Embracing Change: Building a Supportive Church Community

I want to take a moment and just commend you guys for how you have conducted yourselves for the last five months. It's not easy being without a spiritual shepherd, without a spiritual leader. And there's a lot of different ways that the last five months could have gone badly. They could have gone sideways. But I want to thank you for your patience, for your understanding, for allowing the search team to work through the process and to do what we felt like was necessary to find the next shepherd here. So, thank you. [00:00:00]

But you find, as you go whitewater rafting, that there are two types of boats. There's the lead rafts where the quote -unquote expert, the tour guide, is providing the rudder and the navigation. He knows the river or she knows the river. They know which side of the rapids you want to be set up on so that you don't end up face -planting somewhere in the process. [00:03:09]

Think about it this way. They are entrusting us to help them build their future, not only with their ministry, but also with their family. And if you will remember back to the Q &A session that we had back on that Saturday evening, you heard a mama's heart when she said that her greatest hope, more than anything else, was a place that her family could call home. [00:07:39]

And folks, it's on us to make that hope a reality. And I hope you see that as not only a challenge, but an opportunity to be able to just love on them like maybe they've never been loved on before. And let me also encourage you to make sure that we don't ignore Jodi in the process. She's going to need the most. You know, she is the rock. She's the foundation of that family. [00:08:11]

We need to be here for them to be their family and not to ignore them. We need to be available to help them navigate unfamiliar waters and new territories. Folks, we got to see this as a marriage. And just as in a marriage that you have with your spouse, there is a level of commitment that you have. And we have to have that same level of commitment that we are going to make this work no matter what, right? [00:09:21]

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Let me unpack that for you a little bit. Culture is inevitable. We have culture. We bring culture with us when you unlock a door, when you enter your place of business, when you just roll out of bed. You can't help but have culture. You have a culture in your family. You have a culture in your extended family. There is a culture that exists at your work. And guess what? There is a culture that exists here. [00:11:05]

Amazing things can happen when you have a healthy church culture. People love being here. Great leaders come and stay. People grow in their faith. And our church becomes attractive to the community. An unhealthy culture will consistently undermine an amazing mission, vision, and strategy. Culture is inevitable but determinative. You can't see it, but it defines so much. And sadly, there are many churches out there that have an unhealthy culture. [00:14:47]

We need to know where our culture is healthy, and build on that, and identify those areas that need attention and improvement. Otherwise, it's like trying to fill a bucket with holes in it. We want to add members through the large opening in the bucket. But what's beneficial if we lose members through the holes in the bucket? It's like running on a treadmill. You can sure exert a lot of energy and effort, but you'll never get anywhere. [00:16:16]

Church culture is formed by either what you design it to be or what you allow it to be. You see church leaders go to great pains to write great mission and vision statements and work hard on their belief statements or doctrinal statements and all too often they leave culture by chance by not making time to encode it. They either leave it to twist in the wind hoping it will be caught or they never bother teaching it. [00:17:56]

Folks, worship, glorifying God has got to be more than something that we do for 20 or 30 minutes on a Sunday morning. It's who we are. It's got to be our DNA. The purpose of our life is to live in awe of who God is and what he has done and then to share that with a world that desperately needs to hear that. [00:21:44]

We are relational people. One of the first things that God said when he looked on his creation is it's not good for man to be alone. We are relational by nature. Two people are better off than one because they can help each other succeed if one person falls the other person can reach out and help but someone who falls alone is in real trouble. [00:24:47]

We believe that saved people serve people for you have been called to live in freedom my brothers and sisters but do not use your freedom to satisfy your sinful sin instead use your freedom to serve one another in love Galatians 5 13 Matthew 20 28 says this just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. [00:27:59]