Ask the Pastors S6 E1: "How do we make our church resolutions more tangible? (part 1)"

Welcome to Ask the Pastors a segment of the West Hills Podcast where you have a chance to ask and receive biblical counsel from your pastors on the issues that are on your mind and heart. I am your host lead pastor, Will DuVal here today, flipping the script and reversing roles with pastors Thad. Hey everyone and Pastor Brian. Hey everyone. And we are once again, pastor Austin Liss, but we'll just get to have all the fun without him and you guys are going to have to bring even more and better ideas to make up for the fact that he's not here.

Wow.

The reason we are flipping the script today is because we got a great question submitted in our after the sermon podcast two weeks ago when I was halfway through our New Year's resolutions, sermon series, mini series in between Advent and the new number series. And Hannah asked, I know you started to give us some practical ideas for how we can put these top 10 resolutions for the new year as a church into actual practice, but could you give me even more? I'm a to-do list person, I'm a practical person. Give me even more tangible ways. How can I, as Joe Congregant, Jill Congregant, roll up my sleeves, get to work? Yes, I'm going to pray. We talked about that praying toward and working toward, but give me even more of the working toward and what me and the average pew sitter can do to support the church in these areas of focus. So I thought, you know what? Again, I did my best that I could in 45 minutes divided by five times two sermons. So eight, nine minutes per principle. But I tend to be abstract in theory, philosophical thinking, but you guys are often, and anybody who's even close to leadership at the church or staff knows this, that all the real good practical stuff and practical ideas often happen from the rest of the staff. I might come and say, Hey, here's, you

Got great ideas.

Yeah. Well, I don't know. Thank

You. I've got a lot of bad ideas I need.

• Read more

  Yeah, I don't know. Appreciate that. I appreciate y'all's bearing with my, having big conceptual ideas and then trying to help translate those into practice. And so that's what we thought. Maybe we'll flip the script. And again, I already had my two chances in both of those sermons at answering that question. How do we put this into practice? But it might be just beneficial for us anyway as a pastoral staff for me to again, invite y'all into that and say, why don't you help me out, help Hannah out, help the church out and fleshing this question out even more. So we thought we'd just go through the list, not belabor and beat any dead horses, and try not to be too redundant on things that I've already said or we've already discussed as a church. But again, keep coming back to these 10 principles that we brought up at the annual meeting.

  And then in that sermon series probably needs to be revisited pretty frequently throughout the year to come anyway and just check in. How are we doing? So maybe we just start with and do 'em in that same reverse order that I did and let y'all weigh in on each of 'em and add your own practical ideas. What can you think of that I haven't already mentioned? So we'll start with number one, remembering the importance of remembering. And again, reminder talked about that generational kind of handoff and transition and moment that we're in in the life of our church right now, where we want it as best as we can capture a lot of the history and legacy of the church and take that in, that informs and shapes the culture of the church and our practice moving forward. So ideas on that as well as I did broaden that too and say we need to be better at remembering even more generally, just whether it's the gospel and remembering on a daily basis what Christ has done for us and tips for that. But also remembering from the standpoint of something like church history and remembering that something like West Hills Church is not, I mean, we stand in the footsteps and on the shoulders of

  2000 years of church history that we would do well to know, remember, celebrate and learn from. So ideas that y'all have for just this very broad exhortation to remember.

  Yeah, I'll start kicking off kind of in the West Hills Church itself, history with some kind of really quick practical things. One in general, just talk to some of our older saints that could fit in with our even inclusion one, but just talking to them, you see them on Sunday, you generally know those who are older than you. And even just when talking to individuals, making another habit of just asking how long someone's been at West Hills, and then you can follow that up with any sort of follow-up question and what was it like when you first came, or what was it that attracted you most about West Hills or hey, what are some good things that you have seen change over the years? And just being really intentional to one, establish those relationships with some of our dear older saints. I say this often, my favorite meal of the month is our young at heart lunch where our seniors ministry 55 and up come and they have lunch once a month.

  And I love that and I love getting to see my older saintly friends with that. And then I would say second along those lines would be if anyone listening has been a part of West Hills for, I would say probably longer than 10 years and things about West Hills, you have old documentation to get in contact with Bill Connick. I've already gone through some storage rooms and found him some boxes and he's really excited about this project of collecting and putting together some of our history and pictures and different drafts of our constitution and bylaws. And he's really excited about that. And so if you have even old bulletins or something, we can use that and collect that. So kind of those two things like hey, talk to some of our older saints. Ask some of them the questions about the history of the church, what's changed, what's been good. And then if you have something to get in contact with Bill Knick who's I already know, he's going to do a really great job compiling all that information in the most helpful of manner.

  Yeah, I just learned about this today from Thad actually this project that Bill Connick has, I think taken upon himself. What is it?

  Yeah, he just emailed me and said, Hey, what do you have about West Hills' Church history and our church history? And then, yeah, I just gave him some things and he's run with it. I love that guy. That's awesome.

  I think took that calling to remember and preserve the legacy of the church to heart and just, yeah, and Bill just nerds out on stuff like that anyway and has done his own whole, speaking of the remembering more broadly, church history, bill loves church history and has started a whole database, so to speak, of categorizing and translating I think old church father writings

  For lay people to be able to check out and just know that depth of the richness that is there. And so I think my understanding of what he, to take some of that same approach to just cataloging for us specifically as a church. So I'm super excited about, I haven't even talked to Bill about it yet, but I'm super excited. And then I think, Brian, you have more information too on a similar kind of parallel project that both you and I now I think have connected with Sally Avison on as well. Do you want to talk more about that?

  Sure. Well, I think you had thrown out the idea from my understanding of sitting down with some of our senior saints that have been at the church for, I mean, how many years, June 55, since the beginning of the church into swap stories of how the church came to be, its youth, all the inner workings of how it came to be in interpersonal things and stages of the church. I find that so interesting. We had a choir loft at one point. I heard we had an organ. Anyway, it's like, whoa. I was looking back at some of these pictures that I was looking at. I was looking into this video. Anyway, the project being sitting down, capturing conversation between some of those older congregants and changing that into, I think you had mentioned two pages that we'd include in our membership class entry point, maybe both.

  Maybe both

  To distill the church history in written form, but really exciting to because your idea of having them sit down together and playing off one another I think is going to bring out some really cool stories that might not have made it otherwise.

  I hope so. And I think it will because I've heard some of 'em and I'm like, yeah, we need to capture that better. But yeah, I mean I know we do that now in entry point. And again, the sort of PowerPoint version of entry point that I handed off to Thad that was handed off to me

  For that. But again, a lot of it is very high level and you don't want to get too deep down into the weeds and you don't need people to take a quiz and memorize the history of the church and every little vote on this and that and the annals of members meetings, but some of the big things, churches that have been planted. Yeah, I mean I know of at least one, arguably two kind of church splits in the past. Those kinds of things that are like, okay, this was significant, and how do we honor? Yeah, just the time limit. Are we out on Facebook? I don't know. Oh, lemme check that really quick. Okay, well anything else tha that you have on this or maybe we'll just keep,

  Yeah, I think more broadly speaking, you mentioned church history as a whole. I know Austin Gooch is working really hard to get a class together

  For us that we think it is important and valuable to remember church history, that we aren't alone, that we do come in the shadows and footsteps of others. And so one, if you're really interested in that, keep asking about it or if you're interested in teaching it like, Hey, let us know and we will see if we can get it slotted and enough teachers interested to help bear that load. But yeah, I think it would be really good, and it's something we've talked about for years of being able to do that, but just needing the right people in place to be able to handle

  It. Yeah, one of the only other things that I would throw out if that's okay, is one of the other things that I'd throw out, man, all church events sitting with people that are older than you that you don't usually interact with. I don't know, night of Thanks for example. I mean you throw that out every time to sit with somebody that you're not in life group with, things like that. But those have been wonderful opportunities that I've had the chance to sit down with folks that I don't usually get the opportunity to interact with that are older than me following Jesus for three times longer than I've been alive. It's amazing.

  That's another good one too, and I'm glad you brought up the church history class too. Tha is just an early plug for that come springtime because Bill Connick was the one, because I think he's planted that Bill reminded me of that right after I preached that sermon. It was like he texted me and said, Hey, you know that there's a class in the works already for church history. And I knew we had discussed that, but I didn't yet know that. Yeah, some of those teachers have already said, I'm in, count Me In.

  That's awesome.

  And so I'm super excited for that. One of the worst parts about preaching is that I don't ever get to actually attend any of our classes that are taught by others, but hopefully they will record some of those so we can remember and have a legacy of that class and maybe revisit again and I can listen and

  There's enough church history out there to do

  Multiple different sections of that class. That'd be great. The last one I'll say on legacy is, or remembering in our spiritual legacy is like I said, most importantly, we need to remember that what Christ has done for us to save us, and that should be a daily remembrance. And what can we do to practically to do that more effect? I mean, one thing that I threw out in a sermon a while back that people still will tell me, I actually practically did that and has made a big difference, was set an alarm on your phone instead of just your daily wake up alarm that is titled, wake Up on My iPhone, you title the alarm, Jesus died for me and I'm going to live for him today. Or something to that effect, just a gospel reminder to start your day with. And even if it's just that one quick phrase sentence of the gospel that then you wake up like this morning for me and it's still dark outside, it's tired even though you slept eight hours, like what's going on? But just that I want the gospel to be the thing that is going to shape my attitude and my mindset, my heart set for today. So anyway, I would

  Just on that note, something I think I got from your life group that my life group practices is that at the beginning of each section, new iteration of life group is each week one person goes around and just shares their testimony, their story of, I love that we should be remembering and rehearsing the gospel that has taken effect in our own lives personally. And so it's also good in remembering that, but also hearing other people's stories. So you could take that in, whatever, even asking older saints like, Hey, tell me about when you heard the gospel, when you believed in Jesus. And so just another way to bring both of those ideas together.

  That's good. Let's talk about safety and preparedness. So I applied that principle of preparedness more specifically to us as a church and just avoiding danger, that proverb that says, the wives will try and avoid danger. And so we need to do a better job of that as a church and have practical emergency response plans in place and things like that. I've already said in week two of the sermon, this was one of the practical ones, just that I received the most immediate

  Feedback from people and offers for help, people that have served on those kinds of committees at their workplace and school board and this and that, and just really appreciated that. And most probably helpfully of already I would say is our faithful beloved security officer on Sunday mornings, officer Mullins, Jim Mullins who came and talked to me afterward and offered, Hey, I do this as a police officer. I do this for schools and businesses and help him draft up plans. And so he already, I mean, took him two weeks, but he just last two days ago, Sunday gave me a binder full of, Hey, here's a first draft of what evacuation routes and fire plan, active shooter, this that might look like for y'all here at West Hills, and I'd be happy to come in, consult with you and the elders and train you and C-P-R-A-E-D, et cetera, et cetera kind of thing. So praise God for that guy and for the rest of y'all who have offered as well. But other, I don't know, other thoughts, I mean maybe it's a quick one, but do you guys want to get in and add other things for, again, the average person who's not the leader who's going to be getting trained, but what could others maybe do to help us just be better prepared as a church?

  I can start, the things that came to mind for me might seem kind of silly, but all adds up to be important. Do you know where the closest exit is? Do you know where first aid kits are? These are things that I'm assuming is as he's consulting with us, we'll potentially label better and provide documentation for, but knowing where our first aid kit, knowing where the a ED is, just being a little bit more inquisitive about our space and asking maybe people at the info bar or people at the cafe, Hey, where's the closest this or that. So for when we do need it, you'll be able to know where it is. Do you know what our safety officer looks like? Might be good for you to know. Meet him, meet him, great guy. Fire extinguishers, where are they located? I think I know where they are, but I mean that'd be helpful for me. I think I know where the first aid kit are. But anyway, just thinking about that for me too, it's like I'd actually be really helped thinking about that a little bit more too. Those are things that came to mind for me, yourself

  Just inviting the listener to just kind of be inquisitive and asking questions about where things seems like that could be a good

  Force the rest of us to know if we're going to have to answer for others. And I'm sure that would be step one of any plan is for us to educate ourselves as a staff and to know exactly where these are the eight fire extinguishers in the building. These are the 10 entrances and exits, and here's where the ad is

  Along those lines that if you see something or wonder is this safe, does this fit within our protocols? Is this secure to feel free to ask those questions of leadership or elders or whoever, just to ask in. We want people to feel safe, we want people to feel secure. And if you're questioning whether or not, even if it's what's the protocol in children's ministry with something, you should feel freedom to ask those questions.

  And I think along those lines as well is help hold us accountable. Like, Hey, you mentioned this in a sermon. You've now done a podcast on it. Frequently ask, what's the plan? What's the process? Where are we at with this? And then lastly, just if, I know we've already had a lot of people reach out, but if anyone hasn't and you've got a heart or a burden or a skillset towards this, please let us know. We would love to use you and how God has equipped you for this to hope bring safety and security more so to our church for

  Sure. Yep. Thank you. Well even I know again, Hannah who asked the question, registered nurse, and one of the ideas I had was, wouldn't it be great if we had just a volunteer medical professional sort of on call on duty per service? So two services, two people at a, so every Sunday we know if somebody has a heart attack, we can be trained in how to work the a ED machine or whatever, but it'd be really great. It'd make me feel better if we do because we got a lot of doctors, we've got a lot of nurses, those kinds of things. But it just takes some organization, somebody's got to do that. And if people are saying, I want to help you with that, lemme make it easy for you. I'll commit to being there every Sunday at 10 45 and I'll be the person unless I tell you otherwise. Those kinds of things.

  Let's move on to number three, diversity. I would say the most controversial of the 10 points, sadly, I would say at our church and just in terms of some of the overwhelmingly positive and people saying, thank you for making this a priority for us, keeping it in front of us. I'm going to commit to praying that God would make West Hills is even more diverse and it is a beautiful thing like you said, and God biblical, all that. But maybe we don't get into, again, making the argument for why diversity is a good and biblical thing, but just if we assume, I try to make the case already, let's not spend more time, but if we assume that it'd be great, it'd be great. God brought different kinds of people to our church that helped us better reflect the diversity of heaven and the diversity of God's capital C Church. What are practical ways in particular that particular people in the pews can be a part of that?

  Before I do the practical, I have one quote I want to read to assist with this. John Sto, one of my favorite pastor theologians, he puts it this way, the more mixed the congregation is, especially in class and color, the greater its opportunity to demonstrate the power of Christ.

  And I think that is good to remember. There can be a temptation to give into perhaps certain views that people are spewing about. What does it mean to be diverse? Should we be diverse? We just care about our church and the gospel. And I would, again, we've already done this, make the case actually it better displays the gospel, the more diverse churches and a couple practical things. I am a big reader. I think reading can be really helpful in this two books that I've personally found very helpful. One is in church as it is in Heaven, cultivating a multi-ethnic kingdom culture by Jamal Williams and Timothy Paul Jones. And then second weep with me How Lament opens a door for racial reconciliation by Mark Ro group, who's recently just been announced as the new president of the Gospel coalition, who we really enjoy partnering with. And I'm excited for him to have that. So I think that's one thing you can do. You can read, try to understand more along those lines. I think the other two are perhaps a bit more difficult perhaps for someone to do is one, asking the question honestly, who am I least likely to desire to come to church? Or who am I most resistant to conversing with? Who's

  Your Samaritan?

  Yeah, who's the person that I would avoid at all costs at the grocery store or the gas station, not even just in our church building, but in general outside. And then follow up to that is ask why might there be resistance in my heart to not desire certain persons to be here? And I think that gets to perhaps some of the resistance that people have is there's actually a much deeper rooted issue. And it can be easy in an age where everyone has a platform where you have people using words differently to communicate different things. I think the word woke has been co-opted, and it's just really unhelpful. And I'm sure someone listening to this might be like, wow, you guys are really woke. And I would be like, no, actually, we're just really trying to see people come to know Jesus, and we want our church to be reflective of that. And again, it's not always about race, it's also about class and political viewpoints and everything else. We want diversity because God's kingdom is a diverse kingdom and we want to celebrate that, and we want to mimic that, and we want to encourage that as much as possible.

  That's good. And well, I think you mentioned what's uniting us in the gospels bigger than the little things that divide us. And I think that affects all the ways that we interact with each other. I think for me, I think it affects our music. This is conversations that we'll probably you and I'll continue to have

  About what does that look like to integrate songs that push us to be inclusive and diverse and different musical styles and to different cultural backgrounds. For somebody that's not from West County, grew up in whatever sect of denomination is familiar with song wise walks into the church and is like, what is this? I've never heard anything like this. And there's something really good about having Colossians three psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, but there's a place for each. And how can we include that diversity in our song style, but also the content and how we structure those songs, how we present them. Man, I was as part of a servicing college where we had a verse in a different language, which was like, whoa, this is crazy. But it was a cool moment to be like, oh yeah, this is what heaven will be, every nation, tribe and tongue praising the lamb. This is what heaven will be like. So I mean, yeah, I think it affects everything of how we interact with each other, how we worship. I think it looks like also going outside the church walls and serving really missionally and showing our love for each other regardless of socioeconomic status and race, all these things. What unites us in the gospel is bigger than what unite us, as we've said before

  That Yeah, those two points for me really stand. So the stock quote that you just paraphrased, I think is

  Yeah,

  Yeah, exactly. Because Jesus said they'll know that you belong to me by your love for one another. And so you think about that, how much love does it take to hold a group of upper middle class educated, white suburban, west kiani, et cetera, et cetera, private school, dah, dah, dah people together. It's like, well, I mean we just do that. That's just your tribe. I mean, these are people that I just naturally find myself in the same social circles with, but how much love does it take to hold an incredibly diverse community of people? And I've said that often in sermons. It's like you want the church to be a place where the world looks in and sees you gathering voluntarily with these people and say, what is it that holds you together? And the answer is Jesus.

  And then yes, speaks to the power. That word that Scott said, I love what you said too, Brian, of bringing out, which I didn't in the sermon, but this missional serving opportunities outside the walls. I think you're right, probably. I mentioned Oasis and our blossoming partnership with them and their ministry to refugee families here in town. And we say in our benediction, every Sunday we're going to go and make disciples of all the nations. God's bringing the nations to St. Louis fastest foreign born growing city in the country. And so we've got that opportunity, but it can't just be about inviting them and hoping they feel welcome. I mean, the going out us getting outside the walls of the church, making those relationships, doing the baby shower, dropping off the mattress, the couch for them, and then having that opportunity then to show that tangible care and then say follow up with, oh, by the way too, we'd love to have you join us on a Sunday.

  And you've already established that care and concern and love. So yeah, I think that's a great practical. I'm glad you brought that up. Let's talk about inclusion. And I'd like to talk most specifically about maybe the demographic, because I mentioned some examples of the transgender coworker feeling loved and cared for and not like the sore thumb sticking out when they come, but that's the exception of the rule for us at our church. I'd love to spend more of our time and hear more from y'all specifically on some of those other demographics. I mentioned our widows and orphans, so to speak. And the one in particular that I highlighted was our singles. And Brian, I know you in particular, obviously you're leading the young adult ministry. Certainly when you came to the church, you were single. Praise God, you're engaged now and excited for that. But I know it's personal for you and near and dear to your heart, but also you probably have a different experience of being single at West Hills because you're a pastor, and

  So

  It's easier for people to reach out to you and make you feel included and for you to feel, but certainly you're rubbing shoulders with those other folks more frequently. So I dunno, I'd love to hear your thoughts on, and just your, I guess digestion of conversations you've had with folks who, yeah, it might be single at our church and who might tend to walk into that life group setting with a little bit more insecurity than someone else who has at least this one person who I know and love and know. Worst

  Case, I have one friend to work, worst case

  Scenario, I walk in and nobody talks to me and at least I got a soulmate to go home with. So yeah, I'd love to hear more about just practical ways that you think we as a church, are we doing a great job getting an A plus at this or where is there room for improvement and what would that look like?

  Yeah, I'm not sure if it was my heart coming into the church that I was especially aware of it. I'm not sure if it's something that's more on me than on the church is what I'm trying to say. But looking at the church, when I first came here, it was like, man, is there a place for me here as a single person just to be real with that?

  Turns out there was, and I found people and I feel like I belong and I certainly felt like that when I was as well. But I think it's just good to acknowledge there's some people that come in and they're like, man, everybody's married. Where's my spot? And it's not the married people's fault, married people don't feel bad about that. Praise God, you're married. That's amazing. I think young adult ministry, having a place for singles to be together is great. And I think maybe even more important is how can young adult ministry get unfolded with the life of the church? How can we mingle with people that are married in life groups and D groups and those things and realize, hey, we have a lot to learn from each other in this and not, my singleness is not defined. My current walk in life, my state of life, I'm a child of God, just like the married people are.

  I'm saved in Christ just like the married people are. If they're saved, I dunno, not making singleness the biggest identifier in the life, but I think practical things with that man, sitting with those that are sitting alone is it's really sweet. For me, when I was first coming to the church, it was the people that would come over shake my hand and be like, Hey, we're so glad you're here. Anybody, can I sit with you? Would you like to come join me and my family? Something like that, man. As a single person, that would mean so much, whether it's my first Sunday here or if I've been here for a year and a half, two years and it's just me there and the single person has every opportunity to say, no, I'm good. I want to sit alone, whatever I want some space. But just the invitation, it's like, whoa, I'm seen and I'm loved really practically and well, I think would mean a lot.

  On that note, Rebecca McLaughlin, she has a great, or her husband has three rules of engagement. When we go to church, and I think this is really good for whether it's a single or whoever, one an alone person in our gathering is an emergency to friends can wait three, introduce a newcomer to someone else, it goes off that same way. You see someone alone, it's not that they are perhaps in crisis, but that person is alone and that's not good within the body. We want them to feel that they're able, they belong

  Here.

  And so just having that kind of urgent mentality of someone alone is an emergency. They shouldn't be alone in church. This is the place where we should not feel that way. So yeah. Sorry, I just thought that was really helpful along those lines, that's thinking about

  Absolutely. I think,

  Well, I love that. I mean, I'll just quickly build off that too, that that was always a rule for me that tried to drill in. Especially I'm thinking back to my youth ministry days, but frankly, I mean we're all just grown up kids, so I should probably bring this back in terms of catechizing, our adults, our people was a different version of saying that that same thing, that an alone person is an emergency. The way I would put it is no one ever walks alone because we've got each other with our youth group. And so again, that we would be a place where, in particular at the boarding school before I moved to St. Louis, where you've got people living away from their parents away from home, don't even have that kind of a home base kind of thing. And then they're at the school and I don't fit in this friend circle, I don't fit in this demographic and where do I fit and whatever. And that this can be the one place you fit. There's always a place for you at Jesus's table. And yeah, to me it meant, again, talking to the, I think it starts with the leadership

  And for us it probably does too as a church starts with the elders. But even you think about the front door greeters and that first touch, first perception and first impression walking in the door and how that person's going to feel. And I mean for me, that was always my thing as a youth pastor is like, I might not be the best teacher. I might not be the this and that, but I can be interested in someone's life. And every single Wednesday night I was going to find the new person, the new kid who showed up, who came in with a friend or didn't have a friend who just went out on a limb and got on the bus to come over. But I was going to make sure I sat at their table. But I think all those same principles apply here. Like you said, invite them to come sit with you and

  And then introduce them to someone else too. Give

  Them

  Another a touch

  Point. Because I lead pastor, I can't be everybody's best friend. And especially with a youth group thing, it's like what they need more than the 3-year-old youth pastor is they need a 14-year-old friend. And so you start to hear them, oh, I know he's really into that video game too. Hey Josh, come on over here. And then you give them, yeah, you play matchmaker.

  One quick follow up question I wanted to ask on that though, Brian, you mentioned the young adult ministry being a demographic, and I totally agree in a lot of cases, however, two of the three with the singles in particular, two of those three conversations I referenced with folks who are single were telling me that it's hard to be single at West Hills would've effectively, and it is a little bit of a moving target. And we haven't set maybe hard black and white lines on how young is young enough for young adult ministry and do you age out at 30 or whatever? I see 18

  To 35 might

  Be too late. Yeah. So two of these people though would've probably not qualified for the young adult ministry. And so I would say in a lot of ways that's even more of that kind of person that we have to have on our radar and becomes even harder because if I'm in my late forties and I'm single, I'm not going to mesh with probably the folks in the college age, college ministry that's half my age. But also, again, there is a little bit of that just barrier to overcome with the folks. And so in this one case in particular, a guy member of our church was just very honest with me and telling me, love the church and don't mean this as all as a criticism, but it has been my experience that I feel like I don't get invited over for dinner as much or whatever and really have that kind of fellowship relationships with folks.

  And he's like, I don't know if that's because usually women tend to be more social, and so wives will set up the double dates and I don't have that. Or if that's just, it is weird with one on two and third wheel and I don't know what that is. So I don't know if y'all have specific thoughts or ideas in that kind of a scenario. How can we as a church, other than again, just what we've already said of knowing all the more, okay, here's someone who's probably not getting invited all the time to this and that kind of hangout opportunity. So whenever there is an opportunity, whenever I'm getting guys from the church together to watch the national championship game or the Super Bowl or whatever, make sure that guy's invited because that's an obvious one. Maybe it doesn't have to be awkward for him to come over with me in Poly, my family. I can do that too, but especially if it's like this guy's getting together to play basketball ball on Saturday morning, make sure I text him like, Hey,

  You can make it.

  Yeah, those kinds of things. Other thoughts y'all have?

  Yeah, I think I like the idea of inviting people over and being intentional. I shared recently with, well it would've been last Thanksgiving, just this idea that I don't have any immediate family here. And so around holidays and stuff like that, typically when you, oh, I'm going over to my parents' house or all my siblings and stuff of personally trying to invite people who don't have family here as well, just because something I would love to have but don't have. And so I can invite my church family to come with me. And someone heard me sharing that I had done that over Easter and they're like, yeah, we just invited someone over for Thanksgiving. And that individual came over and really felt loved and appreciated. And I think just trying to be aware of that and get over perhaps what you might perceive as awkwardness or worry that person's going to feel awkward.

  And just using our homes for hospitality they're intended to be is just another way of inviting people over for meals and again, inviting people who are alone to hey, if you're a part of a life group or a discipleship group, and always be sure you're making space for other people. And so you meet someone at church and they're new and they're like, yeah, just move to the area. And I live in St. Charles. I'm like, oh, I live in St. Charles. You should come to my life group with me. And just using those opportunities as you're actively being aware for individuals alone and then going the step further of introducing them to someone else, inviting them over for meals, inviting them to participate, something you're already participating in, which then further unfolds them and gives them more community in that. Just playing off that a little bit.

  Yep. That's good. Anything else you want to add?

  Not sure if I have much to add to that. Yeah, just pursuing people. Well, and for the one that feels left out, please don't give up on the church. Reach out to people, make your needs known. If you want to get connected, please keep pursuing people and those that are seeing people that are alone, let's invite them in and fold them and make them feel loved and included as much as we can.

  I'm going to throw out something, a previous idea we've done before to just bring back summer club, summer supper club, man, that was fun. Bring it back this next summer, we will bring it back. And that again, it provides meal and there's just something about connecting over food that just breaks down barriers and makes it feel more

  Intimate. Well, and especially this summer as we've talked about, potentially hopefully by around then starting our building project, being out of our building, decentralized, all the more reason maybe that could be a kickstart. A jumpstart to get into each other's homes. And that speaks even more specifically to our community

  Cohesiveness.

  Number nine bullet point, which looking at the list and looking at the time, we've been talking a little over 40 minutes already. I think I have a proposal, we didn't even talk about this beforehand probably, but proposal would be maybe we split this into a two parter, like I did the sermon series so it doesn't get hours and hours long. And also so that we can invite, especially Pastor Austin in and start with the mission heartedness for next week number six and induce number six through 10 sounds good. And end this week with prayer. So if that sounds good to y'all, let's do that. And let's end here with prayer. So I don't, it was very short on this bullet point.

  Just do it.

  Just do it. I don't need to convince you from scripture that prayer is a good thing, a necessary, a absolutely essential, non-negotiable thing for us as believers. And yet some of the little prayer is ultimately between a person and the Lord, unless it's corporate and together prayer. But more often than not, it's that personal thing. And yet we do get little glimpses as a church. And I mentioned some of those are after the service prayer upfront come forward, be prayed for by one of our elders or prayer team members, the just sheer amount of volume or lack thereof that get submitted in our weekly prayer request cards that we're constantly asking, Hey, we want to pray for you. We want to know what's going on in your life. We want to be involved. This is a good way for us even just to stay in touch with what's going on and wanting more of that. So yeah, again, I just mentioned some of those. Just do it. I mean, come forward and be prayed for help, start the culture, break down whatever barrier that is of embarrassment of being publicly prayed for, and then it just becomes part of the culture. Submit the card, let us pray for you. But other ideas y'all have practically on how can we grow in the area of prayerfulness as a church, both individually but also just corporately, collectively as a body.

  Yeah. I've got a couple ideas. One's slightly removed from the coming forward to pray with an elder or prayer team member is when you're just in conversation with people, whether it's in the lobby or after a class and someone shares something that they'd like prayer for, it's just don't say, I'm going to pray for that, but well do that. But also just pray for them right there in that moment. It doesn't have to be a big spectacle. It doesn't have to be a really long prayer just to, Hey, put your arm around them and just say, Lord, what's going on in this

  Situation?

  And would you just work and bring comfort? So just making that also normalize, normalize and part of our culture that people are praying with one another after something has been shared.

  I love to see that. I feel like I see that at least once a month,

  Which means it's probably happening every week somewhere in a corner of the church that I'm not even seeing. But I love, yeah, that's a great idea. And I love to see that. And that's just a good one for us personally. That's something I mentioned just was talking with somebody earlier today actually, and said, I've tried to get away from that kind of well-intentioned but ultimately empty promise of, I'll pray for you with that. And then immediately hang up the phone and check my email and go on. And it didn't actually make it onto my prayer list. No, I'm just rather than, I'm just going to stop and pray. It doesn't have to be long like you said, but pray for it right now. And then if the Lord brings it back to mine later and I pray for it again, all the better. But at least I know I prayed once and I made good on that. So yeah, that's a great one.

  I'd add, set a reminder on your phone. We've done this at previous different seasons of the church, whether it's going to be for lost people or just a reminder to give thanks to God or pray for someone in your life group. Just something that sets a reminder that's like, I'm going to stop from. Again, it doesn't have to be an extremely long thing, but another thing you can do. Some people really benefit from having good systems and structures in place. My sister recently told me she adopted something we did growing up of each day of the week having a different topic of prayer. So Monday could be family, Tuesday could be government, Wednesday could be church leadership. Thursday could be church prayer requests, Friday, unsafe family, Saturday, unsafe friends. You could add whatever categories, but just trying to also change a little bit about what you're praying about by topic and just assigning it to a different day. If you have family dinner, you can say like, Hey, we're going to pray for this.

  That's good.

  I'd add in also something that I'm trying to do more is just praying through our membership directory and just, I do really well with a physical thing versus a digital thing. It's just better for me, something I can tuck in my Bible that added to my prayer time in the morning. And so that would be really good for our church as well to start. And then as you're praying for people, it's another opportunity. I don't actually know that person. I should do my best to introduce them, introduce myself to them. And then I'd even just add our missionaries. We have 12, so you could do it in any sort of order, whether it's pray for this missionary a month, our church has a missionary of the month, and hey, I'm going to pray for them. So those are just some of the initial things apart from the really good things of submitting prayer requests so that church knows how to pray for you coming forward to pray for one another, having the humbleness to just share, here's what's really going on in my life. And all, even add in any of our group meetings of don't only let prayer be the, oh, we didn't really save time for that.

  Yeah, that's

  Good. And being intentional on how you do that too, because we probably could pray the whole time any of our groups meet for all the prayer requests, but finding ways to make it more of a priority.

  And I will add on that too. That's good to try and intentionally disciple people in the area of prayer, at least public prayer. That's one thing I try and I'm the pastor, so anytime and y'all are too. So anytime you walk in a room, people just kind of assume, maybe default that you're going to open this meeting in prayer or whatever. We typically pray three separate times, open, close our meeting, and then in the middle as we transition in our life group. And at most, I'm going to pray one of those times, and then the other times I'm going to ask, and I'm sometimes I'll specifically just ask, when we get comfortable enough with each other in a life group, say, Hey, can you pray for us tonight? Or if somebody shares something really tough in the middle of a life group, sharing, stopping right then to pray for them rather than just transitioning on to the next thing. But then asking specific people, would you pray? Because it is, it's another a spiritual discipline, which means it's like any other,

  Got to work it

  Out, discipline you work the muscles out, the prayer muscle. But I love what you said about setting the alarm. Good reminder. I love what you said about the membership role in particular, and yeah, no, we make that publicly available to the whole church. And so no reason you couldn't. We all couldn't

  Praying stop by the info bar. We'll have one

  Printed hard copies from our

  Annual

  Meeting. But yeah, on church center out, you can see the directory. So anything else on the prayerfulness you want to add?

  Well that, you guys get great ideas there, man. I don't know if you can set a reminder, pray for that person, text them that you're praying for them. I think that's follow up on it. Yeah, it's one of the most encouraging things. Middle of the week, I mentioned it on a Sunday morning, it's like a Thursday afternoon and I have a text from a friend that says, Hey, I'm praying for that thing that you mentioned on Sunday. It's like, whoa, you remembered. That's so sweet.

  I

  Will just interrupt. Quick shout out to Jake Mitchell, who's one of our most faithful a TP listeners, so maybe he'll even see this. But I was just having a rough morning for no particular reason, just woke up, it was still dark, got to eight hours, still tired, just like want to be in bed. I just want to stay in bed. I don't want to work. I don't want to do anything. I don't just want to go to sleep and try again tomorrow. And I got a text 30 minutes later from Jake saying, Hey, I'm praying for you right now and your family. And honestly, it changed the course of my day getting that text. I was like, wow. I'm constantly praying for other people. I'm constantly pouring myself out, ministering, and I just felt empty. And then to hear like, no, I actually am on the receiving end of that sometimes and sometimes I really need it and I needed it today. And God and his timing moved in Jake's heart to pray for me. And man, you just never know when that's going to make all the difference in the world to somebody. Yeah, to affirm what you said about it makes a big difference. Not just praying, but

  Texting

  Because I should know it. I can think of three different couples at this church that have told me on more than one occasion, just so you know, I pray for you every day. I'm like, dad just means so much. But then I forget it. I am stupid. I'm sinful, I'm forgetful. I wake up and I feel like no one cares about me today and I don't care about, and I just want to go back to bed and I don't want to be alive today. And yet then getting that text and no, there's a reason for me to keep at it today. So

  Anyway, last thing. Something I've been really inspired by that Leanne does, and Todd, when they're out to eat, they just ask the server, Hey, we're praying people. Is there anything we can be praying for you for? That's awesome. And they get it from the server, and sometimes they pray with the server. Sometimes they just, they have an opportunity to receive that and pray over them, just them together at the restaurant. But whoa, if you're an unbeliever and you hear that, even if you're a believer, anybody, I'd be like, wow, what encouragement and an opportunity for the gospel there too.

  And if we were going on to number six with mission heartedness, and then number 10, our biggest one was soul winning and wanting to see more conversion. Both of those would be good. Segues out of that last with, but man, I love that.

  I'm going to throw one more thing out there. And this is specifically perhaps for our prayer team, is when we have certain things, I'm thinking Easter, I'm thinking VBS, I'm thinking even church in the park, Christmas Eve, having a 24 hours of prayer leading up to those moments where we know there will, there's always unbelievers in our midst, but specifically people have been inviting for that specific purpose that someone's going to hear the gospel. And that also we as a church would be like it worth losing sleep to spend time praying for these things. And there's always the temptation of, I'm too busy, there's so much going on and I just can't pray. And Martin Luther who said, I'm just so busy with everything. I have to pray at least three hours. I'm too busy not to pray. I'm like, wow, that is convicting. Well,

  And we can talk with the prayer team too about, oh, for starters, 24 hours of prayer does not mean that you individually pray

  Collectively as a church who

  We are. But even then it's like, man who's taking the 3:00 AM shift. But even if it's not pastor dad,

  He's

  Volunteering around

  Somewhere with small children or me,

  But it could be 10 days of prayer. And for 10 days leading up to it, we're going to pray for VB S and 10 different specific prayer points over those course of those 10 days. I mean, we could do different, but one way or another just bringing the structure and intentionality to it is, I think what you're saying, which is always good. And the prayer team and shout out to Bill and Ana are great just doing. That's awesome.

  I think that's, unless y'all want to throw anything else in on those first five, I think that's a lot of really good, hopefully stuff for the listener and congregate to try and prayerfully implement. And again, not just pray, but strive and work toward alongside us as we want to do the same and lead by example as pastors in that. And so I think if that's a wrap, then let's look forward to next week. Join us next week again for part two of how can we practically live out, implement these collective resolutions that we've been called to as a church in this new year. And it will be good to have Pastor Austin join us for that. And hopefully good to have you join us as well. So please do it. If you enjoyed this, and by the way, I didn't even point out the fact we didn't draw attention to the fact that we're live streaming. Hopefully, I think I even see every once in a while somebody will comment. So, hey, if you're watching, thank you for watching. We just thought we're recording anyway. Why not just hit 'em with one extra medium? So if you liked this episode, like our church Facebook page so you can get notified of all the others, I guess I don't know how any of that works. Should follow

  It. Share, share with a friend.

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