WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:25.660 Jeff here. This conversation, today's conversation, cuts to the wick for me. It cuts a little close to home here. I have always loved this strategy, this model, this idea of using church online, our online services to broadcast, to connect with, and start to create, call them watch parties, call them missional communities, call them micro locations. 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:44.700 There's different meanings towards it, but it's this idea of taking digital and growing it physical and having an impact physical and using digital to disciple, to grow people spiritually to the point where you can even multiply from digital into physical. There's lots of opportunities here. 00:00:45.020 --> 00:00:51.380 Some churches, even in this COVID season, they're experimenting with it. Like the church that we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about West Side Family. 00:00:51.380 --> 00:01:04.200 It's Randy Frazee, Randy Frazee's church. He's a well-known pastor, author as well. And so it's got some name recognition here across the country. We're talking about Randy Frazee's church, West Side Family. 00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:12.520 Jason Morris, no stranger to the progress, global innovation pastor there at West Side Family, is jumping on this podcast here. 00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:19.200 And we're going to have a great conversation. No, but it's not. What's interesting is Jason, I was like, hey, I want to talk about what you guys are doing. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:25.820 They call them A2 communities. We'll get more into that here in a little bit. But I was like, hey, Jason, I want to talk about what you're doing with A2. 00:01:26.360 --> 00:01:28.120 Let's get together. He's like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:34.780 Jeff, you need to talk to Heidi. Heidi Tompkins is coming on the podcast here as well. Heidi is phenomenal. 00:01:35.080 --> 00:01:49.920 Oh, my gosh. I was blown away by the strategy and the thinking of what's happening here as they're talking about the discipling and getting people out and getting them connected into these missional communities. 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:58.360 And now they're leveraging, trying to get the entire church towards this. Interesting. Don't sleep on Heidi's job title. 00:01:58.880 --> 00:02:05.040 Oh, my gosh. The intentionality with this is going to be phenomenal for it. And it's a church that's very aggressive. 00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:12.560 A church that's doing the large gathering well. They're not. I mean, West Side is a big, successful church. 00:02:12.700 --> 00:02:17.940 And they're saying, hey, we need to do something different to reach a different type of person. 00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:27.620 The church today, we've got a PR problem. We talk about it in the podcast. There's a PR issue with the church, public relations. 00:02:28.260 --> 00:02:34.780 Like, it's funny. I think sometimes Jesus gets swept up in the church. And I don't know in this situation. 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:43.260 I think it's Christians that may have lost sight of things. I think it's the church who's struggling to adapt and adjust. 00:02:43.260 --> 00:02:55.340 But I think there's an option for people to see Jesus in a clear light. People who are called to Christ to be connected in a warm, relational way. 00:02:55.580 --> 00:02:59.620 Doing things like this through A2 communities, through micro locations. 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:22.620 So, church, if you're struggling with evangelism, if you're struggling to reach people outside of the 99 of the people who are connected to your church already, if you are shrinking, if you are flatlining, if you are not growing, even in this COVID season, if you're trying to figure out even what multiplication could look like, oh, my gosh. 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:31.720 This is a great conversation. So, for the conversation here, we're bringing in Jason Morris, Global Innovations Pastor, Westside Family, as well as Heidi Tompkins. 00:03:31.780 --> 00:03:38.480 You know, I'll go ahead and say it. She works in next steps and micro locations. Next steps, micro locations. 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:46.020 Pull that thread a little bit here in a little bit as you talk about growing and discipling people through next steps towards getting a micro location. 00:03:46.180 --> 00:03:50.480 That's interesting, the importance even for a large, successful church. 00:03:50.540 --> 00:03:59.780 But I get back. Jason Morris, Heidi Tompkins, myself, Jeff at the Church Digital, Stadia Church Planning, in a conversation that I'm calling micro locations in the Acts 2 revolution. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:01.420 Okay, everybody, here you go. 00:04:01.420 --> 00:04:19.720 My official title is A2 slash next steps director. And I've been in this position, maybe about, I think, officially three months. But I worked in it for a few months before officially switching over. And prior to that, you know, worked alongside with the lady who was in the position before. 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:27.620 So, I've been at Westside on staff for a little over three years at this point in time. So, I worked in family ministry and then now in the next steps in ministry. 00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:40.860 So, help me here. Let's unravel some of the onion here. Your next steps and your A2, which is house church micro locations. Let's just say what it is. 00:04:41.080 --> 00:05:05.460 So, is the goal of next steps, you know, of course, we know this. Next steps is taking steps towards the discipleship pathway engagement connection. You're trying to make sure people get connected in to the church. But you're also the house church. So, is the goal to get everybody in your church to do this micro location type strategy? Like, you're that far. Unpack some of this for me, Heidi. Help me here. 00:05:05.460 --> 00:05:26.580 So, really, I would say our ultimate goal is that we have everyone within our both online and on site. We want to get everyone plugged into A2 communities. And so, the ideal, which I don't even have a guess on how long this will take. I mean, for some groups, it's going to happen faster. For other ones, it's, you know, years away. 00:05:26.580 --> 00:05:43.800 But the ideal scenario is getting a group of people together who are just truly doing life together. They're discipling each other. They're learning together. They're going out and they're then pouring into the people around them, influencing their community, and just really be in the hands and feet of Jesus. 00:05:44.580 --> 00:06:04.080 And so, I would say it's not our goal to eliminate the building. We really are taking an approach of a both and. Because we have, you know, I feel like there's benefits to both. We definitely need to get people into living out just really biblical community outside of this building. 00:06:04.580 --> 00:06:23.600 And I feel like this pandemic has been the prime, you know, spotlight on why this is important. Because what if this didn't lift in only a couple of months? Like, what happens to people when they are outside of this building and disconnected from the building itself? You know, what does that look like? 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:33.860 Like, they need to still be able to function and grow in Christ and still, you know, like I said, be the hands and feet and reaching people around them, whether building doors are open or closed. 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:45.880 So, that being said, you know, we want to create this environment where people are living truly in this Acts 2 scenario of community. 00:06:46.280 --> 00:06:57.520 But, we don't have any intentions of anytime soon closing doors here either. Like, there's a benefit of having the building and coming back and charging and building and that sort of thing too. So, we look at really as a both and. 00:06:57.980 --> 00:07:03.600 The whole Acts 2, A2, well played. Way to slide that in in case it wasn't obvious for some of the audience. 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:04.140 It wasn't obvious. 00:07:05.580 --> 00:07:11.740 You know, you and I have talked a lot about this where attendance patterns are on the decline. 00:07:12.440 --> 00:07:28.360 People are only showing up maybe once a month anyway. And so, in our mind, a healthy rhythm may actually be consistent weekly interactions in their A2 group, in their neighborhood, and coming to the big box once a month. 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:40.800 That might be a really healthy rhythm. And in some cases, depending upon the A2 group, if they are really, if that is their primary expression of church, it might be once a quarter or whatever. 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:51.460 We have like these, what we call like these goose bump events, where we bring together for, you know, just worship and prayer. That's it. Not a lot of teaching. None of that. Just worship and prayer. 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:56.680 But, so that people can get a sense of a larger network of groups together. 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:07.420 Because one of the things that, and you know this too, when you're dealing with house church or micro-siting, it's very easy to get, for people to think that that's all there is. 00:08:07.840 --> 00:08:17.340 When in reality, what we want is those things to be networked and connected all together, honeycombed all around Kansas City and beyond. 00:08:17.880 --> 00:08:26.940 And so, that's where those goose bump moments come in, like maybe once a quarter or something like that, or once a month, if you want to show up to the big box or whatever. 00:08:27.400 --> 00:08:43.820 You can do whatever you like, but we're giving people options where they can embody Christ right where they live and actually find ways of doing practical discipleship that work better in that environment than you'll ever get in a big box. 00:08:44.460 --> 00:08:48.060 You know what we did? We jumped in the deep end, right from the get-go. 00:08:49.300 --> 00:08:52.020 And so, let's back up a little bit. 00:08:53.080 --> 00:09:00.360 Somebody out there, they're new to this, you know, micro-locations, A2, practicality. 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:02.900 What is this? What are you guys doing in this? 00:09:03.060 --> 00:09:07.560 We'll get to the deep end. We're going to run here in a second, but let's walk a little bit and get everybody caught up. 00:09:07.560 --> 00:09:13.560 So, at Westside, we've had small group life, life groups, whatever you want to call them. 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:15.220 They go by many names at many churches. 00:09:15.860 --> 00:09:18.240 So, we had that existence happening here. 00:09:18.920 --> 00:09:25.620 And I would say that we really, personally, from the time that I've been on staff, I've seen that kind of just head into a decline. 00:09:26.400 --> 00:09:33.000 So, it was, we would do all church initiatives and get a little bit of a bump up and they just didn't last. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:49.240 And so, really, what coming into this A2 community and Pastor Randy, Frazee was the one who was like, this is really what I want us to build is these Acts 2, it's 2.42 to 47, living in that type of lifestyle. 00:09:49.640 --> 00:09:51.280 And so, that was something he was bringing in. 00:09:51.280 --> 00:10:02.580 And so, what we really, coming out of the lockdown was really when we basically kind of introduced a shift in what we were doing in regards to group life. 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:10.220 And so, kind of before that, I would describe it as, for lack of a better word, a little bit like a match.com. 00:10:11.260 --> 00:10:19.920 You came up to a table and you're like, oh, I would like a Wednesday night that has childcare and maybe I only want a group that is only women or I only want this. 00:10:20.020 --> 00:10:23.720 And so, you go through and you kind of handpick what you would like your group to look like. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:30.460 But most people are going into that scenario because they're going to commit to six weeks, an eight-week study. 00:10:30.760 --> 00:10:35.700 And that's the mindset that they had was, oh, everyone in church is going to go, let's say, through the Book of Mark. 00:10:35.780 --> 00:10:38.520 And so, they jump in, they sign up for six or eight weeks. 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:47.440 They honor that obligation and then they kind of bailed because there was nothing that necessarily, for some, that worked and that connected. 00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:52.160 But I would say on a larger scale, for a lot of people, it was just a check in the box. 00:10:52.800 --> 00:10:56.620 You know, I put in my six weeks, that's what I signed up for, and then I'm out. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:04.220 And so, we really wanted to shift that mindset because it was just temporary and it wasn't building that deeper community. 00:11:04.220 --> 00:11:09.740 It wasn't building what we were looking for as something that's sustainable outside of the building. 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:14.900 And so, that's when we started to introduce this A2 community. 00:11:15.880 --> 00:11:21.200 And so, we actually start everyone off going through this A2 revolution, which we did as an all-church initiative. 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:22.400 It was a six-week study. 00:11:22.540 --> 00:11:29.740 So, this is one thing that we do say, sign up for six weeks, catch the vision, and then go from there. 00:11:29.820 --> 00:11:33.880 And maybe the group that you did that six weeks with, maybe that becomes your group. 00:11:34.020 --> 00:11:40.940 Maybe you jumped in with people that you're connected with or you already started off with people that you were involved in and already have in your life. 00:11:41.180 --> 00:11:48.360 If not, as you're going through that, this six-week study kind of explains the grander picture of what we're looking for. 00:11:49.060 --> 00:11:56.700 And some groups that would have been together and they've been hanging out together, you know, all along, some of those busted up. 00:11:56.700 --> 00:12:07.500 Because once they caught the vision of this A2 community, they realized, well, hey, we do meet together once a week, but I don't see you at any other point in time. 00:12:07.640 --> 00:12:10.000 Our life does not overlap at any other point in time. 00:12:10.060 --> 00:12:14.960 We really just show up one hour a week and we get together and, you know, they may enjoy that. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:20.940 But when we go through this six-week study, one of the things that we really emphasize is take a look at your circles. 00:12:21.460 --> 00:12:24.800 Who are people that you are already in community with? 00:12:25.220 --> 00:12:27.400 And especially if you can catch the circles that overlap. 00:12:27.640 --> 00:12:34.940 So maybe it's someone that you see, you know, these same families at the baseball field and they also run into them at the gym. 00:12:35.020 --> 00:12:44.280 Well, if it's someone that you already have natural touch points at a couple of times during the week, those are the people you're going to want to grab and start doing life together with. 00:12:44.280 --> 00:12:45.900 Because you kind of already are. 00:12:46.220 --> 00:12:47.940 So just being more intentional with that. 00:12:48.800 --> 00:12:55.400 And so with what Jason is saying, I mean, it really comes down to what it says there in Acts 2, 42 to 47. 00:12:55.800 --> 00:13:00.860 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayer. 00:13:01.520 --> 00:13:05.680 And in all it came, every soul and many wonders and signs began done. 00:13:05.680 --> 00:13:12.900 So it really is taking just that simplicity of pulling scripture and saying, this is what they were doing in the early church. 00:13:13.020 --> 00:13:19.560 We want to take that and make that happen here in the Western culture in this day and age. 00:13:19.940 --> 00:13:22.440 I mean, that's a solid definition. 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:37.400 I mean, I totally want to get to the culture shift of changing from like a small group structure to a, was this, was this, first off, was this like a reaction to COVID, to the culture? 00:13:37.520 --> 00:13:40.960 Was this something you guys were mulling on kind of beforehand? 00:13:41.760 --> 00:13:45.460 What was the, what's the genesis kind of this new approach? 00:13:45.780 --> 00:13:52.920 So it was something that was already in the works that I would say COVID just really pushed the timeline up on. 00:13:53.380 --> 00:14:00.340 And so it's just something that all of a sudden we were like, hey, you know, we were looking at kind of, you know, casting this coming into 2021. 00:14:00.420 --> 00:14:06.180 And now we've got to pull that even earlier and get this going because of the need and just what was happening. 00:14:06.280 --> 00:14:11.040 And especially as we talked about, you know, gathering with these small groups and getting the people together. 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:15.120 Well, through the lockdown, once that lifted up, you know, we could meet in groups of 10. 00:14:15.260 --> 00:14:18.100 We could bump out, you know, we can meet in groups of 15. 00:14:18.280 --> 00:14:21.720 Well, this is an ideal scenario where people are looking to gather together. 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:27.080 They're already going to gather together with people that they're naturally comfortable with, that they're already doing life with. 00:14:27.640 --> 00:14:37.620 And so it really, I feel like God just opened up a door to launch something that we probably couldn't launch as well in a different scenario, if that makes sense. 00:14:38.200 --> 00:14:38.980 Yeah, totally. 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:42.820 And so then this is a long-term solution here. 00:14:42.980 --> 00:14:46.660 Like, this is not, hey, we're just doing this because our buildings are at 30%. 00:14:47.180 --> 00:14:53.460 Like, talk to me about why it's long-term, how that fits into the mission and vision, culture, adoption. 00:14:53.680 --> 00:14:54.860 Like, unpack that. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:56.500 Why are you looking at this long-term? 00:14:56.920 --> 00:15:00.420 Well, I think part of it is because we see that pattern in Scripture, one. 00:15:00.760 --> 00:15:15.660 And we are realizing that the prevailing model of an attractional church works for a certain sector of culture, but really doesn't for a much bigger section of culture. 00:15:15.660 --> 00:15:32.560 And if we keep on trying to do this better and faster and cheaper, we're not going to get, we're not, we're not going to even begin to reach that other, that other 80% and growing of the people that, that need to know Jesus too. 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:37.480 And so for us, when Randy came, because he wrote a book on this like two decades ago. 00:15:37.780 --> 00:15:37.980 Yes. 00:15:38.280 --> 00:15:39.200 And he's done it. 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:44.740 And that was part of the reason why we wanted to bring him in even was because he understood this concept. 00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:46.880 And he had like a five-year plan. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:49.320 Okay, this is how we're planning on rolling this out. 00:15:49.420 --> 00:15:51.240 Because it is a paradigm shift. 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:54.620 It is not the same as what people are used to. 00:15:55.020 --> 00:16:14.780 And there are points in which people, even now, still kind of get stuck thinking like, oh, this is just like small groups, but with a service component, you know, but it's not, you know, so people still get stuck even now because, you know, they've been doing it the old way for decades, you know. 00:16:14.780 --> 00:16:17.480 And so now that's why we're calling it something else. 00:16:17.660 --> 00:16:30.160 That's why we're training and giving them like a six-week boot camp to like hopefully reset something in their souls to say, okay, what could Jesus do through you in your neighborhood, in your workplace? 00:16:30.780 --> 00:16:33.620 You know, what kind of church does Jesus want to build through you? 00:16:33.900 --> 00:16:38.500 So that's way different than, oh, invite, invest and invite. 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:40.280 It's a completely different strategy. 00:16:40.900 --> 00:16:44.600 And so it's not that we're going to stop doing the attractional thing. 00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:49.700 And we'll keep doing that because there's a sector of culture that really responds to that, right? 00:16:49.820 --> 00:16:50.660 And they love it. 00:16:50.740 --> 00:16:52.500 If you take that away, man, they'll get real upset. 00:16:53.100 --> 00:16:57.240 But there's a whole other section here where this is kind of boring. 00:16:58.640 --> 00:17:00.780 They want to be on mission. 00:17:00.880 --> 00:17:02.000 They want to do something else. 00:17:02.580 --> 00:17:08.020 And we need to have a way to disciple them, to have them grow in their discipleship. 00:17:08.700 --> 00:17:10.700 You're telling me you can have digital next steps? 00:17:11.060 --> 00:17:11.840 Digital next steps? 00:17:11.840 --> 00:17:13.660 You can disciple people digitally? 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:15.080 Well, I don't understand. 00:17:15.740 --> 00:17:16.260 You can't do that. 00:17:16.260 --> 00:17:17.320 Well, Heidi, why don't you tell them? 00:17:17.900 --> 00:17:22.880 So talk to me about how you're growing people digitally. 00:17:23.060 --> 00:17:28.380 You're asking people to be missionally responsible for their neighborhoods, engaging, you're empowering. 00:17:28.540 --> 00:17:32.260 There's calling, personal calling, all of this that's tied up in here. 00:17:32.520 --> 00:17:33.800 How do you do this digitally? 00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:34.800 What does this look like? 00:17:35.220 --> 00:17:40.420 So one of the things, and like Jason said, that we really, we couldn't have orchestrated it on our own. 00:17:40.420 --> 00:17:45.880 And Aaron, who is on our Next Steps team as well, both Aaron and I dove in really, you know, both feet. 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:48.940 We just jumped in with the online world for several months. 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:54.260 And when we were together for a long time before, we finally got to a point where like, sorry, we just don't have now the margin to be able to be over here. 00:17:54.260 --> 00:17:55.480 Which ticked me off, by the way. 00:17:55.580 --> 00:17:56.660 I really wanted to keep them. 00:17:56.820 --> 00:17:56.980 Right. 00:17:57.040 --> 00:17:58.420 I mean, it was one of the things that we felt bad. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.280 We're like, sorry, we got these things we have to now do on site on Sunday morning. 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:05.360 But it was amazing to be able to step into that world. 00:18:05.360 --> 00:18:07.480 And I had already had a little bit of background. 00:18:08.280 --> 00:18:11.500 Back when I lived in Illinois, I was part of a ministry that was out of Texas. 00:18:11.820 --> 00:18:15.460 And so everything that I did as a part of them was online. 00:18:15.580 --> 00:18:18.080 And so I was over their prayer ministry at that point in time. 00:18:18.560 --> 00:18:23.060 And so, you know, I didn't pray for anyone physically around me. 00:18:23.220 --> 00:18:25.400 I, you know, at that point in time, didn't even know a lot of people. 00:18:25.500 --> 00:18:30.580 I had moved to Northern Illinois, like separate from where we used to live. 00:18:30.620 --> 00:18:31.180 It was about an hour. 00:18:31.300 --> 00:18:33.940 And so I really didn't have a lot of people physically around me that I knew. 00:18:33.940 --> 00:18:38.620 But I was running this online prayer ministry for a ministry out of Texas. 00:18:38.860 --> 00:18:43.100 And so it was kind of crazy to have a little bit of that background, then to bring that over. 00:18:43.360 --> 00:18:53.320 And that was a lot of where I got to hang out and to operate in Westside's online platform was there on the prayer ministry part, which was awesome because that's a heartbeat of mine. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:00.280 But like you said, I just want to come back also to a comment that you made earlier about churches having a PR problem. 00:19:00.280 --> 00:19:12.280 So I feel like when Jason's talking about why, you know, why we want to do this long term and why this is not just a, you know, hey, let's do this for now and let's see what happens in 2021 and maybe we'll come up with a new plan. 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:23.240 The reality is, is exactly that what you're saying, where, you know, especially right now, I feel like the church does not have this positive light that is shined on often. 00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:29.580 And what people don't realize is how many times they actually are encountering Christians on a day to day basis. 00:19:29.580 --> 00:19:38.280 And maybe even our friends or, you know, strong acquaintances, I would say, when they come to find out and be like, oh, wait, you're one of those Jesus people. 00:19:38.520 --> 00:19:39.860 Wait, you love God. 00:19:39.880 --> 00:19:42.480 And they're like, yeah, actually, you know, I've been living it out. 00:19:42.560 --> 00:19:43.780 I just haven't been preaching it. 00:19:43.820 --> 00:19:44.740 I've just been living it. 00:19:44.800 --> 00:19:58.780 And so I think, you know, there's that 60 to 70 percent of people that are not going to be willing to walk into a building, but they'll talk to their neighbor or they'll jump in and are willing to serve together for like, hey, we have a neighbor who's having a baby. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:00.840 We'd love to just do a meal train. 00:20:01.020 --> 00:20:10.940 And they start to pull in these people that are around them, not realizing they're joining in and being hands and feet of Jesus until, you know, developed relationships aren't being developed. 00:20:11.060 --> 00:20:14.920 And then they're like, okay, maybe I'm willing to hear what you have to say about God. 00:20:15.460 --> 00:20:22.080 And so I think the long term, that's why this has to be this evergreen situation. 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:23.620 It isn't a short term effect. 00:20:24.120 --> 00:20:29.460 Often I hear this is just watching the service element in a house. 00:20:29.700 --> 00:20:30.380 Like, why? 00:20:31.320 --> 00:20:37.180 So what I'm hearing from you is missionally connected in the communities, you know, empowering. 00:20:37.460 --> 00:20:39.560 Like there's a lot more happening here. 00:20:39.780 --> 00:20:41.300 How do you dialogue through that? 00:20:41.580 --> 00:20:45.980 What's the answer to that question for Westside? 00:20:46.080 --> 00:20:51.060 Why is this not just, you know, I'm just watching the service at my house? 00:20:51.760 --> 00:20:51.960 Okay. 00:20:52.040 --> 00:20:56.360 So first off, and I'll let Heidi chime in. 00:20:57.740 --> 00:21:01.880 We tried watch parties for a while and they didn't work as well. 00:21:02.320 --> 00:21:05.620 So, and that's what most people think of. 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:10.320 So watch party thing, there still might be a place for that. 00:21:10.800 --> 00:21:12.140 Maybe we just don't know how to run it well. 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:12.900 I don't know. 00:21:13.300 --> 00:21:17.900 But it, maybe it was just poor timing with COVID and all of that. 00:21:18.140 --> 00:21:21.940 It wasn't maybe the right mixture of events or situations. 00:21:22.340 --> 00:21:22.840 I don't know. 00:21:23.020 --> 00:21:35.380 But we tried doing watch parties while we were in scramble mode trying to do the A2 thing so that we could at least give people an option when people could at least meet together in groups of 10 or 15. 00:21:35.820 --> 00:21:40.760 But they chose not to practically because they were just as afraid as all their neighbors were. 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:44.500 And it just wasn't a good, you know, it just wasn't the right time for that. 00:21:45.140 --> 00:21:50.440 But back to what you're saying, though, is that A2 communities is a whole lot more. 00:21:50.520 --> 00:21:59.460 When you look at the book of Acts and you read those verses, the apostles' teaching is a small portion of that whole stack. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:06.860 In fact, one could argue that one thing you do see in the whole stack of things there is community. 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:09.960 Because when they're doing all of these things, they're doing it together. 00:22:10.840 --> 00:22:21.280 And so there is an element to this that I feel like a lot of times in church world, we're really big on the teaching side, but we forget everything else that they're doing. 00:22:21.820 --> 00:22:27.840 And we emphasize the teaching thing when you don't see that emphasis as much when you read the scriptures. 00:22:28.700 --> 00:22:30.160 And so the teaching thing is there. 00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:36.540 And oddly enough, I mean, you can maybe edit this out if you want to, because I honestly don't know what to make of it. 00:22:36.740 --> 00:22:37.840 But the scripture says it. 00:22:38.320 --> 00:22:41.660 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, not to Jesus' teaching. 00:22:42.300 --> 00:22:43.660 And I don't know what that means. 00:22:45.120 --> 00:22:47.560 The apostles clearly are following Jesus, right? 00:22:48.560 --> 00:22:53.500 And even the apostle Paul said at one time, follow me as I follow Christ. 00:22:54.120 --> 00:22:59.920 It is interesting, though, who they're devoting themselves, who's teaching they're devoting themselves to. 00:23:00.180 --> 00:23:06.500 So one of the things that we're building into this is not just Bible study stuff. 00:23:06.900 --> 00:23:09.200 We're not just, you know, going over the sermon stuff. 00:23:09.320 --> 00:23:11.340 It's not, that's a small portion of it. 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:12.800 Prayer is a big piece of it. 00:23:13.220 --> 00:23:24.440 Serving and identifying in your neighborhood, specifically, where are the places in your community, like in your neighborhood, that need service, that need help, that need compassion. 00:23:24.860 --> 00:23:37.600 And we've got a whole other arm in Westside of local impact that is working to be a matchmaker between these A2 communities and the needs that they're probably down the street that they don't even know about. 00:23:37.820 --> 00:23:40.940 Like a school that needs backpacks or whatever it happens to be. 00:23:41.300 --> 00:23:48.420 And so we're trying to keep it as hyper-local as we can so that they can have the greatest impact right where they are. 00:23:48.480 --> 00:24:01.200 And all of those relationships start to overlap one another and create the synergy and momentum because you're interacting with the same people that you're serving as you do your daily life. 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:10.020 So it doesn't feel like another thing that you have to schedule time for as much because you already know these people and you're already good friends anyway. 00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:20.560 When you're asking that question on, you know, why do we, what's the appeal, I guess, of, you know, just sitting, we're just sitting around watching church and then maybe asking a couple of questions or doing a little discussion. 00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:26.440 I think if that was all that they were doing, then absolutely there's not a big appeal for it, just as Jason's saying. 00:24:26.440 --> 00:24:37.680 But when you add those pieces of, you know, they break bread together, coming and eating together, which automatically connects people, you know, you add some food into a scenario and now you got people talking and they're hanging out. 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:57.060 And if you've got a healthy group, half the time, it's like we have to stop, everyone stop eating and let's like get over here to do some of the content because we can easily blow past that while you're, you know, being together, community, eating break and ride together, you know, discussing what it is that you're going to do, how you're going to serve, what you're planning, that sort of thing. 00:24:57.060 --> 00:25:14.040 So I agree completely with Jason saying that the content itself is just a small piece and so often we put it as if it's the main piece and the big chunk and I don't think that's a right place for it to be because it is a smaller, just one of the components in it. 00:25:14.040 --> 00:25:18.660 What I'm hearing is it's much more the A2 communities, it's outward facing. 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:39.280 It's not necessarily inward, it's reaching, is that a safe assumption that this is all, the goal of it is to connect with people outside of the church, in the communities where the houses are, invite them in through building relationships, but get them connected to people cold to Christ, warm them to Christ and get them connected to the A2 community. 00:25:39.280 --> 00:25:50.120 Does it ever connect back to the campus? Is the A2 growing in independence to become something else one day? Have you thought down the road, like, where are we going with this thing? 00:25:50.500 --> 00:26:02.100 So the way that I see it is we have the A2 communities that, you know, right now, a lot of our primary ones that we have happening right now are groups that have been existing long term. 00:26:02.100 --> 00:26:10.500 So the nice thing is, is as we launch this and we get this off the ground, you know, we're still molding and shaping it as we go and learning as, you know, this kind of comes along. 00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:20.160 So the nice thing is that we have these groups that, and some of them, in many ways, were already living this out, but they were just called a life group because that's what, you know, was happening. 00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:24.720 But they already had several of these components already built in. 00:26:25.320 --> 00:26:30.140 But in regards to, like, where this all goes, for some of those, absolutely. 00:26:30.140 --> 00:26:50.940 I think there are some that are strong enough and have the structure and the different people that are built into that, that they have the potential that if God prompts their heart, they probably could just totally microchurch and just keep, you know, touch base with the building to, you know, be provided with resources or, you know, that sort of thing. 00:26:50.940 --> 00:26:56.900 Where we look at Paul, because when Paul went out and he planted the churches, you know, we see that he stays in constant communication with them. 00:26:56.980 --> 00:27:01.180 He didn't, you know, stop at one place, teach them, hang out there for a couple of years and then, like, see you later. 00:27:01.580 --> 00:27:06.980 You know, he was always checking back, making sure that they were staying on track, making sure that they were staying biblically aligned. 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:12.780 And so, you know, if we have some groups that, that God prompts their heart in that way, absolutely. 00:27:12.980 --> 00:27:27.260 I think that's something that Westside would embrace, that they kind of microchurch with that same concept of making sure that, you know, we keep a touch base with them in a very Paul-like manner of saying, okay, you guys stay in sound, are you staying biblically sound? 00:27:27.360 --> 00:27:28.440 What can we do for you? 00:27:28.760 --> 00:27:29.840 You know, how can we help? 00:27:30.120 --> 00:27:32.400 But letting them sit pretty, you know, self-sustaining. 00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:37.720 At this point in time, I personally don't see that we would have a ton of those. 00:27:37.880 --> 00:27:39.700 Now, I could be totally wrong on that. 00:27:39.800 --> 00:27:47.360 I do think that with our current mindset, now, maybe we look down the road even a little bit further, that may be different. 00:27:47.460 --> 00:27:58.520 But with the way the current mindset is, like Jason referenced earlier, we're just having a hard time getting some of our people to just shift over to think, I'm no longer doing a six-week group. 00:27:58.520 --> 00:28:00.320 Hey, wait, this is bigger. 00:28:00.580 --> 00:28:01.620 There's more to it. 00:28:01.700 --> 00:28:02.640 This is a bigger commitment. 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:05.300 Not, like, throwing something more on your plate. 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:10.160 Again, that's why we want to overlap with where you're already doing life, because we aren't adding another thing. 00:28:10.260 --> 00:28:10.840 You're already there. 00:28:10.900 --> 00:28:14.940 You're already doing it maybe deep in your relationships or being more intentional with that time. 00:28:15.380 --> 00:28:18.100 So to answer that question, that's kind of how you see it. 00:28:18.340 --> 00:28:26.020 You know, I could see where there would be, at this point in time, two or three that God would really be prompting in really jumping out as a microchurch. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:31.920 The other ones, though, I don't see that, at least in the near future. 00:28:32.280 --> 00:28:38.240 One of the things that I think should be highlighted in what Heidi just said is the importance of the coaching network. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:48.620 Because, really, if you've got your coaching and your mentoring network well established, everything else almost doesn't matter. 00:28:49.320 --> 00:28:56.060 Because you could have whatever kind of strategy or whatever kind of curriculum, whatever your initiative is. 00:28:56.600 --> 00:29:00.440 If it doesn't work, your coaching network will pick up on it just like that and will iterate. 00:29:01.820 --> 00:29:04.860 And that also holds everything together. 00:29:05.420 --> 00:29:11.740 So if you have one that is getting really strong, my gut tells me your coaching network is already going to know that. 00:29:12.140 --> 00:29:32.180 And given the scenario that we're in right now in COVID, there's a couple of things that are on the horizon for us as Westside that, you know, Randy and the team are thinking about knowing that because the macroeconomic damage of COVID has already been done, 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:40.740 that there's a high probability that we're going to be looking at mergers in our future in the next couple of years. 00:29:40.740 --> 00:29:49.640 And we need to have these strong, missional Acts 2 communities already in place in some of those neighborhoods. 00:29:50.020 --> 00:30:07.100 So that if and when a merger happens, we will have, hopefully, Acts 2 communities that are strong, networked, nearby, that could adopt that merger and have it be stronger in that neighborhood than otherwise we could have. 00:30:07.380 --> 00:30:08.080 Does that make sense? 00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:10.640 Yeah, so love everything you just said there. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:13.940 Which was really, you danced on, I want to come back. 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:17.480 Once again, this is the best nonlinear conversation I've ever had. 00:30:18.500 --> 00:30:20.480 So we've got a coaching network. 00:30:20.600 --> 00:30:24.220 There's a lot of quality control necessarily that I'm feeling in there. 00:30:24.600 --> 00:30:25.900 You're praising the good stuff. 00:30:25.980 --> 00:30:26.680 You're kind of shaping. 00:30:27.280 --> 00:30:32.760 Maybe you're controlling, trying to figure out how much to control, how much to organically let go of. 00:30:32.800 --> 00:30:33.760 I'm sure there's that tension. 00:30:34.500 --> 00:30:36.620 Talk to me, just overall training. 00:30:37.420 --> 00:30:40.720 Like your culture was more of small groups. 00:30:41.220 --> 00:30:42.820 COVID, everything hit the fan. 00:30:42.940 --> 00:30:49.620 In the middle of this COVID season, when you can't gather together, you try to cast this vision towards missionally connecting digitally. 00:30:50.040 --> 00:30:51.640 How are you training these people? 00:30:51.940 --> 00:30:53.300 Who are you looking for? 00:30:53.360 --> 00:30:54.320 What are the characteristics? 00:30:54.780 --> 00:30:56.340 Are they excited about this? 00:30:56.340 --> 00:30:58.300 Is it an easy sell? 00:30:58.700 --> 00:31:03.300 Talk to me a little bit about how you're developing these people that are leading these A2 communities. 00:31:03.860 --> 00:31:09.460 Okay, so that's where we have, again, where I kind of mentioned earlier this A2 revolution where we have this six weeks. 00:31:09.460 --> 00:31:19.520 And around the office, it often gets referred to just as the boot camp because really we want you to be able to walk through, catch the vision, and it's each week you're learning about a piece of it. 00:31:19.660 --> 00:31:28.180 You know, so like one week will be about prayer, and it'll go in depth, and we look at scripture, and what did they do about prayer, and how does that get implemented in your group, and what can that look like? 00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:36.460 So, you know, very practically in each segment of the book that you are prayer, okay, well, you can jump on, and you can do a group meet, or you can get a group text. 00:31:36.540 --> 00:31:42.300 You can have someone who is dedicated in the group that is passionate about prayer, and they get to be kind of that spearhead person. 00:31:42.680 --> 00:31:47.340 So, you know, if I'm that prayer person in the group, then something happens, they're letting me know. 00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:50.200 I'm getting it out to the group saying, hey, we need to pray for this. 00:31:50.620 --> 00:32:09.360 So this six weeks is really emphasizing each step of the way where you land in that last week, and that one is talking about really the roles on what, if we're going to have the ideal group and say we have all the pieces here together, this is where we would have all these spots filled in. 00:32:09.360 --> 00:32:18.820 And so it lays out just role descriptions within the group, and people can kind of self-identify, and it's okay if they don't have all the pieces, especially right at the beginning, 00:32:18.820 --> 00:32:25.640 because I feel like as we move along, and as people coming in and out of your life, you know, God will fill those holes as you continue just to build that community. 00:32:26.580 --> 00:32:29.720 So as a church, we did an all-church initiative. 00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:40.260 We encouraged everyone, whether you even did it just with your family, like I'm a family of five, if we just did just the five of us to go through the study and have the discussions, 00:32:40.260 --> 00:32:48.020 because we launched that in August, and so not a ton of people were back in the building at that point in time, 00:32:48.140 --> 00:32:52.240 and there was, you know, even more people that just were not even willing to get together with a neighbor. 00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:55.400 So we were like, we want everyone on the same page moving forward. 00:32:55.400 --> 00:33:01.600 So even if it isn't doing it in community, the ideal scenario is to go through this six weeks together in a community. 00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:05.680 But in 2020, nothing was an ideal scenario. 00:33:05.820 --> 00:33:07.040 So we're like, just go through it. 00:33:07.560 --> 00:33:13.660 So we really launched it to everyone for everyone to go through it and kind of let God prompt along the way, you know, whether someone, 00:33:13.820 --> 00:33:15.520 because after that we were like, hey, let us know. 00:33:15.580 --> 00:33:16.580 Do you want to activate a group? 00:33:16.680 --> 00:33:17.800 Do you have people in mind? 00:33:19.180 --> 00:33:23.420 Groups that were together before, some of them activated together, other ones dissolved, 00:33:23.420 --> 00:33:26.660 and they had people who jumped out and started to create their own. 00:33:26.660 --> 00:33:32.980 Because as you go through this six weeks, like I said, it really talks about identifying who are already in your circles. 00:33:32.980 --> 00:33:34.760 Who are you already doing life with? 00:33:34.960 --> 00:33:41.060 We live in a time and a day and age that it's exhausting to think about picking up another thing. 00:33:41.360 --> 00:33:45.840 And so that's the last thing that we want to do as a church to be like, hey, school has changed. 00:33:45.940 --> 00:33:46.820 Life has changed. 00:33:46.860 --> 00:33:48.960 Just going to the grocery store has changed. 00:33:49.020 --> 00:33:51.260 And we want you to put another thing on your plate to try and do. 00:33:51.760 --> 00:33:53.140 Everyone would be like, no, thanks. 00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:53.820 Not interested. 00:33:54.360 --> 00:34:05.140 But to step into something that says, this is already, we're going to meet you where you're at and take that and build it into what would be your biblical community. 00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:12.840 And so, like I said, initially we encouraged everyone to go through it so that everyone could catch the vision of the direction that we were going. 00:34:12.840 --> 00:34:19.340 The other piece that we have at play that we're still doing a little bit of work and tweaking on, we offer something that's called shape. 00:34:19.580 --> 00:34:22.840 And it is where you, it's a spiritual gift assessment. 00:34:23.080 --> 00:34:25.460 It has a little bit more detail that goes into that. 00:34:25.900 --> 00:34:31.500 And so we're looking for ways that as people take this shape that we can really identify those connectors. 00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:43.020 And what Pastor Randy has experienced is if you can get those connectors, those people then naturally can begin to formulate and create these A2 communities. 00:34:43.500 --> 00:34:45.460 And so we kind of have two things happening there. 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:52.280 One is we have new people come in and we want to introduce them just to what our way of life is in regards to group life. 00:34:52.280 --> 00:35:01.860 And then the secondary piece that we're still kind of developing where we're intentionally seeking out connectors and utilizing how to build a group based off of them. 00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:02.900 Question. 00:35:03.600 --> 00:35:09.060 Six weeks is the shortest time period in all the conversations I've had. 00:35:09.100 --> 00:35:10.740 I don't think I've had anybody tell me. 00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:17.200 Yeah, so the disciple making process to get some at an A2 at a missional level. 00:35:17.620 --> 00:35:20.780 Like that's a, it seems to me, a very short amount of time. 00:35:20.860 --> 00:35:24.680 Are you guys experiencing any challenges in any issues in that? 00:35:24.680 --> 00:35:40.280 How do you overcome, like is the coaching network that you said is in place for some of the quality control maybe, like beyond that six week training, what's next for them as they leave the revolution and get into the community? 00:35:40.660 --> 00:35:45.340 So that's, just as Jason was talking about, that's where our coaching system then steps into place. 00:35:45.660 --> 00:35:48.680 So you come in with a facilitator, you go through that six weeks. 00:35:48.680 --> 00:35:55.640 And then if you, let's say a table launches or an online group says, we're going to stay together, we're going to commit to staying together. 00:35:56.400 --> 00:35:58.960 Then they get partnered right out of that with a coach. 00:35:59.040 --> 00:36:15.700 And so that coach then comes alongside of them, provides resources, continues to do training, that sort of thing, where then you just move into the more of this one-on-one, for lack of a better word, one-on-group, where they continue to pour into them, speak into them, become a resource. 00:36:16.340 --> 00:36:20.040 That's where you go for questions and kind of anything you need. 00:36:20.480 --> 00:36:30.960 So I think the six weeks is both, most people are pretty game for being like, okay, well, I'll take six weeks to learn something or to get it, you know, if it is fast. 00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:45.480 So we're taking something and truncating and being like, we're going to cram as much as we can into the six-week window, knowing that most people are willing to give six weeks to learn something or to like at least get introduced into something, if that makes sense. 00:36:45.480 --> 00:36:52.800 It's knowing that we'll jump out of that and they are not going to come out of that scenario and walk into being a fully functioning A2 community. 00:36:53.340 --> 00:36:59.760 Like this is just basically getting them started and then we'll continue to develop through relationship and through our coaching system. 00:37:00.260 --> 00:37:05.820 I love that approach of, hey, it's not the six weeks and you're done. 00:37:06.020 --> 00:37:10.940 It's the six weeks to get you onboarded and then we're going to grow you in the field. 00:37:10.940 --> 00:37:16.220 Like you're going to be doing this and we're walking alongside it with you. 00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:24.700 You know, so often it's, in these conversations, it's like, yeah, six weeks maybe get you to the, I'm not saying you're saying this, I've had other churches tell me. 00:37:24.960 --> 00:37:32.280 Six weeks will get you to the watch party, but it's going to take, you know, months, maybe years to develop the missional community. 00:37:32.680 --> 00:37:41.740 And so, but don't do that in a classroom, do that in the, in the mission field, get them into the community, get them walking and coaching through that. 00:37:41.740 --> 00:37:48.620 So you're, you've got people taking steps, your, your Paul Timothy relationship is in the mission field, not, not in a lecture hall. 00:37:48.620 --> 00:37:52.440 So I, I, I, I just, it's, it's, I love Westside family. 00:37:52.520 --> 00:37:54.160 You guys are like, honestly, one of my favorite churches. 00:37:54.300 --> 00:37:57.340 I just, historically, I've loved what I've seen there from day one. 00:37:57.380 --> 00:38:00.600 And you were partially responsible for me getting a job at Stadia. 00:38:00.760 --> 00:38:04.040 So once again, I love what's happening at Westside family. 00:38:04.120 --> 00:38:10.160 This is another story with the whole Stadia thing, but, but definitely, definitely a fan of, of, of what's, what's happening here. 00:38:10.220 --> 00:38:11.360 So tell me some stories. 00:38:11.620 --> 00:38:20.920 So one of my fun stories is we have a group that is, the bulk of it is made up and, and actually the bulk of the group themselves are not even Westsiders. 00:38:21.080 --> 00:38:24.800 Only a portion of the group is, are Westsiders and they kind of are made up from different churches. 00:38:24.800 --> 00:38:34.220 And that's one of the things that we are, for sure, we're like, you know, people are like, well, when I, when I talked to groups and they initially were activating, they're like, well, not everyone in my group is from Westside. 00:38:34.260 --> 00:38:34.880 I'm like, good. 00:38:35.420 --> 00:38:38.980 I'm glad because the church isn't just Westside, the church is everywhere. 00:38:38.980 --> 00:38:43.060 And so we don't want it to be exclusively, oh, you can only be a Westside group. 00:38:43.300 --> 00:38:46.780 I think there is much more richness to it. 00:38:46.780 --> 00:38:51.160 If you have people from different churches coming into this, and that's what this group has here. 00:38:51.260 --> 00:38:55.220 And they're actually, they live in like a 55 and older community. 00:38:55.540 --> 00:38:57.920 And these people are fantastic. 00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:06.580 And especially what I love about it is because we're talking about right here in the middle of this pandemic world where this 55 and older, 00:39:06.820 --> 00:39:12.340 they already just by their age, but alone puts them into that compromise situation. 00:39:13.200 --> 00:39:16.580 And so this group, they are gathering and socially distancing. 00:39:16.880 --> 00:39:18.420 They, they gathered around their pond. 00:39:18.520 --> 00:39:25.520 Everyone just made a circle around their pond, socially distance, prayed for their community that they lived in, that they live in. 00:39:25.940 --> 00:39:36.280 For the shut-ins that are in their community, they were going and creating these gift baskets of food and leaving it on doorsteps for people that, that were there that are not coming out of their house at all. 00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:37.180 Like I said, shut-ins. 00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:44.700 This group has one of their, their neighbors is a gentleman who is having, he's battling cancer. 00:39:44.980 --> 00:39:46.760 And so they had found out about it. 00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:52.920 So they went out and in front of his house and praying for, praying over him outside of his house. 00:39:53.020 --> 00:39:59.840 And one of the cool parts of that was they brought him out to the front porch so that he could see the people who were praying for him. 00:40:00.300 --> 00:40:03.840 And, um, at this point in time, I mean, he's been doing really great since. 00:40:03.980 --> 00:40:09.240 So, I mean, he's still battling cancer, but his spirits are up and he feels good. 00:40:09.240 --> 00:40:17.980 And, and he's, you know, being more intentional about getting out and about, not outside of his, coming out of outside, being on his front porch, being more mobile inside of his home. 00:40:18.200 --> 00:40:33.260 And so that's one of the cool ones where I love, um, at Trish Meats, I love to give her a call because every time I call her, she's got some story about something that they're doing and how they're impacting people right there, just in their little 55 and older community, which I love. 00:40:33.360 --> 00:40:39.080 I think it's fantastic that, you know, they've really just fully embraced this missional piece of it. 00:40:39.140 --> 00:40:47.200 I mean, they're, they're, she'll let me know what studies they're doing together and, um, you know, they'll meet via Zoom, but then get outside and, and pour into each other's lives. 00:40:47.200 --> 00:40:48.480 So that's one of my favorite ones. 00:40:48.560 --> 00:40:56.300 Like I said, I, I love to give her a call because, um, being in just in that age category, she, I can easily be on the phone with her for 45 minutes. 00:40:56.800 --> 00:41:04.360 So if I call, I know, I know I've got to have a block of window to be able to sit there and chat because we're going to have some good conversations when we get on the phone together. 00:41:04.940 --> 00:41:16.600 So another one, I think that, uh, Randy talks about is, um, um, an A2 community that he has in his neighborhood and they adopted a foster mom. 00:41:16.600 --> 00:41:23.800 Um, who had like four or five foster kids and they just decided, Hey, you shouldn't have to do this alone. 00:41:24.120 --> 00:41:30.900 And so they started serving her in little ways, you know, taking the kids out and doing activities and all of that. 00:41:30.900 --> 00:41:34.380 And that ended up bringing her into the AXE2 community. 00:41:34.600 --> 00:41:41.760 And now she's an active participant in the AXE2 community because of the service that they were doing to their neighbor as a group. 00:41:41.920 --> 00:41:53.580 And that's one of the interesting things that I find that when I've had groups, when we get to, when, if I can ever get the group to serve together, it is a catalyst that changes the dynamic of the group forever. 00:41:54.000 --> 00:42:00.380 We will always talk about that time that we did this at, you know, the rescue mission or whatever, they'll always talk about it. 00:42:00.380 --> 00:42:13.040 And it, it somehow, I don't know what it is, but it, it like solidifies the group together because we have shared experience outside of studying the scripture or watching a video or whatever. 00:42:13.200 --> 00:42:19.160 We're actually really making a difference and in ways that we could never do alone. 00:42:19.860 --> 00:42:27.420 So if it was just my family or just me, if I'm trying to help a foster mom or whatever, that's a neighbor, I'm very limited in what I can do. 00:42:27.700 --> 00:42:33.360 But if there's 10 of us in the neighborhood doing it together, that's a whole other thing. 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:34.100 Yeah. 00:42:34.160 --> 00:42:34.880 I'm curious. 00:42:35.020 --> 00:42:36.740 I just want to pull the thread on that story. 00:42:37.660 --> 00:42:42.340 Does the money, and I've had churches that ask me this, like I normally don't get into this level granular. 00:42:42.700 --> 00:42:43.920 Does the money go through the church? 00:42:44.300 --> 00:42:46.840 Are the 10 people giving it straight to the mom? 00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:49.680 Like what, what does that look like in this one example? 00:42:50.400 --> 00:42:55.040 Well, from what I understand, all of the, you know, if we're talking, cause here's, here's the deal. 00:42:55.100 --> 00:42:57.140 All the pastors, they're thinking about tithes, right? 00:42:57.380 --> 00:43:00.500 So tithes still go where tithes go, right? 00:43:00.500 --> 00:43:07.760 So if you have a multi-congregational group, all the tithes go where their church is, whatever they, whatever they feel like. 00:43:08.120 --> 00:43:16.400 The interesting thing, if we're talking about, uh, helping this particular mom outside, this would be like an offering, you know? 00:43:16.460 --> 00:43:16.760 Okay. 00:43:17.120 --> 00:43:19.120 They're, they're doing extra stuff, right? 00:43:19.540 --> 00:43:23.220 Um, and shouldn't we all be generous anyway? 00:43:23.220 --> 00:43:35.800 I mean, isn't the point here's, here's something to really think about is the point to collect offerings or is the point to create generosity in the hearts of my people? 00:43:36.580 --> 00:43:37.500 What is it? 00:43:38.200 --> 00:43:42.480 Because sometimes we think it's the same thing, but that's not always the same thing. 00:43:43.520 --> 00:43:45.920 Demographic wise, like what type of people are you seeing? 00:43:46.140 --> 00:43:47.740 Is, is it just across the board? 00:43:47.800 --> 00:43:49.300 Who's, who's buying into this idea? 00:43:49.780 --> 00:43:51.100 It is literally across the board. 00:43:51.200 --> 00:43:57.320 What we have experienced in our current state, and that's why we continue to, um, also offer this A2 revolution. 00:43:57.320 --> 00:44:09.540 Because what we found, um, coming out of the lockdown and going into the A2 revolution as the all church initiative, what we did find was, um, families that had elementary age kids. 00:44:09.540 --> 00:44:12.300 It was a struggle to get them to jump on board. 00:44:12.540 --> 00:44:15.840 And like I said, we, we launched that in, in August. 00:44:16.300 --> 00:44:26.380 Those are the people that were so heavily hit with the change in dynamics of what was happening in traditional school and hybrid options and online options. 00:44:26.380 --> 00:44:35.600 And they were just feeling overwhelmed in just life inside their home, let alone being able to step outside and learn something new on what the church is changing. 00:44:35.600 --> 00:44:38.900 So what we did experience is that group was smaller. 00:44:39.300 --> 00:44:44.620 It wasn't totally eliminated, but it was less attended by that category or that demographic of people. 00:44:44.920 --> 00:44:48.520 But we really do have across the board, um, all ages. 00:44:48.860 --> 00:44:53.140 Uh, I mean, I, I've talked to people in their eighties that are doing this and that love it. 00:44:53.520 --> 00:45:00.700 Um, we have people who, and actually I just had a lady who is a new to our community and she's 87 talking to her on the phone. 00:45:00.780 --> 00:45:02.320 You would have thought you were talking to a 50 year old. 00:45:02.320 --> 00:45:04.600 Like this lady has energy like no other. 00:45:05.080 --> 00:45:09.240 And so she wanted to get plugged into a community and I'm like, you need to get on board. 00:45:09.300 --> 00:45:14.000 So I actually connected them with that, the group that I was just telling you the story of. 00:45:14.520 --> 00:45:21.140 Um, but we have them going all the way down to, you know, single people and, and young couples, that sort of thing. 00:45:21.140 --> 00:45:33.700 And what's cool is as we go through and, and continue to meet, and I just went through those last couple of weeks and was on the phone and talking to each group that is gathering and we have a whole mixture. 00:45:33.700 --> 00:45:42.680 So there's some groups that have just within their group themselves, within their community themselves have, you know, empty nesters down to people with toddlers. 00:45:42.680 --> 00:45:49.160 So they, they've taken the approach of their community of being able to be like in that mentorship role. 00:45:49.400 --> 00:45:55.960 We have other ones that, you know, groups that are made of completely empty nesters or completely people who are in the same season or stage of life. 00:45:56.040 --> 00:46:00.800 And so as I go through and talk to them, it's a mix of all kinds. 00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:02.380 And that's, what's really cool about it. 00:46:02.460 --> 00:46:07.420 And, and most of them that I talk to, the ones that are gathering in person, most of them are like, we're game. 00:46:07.560 --> 00:46:08.760 We're open for more people. 00:46:08.940 --> 00:46:17.800 The one group that's empty nesters, they're like, we're mostly empty nesters, but we're totally game to have a younger couple come in here that we can also just pass that wisdom on to. 00:46:18.180 --> 00:46:21.800 And so one of the things that I think is cool, it's a little bit early. 00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:24.240 So I've, I've made note, I'm like, I love this. 00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:37.480 And I think we can pursue it a little bit further down the road as we've had some of these groups that have been together longer that they would love to take on a younger, newer group and kind of mentor them along. 00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:46.880 So as we talk about this, Paul and Timothy, not only that one, Paul and Timothy, but think of Paul and Timothy group wise, you know, and I love the idea of that. 00:46:46.940 --> 00:46:50.500 And like I said, I'm like, this is awesome because they're like, this is something we would love to do. 00:46:50.580 --> 00:46:57.100 If there's a newer group that's coming in and they're just trying to figure things out, we'd love to come alongside of them and walk them through. 00:46:57.820 --> 00:46:59.200 Group on group. 00:46:59.320 --> 00:47:02.120 Yeah, we'll just, we'll, we'll, we'll mentor you. 00:47:02.200 --> 00:47:03.860 We'll coach you entirely. 00:47:04.600 --> 00:47:05.520 That's, that's beautiful. 00:47:05.520 --> 00:47:08.820 So you're, you're doing this, I mean, part of this has got to be digital, right? 00:47:08.880 --> 00:47:24.980 You're talking about some of the, the, the, um, uh, just blanked on the, the revolution is done digital, uh, as, as well as physical, um, any digital constraints in any issues in any challenges with doing it digitally versus physically, or is, is it equal? 00:47:25.080 --> 00:47:25.700 Is it, is it better? 00:47:25.840 --> 00:47:31.680 What's been the digital experience here with this, um, with the revolution as well as maybe the coaching afterwards? 00:47:31.680 --> 00:47:35.820 Um, what I've experienced, cause I do a lot of the online stuff. 00:47:35.940 --> 00:47:37.300 In fact, we get done with here. 00:47:37.380 --> 00:47:48.880 I'll get in my, um, online A2 community right after this is, um, the service component is a little bit more complex because we're so spread out. 00:47:48.880 --> 00:47:55.360 Like I've got folks from Alabama, Hawaii, Texas, you know, they're just all over the place. 00:47:55.440 --> 00:48:07.660 So when it comes to, um, adopt a foster family in your neighborhood, how can we do that as a group is a little bit more complicated than if we were all in the same cul-de-sac. 00:48:09.120 --> 00:48:18.420 And that said, though, we are doing it, but just a little bit more on an individual level while being encouraged by the group. 00:48:19.020 --> 00:48:24.380 And in some cases, resourced by the group, even though we're doing it individually. 00:48:25.060 --> 00:48:37.600 Um, one of the other things that I was talking with our global impact team this morning on was the ability of our AX2 communities to have the ability to go on global mission trips. 00:48:38.360 --> 00:48:47.160 And have that be something where we could start off with like a virtual missions trip to start with so they could get trained on what a mission trip would be like. 00:48:47.240 --> 00:48:52.820 Like if they, as a A2 community wanted to say, okay, we want to, we want to go to India. 00:48:53.060 --> 00:48:58.400 We could give them an India virtual missions trip that talks to them about all the different people that they'll meet. 00:48:58.740 --> 00:48:59.740 Here's what India is like. 00:48:59.840 --> 00:49:05.600 And then this year they could say, okay, this year, not all of us can go, but these two people can go. 00:49:05.600 --> 00:49:08.680 And we'll all pull together funds for these two people to go this year. 00:49:08.780 --> 00:49:10.220 Next year, you two will go. 00:49:10.340 --> 00:49:11.360 And next year, you two will go. 00:49:11.640 --> 00:49:13.480 And while you're gone, we're all going to be praying for you. 00:49:13.640 --> 00:49:17.300 And we're all going to be, you know, texting each other and finding out all these things. 00:49:17.340 --> 00:49:19.920 And when you come back, you get to share everything that happened. 00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:24.660 So those are the types of things that even in an online setting can work well. 00:49:25.180 --> 00:49:28.340 So we could do a virtual missions trip online. 00:49:29.040 --> 00:49:40.740 And if we wanted to say, okay, all of us are going to go to South Africa and maybe pull our money together and say, okay, you're going to go this year and you're going to go to South Africa. 00:49:41.200 --> 00:49:49.560 And it doesn't matter at that point if I've got one person in Hawaii, another one in Texas, another one in Alabama, we're all going to meet in South Africa. 00:49:49.940 --> 00:49:51.240 So it doesn't matter. 00:49:51.920 --> 00:49:54.280 A whole other podcast, the virtual mission trip. 00:49:54.360 --> 00:49:55.240 I got to write that down. 00:49:55.360 --> 00:49:58.040 We'll come back to that at a later time. 00:49:58.400 --> 00:50:10.000 So you mentioned Alabama, you mentioned Hawaii, Texas, Kansas State, Phrasey's nationally known, written some books and has a, you know, a strong history in church culture. 00:50:10.620 --> 00:50:13.740 Are you seeing, you know, so I'm hearing obviously online. 00:50:14.440 --> 00:50:15.760 I'm sure you guys are all over the map. 00:50:16.180 --> 00:50:18.280 Historically, what I know of you, you're all over the map. 00:50:18.280 --> 00:50:24.100 Are you seeing the A2s start to develop at that wider level? 00:50:24.260 --> 00:50:26.760 Are you hyper-focusing intentionally on KC? 00:50:27.180 --> 00:50:31.540 What's the strategy here when you're looking at a global perspective? 00:50:31.860 --> 00:50:35.600 Basically, what we've done is a little bit of divide and conquer here as a department. 00:50:36.140 --> 00:50:44.860 So, and I don't know if it's the right approach or not, but at least for now, it makes it, it gives us a little bit more clarity on who's doing what and who's on first. 00:50:45.300 --> 00:50:51.820 So basically, anybody inside the Kansas City area, Next Steps takes care of as it relates to their coaching network. 00:50:52.380 --> 00:50:56.600 Anyone outside of the Kansas City metro area is my coaching network. 00:50:56.960 --> 00:51:07.420 And so, basically, that's, that's, I don't know if that's the right way to do it, but at least everybody knows what we're doing and who's responsible for it. 00:51:07.420 --> 00:51:18.300 So, in my particular case right now, my coaching network is relatively small in comparison to Heidi's, but mine's more spread out. 00:51:18.560 --> 00:51:32.020 And what my hope is, and we're still working on this, the first time as we went through the Acts 2 revolution, when we got done, my hope was that they would all spin off their own Acts 2 communities wherever they happen to live. 00:51:32.060 --> 00:51:40.200 Whether it be, you know, I wanted another one, an A2 community in Texas, I wanted one in Alabama, I wanted one in Hawaii, you know, I wanted them all over the place. 00:51:40.520 --> 00:51:41.880 And they kind of freaked out on me. 00:51:42.320 --> 00:51:44.540 They felt like, dude, I'm here solo. 00:51:45.240 --> 00:51:46.480 I don't know what's going on. 00:51:46.540 --> 00:51:48.360 You can't, you can't do this to me because I'm solo. 00:51:48.440 --> 00:51:52.380 And I'm like, okay, well, all right, just calm down, you know, lesson learned. 00:51:52.560 --> 00:51:52.900 All right. 00:51:53.160 --> 00:51:56.660 We'll just, we'll take it a little slower than for you. 00:51:56.820 --> 00:52:03.760 But they, they know that that's what I'm thinking, you know, so, so I'm like, all right, I'll just, I'll just track with you. 00:52:03.880 --> 00:52:07.600 And so at least for now, I'm keeping that still original group. 00:52:08.240 --> 00:52:10.760 And I'm going through like DBS style. 00:52:10.760 --> 00:52:17.060 We're going through, you know, the, the book of Mark right now, using some video curriculum. 00:52:17.540 --> 00:52:20.800 And we know that one 2021 is going to do the same thing. 00:52:21.140 --> 00:52:27.220 And I think over time, they're going to realize how easy it is because the actual group itself is just DBS. 00:52:27.420 --> 00:52:36.000 And I honestly don't know of an easier, more, more multiplicative way to do this. 00:52:36.660 --> 00:52:41.880 Because once you just start with the scripture and have a few basic questions, and then that's group and that's it. 00:52:41.960 --> 00:52:44.300 And you pray together and you eat together and, you know, all that. 00:52:44.920 --> 00:52:51.220 Well, people look around after a while and what I've done, at least in this group, when they all told me, no, no, no, I can't start my own group. 00:52:51.260 --> 00:52:52.340 I'm like, okay, time out. 00:52:52.440 --> 00:52:52.660 All right. 00:52:52.940 --> 00:52:54.480 You say you can't do your own group. 00:52:54.600 --> 00:52:55.080 That's fine. 00:52:55.280 --> 00:52:55.600 All right. 00:52:56.400 --> 00:52:59.100 We're going to still stay together, but you need to know this. 00:52:59.420 --> 00:53:00.540 I'm not teaching it anymore. 00:53:01.700 --> 00:53:03.200 I'll be in it and I'll participate. 00:53:03.760 --> 00:53:06.880 But all you guys, I know you guys have the capacity to do this. 00:53:07.420 --> 00:53:09.160 You've seen me do it for the past six weeks. 00:53:09.260 --> 00:53:10.460 It's not rocket science. 00:53:11.820 --> 00:53:12.840 You're going to do it this week. 00:53:12.920 --> 00:53:13.740 You're going to do it the next week. 00:53:13.800 --> 00:53:14.780 You're going to do it the next week. 00:53:14.820 --> 00:53:15.460 And so on. 00:53:15.560 --> 00:53:19.260 And actually, for the past month or two, I haven't even taught anything. 00:53:19.560 --> 00:53:21.520 I just show up and enjoy the group. 00:53:21.860 --> 00:53:22.340 That's it. 00:53:22.420 --> 00:53:25.840 I just have fun praying with these guys and everything and they teach it. 00:53:26.240 --> 00:53:40.240 And so what I'm doing is, at least in this period, before we go to 1-2021 during the Lent season, where basically we're doing the same thing, is my hope is that I'll be able to tell them, okay, so we've done this together. 00:53:40.420 --> 00:53:41.260 You've taught like three times. 00:53:41.260 --> 00:53:42.360 You've taught like three times already. 00:53:42.360 --> 00:53:44.440 You know how this works and it's not hard. 00:53:45.100 --> 00:53:50.340 What do you think about spinning off your own one 2021 Lent group? 00:53:51.340 --> 00:53:54.460 You know, and I haven't talked to them about this yet, but we're going to get there, right? 00:53:54.540 --> 00:53:55.500 You're going to get there. 00:53:55.640 --> 00:53:57.180 You've got to boil the frog slowly, you know? 00:53:57.280 --> 00:53:57.740 Right, exactly. 00:53:57.740 --> 00:54:01.980 Give them the confidence and then, hey, you know, once again, it's walking through them in the field. 00:54:02.120 --> 00:54:04.960 It's not in the lecture hall where they're collecting dust. 00:54:05.160 --> 00:54:06.420 No, that's exactly right. 00:54:06.460 --> 00:54:06.880 Doing anything. 00:54:07.240 --> 00:54:08.920 It's, hey, let's do it. 00:54:09.160 --> 00:54:11.320 And version one is better than version none. 00:54:11.760 --> 00:54:15.700 Like, do something, learn from it, iterate, and try it again. 00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:17.820 Totally, totally love this approach. 00:54:17.940 --> 00:54:18.680 It's awesome. 00:54:19.180 --> 00:54:25.120 Hey, Jason, your global process, it's like the revolution. 00:54:25.420 --> 00:54:25.660 It's very similar. 00:54:26.240 --> 00:54:26.880 It's very similar. 00:54:26.960 --> 00:54:36.560 You maybe modify contextual for some small things, but for the most part, you're just copying and pasting and applying it in a different mindset, in a different culture, environment, right? 00:54:36.660 --> 00:54:37.380 Yeah, yeah. 00:54:37.380 --> 00:54:44.740 In fact, one of the things that when we were going through COVID and we were saying, oh, we've got to do X2 Communities now, what do we do? 00:54:45.180 --> 00:54:50.720 And I had a lot of conversations with Heidi, and it's like, well, let's just do the same thing we do globally. 00:54:50.940 --> 00:54:53.440 It works there, and I know it can work here. 00:54:53.840 --> 00:55:03.140 And that was one of the things that, you know, like when Rob was on staff, now Casey Underground, it was the same thing. 00:55:03.200 --> 00:55:20.480 It's like when you go overseas and you see how multiplying movement ministry can work with ordinary people doing ordinary things and allowing Jesus to do the supernatural, then you come back to the States and you think, does it have to be this way? 00:55:20.480 --> 00:55:31.360 You know, you just start to think, let's reverse engineer what we know works on the other side of the planet and do it here simply. 00:55:32.460 --> 00:55:35.240 And, you know, let's see if it works. 00:55:35.480 --> 00:55:45.780 And what we found is, is that it can, but it does take a mind shift because it is a different ministerial engine that runs on different fuel than what we're used to. 00:55:46.380 --> 00:55:50.680 I, one of the guests, I met this guy at the end of last year. 00:55:50.820 --> 00:55:55.460 I was on a next generation missiologist. 00:55:56.280 --> 00:56:00.120 I was in this think tank that people were way smarter than me in this think tank. 00:56:00.220 --> 00:56:06.080 And I'm honestly, I'm not sure why I was there because literally just smart people dropping knowledge. 00:56:06.600 --> 00:56:08.860 And one of the guys was named Sam George. 00:56:08.960 --> 00:56:10.060 Never, never heard of him before. 00:56:10.220 --> 00:56:11.220 He was Indian. 00:56:11.840 --> 00:56:12.700 Do you know, you know, Sam George? 00:56:12.760 --> 00:56:13.600 Oh my gosh. 00:56:13.680 --> 00:56:14.480 He's a good friend. 00:56:14.660 --> 00:56:16.500 This man, my head's exploding. 00:56:16.980 --> 00:56:17.560 Oh my gosh. 00:56:17.620 --> 00:56:20.180 And he's like, you really want to understand Acts too? 00:56:20.560 --> 00:56:22.140 Go live in China for six months. 00:56:22.440 --> 00:56:24.800 Then read, or Acts, go live in China for six months. 00:56:24.860 --> 00:56:25.480 Then read Acts. 00:56:25.940 --> 00:56:27.700 You live in India for a year. 00:56:28.080 --> 00:56:28.840 Then read Acts. 00:56:28.980 --> 00:56:30.320 Now, then you start to understand. 00:56:30.740 --> 00:56:34.160 The international church completes the American church. 00:56:34.600 --> 00:56:36.860 It's not the American church going to, I'm preaching. 00:56:37.040 --> 00:56:38.660 We're going to have Sam on the podcast. 00:56:39.920 --> 00:56:46.900 He started talking about diaspora, you know, ecclesia, the scattered gathering, as opposed to gathering the scattered. 00:56:47.200 --> 00:56:48.100 My head's exploding. 00:56:48.800 --> 00:56:51.120 Something comes up with me about digital church planting. 00:56:51.440 --> 00:56:52.780 He's messaging me directly. 00:56:52.900 --> 00:56:53.900 He's like, I want to talk to you. 00:56:54.140 --> 00:56:56.120 And I'm like, oh my gosh, I want to talk to you. 00:56:56.280 --> 00:56:56.920 This is incredible. 00:56:57.160 --> 00:56:58.060 We're going to get there in a little bit. 00:56:58.060 --> 00:56:59.120 It's going to be great. 00:56:59.500 --> 00:57:02.080 Hey, we're going to land a plane on Sam George. 00:57:02.340 --> 00:57:04.440 Sir, if you're listening, thank you for coming. 00:57:04.520 --> 00:57:05.880 We're going to have a conversation soon. 00:57:06.020 --> 00:57:06.960 But let's do this. 00:57:07.000 --> 00:57:07.500 Before we go. 00:57:08.540 --> 00:57:09.460 Hey, you know what? 00:57:09.520 --> 00:57:10.940 You had this culture before. 00:57:11.560 --> 00:57:17.180 So you were, at least the mindset, maybe it hadn't launched the culture, but you were wrestling with this. 00:57:17.400 --> 00:57:20.300 I've met you, Jason, I don't know, 2018. 00:57:20.660 --> 00:57:23.020 And I remember having conversations this way early on. 00:57:23.140 --> 00:57:29.000 So like the idea was there and there was maybe a culture shift, but at least the vision towards it was there. 00:57:29.300 --> 00:57:30.820 There's some people out there listening. 00:57:31.360 --> 00:57:32.240 They may have the vision. 00:57:33.140 --> 00:57:34.980 They haven't pulled the trigger yet. 00:57:35.820 --> 00:57:49.040 In this COVID, mid, post, wherever we are, however you want to define it, 2021 is not going to be the skyrocket return back to 2019 the way that many of us wanted to. 00:57:49.140 --> 00:57:50.660 So we're still in this environment. 00:57:50.660 --> 00:57:59.320 How does a church, both of you, Heidi, Jason, next steps, how would they get started in doing something like this? 00:57:59.360 --> 00:58:00.420 They're doing large gatherings. 00:58:00.920 --> 00:58:02.380 They've got an online environment. 00:58:02.920 --> 00:58:06.760 Maybe there's a healthy, sub-healthy group environment. 00:58:06.760 --> 00:58:12.380 But there's a major transition going from that towards what we're talking about here with A2. 00:58:13.080 --> 00:58:14.860 Give some of the audience out here. 00:58:14.920 --> 00:58:16.840 Give them some practical first steps. 00:58:16.980 --> 00:58:20.760 How do they get started on this journey that you guys have done? 00:58:20.760 --> 00:58:30.200 So, I mean, like I said, where we have, and, you know, I'm not sure what this looks like moving forward, whether this is something that we're pushing out to other places or not. 00:58:30.280 --> 00:58:36.640 Like the Connecting Church, as Jason referenced, you know, Pastor Randy Frazee wrote this book several years ago. 00:58:36.820 --> 00:58:40.620 It's actually, there's a 2.0, so I don't know when the 1.0 is written. 00:58:41.200 --> 00:58:43.800 But that has a lot of the structure that's there in it. 00:58:43.840 --> 00:58:49.960 But really, it's, you know, the simplicity of, if you just, if you need a book, you've already got it. 00:58:49.980 --> 00:58:50.420 It's the Bible. 00:58:50.580 --> 00:58:56.160 You know, you're going to Acts, and you're going to look at what that early church looks like and begin to shift that mindset, 00:58:56.160 --> 00:59:04.140 which I find to be the biggest piece, is really making that shift in how you see church being done 00:59:04.140 --> 00:59:09.040 and take a look and study what they did in the book of Acts. 00:59:09.200 --> 00:59:11.200 I mean, so, like, really, it could be as simple as that. 00:59:11.580 --> 00:59:12.520 You don't even have to buy a book. 00:59:12.580 --> 00:59:13.200 You already got it. 00:59:13.220 --> 00:59:14.460 You can download it on your phone. 00:59:15.700 --> 00:59:16.340 Excuse me. 00:59:16.340 --> 00:59:22.260 So, looking at that and then beginning just to implement those into your groups where you're the apostles teaching, 00:59:22.780 --> 00:59:25.360 gathering together, breaking bread and prayer. 00:59:26.020 --> 00:59:28.600 And, you know, being missional with the people around you. 00:59:28.700 --> 00:59:32.680 And so, that seems like I just totally put it in a simple sentence. 00:59:32.680 --> 00:59:39.820 But I do believe it can be as simple as that, as really just taking these and take those baby steps. 00:59:39.960 --> 00:59:41.360 And that's what we're really looking at. 00:59:41.420 --> 00:59:44.100 Some of our groups, like I said, they're further along. 00:59:44.100 --> 00:59:48.600 But that's because they've naturally already have fallen into some of this and have been living this way. 00:59:48.700 --> 00:59:51.680 For other people, they're just in those very beginning steps. 00:59:51.820 --> 00:59:54.440 And maybe that first step is gathering together and eating together. 00:59:54.660 --> 00:59:55.040 Great. 00:59:55.660 --> 00:59:58.460 Start by coming together, breaking bread together. 00:59:58.460 --> 01:00:00.260 Begin building those relationships. 01:00:00.600 --> 01:00:05.960 And then we'll, you know, if you're a church that's starting off new, then walk along to kind of guide them into it. 01:00:06.180 --> 01:00:13.200 One of the things that we are doing to come along are groups that are younger, for lack of a better word, younger in this walk. 01:00:14.040 --> 01:00:18.920 We're providing, you know, we're providing service opportunities for them, whether we're providing them here. 01:00:18.920 --> 01:00:20.780 We did where we packed meals. 01:00:20.880 --> 01:00:25.340 We've done a couple of those where people came and you could pack meals together. 01:00:25.840 --> 01:00:28.140 You know, finding ways for them to come and serve together. 01:00:28.340 --> 01:00:42.560 One of the things that like for women's ministry that we're going to be doing in this upcoming year in 2021, we're going to come alongside of a ministry that's launching down in the city that's ministering to women who are in the prostitute life. 01:00:42.560 --> 01:00:51.300 And so there's a place called Christine's Place that's opening up and they're providing food and a bed that somewhere they can come and safely rest and get fed. 01:00:51.420 --> 01:00:54.700 And the long-term goal of that place will have a shower and that sort of thing. 01:00:54.780 --> 01:00:56.640 So they'll continue to grow and provide things. 01:00:57.080 --> 01:00:59.960 And so that's one of the things that I'm going to challenge our women. 01:01:00.100 --> 01:01:08.900 And we'll particularly challenge our A2 communities that are primarily made up of women because we do have a handful of those to say, here's a serve opportunity where you can go. 01:01:08.900 --> 01:01:17.020 And really what you're going to do is just go and love on these women and make them feel welcome and let them know that they are seen and that God loves them. 01:01:17.580 --> 01:01:26.300 And so there's going to be opportunities that we send out to our families and to our A2 communities to say, hey, here's some serving opportunities that are coming up in our community. 01:01:27.220 --> 01:01:28.960 Here's some that we're offering here in the church. 01:01:29.520 --> 01:01:32.960 And just initially walk alongside of them. 01:01:32.960 --> 01:01:45.380 And I feel like anytime you begin that process, and we talked a little bit about this online, Jason, where you begin to talk about it and then all of a sudden they're like, okay, we had a trunk or treat here at church. 01:01:45.460 --> 01:01:47.340 Well, what does that look like for our online community? 01:01:47.480 --> 01:01:49.420 Because that was something we did offer for on-site. 01:01:49.520 --> 01:01:52.380 Come in and serve the community, provide a fun opportunity. 01:01:52.560 --> 01:01:55.860 And we're like, well, how does that transfer for our online communities? 01:01:56.380 --> 01:01:59.400 Well, you know, we're like, you could donate to one that's going on around you. 01:01:59.400 --> 01:02:05.180 And so we begin, once you start that whole think tank, people are like, oh, wait, I got an idea or we can do this. 01:02:05.300 --> 01:02:11.540 And so as you kind of introduce those ideas to these groups, they begin to pick that up on their own and they continue to move forward. 01:02:11.620 --> 01:02:12.480 And we're like, okay, great. 01:02:12.760 --> 01:02:13.980 What does the prayer life look for you? 01:02:14.400 --> 01:02:15.820 Okay, let's help you build that. 01:02:15.960 --> 01:02:19.520 And so it's baby steps if that's where we're at. 01:02:19.700 --> 01:02:23.680 But like you said, I mean, baby steps is better than nothing and it's forward movement. 01:02:23.680 --> 01:02:47.300 As a pastor, you pour out to so many people and minister to so many people, it is so refreshing to just be a regular dude that someone can speak life into you. 01:02:47.800 --> 01:02:51.060 You know, and I know there's probably a lot of pastors that feel that way. 01:02:51.800 --> 01:02:51.920 Yeah. 01:02:52.000 --> 01:02:57.700 Because I know I was, you know, and that's, it's so life-giving to be in an environment. 01:02:57.700 --> 01:03:00.320 And even Jesus at times felt that way. 01:03:00.580 --> 01:03:03.960 So when he's at the Garden of Gethsemane and he's like, I am sorry. 01:03:04.160 --> 01:03:07.500 I am, I am, you know, I'm grieving as unto death. 01:03:07.840 --> 01:03:09.300 Come apart with me and pray with me. 01:03:09.800 --> 01:03:14.620 So Jesus has his three and he needed his guys. 01:03:15.120 --> 01:03:16.060 He needed his tribe. 01:03:16.920 --> 01:03:21.360 Because there were moments when it was really rough, you know, and he needed them. 01:03:21.700 --> 01:03:24.500 So it's not like Jesus is always, you know, pouring into the disciples. 01:03:24.880 --> 01:03:26.940 There were moments the disciples poured into him. 01:03:27.600 --> 01:03:33.860 And I think there's a lot of pastors out there and there's a lot of staff out there that they just need to be discipled, dude. 01:03:34.620 --> 01:03:38.920 And once you do that, then now we can actually teach with integrity. 01:03:39.400 --> 01:03:48.000 We can actually be an example to the believers in word and conversation and faith and impurity when we're actually discipling one another. 01:03:48.140 --> 01:03:52.360 And then it doesn't sound so hard when we go and try to tell someone else to do it. 01:03:53.300 --> 01:03:56.800 It is a whole lot harder to tell somebody to do something that you don't know how to do yourself. 01:03:56.980 --> 01:04:05.900 If you're a staff listening, if you're an individual listening and you've never been discipled, here's my phone number, 484-324-8724. 01:04:06.460 --> 01:04:07.100 Text me. 01:04:07.340 --> 01:04:12.920 I will either do it myself or help you find someone who can do this for you. 01:04:13.280 --> 01:04:16.000 My gosh, I could sit here and talk all day, but I have to go. 01:04:16.540 --> 01:04:21.400 Jason has to have an A2 that sounds like it's international, maybe possibly. 01:04:21.560 --> 01:04:23.520 So we're going to have to have to break. 01:04:23.620 --> 01:04:25.320 But this has been a phenomenal conversation. 01:04:25.320 --> 01:04:26.260 I want you to come back. 01:04:26.360 --> 01:04:27.500 I want to hear what's going on. 01:04:27.920 --> 01:04:32.880 There were still questions I didn't get to ask, but we're going to save it for another day and revisit. 01:04:33.020 --> 01:04:34.660 But thank you very much for the time. 01:04:34.780 --> 01:04:35.680 Heidi, it was great to meet you. 01:04:35.720 --> 01:04:38.960 Jason, as always, my heart goes to you. 01:04:39.280 --> 01:04:43.400 For Heidi, for Jason, this is Jeff with the Church Digital and Stadia Church Planning. 01:04:43.780 --> 01:04:47.340 Thanks for joining us here on the podcast, and we'll see you next time here at the show. 01:04:47.400 --> 01:04:47.920 Y'all have a good day.