. Father, I pray that just maybe some scripture that they've heard through us today, father, has hopefully enlightened them. Lord, I pray, in the name of the blood of Jesus, that you would begin to minister to them, that you would share with them, that they are needed, that they have value, that they have a room that they can come in and they could be loved. And they've been gifted. Whether they realize it or not. They've been gifted by you, almighty God, to come into the room, the room that matters, the house of God, and bless others and to be blessed themselves. So, father, I pray that your people today would be blessed in the mighty name and the blood of Jesus. We ask all these things.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen, amen. Well, that's it, episode one.
Speaker 2:In the books, in the books, in the books.
Speaker 1:Well, we appreciate you. We thank you for listening. Share this message with someone who you think might need it, but, most importantly, we want you to show up in the room.
