Let There Be Chicken

After catching up on family life in our season premiere, we're pulling up a chair to talk about something that has shaped much of our life and ministry over the last year: watching God work in unexpected ways.

What started with a simple church dinner celebrating baptisms nearly turned into a pastoral crisis when we realized we might not have enough chicken for everyone. Thankfully, God provided—and so did the chicken.

In this episode, Jason and Nicole share stories from Ravenna Church of the Nazarene, including baptisms, children's ministry growth, the "80 for Easter" outreach initiative, and the lessons they've learned while serving a small church in Eastern Kentucky.

Along the way, we discuss:

• Church revitalization and discipleship
• Small church ministry challenges
• Community outreach and relationship-building
• Why church growth is more than attendance numbers
• Reaching families through children's ministry
• Easter outreach and invitation culture
• Why there is no one-size-fits-all formula for ministry
• The power of genuine relationships

Plus, the fictional text-message segment returns as Amber navigates the fallout from her daughter accidentally calling her best friend a Satan worshiper.

Whether you're a pastor, church leader, volunteer, or someone who simply loves seeing what God can do through ordinary people, this episode is a reminder that ministry isn't built on flashy programs. It's built on relationships. And sometimes, enough chicken.

Thanks for pulling up a chair at Table for Two. If you enjoyed today's conversation, we'd love for you to join us on Facebook! It is where we share behind-the-scenes updates, chat with listeners, and keep the conversation going throughout the week. We'd love to see you there.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to Table for Two, the podcast where faith, family, and real life meet around the table.

SPEAKER_04 0:04

We're Jason and Nicole Barnett, and today we're talking about one of the greatest miracles we've witnessed in ministry.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

No, not a healing. No. Not a revival service. No. Chicken.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Special specifically enough chicken.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Because there was a moment recently where we were genuinely concerned that there was not going to be enough chicken.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

And when you're hosting a celebration meal after baptisms, running out of food is a special kind of pastoral anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

And today, so in this episode, we're talking about church life, community, ministry wins, answered prayers, and some of the things God has been doing at Ravenna Church of the Nazarene over the last year.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

Including the miracle of chicken.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

So pull up a chair and let's get started. This is table for two.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Church keys in hand, copying mugs. Our life's held together by grace and a few hugs. Stay set, keep stuff, miss we said, boom two. It's not about ladder, since we and you. At this table for two, there's room for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Alright, before we jump into today's conversation. That sounded weird. But before we get to the real conversation, uh, let's start with a question.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

If you've spent any time around church people, you probably have an answer to this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

So please feel free to drop it in the comments of the show notes or wherever you're listening at. We would love to hear your stories.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

But here's the here's the lighthearted question for today. It's what is the worst church potluck disaster you've ever witnessed?

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Not just heard about, but actually witnessed.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah. Not something somebody told you happened.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

Something you personally witnessed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

So if you're thinking your church has never had a potlup potluck disaster, you might you might have been the disaster. It might be your dish. Alright, so Nicole, would you like to go first or would you like why don't you share yours?

SPEAKER_04 2:20

Okay. I've got a doozy.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Now my disaster was 100% my fault.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

100%.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

So I was a youth pastor serving in Pennsylvania. And we were heading into I think it was year three. And we were at a point where we needed help. We needed help in the worst way possible. Um so I decided that I was going to persuade volunteers in the best way I know how. Bribery.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

Food specifically.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

It's food. And so it's so we I I I announced to the whole church that hey, this specific Sunday after church, we are going to have a chili supper for anyone who is interested in helping work with the teen group. And that's that was my announcement. So I'm thinking like five people five people are gonna show up because this is an informational dinner requesting people to help.

SPEAKER_04 3:11

And just talking about the routine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Like that's it. Yeah, that that was that was the that was the whole plan. And so I made a crock pot. Now keep in mind, I have a really large crock pot, and I always overmake chili when I make chili.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

When he makes chili, we're usually eating it for a week and a half.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yeah, we have chili, leftover chili, chili dogs, chili mac. Chili Mac. Chili more chili mac.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

And then the dogs get chili. But I'm feeding, again, I'm thinking it's only five more. And then a lady in the church asks, I think it was the pastor's wife, like, hey, do you need another crock pot? She's like, Yeah, sure, why not? Let's have two. So we had two crock pots full of chili. The day arrives, getting two crock pots of chili. And we go back to this dinner. Again, I'm anticipating five people. The entire church stays. I mean, I don't know if you've seen the episode of The Office where Jim and Pam, you know, and Cece's christening and they don't have enough sandwiches.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

It was like that.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

It was exactly like that. I didn't have enough chili. And I prayed and prayed that God would divide that chili and make a miracle happen. He did not.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

No, you did not. Did you get any chili?

SPEAKER_01 4:16

I didn't even get a bowl of chili. The senior pastor didn't get any chili.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

I don't think I got any.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Nicole didn't. Most people there didn't get chili. Some people may have got lucky and got crackers or cheese or maybe a piece of diced onion. But everybody went home hungry. Um, and my senior pastor at the time still does not let me live that down. Or the time I burnt the hamburgers.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

To be fair, every time we've asked for help for anything, it had been like three or four people showing up, not thirty.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah, well, again, I underestimated the bribery level that food was.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Well, and also the willingness of that church to help out. Like we we were not used to that at all.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

True. Which at that time, too, uh, I would do like a little awards ceremony at the end of the school year for the students. And again, it was based off the Dundees. I'm a huge office fan. And um we called them the solo awards. And Nicole made trophies out of red solo cups. They were awesome. And they like just random awards for every kid. And I did it every I did it three times. The first time I did it, and it was just very low-key. We everybody brought desserts. But the church ladies there saw what I was doing, and they say we're in charge of the food side of this from now on.

SPEAKER_04 5:27

And the decorations.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

And the decorations.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

So they would go on all out the following year.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Couple years. But I did not let them help me with this chili supper because I was trying to jump up help, and well Maybe you should have asked for that. That was my potluck disaster.

unknown 5:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Mine was quite a bit before that. But it was the same church. And I'm very glad that they asked us to stay even after this, because it was our what was it? It was was it our first official Sunday there?

SPEAKER_01 5:57

I think so.

SPEAKER_04 5:58

Yeah, it was it was very shortly after we had gotten there. This I that much I do know. Um, they had a potluck, and I so I think it was our very first Sunday because they were they had a potluck, and it was kind of to welcome us. But you know, we were just kind of going about doing our thing and visiting with people, getting to know people, and my daughter had been well, our daughter, Jaden, had been running around, you know, playing with the the other couple of kids that attended the church all the time, and and you know, we weren't really thinking anything of it. She was safe, she was fine. And all of a sudden, I turn around and I see a pile of clothes that had once been on my daughter.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

I thought the rapture happened and everybody missed it, but Jaden.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

And when I say a pile of clothes, I mean everything, including her pull-up, was on the floor in the middle of the fellowship hall, in the midst of everybody eating. And so I have to go on a hunt for my nude daughter in the middle of the middle of the potluck. And I ended up I ended up finding her in the sanctuary. She was running the aisles naked. I think I think that was Nazarene in her blood a little bit with the running of the aisles, but I I I think she went a little too far with the nude.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

She went the opposite way.

SPEAKER_04 7:29

Fortunately, everybody thought it was cute.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

She was little enough, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 7:33

Yeah, she was she wasn't even she had just turned two. Yeah. That was it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah. So that that's that's our horror stories. But again, we'd love to hear yours. Please share them with us. Um we'd we'd love to hear 'em. Hey Nicole, I think you got a text message. Alright, for those that don't know, this is all fiction. It's like who's on this anyway? Where all the points are made up. Wait. Where all the questions are made up and the points don't matter. Well the scenario's made up based on fictional people, not real. And but the points might be helpful to some you or somebody you know. So we're gonna check check back in with our little fictional family.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Yes. So, yes, again, the messages are fictional, these have no tie to anybody real whatsoever. It's just a realistic scenario that we're throwing out there. So here is today's message. Okay. It says, Hey Nicole, remember how Linda was upset with K-pop demon hunters? Well, now I have a completely different problem. Sadie came home from school crying because her best friend Madison is mad at her. Well, apparently Madison was telling some girls about a new K-pop group she likes, and Sadie told her she was done worshiping Satan. Oh dear. Well, now Madison won't talk to her. When I asked Sadie why she said that, she told me, Well, grandma said K-pop demon hunters was satanic, and Madison is the one who showed it to me. So in Sadie's mind, she was just trying to help her friend, but Madison's mom has already texted me. Sadie said, everyone is being mean to her. Madison said Kate or Sadie called her a Satan worshiper. And of course, my mother-in-law says Sadie was just standing up for her faith. I feel like I want to move to another state. Please help.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

So this is our fiction of mother Amber dealing with her 11-year-old daughter Sadie, right? And uh, so if you missed the put that the first part of the story, check out last week's episode, but this is kind of the continuation of that. Um Stardars, I don't think Sadie's intention was cruelty to her friends.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

No.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

She I think she was wanting to help her friends not be wrapped up in something that she thought was wrong. Now, again, if you listen last week, there's nothing wrong with K-pop demon hunters in the movie. No.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

Um I mean, anything can be bad if you make it that way.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:11

But in but K-pop Demon Hunters by itself is not a bad satanic movie or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

But I also think Sadie took a step too far, right? Because Madison, that's her friend, right? Wasn't talking about K-pop demon hunters movie, she's just talking about K-pop bands anyway, which again, I'm an old person that's still confused by all of this, trying to figure it out. But I think I know that's different, right? So, but in Sadie's mind, she's lumping all those things together that don't go together. She's branding a whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Doesn't that happen with a lot of things, though? Like, we are so quick to lump things together and and to categorize everything associated with like one genre in with and assume that it has the same intention and the same morality, which again it's amoral, but right. Um but we do that, and and Sadie's 11. She's going to make that mistake, and of course we make that mistake, and we're I'm 39.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:18

But her grandma's not helping anything.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

No.

SPEAKER_04 11:21

I I'm not a fan of Linda. Just gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

But but again, now Sadie wasn't intending to be cruel or mean to her friend here, but that's what happened.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

The way she went about it. Now, again, mom I'm assuming mom wasn't there and Madison's mom weren't there, right?

SPEAKER_04 11:37

They're just I'm assuming it was at school.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

It happens at school, most likely. And the parents are just trying to piece together what happened based on what their children are telling them. And their children is always children are always gonna tell you their side of the story. And again, we we do our best to believe our kids, but sometimes they're gonna leave out the details that maybe aren't exactly the way they said them.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Right. They might change a few details, whether they intend to or not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

Um but but the thing is the thing that I want to ask is how much of Sadie assuming K-pop as a whole is demonic? How much of her assuming that is tied to what she's been listening to from the people in her life, the adults influencing her? Um I mean, kids absorb a lot. It actually kind of reminds me of the episode of The Office. Again, another office reference. Sorry, folks. But do you remember when Jim runs into that childhood friend of his?

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

Where he's um, the one that was too done to be in the same reading group as Jim. Yeah, well, Jim, uh, yeah. So the premise of that episode is Jim runs into this childhood friend, and he's trying to not be noticed by this friend because they had a falling out. Well, eventually he comes clinging to Pam and explains why. And his mother, um, well, when they were kids, they had been placed in different reading groups. And his mother had told Jim that you should hang out with the kids in your reading group because they'll be a good influence. And then Jim went back to school and told his friend, who was in a lower reading group, you're too dumb to hang out with. And so, but that wasn't necessarily mom's intention. And and so this wasn't necessarily grandma's intention either. But that's what that's the gist of the message that that she's giving.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:48

And so that's what's gonna be repeated.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yeah. So so yeah, Sadie's picked up this conviction on some uh, you know, she's wanted to be respectful to her grandmother. And honestly, she's trying to honor Jesus the best she can because of the influence that she, you know, that her grandmother has.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Um but the way it came out was not appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

It was not the right way to do it. Uh and so the the other thing that some so what we have to advise Amber to do at this point too is she needs to talk to Sadie about, listen, it's okay that you have this conviction this way, but we're not supposed to be a stumbling block to somebody else. We're not supposed to take our convictions and use them as a club to beat other people up with, right?

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Um We need to think about other people's feelings on this.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

So you in Yeah. Um so so I guess if you're gonna respond to this text from Amber, what would you say in the text message response to her?

SPEAKER_04 14:45

Well, um, I would I would encourage her to talk to her um talk to Sadie about the difference between the K-pop genre and the movie itself. Um, the movie is not all-encompassing for K-pop. Um, K-pop is a wide range of music, believe it or not, um, with a lot of different groups, a lot of different uh messages in those groups. And yes, there are some groups that I would advise people avoid. And then there are some pretty awesome ones too. Um just like any genre of music. But um, so I would I would encourage her to have that discussion with Sadie, but then I would also encourage her to be like, hey, you know, Madison is like she's not worshiping Satan here. Her interest in in another culture's music and another culture's entertainment is not satanic. That's actually something that should be commended, um, something that should be encouraged because it teaches empathy and it teaches compassion for that culture.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Um you have to agree with it necessarily, but but it it it gives some connection.

SPEAKER_04 15:59

Um so I would I would encourage her to talk to Sadie about that and also ask Sadie, you know, is there like anything specific that you're feeling, or are you just echoing what what grandma said?

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

Because there's a difference between us having our own convictions and then just believing that because somebody's older, that they are they have the absolute authority on things.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

And and then I would talk to her about knowing the difference with that.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

That's great. And actually, that kind of ties in something I've just been reading in Job today. Um, in the book of Job, the majority of it, you know, we we know Job's friends are gonna get reprimanded by God at the end of the story, right? And so they come the the three friends come and sit, there's actually four, but three of them come and sit with Job. They're Job's peers or his age bracket, revered men of the community. And so you get through all their speeches, and then Elihu is the last one, and he's the young buck of the bunch. And as I was reading today, he it says he gets angry. He gets angry at Job because Job is uh saying things about God that's making him question his own faith. But then he gets mad at the other three friends because these were men in the community that he looked up to and revered and thought not to the point where he they he thought they were gonna come and set Job straight. And when they failed to do so, when he realized that these men were the superheroes he thought, yeah, um, it angered him and upset him.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Um so again, it's teaching our kids, okay, it's okay to to respect this person and believe that they're a gods.

SPEAKER_04 17:34

But they have the best intentions.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

And they are godly people, but it's important too that we develop our own convictions. We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, not really, not basing it on the superheroes of the faith.

SPEAKER_04 17:47

Well, and and and I kind of feel like people have that issue with pastors too. I mean, like I mean, it's maybe not so common anymore, but like I remember growing up, there were you know certain people that I'd talked to where they'd anything the pastor said, they would just take it to the bank.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:08

And it's like, well, they could be wrong. Like, yeah, this person could be wrong. And and it was actually I kind of grew up believing that initially, and then all of a sudden my mom had a falling out with the pastor, and and suddenly she went from believing that he was the bee's knees and had ultimate spiritual insight to to believing that he was a horrible, horrible person and and not really in seeking God and and everything. And it was it kind of wrecked me for a little while there, where it was like, who can I trust if not the pastor? But um unfortunately I was able to get past that. But that's the thing, like, pastors are human, your grandparents are human, your parents are human. So even the faith that we have that's like based on what they taught us, it should be evaluated and it should be considered, you know, like deep um deeply examined. Um because just because they're older and wiser doesn't mean that they're actually wiser.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah. So again, work out your own salvation with your. It doesn't mean you you just you're disrespectful to those people or you ignore them, right? It just means when they tell you something, you still gotta take it and apply it in your own life, right? It's it's not it's it's rarely is is much in life A plus B equals C.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

There's not a lot, there's not a lot of formulas. Usually there's some. That's actually a good segue into our main talking point for today. And so really the we're gonna talk about really why this episode is titled Let There Be Chicken. Um and but there's more to it than that, too. I think that really ties into this. Because we're gonna talk a little bit about what's you know our philosophy in doing church revitalization. And again, so much of that is being people think there's a plus b equals C. And it's not. Like you can take things from other people's share. There's a lot of good revitalizers out there.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

But we've been to three or like we've been pastors at three churches that were in desperate need of revitalization. And all three churches were very different.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah. And so you can't do A plus B equals C all three places. It's you have to learn how to take, you have to learn your context before you can try and apply anything.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Um When I say learn your context, I mean you gotta get to know your people and fall in love with your people. But we'll get to that in a minute. Uh but first let me let me let's let's talk about why this is called Let There Be Chicken. So we had the we've had an amazing year here at Ravenna. Uh we saw 23 people give their life to Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 20:35

Which was incredible.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

We baptized seven, we took in uh four new members this year, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_04 20:42

I thought I thought we upped it a little bit. Maybe not.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Maybe I'm no, okay, no. Um anyway, so well last the last well we've had we've had a baptism since then.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

But I guess that's well, we we baptized three, no, it was four a couple weeks ago. Or in April, we baptized four. And so we decided we were gonna have a church dinner to celebrate this. And if if you we're we're a church where we don't have a baptistry in our building. We do have a baptistry, but not one physically in the building. It's in the fellow shawl. It's in the fellow shawl, it's a portable one on wheels. Um, we've talked about potentially trying to wheel it into the sanctuary, but one, it's it's quite the wheel across the pound compound uphill, both ways in the snow. And then we're not entirely sure though, if we get it into the sanctuary, put it on the platform and fill it with water, that the platform was designed to hold what it would have to hold. I would hope it is, but we decided we're not gonna test that theory.

SPEAKER_04 21:45

So at least not yet.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

So our baptism is in our fellowship hall, which definitely can hold that. So we had it filled up and we were planning to have this meal. But typically, you know, most church potlocks work this way. Part of the congregation will stay. And part of them will go home.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

Typically.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Typically. But our church was so excited about these four getting baptized. That everybody stayed to eat. Which, you know, I'm not, you know, if you listen to this, we're not a we're not a we're not a mega church. We're not a super big church. We're a church that averages about forty. Yeah, on a given week. But we were running we had over fifty there that week, that Sunday. Right? And they all stayed to eat. Well, we had been planning this meal all week, and so we had ordered 75 pieces of chicken.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

Because that's Jason Jason ordered a hundred one time and we had so much left over.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Our ladies were like running down people out the door and putting chicken in their pocket to make sure they got rid of the chicken. Um and so we didn't want to do that again. So again, we only ordered 75 pieces. And uh me and another gentleman were sitting in the back watching everybody go through the line, and we realized we're on our last box of chicken, and there's still at least 10 to 15 people that had to go through the line yet. Like now we had other things too. Other people brought other meats in and other dishes and plenty of desserts and things like that, but the chicken was getting low, and we were we were beginning to pray. I was like, Dear Jesus, will you bless this chicken and multiply it?

SPEAKER_02 23:18

The way you did the way I did the dishes.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

But I was more afraid it was gonna be like when I did it with the chili, and that did not happen with the chili because of my poor planning. So I'm like, it's chili 2.0, but it's still chili, it's chicken. Uh and so we watched, but praise the Lord, we ended up having enough chicken. Like, it was just enough.

SPEAKER_04 23:36

I think we had like five pieces left over or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

But it was it was just the right amount, but but we were so excited still, though. And uh it was one of those dinners too where it wasn't just about the chicken, it was it's about what God celebrating what God has been doing over the last year of this church. God has been doing incredible things, and that was like the exclamation point to to end that that church year was baptizing those four individuals.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

Yeah, that was incredible.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

And to me, it's awesome because two of the people we baptized were children. One was our own daughter, which is always a blessing to baptize. It was our youngest, so now we've baptized all three of ours. One was a girl that had only been one other time.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

Was it only once?

SPEAKER_01 24:27

I think she came to a couple of kids' groups after that, but she'd only been to church once when she asked to be baptized.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Oh wow, I didn't realize.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I'm pretty sure. Um, her mom can message and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure she'd only been here once at that point. Um, and then a couple that have been coming to our church for a year and g giving their life to Jesus, faith become faithful and attending, and they decided that this was their moment. And they um we gotta baptize them. So we it was exciting. And for me, what what's exciting about is knowing where the church was when we got here. I don't know if you want to share about you know our first interview and what it was like coming into this building. You know, there were so many wonderful adults here for that.

SPEAKER_04 25:09

But there was two kids.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Besides ours.

SPEAKER_04 25:12

Two children that attended this church besides our three. So when we interviewed, was was the youngest even there yet? Like Jake and Kira weren't there yet.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Jake and Kira were there.

SPEAKER_04 25:26

Were they at the interview?

SPEAKER_01 25:28

I'm pretty sure they were there. Yeah, they were there. Okay and they had Brody, but Clayton wasn't born yet.

SPEAKER_04 25:32

No, Clayton wasn't, but um, but there were there was Clayton was there, but wasn't there there. There was there was their son, Brody, and then his uncle, who is um right sandwiched between Ben and Emris.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Right.

SPEAKER_04 25:51

And um, so he like two children, two little boys, and we were I mean, we came in and we're like, okay, they don't have a kids ministry, so yay for that. But what else is new? We that's been the that's been the way. Um so I was brainstorming different ways that we could build up a a children's ministry and make people feel welcome to attend with kids, even if we don't have children's church or or a Sunday school class. But they got a Sunday school class started, which was really nice.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

But there were a lot of really uh wonderful adults, just no kids.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

And um but they wanted and they wanted kids, yeah. They knew they needed kids.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Um but you know, they were at the age where you know they had already raised their kids and their kids, some of them didn't have kids, some of them had moved to Lexington, so it was unrealistic for them to come an hour away for church every day and every Sunday. So, you know, it was just one of those things where they were having to reach out into the community and they just didn't know how.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Yeah, and so we and we didn't I'll be honest, we didn't really know how either. Now, one thing we did know from the interview process and even now is the church's mission field is very easy to find because our church is literally across the street from a park. Yeah, that park is our mission field. Yeah, like the people that come to that park are the people that we need to be ministering to.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Uh you don't have to look very far, they're right there.

unknown 27:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Um, and more than once I've taken the kids over to the park, and parents have struck up conversations and they're like, Oh, you know, where are you from? And I'll tell them and the whole spiel of how Jason and I are from two different states, and not neither of the like neither of us are from Kentucky.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

And um, they'll be like, Well, why'd you move here? And I'm well, we're the pastors at the church across the street. Oh, well, that's really great.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

And even sometimes too, recent as much very recently, you know, we met a we met a mom and her daughter over there, and they just ended up in our group photo with the kids' group because we took so again, talking about we have a kids' group now, like our kids' ministry last two weeks, last week was 20 kids, and this last well, I'm sorry, two weeks ago was 20 kids. Last week was 17.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Well, the week before that was like 18.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Yeah, so we you know a lot of kids to the point where our van holds 11 and we can't put any more in there. No, uh, and we've some a couple times we've had we have a we have a wonderful gentleman who helps us pick up kids, uh, Nicole helps us pick up kids, but it's been it's been entertaining, it's been interesting to figure that out. But kind of what kicked off the kids' ministry here and how we upgrow, again, we didn't come in with a box set of plan. We didn't say we're gonna do it this way, we just sat down and we thought, okay, what can we do? And the first thing was we got here in the summer, so a lot of churches were wrapping up the VBS cycle. And if you know anything about vacation in Bible schools, every church does it in the summer.

SPEAKER_04 28:46

Every church.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Right, especially in a little town like we're in, not knocking in that, it's wonderful. Um, but also I also know as a parent that this is an easy way to get free child care for two hours, right? And so my kids who are at church every time the doors are open because they have to be, they a lot of summers they would ride the vacation Bible school circuit because we would just take them and and also I just thought this is a good way for them to make friends in these new communities.

SPEAKER_04 29:10

And it's also a way for us to meet the pastoral, you know, the pastoral groups in the area, like, you know, yeah. Who else is pastoring in this area that we can pick brains and things like that?

SPEAKER_01 29:22

And now again, I'm not knocking vacation Bible school. Vacation Bible school is an important tool. And I can't tell you how many adults I've talked through through the years that have gotten saved because as a kid at vacation bible school and have faithfully walked from with Jesus ever since then. So I didn't want to we didn't want to ignore that.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

Um so what we did was um We real we realized that the um our school district has fall break, which I'm not used to. I didn't get fall break right now.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

We got fall break, but it was just Thursday and Friday. Yeah. And then you got the weekend.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

But the school district usually has a full week for fall break, and we're like, that's a perfect time. Because we're in a we're in eastern Kentucky. Eastern Kentucky is notorious for being impoverished, and and that's not to say everybody in our area is you know struggling financially, but or destitute or anything like that. But the thing is is there are a lot of children in our school district who are who are struggling financially, who are in families that even when they go on like they have fall break, all it means is that they have one less place where they're going to eat. Um because the school provides their food and and they their parents aren't able to feed them lunch because they've already budgeted for dinner. Um, and so we're like, you know, we could do it, we could do it do it, yeah, we could do it during fall break. And um, and then because I have a passion for it, and now you do too, um, I decided I was gonna write the VBS curriculum and save the church a little bit of money. Um, and so the last several years I've written the VBS curriculum, but we've had we we've started doing VBS during fall break, so children are able to come at a time that you know other churches aren't having anything.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

And yeah, and but we also knew by doing it that way, you're not gonna get the good little church kids that have grown up in church.

SPEAKER_04 31:25

You might get a few, and you might get the ones from your own church, but you're you're most likely and you're probably not gonna get the the wealthy ones because they're gone they're on vacation.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Yeah, or you're not gonna get the kids that um have that churchy background, right? So so and you're not gonna get the big busloads that you know a lot of people aim for with vacation bicycle. But at the same time, too, we also knew our church, we have some wonderful volunteers, we have wonderful people that will work hard, they love Jesus, they'll love their kids, but love the kids of the community, but we also knew we didn't have we didn't want to overwhelm that. And so we did the fall break, we knew with fall break it was gonna tell you know, we didn't know what the number there was not like a number cap, but we knew it was gonna put a cap on what that could possibly be. And it we still end up with about 20 to 25 kids.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

That's three times we've done it. But the thing is, the kids that have come in were kids from the community. They weren't going to church anywhere. And those kids got saved and they've got excited about Jesus. They come into church and they started coming on Sunday mornings, and to the point where you have them passing out bulletins at the door, and there's they're they're waving at people passing by, hollering at them, trying to get them to come in the door because they they're just so excited to be here. Uh, everything they experience is new because they've never experienced church like this before, so they're excited to be there. They want to learn everything and see everything, and yeah, and it's just wonderful.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

And I'll tell you, that fire is contagious.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

And so the little child.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

Certainly that's that's how the we how God how God took one simple idea that was kind of out of the box, but but wrapped in an old, a very old common method used.

SPEAKER_04 33:05

And just repurposed it.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

And repurposed it and use it to reach people for Jesus. Um, which I but in this case it was kids. And so again, we we've seen kids get baptized, start following Jesus. And actually, now one of those kids didn't just you know, he's been coming for three years now, and not only has he been baptized or no, he's not been baptized yet, but he's he's following Jesus, but he's working and running the sound for us, yeah, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_04 33:27

Because I am horrible with that soundboard. I was the one having to do it.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Um now, not every family is you know, their families aren't necessarily all coming to church yet, but they're now connected to the church, and a lot of them are watching online and cheerleading us online. And um and they also know that they can come and talk to us at any time.

SPEAKER_04 33:47

And honestly, it's not about getting people coming through the doors. It's about building relationship and letting them know that that we're part of their team.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:56

Like that's that's kind of my thing, is is so many so many times we look at people as oh, another another possible attendee. And and I try not to look at people like that because I don't I don't want there to be a hidden agenda in my building relationship with them. I just want them to know that I am I will be their person if they need me to be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Yeah, you you love them right where they are, and and that's kind of a good segue for the next the next thing that I want to talk about with what God's been doing here. Um because again, love has to be genuine. So if love is genuine for the the person, people in your life, if you're loving them genuinely, that means you don't have an agenda. It's not a hidden agenda. You're just loving them where they're at. Um, as believers, we are called to go make disciples. Now, going and making disciples is not the same as filling church pews. No. Right. It's that's getting the go of making disciples is getting people to Jesus and let Jesus transform them. So again, we we as a church, we were kind of we needed something. We needed to do something. So I began to pray in the fall of 2025 of God, what can we do next? Like, not like a next check mark thing, but God, how can we reach more people? How can we get excited about reaching people? And and he gave me this idea of let's call it 80 for Easter. Easter is coming, you know, churches are always hoping for more people on Easter. Now, I'm not one of those pastors that I don't I don't like to add a lot of extra bells and we whistles Easter Center. Jesus is the reason why we're there celebrating. Yeah, not knocking people that do those things, but the other side of that is I don't want people to come on Easter and then come the week after Easter and see that it's completely different and feel like they were sold something that's not real, not accurate about your church. Um, so we kind of keep it low key, but anyway, for 80 for Easter, we started actually the month before Ash Wednesday, end of Ash Wednesday. I started telling the church people, hey, we're gonna do this 80 for Easter thing, I'll explain more. But start praying for three to five people, not three to five random people, but people that you know and love that need to know Jesus. That and that Jesus loves them, that Jesus can transfer their life. And so that's where we started. It was about getting them to Jesus, not necessarily church, and I didn't share any of that yet. So people started praying for those three to five. Then Ask Wednesday happened, and the first Sunday of Lent, I kind of explained, okay, now we've been praying for these three to five people. They're a burden on your heart. There's someone that you love, you care about, you want to see them come to Jesus. And now I want you to pray about an opportunity to invite them.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

And not just but um but then we gave us some tools to do that. Like, so we we can we had we came up with some gift bags and had a wonderful volunteer order everything and put the bags together for me. Um but in that bag was like a snack because again, food, food, I'm not above bribery food. There's like a little figure of Jesus in there because everybody needs a little Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 36:55

And then um Oh, WWJD braces.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

WWJD braces because someone had donated them to me and I didn't know what else to do with them. And I thought these are cool, cool little thing to give away. And there's a Rav Naz pen, and then there was a card in there advertising our Easter service and Easter egg hunt. But I told them, I want you to take this and invite them, but don't just give them an empty card. I want you to write something personal on it.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Um, and why this is important to you. Um and then go give it to somebody. Now, and too, as a pastor, I participated in this. Like, I prayed about people, you know, that that I genuinely want to see come to know Jesus or people I knew were hurting that could use Jesus and and know use fellowship and community for their healing. And um, so I began to you know pray for opportunities to to pass those bags out. And the church, the Holy Spirit used it, and the church bought in. And they they were praying, they invited their loved ones, they gave out the gift bags. I think we gave out every gift bag but like three at the end.

SPEAKER_04 37:48

We have 40 bags made up, and well, and the funny thing is, is I I told I told my students about about it, and they got all excited. They wanted to do it, so I ended up purchasing some some simple eyes so they could do that. Um, but uh, you know, for that one, I was just like, uh I I don't remember what I wrote on the card, but I I cr I made cards and I gave them the same instructions. You guys write a personal note, like and give them to somebody you you care about that you know you know doesn't go to church. And and you know, if if they end up going to a different church, celebrate that. Like that's that's exciting. But of course, you know, if they come with you, that's awesome. That's great too, because you know, you get to you get to join them, you get to be a part of it. Um and every as far as I know, every single one of the kids passed at least one bag out.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 38:42

Um, I had a couple ask if they could put together a second bag the following, like the the next day, because they had already given it away. And I was like, yay.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

And now that's awesome. And see, that's what surprised me. You know, your kids respond that way, and then the people here respond that way because again, you can have the best advertising scheme you want, but what really gets people in the doors of your church is the people that love them and care about them, inviting them. Yeah, and letting them know they're welcome. Um, and so so they got they got excited and we're doing that. And the but the really cool part of the story was for me, so somewhere in the middle of all this, I'm so focused on that, okay, we're we're we're trying, you know, we're praying for 80 for Easter. Again, I told them it wasn't about having 80 people in the peers, it was about us understanding what our mission was. It's getting people to Jesus, and that every single person matters, and it takes all of us praying and putting in the work to do that. And so we're praying about that, and we're all doing our thing, and then on one day I go and check the church voicemail, and there was a lady calling to ask for a ride for the church, and it surprised me because it hadn't occurred to me that God would do it without us. Like, I know he like it theologically and mentally I knew that.

SPEAKER_04 39:58

But it just wasn't in the forefront of your mind.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

It wasn't the foreman, I just didn't consider that as a possibility during this. I'm so focused on us doing it and us doing our part and being obedient with that. And so this is this lady.

SPEAKER_04 40:10

She had seen a video Jason had posted a year prior.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Yeah, just and it from another new another new couple who was new at the time doing a video sharing why they picked our church.

SPEAKER_04 40:20

Yeah, and why they s had stayed at our church, and um and well, she she recognized them, they're they're family members, and she was she saw the video and she's like, I'm gonna try out this church, and she's been coming faithfully ever since, too. And but it was just like crazy because well, for one thing, Jason never checks the church voicemail.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

No, I never checked the church voicemail, so it was an accident.

SPEAKER_04 40:47

That was crazy, but also the fact that like you know, this woman called and she she was just asking for a ride to church, and she lives just up the road, um, not even that far, but you know, it's nobody wants to walk when there's a chance of rain or yeah, or yeah, yeah, and and it's a hill.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

Yeah, so so what was exciting about that, so she started coming, and then when she started coming, she kind of for eat 80 for Easter, she brought her whole family.

SPEAKER_02 41:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

So she'd only been here for three weeks, and her whole family showed up with her for Easter. So she had 11 guests. Yeah, it was because it was uh that new couple that you know the newer couple that she had seen in the video, they brought new people. The couple I told you that got baptized, they brought friends to church. Our longtime members put in the work and brought got people, family members of theirs in church, and it was incredible. So we end up hitting 84 for Easter, which was awesome. Like that's that was double what we normally run. Again, that wasn't the goal, and that's not what had me excited. What had me excited was how excited I was how excited everybody else got, and how they trusted the spirit and did their part, and they got to see what happens when the church prays, when the church cares, and the church steps out, what God will do. And they've been excited, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:08

Like that's that's what's exciting too, is like how and and it's been contagious, yeah. Because even the people who've been coming, like that weren't like that were a part of you know that inviting process, like they they're excited to be there, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

So again, if you want my philosophy of church revitalization, and and then and I'm not saying this is Nicole's, she she can jump in and share with where she agrees with, but it isn't flashy.

SPEAKER_04 42:38

No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

It's gonna be hard work, it's not gonna be instant success.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

It's not a slow process because it's relational. And you don't build relationships in a s in a with an ad on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

No, it's it's not a social media content strategy, right?

SPEAKER_04 42:56

It's and it it's not it's not a gimmick.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Yeah. And it can't be you can't go in there thinking I'm here to grow this church and make it bigger. Your your mentality has to be I'm here to get people for Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 43:10

Well and yes, but also uh I'm here to be used by Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Yes, that's a better way to phrase it.

SPEAKER_04 43:19

Because church revitalization doesn't always look like numbers either.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

No.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

Sometimes it's just the people that are currently there growing in their faith.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:30

And and building and and learning uh more about Jesus so they can be better disciples. Um and I think that's where a lot of people a lot of people miss it is when they think that a church needs to be revitalized, they think it's because there's four people in the pews and there needs to be 40 or 40 and there needs to be 400. But there are churches of a hundred, there's churches of three hundred that need to revitalize because they're not growing. Growing in their faith. And the growing in their faith starts with relationships.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 44:06

And so that's you're it's not flashy.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:13

Relationships aren't flashy. They are they're familiar and they are personal and they are they're they're comfortable, but uncomfortable at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:26

It's where I can talk to you about the uncomfortable things, but I'm comfortable doing it because I care about you and you care about me and you don't.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

There's a love that that's going to keep both people at the table.

SPEAKER_04 44:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Um, and really that that's what made the 80 for Easter for success. That's what made the the VBS change a success. It wasn't us. It was the people here loving each other enough, loving Jesus enough, and trusting us enough. Because, you know, you know, it was we were we were doing our best to love them genuinely where they were and where they are. And we still love them where they are. We're walking with them now, but none of these things would have worked without them. Like it was them trusting the Holy Spirit stepping out with us that that did this. Right now, the Holy Spirit did it through us. Like, I'm not I don't know, it's hard to put this to words, but but uh it was our yes, the Holy Spirit did the work. It was God working and moving through us, but it was our willingness to be obedient, our willingness to see, to see what he was doing and participate that that changed things. Yeah. So but hopefully our two sense helps you. If you have questions, you want to know more, um, we'll do our best to help you. Um again, we've learned it's not about more programs, it's it's about community, and community happens at tables.

SPEAKER_04 45:50

Yeah. Yeah, God often works through the ordinary moments in our lives. It's it's the moments at the park, it's it's when we're close to running out of chicken.

SPEAKER_03 46:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 46:03

It's and it's the opportunities that you know somebody says, Hey, I'm, you know, I'm looking for a church.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

And all those things, and I've shared this with the church here so many times that they're probably sick of hearing it, but we celebrate those things.

SPEAKER_04 46:22

Every single one.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Because again, the miracle isn't just the person getting saved at the altar. That's amazing. That's what we were aiming for. That's our hope of seeing sinners come home. But sometimes the miracle is somebody thought about Jesus today. Somebody interacted with somebody in a positive way that that kind of poked a hole in their boat, right? Where they think church is bad, that that Jesus is out to get them. That they experienced it in a way today that poked a little bit of a hole in that boat. That's a miracle that's worth celebrating too.

unknown 46:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:53

So whether your church is big or small, one don't worry about that, right? God doesn't care about that as much as we think he does. God cares are we being faithful and obedient to what he's calling us to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

So Neil, thank you for joining us today, as we kind of rambled a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

And I hopefully this helps. If it did, please like, subscribe, and share this episode with us. But until next time, Grace and peace.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Our life's held together by grace and a few hugs. Stay set, she stuck, mix me sad, boom too. Not about ladders, it's me and you. Serving the kingdom and eight was anti. Last lines and countless hands and holy routines. Pull up for table, table for two. Love and face with the side of the face, will talk to Test, test, thing, test, one, two, three.