Who's Your Empty Chair?

Cyle, Ryan, and Mark record with a literal empty chair — two regulars are out — but it ends up being the perfect backdrop for this episode. They recap a landmark moment for their church: canceling regular Sunday services to gather 700 people (including visitors from as far as California, Virginia, and Pennsylvania) at a beach campground for an outdoor worship service under a big tent. Cyle shares the message he preached — "The Empty Chair" — a challenge to think about the lost people in your life and what you're doing to invite them in. Ryan shares his own story of being someone else's "empty chair" before he was invited to Heart of Lakes, and the guys get into the real, relational side of sharing faith without pressure or fear.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello and welcome back to the AutoCast. I'm Kyle, and I'm only here with Ryan and Mark. And we have an empty chair. No one is here. Which is fitting because I just did a servant called the empty chair. So it actually worked. It's almost like we planned it, but we didn't actually plant it. Matt had Cody is away and Matt is away. So we literally have an empty chair.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Funny how that works out.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Yeah, it's kind of a God thing, right? So so what uh we just had we just canceled service for the first time ever. We canceled both campuses for services. We asked all of our people to come to Somerset Beach Campground and have a service under the big tent right next to Mission Lake. It was awesome. And I'll just say the trepidation was like, do will people actually come? Like because like uh if they didn't come, I would kind of look like a big dummy standing up there. So but people came. It was awesome. It was really cool. My favorite moment was just watching people walk across carrying their chairs uh from both Jackson and Brooklyn campuses who don't know each other but walking into church together uh for the first time. It was I that was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yeah, it was super, it was super neat. I was helping out with the parking and and just seeing all the familiar faces and and I and I spend I've spent a decent amount of time at Jackson and Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

You're our guy that goes between both.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

So I I I kind of know every, you know, I not say everybody, but I know a lot of different people and and to see all the different Jackson people that came that I haven't seen in a little while, and all our Brooklyn people is just cool. And and running people back and forth in the go-kar or the golf cart was kind of fun too.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Did you know when I asked you to do parking? That's why I asked you, is because you did you figure out like, oh yeah, why did he ask me to do this? No, I didn't hate me. No, I just figured the heat.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

I I figured you know that I I in my mind it wasn't a social thing. In my mind, it was like, oh great, this is like taking out the trash.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

You knew everybody from both campuses, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

No, and I didn't I didn't think it my my brain was was kind of shallow on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Stuck me in the field.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

I was like, oh great, this would this will be easy. This is a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

I just figured if people were coming from both campuses, you could greet them, you know them all. So like I was like, yeah, this is the perfect person. I greet everybody on the way.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

I pretty much said hi to everybody, so it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

That's awesome. It was fun. I I didn't get it. I mean, there were so many people there, I didn't get a chance to do my normal stay at the door and greet people because everybody just like it was over, people were chatting, then boom, it was like I turned around, it was cleared out. People people went to lunches and took off, or you know, so but it was really fun to see everybody at camp. We had we had 700 people there for the service, not all from Heart Lakes, but they were definitely definitely we showed up and you know we probably had 500 people or plus from from our campuses, which was really cool. Um to to worship together, to do it in a big tent, to to have other churches present and be part of that was it was just a really cool experience. So I look forward to doing that again. Uh it looks like based on the response so far, and you can tell us if you listen to the podcast if we don't want to do it again, but it seems like people want to do it again next year. So I think that's the goal. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yeah, I think it'd be awesome. I mean, I mean, even just for a for a one-time thing, you know, we're trying to see because we weren't sure if we'd have 200 people, we'd have 600 people. Well, the weather was perfect.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

You know, I mean, it was perfect. If it was raining, it would definitely have been difficult, but uh it was perfect weather. Nick, Nick, our camera guy who's sitting right there, he did he they actually filmed the service and it's great. So I just uploaded it to the well, you uploaded to YouTube, Mark, but uh I just put it on Facebook for people. So I think it's exciting to see what that could be for us in the future. Um so we're we got some stuff on in work. So we're definitely planning on doing it again next year. So mark your calendars for July 18th, 2027. So we already we already got a date. It's gonna be a little bit different. So may not be as much as a community service as just a hard leg service, but um we're working working toward that end. So yeah, I think what do you think, Mark? Should we do it again? Should we run it back?

SPEAKER_01 3:48

I I think I think we should, as the kids say, run it back. Run it back. We should that should be the run it back service. I don't know that we can run it back. You don't know that we'll do it again.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Well, I I kind of get that's what it means, Mark, but I I have never heard it.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Oh, I don't actually know if the kids say that. I'm just I just mean ridiculous. That's I like to say as the kids say, and then just say something random that the kids probably don't say.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah, see see in my mind you're you kind of almost have that status, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, nah, I know I'm not cool, and that's what makes the kids think I'm cool. It's like I own I'm ridiculous and weird. And like, I don't know, for some reason that works, but no, for the service itself, I thought it was awesome being able to have both teams there, like being on the worship team with people from both worship teams. It was it was really fun to do that all together, like people that I hadn't really worshipped with in a minute because of all the responsibilities at the campuses. Like it's it was it was super awesome.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

No, I think uh it just when you're when you're moving and God's moving, it's fun to be with people and see how that happens. And I I just saw a picture that people took of a group of ladies by the by the beach and just like talking about like how good God is and just going to the service, but also how God has like transformed all their lives. And it was really just those are the moments that I'm like God's good, like God's good. Personally, have I done much to to change any of those people? No, we've just been preaching the word, loving people, and then they have been growing and changing and bringing more friends in, and like they've been doing ministry to each other, and it's cool just to like sit back and say, like, all that's happening and uh God's doing it, and so I want we can't wait for more and more of that this year and in the future as we continue to move forward. But um I got the chance to preach that message, which was cool, and we talked about uh something called the empty chair. Um, and so basically, you know, we were we had 700 people sitting in a tent and all these full chairs, but there were empties, and you look at the empty chair, it's representative of like the people that aren't there and in your life, in your family, you know.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

So who are some of the people that you think like the empty chair represents in like not necessarily your life, you can be if you're a life if you want, but like in just the general lives of people, like yeah, I mean I think that I I think that for me and even just relating it to me, probably you know, I got a lot of friends, um, probab definitely some family. Um probably a lot of my a lot of my dudes, bros from the ring corps, you know, that I know that just are white knuckling it through life as they're going down. Yeah, I know a lot of warriors that, you know, they the the atheist mindset where then but in the same right their life doesn't work and they continue to struggle and continue to struggle because they're trying to do it on their own, you know. And you know, I I think it's what you do though. You just you keep you keep showing up, you keep doing it by what you say and and you know what you how you act, and yeah, you know, hopefully fills that seat sooner or later.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

We we talked about how the Bible says Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Like Jesus was pretty clear, he came for lost people, he didn't come for found people. They were okay, they already had a relationship with God, he came for lost people. And so we talked about how the empty chair is representative of the lost. Like there's someone, there's someone that chair is for that's lost in your life. Might be your spouse, might be your son, might be your daughter, might be a friend, might be a coworker, might be your neighbor, but like there's someone you know that's lost and doesn't know Jesus, and that chair is for them. And our job is to try to fill that chair with them by inviting them, by loving them, by giving our time, our talent, our treasure to serve in ways that that give them the opportunity to fill that chair. And then once that chair gets filled, you put down another empty chair and you try to fill. I mean, that is really the the gospel. Tell people the good news of Jesus so that when they have the good news, then they want to also tell other people the good news. And so we go from empty chair to empty chair to empty chair, and we just fill them up. And we do that while serving the Lord, growing closer to Him. And so we had a chance to talk about that. It was, and I think what one of the cool things, and Mark, you were there, but having, you know, we we wasn't just us, just wasn't Heart Lake's Brooklyn and Jackson campuses. It was yeah, people from all over, right? How what was the farthest one that was away?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Uh there was Pennsylvania. There was wasn't there one in Virginia?

SPEAKER_02 7:57

It was a California, California, Virginia, which was wild. People all over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Oh, that's right, yeah. Yeah. So having all these different churches come together.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Yeah. And they all came in for family camp. They were all at the SBC Somerset Beach family camp. So they we we just kind of descended upon uh the family camp. But it was cool to have all these people from all over and that are, I mean, all that's representative of of heaven. And so we put five chairs on stage and we pulled people up from different churches from different places. I think the one kid came up from Pennsylvania and the other one came up from um, you know, a Catholic church, and the other one's come up from all different churches across the area. And we just said, like, this is this is the church. Like, we are going to be in heaven together. Like, we might as well enjoy life together now. It's not like it's only gonna be uh Free Methodist Heaven or United Brother in Heaven or Baptist Heaven or it's gonna be heaven and all the people who call Jesus Lord and seek him and follow him, you know, can they're gonna be there. So we might as well worship him in spirit and truth here with each other. And so uh I think it gave us a good opportunity to be the church and not separated by names and denominations, but just one church, one body together worshiping the Lord, and recognizing that we all collectively together and all separately and individually have to be filling that empty chair, and that's that's the goal. And so our empty chair here, if you're watching this, is representative of the lost people in your life. And what are you doing? How are you being changed by the good news of Jesus so that you are actively trying to fill up the empty chairs? You know, are you talking to your son and daughter, you're talking to your spouse, you're talking to your coworkers about Jesus, you invite him to church, you invite them to family camp, or you invite them to activities at your church, small groups, life groups. Are you doing something active to try to tell people about Jesus? And it's harder said than done, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, there there is a harder done than said, I guess. Yeah. I mean, I I think I think for me, I mean, in in a course, I always just revert back to to what brought me and what you know how how how God kind of moved for me. Because I I think it is so much more about how we live our lives and how we how we conduct ourselves. And in in in my experience, it just comes up in conversation. People ask me about Jesus without even know they're asking me about Jesus. Because it'll be like, well, how how'd you manage to strain your life around or how'd you manage, you know, like wow, that's that's quite a story. Tell me you can tell me more. Like, and and it's pretty easy, just go, well, if you're you know it's Jesus. Yeah, if you want to talk more about that, I'd love that.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

I should have pulled you up on stage because you were the empty chair in one point in my life conversations, because your friend Jake invited you to church. And like, not doesn't mean that you were like hopeless and lost, but like we would sit by we would sit by the river during COVID and talk about you because he's like, I got this friend, he's amazing, he's got his wife, and he's got these kids, he would talk all about you, and he loved you. He's like, Yeah, I think I'm gonna invite him to church. And you know, he ultimately invited you to Har Lakes at one point, and you came, but like you were his empty chair, this person he deeply cared about that he wanted to just have this experience. Like, hey, I want to like and so he eventually got up the courage and you know, once or twice asked you to church and you came. And so now now you're here. So it was it was kind of cool because I didn't even know you, and then you started coming, and now you're you're basically on staff with us, you're here, you're a pastor. Like you it's so cool to see like the transformation of just like one invite. Yep, one invite can change everything.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Well, it's interesting, all that you know. I and even you just saying that kind of reminds me of that story of that first day because when I first I I met you and and I gave you a hug, yeah, and and then it was like later on you said something on stage about how you're not a hugger, yeah. And it was like, Oh, the dude just hugged me. Yeah, that was kind of cool, you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

We were praying for you. We would sit, we'd sit there, we'd like to talk about you, pray for you. And it's like I knew who you were, so like it was it was cool. And so you've lived up to be everything Jake said that you were and more. So you know kudos to you and kudos to him for being your friend and you know, being there and just to get the life together. And so it's neat. But if you're listening, like who who is that person in your life that that maybe is your empty chair? That doesn't mean they're a bad person, like Ryan's an amazing person, like he was amazing before he came to our lakes. It's just now he's an amazing person who really is got God at the center of his is everything. Um, but it isn't change that they were awesome family before. Like that person may not be a bad, broken, awful person. It just might be a person who just doesn't have Jesus at the center, who's not following and seeking him. Like that they your invite may be the thing that changes everything for them. Like, who's that person in your life? Invite him to church, invite him life group, invite him Bible study, like you could invite him out to camp to combine service. That's non-threatening. Hey, come out to camp. You know, you don't know any of these people, just just come. Like, find a way to get connected and see what God can do. And there's so many opportunities. One of the things we try to do at our likes is just give people all these open door opportunities to bring people in that are the non-threatening. Like, it's what can you invite them to is non-threatening that's not scary? Because everybody thinks they're gonna get yelled at and told they're going to hell and all those things, and that's just not what we do. We love people, we believe in relational evangelism, loving people into relationship with Jesus Christ. So um, I hope you think about the empty chairs in your life. Who is it? Um, and how are you gonna do something to move them closer to filling up that chair so then together you can work to fill up more empty chairs for Jesus and tell people about the goodness of his good of his love. So we appreciate it. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Be praying for people, figure out who that empty chair is and invite them. Invite him to church, invite him to something. Thanks.