Okay, we are at the third and last three R's session, and this is a very different thing that we're doing, and there's several things that are prodding it, and so let me remind you how we got here and what we're going to do today, because today I'm expecting you to do a lot of work. What we're going to do in just a couple minutes after I kind of give a preview of what's going on here is we're going to separate into smaller groups. I don't care how many are in your groups and actually work on some concrete things and then come back. When we separate into those groups, you need to have one spokesman who can write down some notes and I will go around and I'll poll the spokesman and say, what did you guys come up with? And we'll just share those.
So that spokesman also probably needs to be very practical and have a writing device.
So that might be how you choose who's your spokesman.
So what are you going to talk about?
Well, back at the end of June, at the end of June, we are out here and we talked about the three R's. And I basically said that God has led me to consider coming to him and asking, are we at a kind of an inflection point at a moment of change as a church? And there are several reasons why this is a healthy thing to do. One is because the nature of this church has changed in the 20 years since we've been here. The other thing is because we've been here 20 years.
And then the third thing is the fact that many times what you do is you get in a rut, and you just do what you've done last time, and if it takes the least amount of work, that's what you're going to do. What you need to do is ask healthy questions of God and say, God, how are we doing?
Now, when you look at the seven letters to the churches at the beginning of Revelation, Jesus gives them a report card. He says that you are lampstands, the seven churches. John sees this vision of lampstands, and he says, those lampstands are churches in cities, real cities in today, in Western Turkey. And he said, this is my report card to you. And he goes through the seven letters, and he says, you're a lampstand, and this is what you've done well.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. But there's almost always a but. But this I have against you, you need to think about this. You need to consider this.
So that's the mode that we're in, that we've been in since the end of June, which is we started with review, which is the first of the three R's, and that's what Jesus does in the seven letters. He reviews what they've done, and I've been very prayerfully looking at that, and I've been really encouraged what God has done in our midst in the last 20 years.
Okay, and we talked some about that back in June, and then the second step is re-listening. That is going back and listening to God and say, so what is it we're missing? How How are you leading us? Is there a direction that we're just not seeing that we really ought to be doing? And so I put that on you last time at the end of July to say, you know, when we come back at the end of August, and it's the end of August, I want you to have four weeks of listening to God and asking God, what should we be doing differently?
How are we doing?
Now, I placed a lot of that emphasis on you rather than on me. I've been doing it too. but because you all and well we are we are the body of christ let's put it that way which means that we have diverse giftedness and in the diverse giftedness god may lead you in a direction to do different things than you've done before in the body based on your giftedness so nine times out of ten when someone comes to me and says jim jim i got a great idea we need to do that i find that that da-da-da-da-da-da is actually in line with their giftedness. Because when you're gifted in a certain way by God, you see deficiencies in that giftedness more clearly than other people do. And it also means, likely, that God is calling you to do the da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Rather than saying, I have a suggestion, somebody needs to do this. No! You have a good handle on what you're seeing. Maybe God is leading you to do that.
So I've asked us all to be doing this for the last four weeks is to say, God, we're re-listening. How is it you want to be different? And then today, what we're going to do is the last of the three R's is to reshape. And it's kind of like a pottery sort of thing.
So in the reshaping, what we want God to do is like a potter and a pot, the clay that's on the wheel is to reshape us if there's ways he wants to reshape us.
Now, we're praying that God doesn't do the radical thing because everyone who knows a potter, our daughter is a professional potter knows that when you throw a pot to a certain point and you know you mess with it and mess with it and mess with it and it just doesn't do what you want what does the potter do and he starts over well i'm hoping that doesn't happen i'm hoping that doesn't happen we're into reshaping today so today when we break up in groups i'm going to give you a directed worksheet i'll bring on just a second for you to talk through three different areas of where you're a light, where you're a lampstand. And the three different areas are three different people that you'll influence.
Now we are lampstands. And just by coincidence this week, that came into my view as I went over to Niagara, right down the road here, and I picked up two pallets of water, right? I had to work with the administration over at Niagara. And I've built up a little bit of name recognition over the last several years, knocking on their door and asking for water. And so this year, when I got done, we got the pallets all loaded up.
Thank you, Michael, Michael's buddy Tom came and picked those up so I was there just making sure the arrangements happened well after everything had gotten loaded up and I was leaving I gave a really big thanks to to this woman over there who's just who like their general plant admin is who I was talking to and she has connections back in corporate I had to make connections through corporate in down San Diego blah blah anyway as we're leaving I said I said to Jeanette that's her name I sent her a text and I said, thanks, Jeanette. You're the best. We're all loaded. Thanks again for your great help this year. And she texted back.
What a coincidence. You're very welcome, Jim. God bless you. Thanks for being a beacon of light here in the community. Look, she wasn't talking about me.
She was talking about us giving away water during PC. This is talking about us.
So that's what we want to do is be a beacon of light because it's noticed. It's actually noticed by people.
So let me go back and kind of review some of the founding passages, because this will set up how you're going to do your discussion. And to remind you as well, as I'm kind of unfolding, it's funny where I'm going. Did you know if you read Revelation 21, which is just an incredible, it's the new heavens and new earth part of Revelation, Revelation 21. If you're really bummed out, read Revelation 21. You'll be really encouraged because it says he's making all things new, a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem coming down.
He describes what the new Jerusalem looks like. There's not going to be any scalawags there or dirt bags. It's going to be without sin. But the New Jerusalem is a community, and it says in the midst of that, right, smacked up in the heart of it, and God is living with man. That's been God's intention since the Garden of Eden, to live with man.
But as you read through the rest of this description of New Jerusalem, of God living with man and community in the New Jerusalem, it describes the walls around this Jerusalem, symbolizing the defensiveness of it, the protection of it, the security of it. And then he talks about streets of, yeah, that's where that is. It's in Revelation 21. And he talks about 12 gates that represent the 12 tribes, which also are representing the 12 apostles. And each gate looks like a giant pearl.
What? Don't worry about that. But the street lighting is what's interesting in the New Jerusalem. The street lighting. It says there will be no sun there will be no moon because god and the sun will be the lights and the lamp there so the only light you have to share is not your particular enlightenment from what you have learned in life that is not what we have to share the only thing we have to share is jesus himself that's the only thing we have to share because after all he said i'm the light of the world But in Matthew 5, he said, you are the light of the world.
So who is it? Who's the light of the world? Jesus or us? Yes. Yes, because Jesus is in you.
The light that you have isn't your cleverness or your wisdom or your compassion. The light you have to share in a community that's in need is Jesus himself because he's in you.
So that's what we want to focus on. Matthew 5 is where I want to emphasize, and we'll see this in a handout I've got in a second.
So this is what he says. You are the light of the world. You, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. And it gives light to all in the house.
And in the same way, let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who's in heaven. That's what I want to work on today. By the way, if some of you, a couple of you could take a picture of me standing here and send it to me.
So when I post this audio, which we are recording, I'll post it on YouTube with also some pictures as background. Just take a picture and wait till I cast a good pose. but just take a couple and send them to me and I'll put those as a video background on the audio because there are actually I've had a lot of response from people waiting to hear this third thing so he says does it make sense for you to be a light and to put it under a basket and we all say no that's stupid why well because the light is supposed to give light okay but believe it or not Unless we pay attention to what we're doing, we will put baskets around this light.
So we're going to talk about baskets, which are the impediment to the light getting out. Are there baskets that we have in what we do that is causing the light of who Jesus is not to shine? That's number one.
So when I talk about baskets, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about this stupid idea about setting a light under a basket. Again, though, the baskets for churches are usually not intentional baskets. They are unintentional baskets where you sort of work your way into a tradition or a way of doing things. And the true light of who Jesus is does not get out.
It doesn't shine.
So baskets are the negative. But the table, he says, you take a light and you put it on a table.
So the table is our opportunities. What is the table we need to put our lampstand on, our light on, to show the glory of who Jesus is, to attract people to God's good news and who Jesus is as their Savior? What are the tables that we're not using to elevate our lights?
So that's the positive side. Baskets, negative. Tables, positive.
Okay, so that's what we're going to talk about. Let me grab something.
So worksheets.
So I'll come and hand these out to you once you guys establish your little groups. What we're going to do, we're going to split three times now. We're going to do three discussions, come back and share, discussions, come back and share, discussions, come back and share. We're going to try and do those as quickly as possible. And so I've divided this little worksheet into three sections.
So the first one we're going to do is talking about, are there baskets getting in the way of our lampstand to the LDS dominant community? These three sections are the beneficiaries of the light.
So the first group is just the general secular community with a special emphasis on LDS. The second group is to the Christian community, the local Christian community. And I talked about this last time about the shortage of pastors in town, which in three churches I know already led to the closure of their churches because they could not replace the leadership in their church.
Well, three more churches now are leaderless. And so I fear for their long-term survival here as well.
So as the collective body of Christ, we are not the total body of Christ in Brigham City. There are believers in other churches that are struggling. How can we be lights and encouragers about the gospel and who Jesus is in their midst?
So that's the second category, is how can we be a lampstand to believers in town that are struggling and it's hard? And then the last category is how can we be a light, be a lampstand to people inside the four walls of Main Street Church?
Okay, so that includes things like encouraging and discipling one another and what we do inside the life of the church Now I put that last on purpose because many times when people talk about changing what your church does what you do is you sit around and say well I like to have purple carpets Well, I'd like to have potlucks every week.
Well, I'd like, I'd like, I'd like, I'd like, I'd like. That's the last category. The first two categories are much more important, much more important. In fact, we just devolve into what do I want to do at church so it fits my idea of a religious country club on Sunday mornings.
So let's forget about that until the last section. Your first concern has got to be, how is our lampstand doing in the LDS community? What are the baskets that are in the way of the light? What are the tables that we could put our lampstands on that would make us more effective? Second one is the group of the Christians in town.
How can we find the baskets that are getting in the way that keep us from being an encouragement to the other believers in town? And what is the table we can set our lampstands on that will encourage them that we're not doing right now? And then lastly, we can talk about us.
Okay? You good for that?
So go ahead and break up in your groups, and I'll come around, and I'll bring these slips for you guys to work on. Elect a spokesman, a scribe who, you know, it's usually the person with the pen. And go ahead and break up right now, and I'll come around and hand out some of these sheets.
Okay, let's come back and share some of the stuff you guys talked about. and we'll we'll start in order of size so we're going to start with the smallest group which is up here in the sun i don't know what that means so josh has got a mic so we can all hear what you're saying and it'll also be my way of taking notes so i can figure out what we said later on so uh so josh why don't you dorothy are you the spokesman up here okay here he comes so give a listen to what uh our group up in front here came up with now you're just working on the first of the three the lds community one right what gets in the way uh boiled it down to a couple of things an attitude of self-righteousness and needing to offer correction in our community um an argumentative attitude um not living out our faith there's this incredible inconsistency among the church in general i'm not saying that this characterizes main street church because that's one of the things we talked about but in the christian body there is this inconsistency about how we live when we're at church and then how we present ourselves on social media huge gap and that gets in the way um what can we change we need a greater emphasis on prayer and we probably need a greater emphasis on obedience to the word is that fair Okay, so a couple things of the baskets that get in the way are we are out in the community doing service and different recreational things, different things like that. But there's that barrier between what we can say to those within those organizations or say like me with the kids in AYSO soccer. One of the ways specific for that is the more not outward neural actions because they just think you're LDS when you're kind and helpful and volunteering. but something on you that fits within the rules of the organization you're a part of that shows that you're a christian whether it's a cross or unfortunately it has to be outwardly showing so that's kind of a practical way to do it within outward uh organizations within the community um you know they we we would echo the argumentative side of things um i've always told my kids that if you tell someone they're wrong, you just planted their feet even harder in the ground, and they are now going to believe what they believe in, even if they didn't before.
So trying to stay away from that argumentative nature, more of asking questions.
Well, what do you think about this?
Well, what about this? Rather than telling them you're wrong, asking questions. Because really, most LDS people that have come out of that have come from, they start asking questions themselves.
So you can teach them asking questions. we did talk about we have this church on Main Street I think yeah we do, Peach Days is a big thing but one example for me was in AYSO we had a rainy day I had a picnic planned for the kids and the families Jim and Dorothy said yes to letting us come into that church I set up the ground rules respect the property, things like that we're trying to not destroy the church in the process but they came and all those parents, all those kids got to see and learn that I was not LDS. They got to see the things on the walls. They got to read the things on the stuff.
So an opportunity arises for things like that where you can bring some outside community in, in a controlled thing, like my parents' anniversary, make an open space where people can come in and actually see what we are, what we believe, what we're about. That's a good one for being able to take that basket off, being able to welcome them into the community. We had a couple other things about like kids and the volunteering outside of just our church things. If you have, like they have the Boy Scouts that go around and put all the plastic bags for the donations, doing some things like that where it's not maybe just our kids, but we, you know, you've got the LDS church, what do you call them, young men's, young women's. there's a little bit of concern on you know making sure your kids are strong in their faith before you kind of in a combine that way maybe a little bit but um but the idea being that we kind of seclude ourselves into this box and community wise there's a lot of things going on the community that we can be a part of and make ourselves even more known not just as the church that does peach days water but that and additional items so that would be ours I I'm hearing a theme I think we all are we tend to have an adversarial role when it comes to confrontation between conversations with other LDS and ourselves.
I was sharing at the beginning when we first started opening the doors for Peach Days there was a lot more argumentation that went over at the literature table rather than just quiet conversations about what so that has changed but it's still there still is a perception of we and they kind of thing um and then we also saw we have a lack of um actual content as a as a main street church body with others we may have a neighbor that we talk to but in terms of a larger picture there's a lack of content for that Kind of like Johnny was talking about what we can do to be out there besides just beach days. What can we change? Just the appearance of our outward building. People don't know what we are. It looks kind of sad on the outside.
Not very inviting. It has improved. in the 20 years, and there are changes. We talked about a cross, and we also talked about how that is very offensive to the LDS community.
So how do we do that and not be offensive? How do we talk to them about the cross being the hope that we have versus it's a torture tool, which it is, But to make the distinction of hope. And then Steve's question was, how do the other churches that do have a cross outwardly, how is that perceived by the community at large, the LDS community at large? But making the appearance on the outside that you are welcome here with messages of hope, scripture, whatever, to make it change it, make it look welcoming so that they aren't afraid to come in. Because I remember saying, oh, no, no, don't set foot in that.
That's a bad place. That was the atmosphere.
So any other things that? But we need to walk our talk, basically. Oh no, you're in trouble now. No, even though you're in trouble. I don't know what to say except to say what we were just talking about, so I'm going to blurt it out.
Most people, when you hear G's, it ends up being a negative word. But we could actually maybe turn that around as an idea. We could actually have the front door say us. In big U-S. And before it, G's.
J-E-S. And then on the front door, us. Just to kind of open up a conversation about what is it all about? Is it about us or is it about G's us? I kind of like that.
And my friend helped me with that.
So it's not all mine. But I like that, and I've wanted to wear a shirt that says G's, and I thought, well, that's kind of annoying. And then as I go past him, I'd have us in the back. I don't know. I'm weird.
But I vote for that one.
Okay. You know I'm coming back on my teachers for teaching, right? It's all about us. It's all about Jesus. Yes, that's two, and I've got one.
Okay, is that all you guys got to report? More? We also talked about serving. We want to start helping people more and serving each other more. Do you have any kind of concrete ideas now?
Well... Say your story.
Okay, my story is, when I moved, guess who helped me move? And I'm not even a Mormon now. My records were removed from the church. But the missionaries came and filled my truck half full. The Elder Scorn President came and filled it the other half full.
The bishop unloaded it with some members. And I asked my membership to be removed in 2012, but they didn't care. they still came and helped me. And I would like to, I have a trailer. I'd like to get a truck.
I'd like to help people move. I'd like to have people make dinners for people that have babies, like Dottie's family that's in the hospital. Have them have dinners. Ask them what we could help them do. I'd like to do more individual helping people.
Do you know how Mormons get people to come to church? They give them a job. You have to be the teacher, or you have to take the minutes at meetings, or you the Sunday school chorister You get a job I like to see us not just be so comfortable letting you do all the work I like to see everybody being the body and everybody helping everybody else Okay, let's go to the second one. And this one, I'm going to give you about the same amount of time. I went past seven minutes before.
But it's a more challenging thing. How do we interact with other believers in town, especially knowing that they are feeling kind of isolated and a little abandoned and unsure about their futures and stuff like that. And we're all the body of Christ.
So what does your heart say to you in terms of the Lord's Spirit leading you and how we can benefit them? What are the things that get in our way of doing that? That's the baskets. And what could we do that we're not even thinking about the tables?
Okay, so on your mark, set, go. I'll give you seven minutes this time.
So let's get some reports. We'll start in reverse order.
So we'll go to the back group that's in the dense shade again and see what did you guys come up with in terms of being a light to the other Christian body in town, the larger Christian body? Hello. There we go. All right.
So we talked a little bit about just every church in the valley. it's easy to get siloed into your own church.
So it's like, oh, I go to Main Street Church and I'm in Brigham City and Salt Lake is not my responsibility. And something that I think we could change would be when the churches come together. I've seen a lot of believers in this valley that are a little bit discouraged. A lot of them have kind of lost some of their hope. It's because a single corded rope, as the Bible says, is easily broken.
and a tricorded rope is not. And so I think when churches come together and they have a common vision, because ultimately we're one body. When we go to the marriage supper of the Lamb, it's going to be one body. It's not going to be, oh, we're segregated in our own little church groups. I mean, the point of the church is to represent Christ.
And I think having something where the churches can come together and have a shared vision and shared responsibility, and you can share that, but also each church has its own strength. you guys were talking about how some of these churches are losing their pastors you know if you had a shared ministry that you could come together with I think that would be a great way to put the lamp on a table instead of in a basket because I think the easiest thing for us to do is to kind of default to it's not my responsibility because I'm not in that church or whatnot and I think a cohesive vision for the valley would greatly bolster people's faith and also hope so that's some of the conversations we were having. Oh, dear. One of the things that gets in the way is communication and information within churches. And if we had better communication within churches, maybe that would help to say oh yeah you're a part of us come join us or can we come join you or we have a um an event like you were talking about a gathering together um because we talked about that too um lee was sharing that if there's a fifth sunday in the month all the churches used to get together for a worship time um that would be a really great thing and i know we've we had Pneuma and it's been difficult to kind of resurrect that into some getting together.
But just information about the Lord and who we are in the body, the greater body. We talked about our own, our website to let people know what's going on. and I know that's in process. Our Facebook page, we put things up, but it's very irregular. I mean, I just yesterday put up Church in the Park because I was busy doing other things.
So flooding that kind of thing. Let's see where I'm at. And making the opportunities known for Bible study, for worship times, for gathering together, and not just always inviting us or others to us, but finding out what they're doing and going with them, participating in the other things. We have on the 24th of this month the pie and prayer thing for the Pregnancy Care Center. Many churches are involved with that.
let's make that communication known yes it's the the facility is going to be main street church because we're close to their new building but it's for everybody so just communication Okay, so I would echo most of what you guys both just said. One is definitely with the churches and the community. Karen, you said it there at the end, not just focusing on what our things are, but going and finding out what is going on in the church. We can go participate in activities at other churches. Tied into that, I would say we discussed the idea of, as an engineer, the idea of too many tasks, too many things going on not able to focus on specific things and not being able to do them justice but there's a certain baseline in a church that you want to have you want Sunday school, you want youth group you want this so determining what are those baseline things that we need to have as a church for our own body and doing those well I'm a guy who likes time frames and things like that giving praying in a way that not praying in a way, that's weird praying to God to guide us in defining what it is he wants us to do within his time frame but realizing that making sure that we do listen to God and okay, this thing is not working it needs to be part like you said, not the whole pot maybe the handle ripped off and make a new handle for that pot figuring out what is the focus what is the need um Numa was huge I did I did slightly joke about church in the parka um because we live in Utah right everybody has ski gear not really um being able to you know Karen you're who's who's the Facebook person who's the person that goes and posts the things um right yes very limited same I'm due the AYSO somewhat limited as well but well defined kind of defining what it is that we need to have and then we do like i did stepping up 10 years ago family life ministry art of marriage jeff and patty we do find some pushback from pastors at other churches that are like okay this is a great resource but we have our own thing they don't really do that thing but how can we bridge that gap to the bodies of those churches saying hey we have these great resources because the stepping up is I need to do it again.
And again, I tell myself I'm just too busy. I don't email Jim as much as I should, though I should probably email someone else because Jim's too busy. What, you know, maybe starting with a definition of what the people that are higher up, because I don't know, I know what you do because I've been here for 10 years, Karen. But for those of us who are new, we don't know what you do or what you could have need help with. maybe just within our church first start with finding out what help others in the church need because i know at the ayso level one guy was running the whole thing and lots of things were missed and all he needed to do was i guess say hey here's where i need help who which of you have the skills like jim on the website i think you're doing the website but i'm and i keep meaning to go on and do the review of it for you because i'm the software engineer and tester and i can hopefully cut your time down in half.
Maybe something as basic as here's this, you know, we had the, sorry, I'm rambling a little bit, but there's the, on the wall on the, that says, here's the items that a handyman could do at the church. And it's there, but I don't know if a lot of people, or it was there and a lot of people don't know if it's there, the priorities really somehow trying to maybe this little bit more organization, a little bit more communication. Karen, you said communication. Here's a page on the website where we can go and see the current needs of the church. We asked everybody, you know, send it out in the newsletter, somehow trying to get people and us, I guess we just have to take responsibility ourselves as well.
I need to go do the thing that I saw on the spread or on the slideshow from Jim for the website. Cause I know, I, I believe I would be helpful on that. we always feel too busy.
So maybe we just need to go back in prayer, find where we can help within ourselves. But then the big push would be, how do we get the churches in the community to stop spreading all of ourselves so thin, but actually teaming up on specific things? Binding the women's bind us ministry, from what I understand, I'm jealous. I wish there was a men's one. I'd love to go up to Bear Lake.
I'd love to spend time with God. I'd love to get away from the world, the busyness, to be able to focus on God. That's what family camp was for me. And, I mean, communication and those tiny focused drive on specific things that God lays on our hearts. We always have good intentions.
Whether we get to that end of that road of that intention is another thing. I guess I'll stop there.
some of these things have been said but i'll just put our our spin on it the first thing we came up with what gets in the way is denominationalism right or you know territorialism well this is what our church does and you guys are weird over there right because we do we do run into that um we're right and they're wrong kind of attitude. And it's not just characteristic of us, it's characteristic of every church in some measure. And then what can we change? We can pray more. We can pray with individuals.
Don't just walk away and say, I'll pray for you. Pray here and now. That's probably central to everything. And more proactive invitation to other bodies. we do that but we could do more we do a lot that is interactive with other people and we ask for help a lot with a lot of things and sometimes it's easier to just quit asking so you know pray we corporately need to pray we as individuals need to be praying how would God extend us how would God press us forward Okay, third and last, and don't get selfish, but how can we be better lights internally in Main Street Church?
And when I say that, what I'm saying is, how can we provide more opportunity for the glory of who God is, that's the light, to be shown internally, so that we end up developing deeper relationships with God because we're profoundly impacted with his glory as demonstrated in the body.
So let's not talk about chair colors and stuff like that and how often we do potlucks. Let's talk about how does God get more glorified in us? And what do we do to make that happen? What's in the way of that and how can we change that?
Okay, you got seven minutes. Ready, set, go.
Okay last comments inside the four walls of Main Street Church So let start with these guys Well no they moving Let's start over with Karen, then we'll come around.
okay um as with the other churches communication tended to be the the key um and i mentioned i don't i don't know countless times um i've heard people say well i don't read the newsletter where information is given that's kind of disconcerting if you want information read it and then the other part of within our own church too we need to make those those needs known if there are needs because there are people who are gifted and that can help and if we don't make that known they're not being blessed by using their gifts and I shared this with the group too during VBS I was so blessed by the one person who genuinely has a gift of service and she was always there and I love her for that and it was recognizable she's not watching I know. It was a huge, huge thing. And there were other people that did that too. But in the busyness of that week, I didn't have a worry about something being done with that. we also have to be aware of being gracious with the truth within our own body versus things that are not true that are being shared around and we have to be gracious that and I struggle with that And I'll be honest with that.
I struggle with that a lot. We had some good ideas about gathering together to make sure that we are connected to one another. Doug likes an old-fashioned hymn sing and potluck with hymns and songs that really speak to the heart of the Christian faith. and we've done that a couple times but maybe more on a regular basis again making ourselves known in the community and working together on a project or the farmers market with using our own building at the same time let's see what else just making things known so that people can step up and not be afraid to step up if they have an idea or something because if only a few people are doing it they don't always feel that they are welcome to do that too so to glorify the father when you have the prayer request um what i would love for people to do is stand up and say how much they love the savior because when you're in love with the savior and I'm in love with the Savior and you express it, it makes me love you more. Oh, we talked about testimony as a big thing.
The biggest thing we talked about is just because you're sharing the faith that God has given you and that's encouraging hope in other people. And I think that helps bind people together. When you can share your personal testimony of what the Lord has done for you and in your life, that is a tool God uses to encourage other people for what he can also do in theirs. Careful, your foot's on the cord. Because there's a lot of lies that the devil likes telling us.
And when you hear someone's testimony, that kind of refutes some of those. You can see the grace. But also, we talked a little bit about making Main Street Church look a little bit more like a church. I don't know what that would exactly look like. we talked about potentially putting a cross on it or what we need to do.
Because when I first showed up, I thought it was a business. I didn't know it was a church.
So if there's some way we could make it a little bit more recognizable, more welcoming too. But is there anything else we talked about? Yeah, I think some of the ideas we mentioned is how do we make our church more visible?
so it it goes from first of all outreaching to the LDS community, first of all you have to make yourself visible and it could be either putting a cross or having some Christian murals to kind of help people know that identify it as a church yeah Okay, well we focused first on what gets in the way of our internal community, building one another up. And probably the first thing that we all came up with was busyness. I can't get involved in that I'm too busy oh that sounds like a really good idea I just don't have time for it don't have time to connect with people so and then also what gets in the way of our of our growing one another up into Christ is is a lack of recognition that every single one of us has received a gift from the Lord and a way in which to honor him as we press into being part of the body.
So, you know, everybody has a call. Don't just sit in church and come and do the thing and go home.
So those were things we identified as some things that get in the way. What can change? Recognizing one another's giftedness, recognizing one another's needs, pressing a conversation toward truth in love instead of being satisfied with fluff. that's what I have written on the page okay so we kind of focused on a couple different things one of the things that first jumped out was we had previously done some family nights where it was either like a game night or something similar or maybe a a church bot church themed movie um we have men's groups we have women's groups but families being able to come together whether you have children or not you are still a family uh you're welcome to come to those things but doing those maybe quarterly coming to starting small, seeing how they go, bringing, because for me, I don't go reach out to people personally, but if you start talking to me, then you probably want me to not keep talking to you after you're like, come on. I mean, you can tell by how I just keep going and rambling.
But that's the, breaking those barriers, breaking those barriers of those people who are, I say, an extrovert trapped in an introvert's body. I do know some of those people so we talked about small groups but I would say we and I didn't say this but Penny did we are a small group as a church body so to speak so being able to do some non-Sunday activities because I know some of us I personally have Sunday things planned usually after church so sometimes I do potluck sometimes I don't in relation to potluck this is for you Jim no we did a Thanksgiving themed potluck one year and that was really fun being able to like theme it up a little bit we get assigned items and then we bring that together on Thanksgiving or on a different day it could be take over the first one but anyway the other big one which goes back to Karen's is and I may just be giving myself this task because you said this Jim if I if you have the idea then you're probably the one to do it. Church app with push notifications that, hey, don't forget, there's this thing coming up. Because for me to go check my email, I either have to put it in my reminders or put it on my calendar when I read that email, or otherwise it's gone. It left my brain a long time ago.
So not a requirement for everybody to be on it, but we will point and stare and say, hey, why aren't you wanting to know? Really more just a way to, an app that gives you those information, those details, those here's the upcoming activity. Here's, we're looking for the lyrics person. Here's what it requires. It's an 8.30 to 11 o'clock gig on Sundays, or sorry, 12, 15.
Really making it so that people can get to the information that's not, oh, let's go find this newsletter, which we appreciate the newsletters a ton, but if we can take that newsletter information and put it somewhere that you can get to easily. That's in a location that we all can just tap, get to, and then notifies us. And so again, that's probably something tasked here for me to research and see what already exists, what the costs are, and or if I can just do it myself and do it free. I think, oh, the last one is regarding the front of the church. Don't quote me on this.
there was some money set toward that, but like, Hey, as a community, here's what we're trying to work on this year. Here's the donation for this specific front of church fund. Do you want to, I mean, when you do your tithing or however you, what you want to do, target market it for that specific thing.
So we can reach that goal and say, Hey, now we have this much money. Let's get the church done. Cause we talked about the front of the church last year, I believe, came up with some ideas and then were on hold until further notice but and by hold I mean the conversations just we got busy right so I think that was that was everything we had kind of those oh the last one was the carnival we did the carnival last year last year two years three years ago I lost track of time community that brings in community that's not necessarily our I mean that's our church as well because we're doing it for the families and each other, but it brought in some others outside as well.
So it's kind of a two-prong. Seeing what we can do in that area, like I said, it's, again, the idea. Peach Days is amazing and great. That's our biggest thing. But how do we keep the momentum going between Peach Days?
Yeah. Great. Great, great.
Well, I'm going to summarize all the stuff we've been talking about in two weeks' time.
So the second Sunday from now, we'll do that. And Father, we pray that your spirit would continue speaking to our hearts. We want so much to glorify who you are because you have changed us immensely in the death and resurrection of your son. And we want those who live next door to us and those who we see on Sundays to know the immense glory of your love toward us.
So I pray that this process wouldn't stop today. that your spirit continue to speak quietly in our hearts about how you want to reshape the lampstand that you've made us here in Brigham City.
So thanks for this opportunity here today, and we continue to listen in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, stay for lunch or leave. Graciously, Glenn has made a whole bunch of burgers. If he didn't bring any food, he's willing to share his burgers with you. He's got lots to go around. It's first come, first serve, but there's a bunch of them.
So thanks for participating today. And we have Peach Day sign-up sheets, and clipboards right here.
So please feel free to take a look at those because speech days will happen before we meet again.
