SPEAKER_01 0:01

So, Pastor John, thanks for joining us. My friend, yes, let's go. A few months back, what maybe last fall, we started having a conversation about formation. We've actually been talking about formation for a long time, but we specifically started talking about this idea about hey, what does it look like to maybe create resources based off Sunday in order to equip our people, the church, to stay continuously thinking about God, the scriptures, practices, or even just the message that was given on Sunday in the midst of it all busy life, right? Right? Work, kids, play, school, right, all the things. Right. Finances, yes, neighborhood. Yes. And it goes on. Snow. Yeah, yeah. And so um, and then came up with this idea like, hey, what does it look like to have small bites that are echoes of Sunday morning so that people can stay connected to the vine? Here we are. So we're six months into it. It's amazing. It's been really cool to hear the response from people, see how many people are downloading it, and that it's just a resource. It's helpful. Right. It's helpful for me in the midst of busy weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Right. I don't know who all is listening and when they're listening and where they're listening, but what I like to imagine is people on their way to pick up their kid from school, or they've just dropped him off, or they're heading to work. They're they're heading off into, as we like to say in the Benediction at Pillar, every sector of public life to claim it for Christ. Every Sunday, give or take, most Sundays, somebody stands up with their hands lifted high over the congregation and says, You're about to enter every sector of public life to claim it for Christ. We're talking about neighborhoods, coffee shops, factory floors, office spaces, classrooms, homes, every sector of public life. All of that's happening, and at the same time, we're being inundated endlessly. In other words, we're being formed endlessly by narratives, pressures, values that are trying to shape and form us into a certain way. And Sunday morning, for this wonderful expression of the gathered community and worship that it is, is so small when you consider the onslaught of all of the other voices and pressures coming at a person. So this little podcast that we're putting together is an effort to take the Sunday morning gathered experience and help it become a sending energy for folks into every sector of public life. So it's not just the hour that maybe people come to each week, but now becomes a conversation partner throughout the rest of their lives all the time. So it's not just the eight-minute podcast plus the hour-long worship service. Now it becomes a part of our being, our way, our day, our life to sort of hold off or at least participate in all of the other voices that are coming at us all the time as we're entering every sector of public life. So among the things I love about this is that integration that happens between Sunday morning and Tuesday afternoon as each person in their various vocations and locales are trying to live this thing called the Christian life. So I love it.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah. I love how you described it. And that's one of the things that I loved about Pillar, you know, being here now four years. Amazing. Right? Where it's like, yes, there's something about that that just resonates. Where, and you know, all churches are guilty of this in some way where like the life is within the four walls, versus like, hey, we're no, like all the earth God is redeeming all things to himself, not just the things that are within the four walls. And so I just love that posture that we have.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

It becomes it's sorry, yeah. It's the it's the it's the old tension you feel when you use the word church. Oftentimes we quickly assume the building on the corner. The church has always been the people, and the people are always on the move. The people gather on Sunday, very important. I don't I don't think it's wise to diminish the value of that moment when we gather together corporately. But when we leave, we're not not the church. Now we're out in all of these places living, as Jesus would say to the disciples, you are my witnesses. Now now you're the ambassadors of Christ, as the Apostle Paul says. So to take the gathered reality engagement that we experience and send it with people into every sector is what excites me about all this.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

So this is officially we're having this conversation to just kind of put a little bow on what we're calling season one of the Abide in Me podcast. So if you're listening to this, this is kind of the end of season one where we're gonna be, you know, where we have been releasing two episodes weekly, and so we're taking kind of a summer break. But during the summer, we're gonna be having uh leaders from our church um putting out one episode a week of a short devo for our people to continually uh continuously stay engaged, and so though that's gonna be coming out uh beginning next week throughout the summer, and then we will be announcing when the start of season two will happen. Um so be listening for that. Can I add this? Yes, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So, like for me, technological advancement is when pencil sharpeners became automatic. You know, like that that's the world I live in. So when you came to me, was it like last October, November, yeah, with this idea of a podcast for people to stay connected throughout the rest of the week. But I what what one of the things I loved about that was your capacity, skills, gifts, and call in the AVL world, yeah, held alongside of your capacities, gifts, skills, call in the pastoral sort of discipleship formation world came together so beautifully. And I was like, I don't know, man. You know, I just sharpened my pencil, but you imagined this podcast, and so for me to see your gifts at play and the church responding in the way that it has, at least based on the number of listens or views or whatever that is that we met the metrics. It's just been so cool. So I I want to say thank you. Thanks for the idea, thanks for the implementation, thanks for you and Trish each week sitting together, taking the sermons, breaking them down into a couple of podcasts each week, taking the stuff from Sunday and sort of internalizing it in yourself and offering it in this accessible way for folks as they're uh heading in their cars or sitting around their living rooms or whatever it is. So grateful for you and grateful for the church for the way they've they've engaged with us, and we're excited for season two.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Same, same. I'm grateful for the opportunity and like it all coming together because at the end of the day, we get to cool, we get to cool, we get to do fun things, whether it's with technology, right? But it's really about the people at the end of the day, right? It's about God, it's about people. It's about God, it's about people. That's it. That's why we exist, that's why the church is here, that's why we're in ministry. Um, and so I just love when all of those things come together in a way that you know we're no longer using um electric pencil sharpeners, we're actually using an apple pencil. That's right. What wait, what's an apple pencil?

SPEAKER_00 8:49

All of these tools we use, whether it's the pillared journal or the podcast or the Bible study or the one-on-one walk, the mentor to the mentee, the class we attend. What I'm gonna call those tools. All of them are really ways of responding to Jesus, who says, abide in me and I in you, abide in the vine, for apart from me, you can do nothing. So, so as we enjoy the summer, as we launch into season two, I don't want to miss the why, the purpose of our whole life together as Christians, and for this specific podcast, I am the vine, you are the branches, those who abide in me, and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me, you can do nothing. Because we're out there doing a lot of things, and I hope it's not too bold to say all of it's nothing, if it's not connected to the vine, who is the one, Jesus Christ. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

No, I couldn't agree with you more. I couldn't agree with you more because yeah, at the end of the day, was it Tozer who said it? Man's response or the purpose of man is to in glorify God and to enjoy him. Yeah, there's something along those lines.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Westminster Confession. Is that what that is? The chief end of humankind? Yes. To glorify God and enjoy him forever? Right. I think it was somebody else uh who said the chief end of humankind is to glorify God by enjoying him forever, which I think is an interesting space time to add.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

I do, yeah. And uh and that's kind of what it is, but that's all rooted in staying connected, right? Yeah, how can you enjoy God if you're not connected to him, right? Yeah, and so I love that. John, why don't you uh why don't you lead us out with the benediction?

SPEAKER_00 11:04

I will. I'm gonna borrow from our Sunday morning experience as you are off onto your life. You are about to enter every sector of public life to c claim it for Christ. So may the grace of our Lord Jesus and the love of God and the fellowship of the Spirit be with you now and always. Amen. Amen.