Encounter and Live
A Bridger Church Podcast
Encounter and Live
Next Door: The Art of Neighboring
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Your street matters to God and He placed you where you live for a reason. As a church for the last few weeks we have looked in God’s Word about the art of neighboring that is fueled by the gospel. When Jesus said to “love your neighbor” what if He meant your literal neighbor? Do you live at a pace of life to welcome them? Do you have eyes to see the needs they may have?
We pray this episode encourages you as you live life in Christ….especially on your street.
Welcome to Encounter and Live, a Bridget Church podcast. Bridger Church is a light for the world to encounter Jesus and live life in him. We pray that this podcast becomes an additional resource for you as you live life in Christ. Thanks for taking the time to listen today. Let's lock in.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to another episode of Encounter and Live. We've hit season number two. We took a bit of a break on purpose. I think it was well timed. I think that the Lord loves us and he put it on pause because there was a lot happening. Like we had gotten into that building. I think that the last episode that we ended on on season one with those brothers from Florida when they were here talking about church planting, it was awesome. But I think it's very good and very helpful. And we have just a lot of people that I think take steps and benefit from and are enriched in their walk with Christ as they listen. So as we just prayed before we hit record, we legitimately just want this to be for the glory of God. And if people listen and they say, I want to know more about Jesus, I want to take a step, I want to serve and love my neighbors well, which is a big part of what we're going to talk about today, uh, then it's all good, man. So we're in season two. We're going to roll throughout the summer and into the fall. We're going to have some guests on, of which we do have a familiar brother, but we also have somebody that is brand new. Her name is Katie Tuttle. Why don't you introduce yourself for the all the listeners around the world?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Hello. Honored to be here. Um, yeah, I moved to Bozeman in 2022 and also knew the Jacksonville folks back from Florida, um, was a part of 1122. And so when heard about the church plant, me and my husband Josh got super plugged in. Um, and it's been such a gift to be a part of. And we're just glad to be here.
SPEAKER_02Now, what is it, Katie, that you would say it is that you do with your time?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I do many things. I um I run a digital marketing agency out of Bozeman. Um, and we have a nationwide clientele. So that takes up a lot of my time.
SPEAKER_02So you're kind of a big deal, is what you're trying to say. Huge deal. Kind of a big deal.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate that. Yeah, sure. Um, I also am in the process of writing a faith-based children's book collection um that is based out west. My first collection will be based out west. So that's my passion project. Um, and you know, outside of that, love spending time with my husband, being in the mountains, doing stuff for the church. Um, part of the worship team with Jonathan is great. So yeah, I got my hand in a lot of different things to say the least.
SPEAKER_02Are you it's been publicized, the name of this children's Yes. So you it's completely okay for you to toot your own children's book horn. So what is it? Like, tell us more.
SPEAKER_00Paradise Pals. Paradise Pals. Paradise Pals. We're pals in Christ. That's the that's the whole point. Um, it's really just meant to uh be a resource for families to um understand the goodness of the gospel together. It's cool in non-traditional ways. You know, we're not gonna share like the basic Bible stories that everybody already has written about, um, and say the sweet Jesus Love Me books. I love those books, but we're really pulling out specific scriptures and trying to speak to the character of Jesus um and help children and parents. I hope it's a discipline tool for for parents too, that they don't even know it that by reading this story they're gonna be discipled as well. So it's a fun ride. It's it's such a it's just the best. I love it so much. It's good stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Got some nieces and nephews that are already excited about this book coming out.
SPEAKER_02There we go. Paradise pals. Yeah. All your all your animals got character names.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Yep.
SPEAKER_02Like like Melvin the Moose.
SPEAKER_00Melvin the Moose. That's our first character. He's coming.
SPEAKER_02Fun fact that Melvin was the name of my grandfather.
SPEAKER_00Which is crazy because Melvin's a funny name. It's a it's a crazy name. Yeah. It was something unique and it's just sounded sweet. Um, but you know, something that was really important to me that I'd been praying over when starting this brand is that I wanted to be able to have um pastoral review. And so getting connected to you and then learning that Melvin was a name in your family. It was just like, okay, God, like you're funny. You just, you know, it's good, man.
SPEAKER_02Little wink for sure. So the the moose character in the Paradise Pals is my grandfather when I read, when I read it. That's right. Katie, you it I think it can't be emphasized enough. And so I just want to like I want listeners to kind of hone in for a second. Everybody seems to have ideas. Everybody, everybody generally, not everybody's an ideas person. I'm not necessarily an ideas person, but you ever if you've ever pastored a church, everybody has a great idea for you for their church. Everybody's gonna, and some of it, like we won't do as a church. Like if you were like, hey, I want our church to write Paradise Pals, and I want it to be like a bridger church, Paradise Pals thing. When it comes to like the mission, vision, values, and all that stuff of our church, it's good. What you're talking about is good, but it's not like we're gonna set out to be authors first. And so it's it's almost like I want you uh to know that what you're doing is like it encourages me because it's not like you're just waiting on us to do all this stuff. You're just saying, God's given me this gift and vision. And I just want to do it and it's gonna bless people. You're a part of our church doing it. We want to equip you to do all the things that you're doing really, really well. And so if if you're like listening and you're like, I've I feel like I got this idea. Well, listen, tag, you're it. Like go make it, go make it happen. Like walk in the power of the Lord. And yeah, if you want like our opinions about things, you know, if what you're doing is just theologically inaccurate, and you want kind of like Katie when she brought the scripts, not the script. I guess the manuscript.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And she said, is this theologically accurate? That's awesome. That's what I want to do, you know. So all that to say, let the let the spirit cook as you just like have ideas and you want to be a part of it. Katie also uh writes our disciple group, our life group curriculum, and she does a great job. Do you enjoy that?
SPEAKER_00I love it.
SPEAKER_02Or do you like just do you open chat GPT and say, give me great questions based on this scripture?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no. Or do you enjoy the process? I love the process. I um, you know, in my my background in marketing is in copywriting and so in brand messaging, brand positioning, which is really like I have to, I have to ask business owners questions to extract the essence of why they do what they do, why they're passionate about it, what why they're different in the market. And then of course, we find once we find that distinction point, we're able to create and craft a message for their people that's different from the other people in their industry. And so this just it feels aligned with my expertise in being able to read something over like a questionnaire. I'm reading over your sermon notes and I'm extracting parts that, you know, I think there's a deeper conversation to be had. Um, and it's just so fun to have an opportunity to help facilitate that in the life groups. It's an honor. And I really, it's fun to sit in on a life group. Keelan, I'm in Keelan's life group, and it's so fun to see him lead and how people respond to certain questions. And sometimes they're like, can you repeat that question? Because sometimes I get a little, I get a little too fast.
SPEAKER_05That's usually because I've screwed it up. That's not you.
SPEAKER_00No, but it's like it's fun to to just there's always growth in it. Um, and it's it's just, yeah, it's a huge honor. It's something I never I never thought that I'd do for a church, but I definitely I've enjoyed it and I don't use AI.
SPEAKER_02You don't use AI. I use AI all the time. I use AI to create these podcast notes.
SPEAKER_00I'll use it to like clean up my my questions, you know, to simplify them so people can like, you know, you gotta dumb things down. But outside of that, I read the scripture and then I read through your notes and I take notes during the sermon. I'll just honestly inspire a lot of questions because you ask them during the sermon, and then I just write them down. I'm like, that's gonna be on the current theolum this week.
SPEAKER_05That's a good one. That's good. I need you to know too how much you are appreciated in this and what you do. Um, you are a very large part of why these life groups are expanding, why there's new ones coming, why they're growing. Um, and it is very, very appreciated.
SPEAKER_02That's cool. Thank you. Yeah, man. And I would also say if you're if you're listening and you'd say, I'd love to, you're like, I'm trying to find an area of service, and you know, maybe you are a writer, and I'm not saying like you made an A on a paper you once did in high school, but you have that gift because as she's talking, one of the things that stands out is she thinks through what it means to facilitate a conversation as she comes up with the questions.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02So if you were like, you know, I'd love to help in that area of our ministry at the church, then you should contact Katie.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like, uh, and she'll be most of the time. She's there on the weekends, and she can be easy, very easy to find. But if you are at all interested in that, you should you should reach out at hello hello at bridgerchurch.com. Just send us an email and say, I'd love to know more about what it means to be on the curriculum team.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02We continue to decide people. Love it, disciple people. Keelan. Yes, sir. How are you, bro? Well rested after our break. Well rested. It's not like you haven't been doing anything else.
SPEAKER_05Oh, no, no, no. But it's this little pause that we took in this, it's we were just talking about how long it's been since we have been in this room doing this, and all the things that have happened since, and all the movement in the church, and all the exciting things, and it's it's hard to even bring it all into perspective that it was only what we what we decide a month ago? Like a month and a half, six weeks ago. Yeah. And everything. So there's been a lot going on, and it's been been fun.
SPEAKER_02It's been good, man. It's a it's a cool thing to hear. As I was telling you guys before we hit record, like the comments about Encounter and Live, they're encouraging because I'm hearing about people that don't even go to our church but will listen, you know, to know more or you know, to keep up, figure out ways that they can pray. Or if it's just like this is encouraging to them. This is a it stirs their affection for Jesus. And so with that, we always love to be able to take time and magnify the Lord, like the psalmist says, come and magnify the Lord with me. One of the ways we do that is just point to a few wins, like before we dive into more and more content. And so I was wondering if you guys had anything going on that you could be like, bro, praise the Lord for this.
SPEAKER_00Are you going first?
SPEAKER_05Sure.
SPEAKER_00There's so much.
SPEAKER_05I think the bigger one that I want to highlight right now is just our people and how they've been actively responding in the last six weeks.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Uh people that are engaging for the first time, people that are actively taking next steps and they're after it. They're asking great questions, they're getting involved. They're and that's exciting for me because they get to see the backside of that. You know, they're they're starting to see you know the fruits of those things and why you're so good at pushing those, you know, people to get into those things. And they're starting to see the reasons why they're gonna grow. And they're starting to, I guess, experience those moments. And when they experience those, it just lights more of a fire in them. And you just watch these people just take off and it just excites me to no end.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05That's good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. I would piggyback off of that. I mean, just the amount of conversations I've had over the last handful of Sundays about the authenticity of not only the service, but just the people and the experiences outside of the church. Um, you know, being recognized when you're sitting alone in the sermon and being being asked to go get a coffee or go to a farmer's market and just immediately getting plugged in and having plans being considered, being remembered. We were talking last night at group about how someone was, you know, so surprised that um Keelan's wife reminded or remembered uh someone's name. Like she just called him by name when he came back to church and he was like, How do you remember my name? And it's those little things that, you know, just stand out to people. And, you know, I think that that goes back to why it's so powerful when Jesus knows us by name. It's like when we know people by name, it it really just shows intentionality. And I love that our church is being known for that.
SPEAKER_02I agree. Uh there's a story about Taylor.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The flight attendant. Taylor. Are we allowed to talk about heck yeah? Taylor the flight attendant. Yeah, she's gonna be so stoked. Yeah, give it give us the give us the just like the brief how she showed up. Yeah. Where she's from, all that.
SPEAKER_00So I've heard her story now so many times because I've had to introduce her to everyone. It's really cool. Yeah, it's super cool. She uh she has been coming to Montana for years due to being a flight attendant. Um, and she's always loved this state and she's always felt a pull here, but it's never been the right time, or she's convinced herself out of it. And after a hard season, what she would call a hard season, she was like, Okay, Lord, like I'm just gonna go for it. I don't know anyone in the state. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I get there, but I'm finally gonna listen and you know, make the plunge. And she moved here three weeks ago, and in her first week, she didn't know a soul. And then she happened to hear about Bridgetchurch through social media, came on Sunday, and one of our lovely serve members, Lauren. Shout out to Lauren, saw her in um in in the seating, and she was by herself, she introduced herself, and then from that moment, she just was she was coming to all kinds of different things, just getting plugged in. And I ended up meeting her last weekend uh at a farmer's market, and we just hit it off. Like chemistry was there, and Rachel was with us too. And she thought me and Rachel were, you know, great friends. And it was the first time I was hanging out with Rachel outside of church, and she was just like, How is this so organic? And you know, she came to Life Group at Keelan's last last night, and she's just like, I don't God returned my prayer tenfold, you know, and she's just she's shocked at the the authenticity of the group, and um, it's just really cool to be a part of.
SPEAKER_02It is cool, and it's cool to hear. I'm offended I haven't met this Taylor yet. Sunday, and so Taylor, come on. Yep, I'd love to meet you, hear your story. Perhaps we have been on the same this shit. Is it Delta? She worked on Delta, yeah. We've been probably on the same flights, and for sure. Between here because she came from Atlanta, is that right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think she was, I think that was her last um stop stop, yeah. Yeah, she's from like Chattanooga, though.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, we've been like, we've no doubt probably been on flights.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Amanda was on many more. You look really familiar. She said, Oh, I am a flight attendant. I most likely have been on your flight.
SPEAKER_05There you go. So it's pretty cool. Can we just point out real quick, too, that Katie, you're you're exactly what I was just talking about. Like with people actively responding, look how awesome of a neighbor you are being in these moments. Like this is these are those steps. Yeah, this is that taking Sunday and putting it into action. And you're killing it.
SPEAKER_00Appreciate it. I didn't even think I was doing that, but you know, that's when you're just living it out. You're just you're just, yeah. It's crazy how much the curricul the curriculum that the teaching can just be applied in everyday life very organically when you allow it. But you just have to, you have to be open to it, you know. And I think I'm sure we're gonna talk about distractions and all that at some point in this. But when you allow yourself to be available and interruptible, willing to just invite someone, you know, I didn't know if she'd come last night, but I was like, hey, we're you're right, she's right across the street from my neighborhood. And I was like, you can ride with us. And she was like, okay. And then she loved it. Now she's wanting to change her whole flight schedule so she can come on Wednesday nights. So it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02Whenever you do, bro, whenever you change your schedule to be a part of something, you know it's impactful.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And it's just a reminder to all the followers of Jesus. Like, as you follow Jesus, if you're thinking like, yeah, I'm just gonna add him to like what I'm already doing, he don't play seconds. You know what I mean? Like, if you're thinking, like, you mean I'm gonna I might actually have to adjust my life. Yeah, meaning all of your life. It could be your schedule, your time, your wallet, every every bit of it. Like it has to do like his his lordship. And so we you guys are pointing at it, but the last three weeks we've been in a series called The Art of Neighboring or Next Door. Um, I guess it would be subtitled The Art of Neighboring, main title, Next Door. Uh, but it comes from this idea of neighboring. Jay Pathic and Dave Bunyan, I believe is his last name, wrote a book called The Art of Neighboring. They're uh ministers in Denver. They had this thought of like reaching their community, and man, just met with like the mayor, met with other pastors. They all got this like wave of a movement going in neighborhoods. And it's a great book. If you haven't read it, uh, I think our core team, at least some of our core team, read it uh in the early days, and it was really impactful. And I knew from the beginning the reason that you know we did this series is because well before we even moved to Bozeman, God had laid on my heart a we'll call it a hospitality movement, for lack of better words, that the ministry of hospitality in homes with neighbors, like the people that live the closest to you, is probably gonna make the biggest impact. There's a lot of things that we can uh control in services. We're gonna sing these songs. Uh, I prepare, I'm gonna come prepared to preach every time. We're gonna be a people that respond, but that's an hour and a half tops, like that. We're gonna be together in a gathering. The rest of the time, like you're making disciples where you are, you're building relationships where you work, where you live. Focus on right now in this conversation where you live and wherever you play, on the river, where you go to vacation, like wherever you are, God has planted a missionary. And so the Lord laid this on my heart, and it was three weeks. It will probably be revisited in some form or fashion every single year.
SPEAKER_03I think it should be. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02As we head into, especially as we head into like summer, or it could be better for fall, it could be better for winter, you know. But stage one, year one in our like infancy, headed into summer, it made a bunch of sense. I also can see how like here in Montana, this could be a really good winter thing to where you have y'all are gonna be at home and in houses. So people come to your house, you know. Um, but anyways, before we like dive in, you guys have been around. This is quite this is not a question that wasn't prepared, but it's just a very standard, general broad. What was your take on the series? How did God speak to you when you look at these three? It's only three weeks long. Uh we're gonna kind of like look one by one a little bit about um some of the takeaways, the scripture, but like how did it how did it land for you guys? How are you walking it out now?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I can I can speak to that. I love I love the fact that you know the book in this series is called The Art of Neighboring because there is an art to it. Uh when we moved to up in the bridgers in early 2024, we were the only ones in our little stack of condos. And so, and it's pretty private up there, you know, you've only got so many people. And so we just discussed, and this was before studying the art of neighboring or anything, we were like, okay, whoever moves in, we're gonna, you know, bake the bread, we're gonna go introduce ourselves and treat it differently. Because coming from South Florida, where we were just one fish in a very big pond, um, we didn't ever know our neighbors in, you know, high-rises and apartment complexes. And so we were like, we're gonna treat this differently. And we did. I I baked muffins for the the couple next to us. And they to this day, we don't all live in the same place. We all have moved. We we're all still here locally in Bozeman, but that bond of of that street is insane. And I just I'm so grateful to understand. What what neighboring is really supposed to be like. It was, you know, I need a cup of sugar. Like truly. That's what it comes down to sometimes. And oh, my dog is sick. Can I can you go check on him? Like just little things that it makes all the difference in the world when you have trusted people around you that know they they'll take care of you. And um I just when I read the Art of Neighboring book, something that stood out to me that I was like, well, duh, that I just again, I don't think we have an awareness of is it was saying how you really think it's a coincidence that God placed you where he placed you, right next to the people he placed you by? Like, you don't think that he's got something for you in that and he wants you to join him in something? And I was like, duh, you know, it's so easy to think of that when we're sitting in a church service, but you know, where we spend the majority of our time is our homes. And yeah, it's just it's crazy to think that we miss out on joining what he has for our streets and the families that are involved and the people that are going through hard stuff. So it's it's been cool to just have intentional time to focus in on that and really understand what it means to be a neighbor.
SPEAKER_02I love it. You got anything to add to that.
SPEAKER_05I've enjoyed just the motivating factor behind it. The the get off your seat and move your feet, you know, it's time to go, you know. Um it's how I function anyway, and it's how I want to bring people along with us, you know, as well. Whether you're you know, pushing or dragging or or whatever it is, if we gotta go do this together, let's go do it. And helping people take those steps, helping people experience what this can bring to their life. My neighbors are very different. Like I I gotta get out to about two miles before I can fill up your the the eight-person sheet that you filled in, right? And they're also different because I think as I was looking at that list, I think there's six either deacons or elders in that group as well, in within their churches and everything like that. So where we live is a pretty cool spot. Yeah. Um but there's still a couple in there that need some attention. And as I've been talking with my wife about it, it's not only about those people that still need that attention, but it's also how can we partner with you know, Katie, with you, with whoever it is that might need help to reach somebody else that's on their list.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And helping everybody make those steps and take those steps and partner with you to do this stuff.
SPEAKER_02Totally. I think it's been impactful for me. One of the blessings that I get preaching is like I think and pray and read and study through this a lot. And I always, always, always want it to hit me in the chest before I try to deliver it from my chest, something that's not like a that's good. That's good. And that's really good. And I uh so like I want to lead by example. I always want to lead by example, and I'm not gonna ever ask our church to do something that I'm also not willing to do. So like last Thursday or Friday, whatever day it was, uh, we had dinner with our neighbors, and we've we've moved from the acquaintance side of things pretty quickly, you know, from the waving, hey neighbor, to getting to know names and all of that, to now it's like I cooked a brisket, we're hanging in the kitchen, you know, just getting to know each other a little bit better. That's so rich, man. And now the guys, the husbands, are we're trying to figure out when we can go shoot bows. So that's another step. Now they're not cogs in my machine of what I'm trying to do. Like we're genuinely developing relationships because I want to be obedient. Like, I I don't want to just live in a vacuum. I don't want to like go and that's my my house is my refuge and recluse, although it is to some extent. But also, God's giving me, like you just pointed out, it's like, do you not think that the Lord's put you here for a reason? You know? And the fact that I'm a pastor is also another layer that like, praise God, they're actually they actually want to hang out. You know, they don't see me as like the man of the cloth that is untouchable that can't like hang.
SPEAKER_05They're not closing their garage door when they see you pulling up.
SPEAKER_02You know, I'm like, they're not running away from me. I don't, it's like, hey, dude, I'm not trying to take a confession. Like, I just want to hang out. So, and I love it so much. But listen, man, this comes from this concept. We looked at week one about like, what if what if Jesus is actually talking about your physical neighbor when he says to the lawyer, hey, what how do you read the law? Love, love the Lord your God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus, like, yep, ding, ding, ding, you did it. And then he seeks to justify himself and he's like, Well, who is my neighbor? And then he tells the story of the Good Samaritan. But we, you know, we unpack that as we, you know, studied the scriptures together and we asked the question listen, what if, what if your street actually matters to God? What if your the place that you live actually matters to God? Jesus didn't just tell us to love people in general. Go and love people. The people that he's talking about, you need to think about like names of people that are in your life, especially the ones that are right next to you. And I think that one of the things that we continue to unpack as we go throughout this series was people are very connected like digitally, but relationally, it's kind of poor. People very connected in a in a world digitally. And at some point, like the whole what you were talking about, going and knocking on your neighbor's door, hey, I need some sugar or I need some whatever. Can you watch this? Can you am I gonna run down the street? My kids are in the house. That's kind of slowly gone away, like in the last two decades, it feels like. So it's not like I'm saying, well, let me let me back up. I don't want to like try to just recoup or re-envision or re-like we don't want to go live in yesteryear. We want to very much live today the way that God has told us to live today, you know? And so I'm not saying we used to be awesome at this and now we're not, although there could be a shadow of truth to that. What I am saying is, man, let's look at let's look at the word of God and take it for what it says. And so week one, we're in um, and I guess what I could have done is like we could have just straight up looked at some of the questions you provided in curriculum, but I have sermon notes here.
SPEAKER_00That's okay.
SPEAKER_02I think uh one of the things that Jacob Ray pointed out to me, uh Jacob is a uh blog blog writer, Theologetics, I think is it is that the name of it? Theolog. He he does a really good job of like taking deep truths, keeping them on the shelf where you can reach them and helping you like digest them a little bit. But he he appreciated the fact that I like took uh an uh an ancient like first century letter, the letter to Dionitius the the pagan, who there's a disciple writing to him talking about the way that the early church just operated. And it was about how friendships were formed. Like Christians, the the quote is this they lived as if in every foreign land to them was their native country. Uh they married as all do, they beget children, but they do not destroy their offspring. Shout out pro-life. That's first century Christians. They have a common table, but not a common bed. Meaning, like, you can go, you can come eat with me, but they aren't things sleeping around with everybody like most of the pagans did. They are in the flesh, but they are not after, they don't live after the flesh. They pass their days, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, which we should be really good citizens of the land that we live in. Uh, and at the same time, the sap they surpass the law by their lives. They love all men, they're persecuted by all. Some of these other like writers that I have uh looked into talked about how like they were just friends and and citizens in commonplaces, like in the marketplace, and it's particularly in their homes. They were just they made disciples by being friends. And so, man, uh as we dove into Luke chapter 10, because we were in Luke chapter 10 for a couple of weeks, we started with the Good Samaritan. Um, it's hard to get into that story, that event where Jesus has the discussion with the lawyer without first starting in in verse 17 when he's like sends out the 72 and they come back and they're jacked. They're like, listen, even the demons listen to us. Jesus is like, I saw fall like lightning. It was awesome. But then he says this he says, uh, he says, uh, behold, I've given you authority, I've done all this. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Even Jesus is reminding the guys that just went on the mission trip. And if you've been on a mission trip, you know what I'm talking about. Where you come back and you're just ready to charge hell with a water gun, you know, and you're ready to change the world. He's like, hey, don't get over the fact that you've been, that you have been saved, you know. How does that, as a follower of Jesus, land on you? How does that reminder remind you of what it means? And this has, I think, been a common theme for me the last three weeks of I can't get over the gospel. Like, I can't get over the fact that I've been, I've been saved. It's not what I do, it's who I am in Christ. How does that and why is it important to think about that first before we think about what you just said, Keelan, about like get out of your chair and get let's go do things. Why is this truth important?
SPEAKER_05I have to go through seasons of intentionality when it comes to that, like intentionally reminding myself not to get over the gospel because things can get so distracting and they're great things. Um, you're witnessing people come to Christ, you're witnessing people take next steps, you're witnessing great things occurring around you that are usually a fruit of some form of obedience that you've, you know, uh pushed forward. It's easy to get distracted in that stuff and get ultra focused on that person's salvation or this person's, you know, step. It's very important for me to go through seasons intentionally designed to bring me back to remember how important the gospel is to me and how focused I need to stay in that and not allow those other great things to even become a distraction.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we we had the women's encounter recently, and something it was it was very much focused on being present with God and sitting in his presence. And Allie Parsons said something that just like cut me in the heart. She said, Um, before you go, you need to sit and you need to just be with Jesus. And he loves that you want to do for him. I think we're all, I mean, we all love to take action for the church and you know, disciple as much as we can. But if you're not stewarding that relationship, I mean, it kind of goes back to like a marriage, you know, like that's the bride and the church, um, or the church is the bride of Jesus. Same thing in like a husband and wife marriage. If husband is out doing all the things, providing for the family, but he's not at home with his wife and with his kids and loving on his family, there's a there's a fracture. And so I think it's the same way in our discipleship. If we are only focused on making things about God and doing for him, it get becomes works-based, you know. And then we're lacking the understanding of the gospel and what it meant for us and abiding in that and sitting in that and knowing that that's the only thing that we rely on. Um, so I think that's just something I've been sitting with a lot lately. Cause I mean, yeah, writing faith-based children's books, you know, trying to incorporate faith-based language and values in my agency. It's easy for me to like put God into things. But he's like, hey, can you just sit with me? Can you just can you stop doing and can you just sit with me and hang out with me? And um, man, that's all he really wants, you know. All the other stuff, like he's got everybody else under control. Uh, so that's that's a big takeaway for me in this.
SPEAKER_02So, I mean, it's true. This is week two. You're talking about week two as well. Mary and Martha.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and before I get like get too deep into that, the one thing before I leave the gospel question is man, I I always want to be focused on gospel-centered preaching, Christ-centered preaching, not Christ-included preaching. And it's real easy to hear uh Luke 10, the Good Samaritan, go and do good things, go and do likewise, go and pick up your, you know, the guy that you see on the side of the street and provide for him. Yeah, but why? Like why where's the and I think what we're pointing at, all of us, is all we're fueled by relationship. We're not relationships necessarily with each other. Those are a means to experience a better relationship that we have with Jesus.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so that's why I said, hey, the reason we can actually do this, the reason you can be a good neighbor and define and name the person that's 90 feet away from you, you know, that sleeps in a bed that's 100 feet away from you, and live in relationship and step into this is because Jesus left the throne to come into this world, to put on flesh. Philippians would say to put on the form of a servant, to serve us in a way where he goes all the way to the cross to die for us, to give us life. He didn't just like see you like this brother on in Luke 10, he was left on the road for dead. He didn't just see you and pass by and say, like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you the things that you need to make you a better person. You weren't left for dead. You were dead. According to Ephesians, you were dead in your trespass and in your sin. And only he was the one that could give you life. And because you have life in Christ, you can. Like the story of the Good Samaritan is just a reflection and a of a better story that is the gospel. God did for you what you could not do for yourself, he provided for you what you could not be provided for, and anybody else couldn't provide for you except from Him. And so I wanted to remind people, this is why we had communion on the first week, is like you have to be reminded, nourished, fueled by the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus that gives you life. And not only that, the reason that he can give you life is because he rose from the dead. Like he is alive. So flowing into week number two, it was very much the Mary and Martha, which comes right after the parable of the Good Samaritan. And I'd love for you guys to rehash what's happening in that scene. You know, it can be you, Katie, it can be you, Keelan, but like what what's going on in that event right there with the characters involved? Jesus, Mary, and Martha.
SPEAKER_05Busy, busy, busy, busy. Right? How how distracted we get from being busy and making things perfect.
SPEAKER_00Women are so guilty of this, especially when it comes to anything hospitality related. You know, it's it's so easy to I I notice it when people come in my house that aren't typically my house. I see everything. I'm like, oh, that's dusty. You know, it's just your your eyes are opened to things that don't typically bother you and your spouse and your kids. And, you know, unfortunately, Martha misses Jesus. She misses seeing Jesus because she's so caught up in the hospitality and making sure that things are cleaned up and that it's all, you know, perfect. And Jesus is like, hey, sit with me. You know, it comes back. It's like Mary's doing exactly what she should be doing. She's sitting at my feet. And um, man, that'll that'll preach.
SPEAKER_05And how many opportunities we miss right from being so busy and from worrying about that perfection.
SPEAKER_02Right. It's cool, man. So so what I love about the the week two and week three is you find yourself in somebody's house. Jesus is invited. We're in Martha's house, the Bible says in Luke 10. And you know, she's hosting, but what do the guests want? They want the host. Yeah, you know, they want to be with the person who owns the house, right? And so they're at Martha's house, she's caught up in all the stuff. So she was the Bible says she was distracted by much serving. Yep, it's a very pointed statement. Um what I love about this is Jesus doesn't say, hey, you don't need to serve. He's pointing out the better portion that Mary has chosen, which is just be with him, you know, be with the guest, be with Jesus. And ultimately it reminds us of like be with be with the king before we go about doing you just said it, Katie, like about what it means to like be with be with the Lord. It's also worth pointing out, and I tried my best to do this on Sunday, he's not saying we shouldn't serve, guys. We should all just sit and sing kumbaya, like have our kumbaya merry moment all of life. Let's let's be quick to realize with the whole council of scripture in John 13, he shows us what this means. When he, the Lord, gets up and takes off his outer garment, wraps it around his waist, washes the disciples' feet, and then he says, You go and do likewise. Go and do the thing that nobody else really wants to do. The servant of the house does. So he's he doesn't say we're not gonna do this, he's saying what the better portion is, which if you just follow his teaching logically, the better portion of the two is be with Jesus. And if you are with Jesus, it will affect your serving, it will affect everything else that you do. Fuel comes from somewhere, and it's not coming from like, all right, I guess I gotta do it. The thing that that that it will lead to is what Martha was currently walking in, and it was she was noticing what her sister wasn't doing. You ever been? Have you guys this is confession time? I want to hear it. Have you ever been in a place where you're serving and you're doing a bunch of stuff, but you're also doing it noticing what everybody else is not doing?
SPEAKER_04Because you're no, no, no. Oh, good, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Nah, and then good, me too. Yeah, I'll just make it sure we weren't. No, we didn't.
SPEAKER_05That's something.
SPEAKER_02That's not it sucks when you get there. It does. Because it doesn't do you any good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You get bitter, man.
SPEAKER_00What's the verse? Is it a psalm that says like when you give out of like if if you don't give out of a cheerful heart, like it's actually a sin to God? Is that a psalm that says like if you don't do it cheerfully, then what do you like? Don't do it at all. Because God doesn't want you to just do it to do it. And for me, like I know I knew the story of Martha and Mary, but I never paid attention to verse 42 where it says Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. I I didn't really digest that part of it. And when you said on Sunday, um, all that you are worried about can be taken from you. And you were referring to Mart Martha. And the role that the role can be taken from you, the job can be taken from you, all these worldly things can be taken from you, but your time with Jesus can't be taken from you. And I was like, man, that is just that's good. And serving without intimacy is just performance. That was another line that you said on Sunday. And I was just like, man, that's that's it. Like, we'll we miss the point if we get too caught up in our service and we don't sit with Jesus in the midst of serving because yes, we should serve. And like you said, it's through our time with God that we encounter Him as we serve. And I was like, ooh, that's it. And sometimes you got to take a step back. You can't say yes to everything. True. I think the church, like, we have a tendency, especially to be like, oh yeah, there's help needed. I can't say no to church people, you know. But sometimes you have to know what your capacity is, and you have to know is this gonna take away from my time with Jesus, or is it going to steward it and help it to grow and flourish?
SPEAKER_02So Yeah, we were talking yesterday, Keelan, about the phrase that I keep coming to is like with church ministries that we would do. We can do anything, we just can't do everything. The same as the in with the individual.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You can do anything. You just can't do everything. You have to find your like lane of service. And I d it's not like I just want you to, you know, you know how like you'd go to work out, it's a new year, and you haven't worked out in six years, and you're like, this is my year, and you go to the gym and you do absolutely everything, and then you can't get off the toilet like the next two days. That's what I'm talking about. It's like, man, you're gonna get you're gonna get real burnt out real quick, but fine, take a step, right? Take a step. And if that first step, because maybe you haven't sat with Jesus in six years. Yeah. You just started coming to church and it was like, dude, I need to, I need to be intimate with the Lord first. That would be your first step. And let him lead you into an area of of service. This is what I mean by like Christ-centered. We want to we have a relationship with a person. He's not an idea, you know. The church doesn't exist so that we can just go out and accomplish a bunch of things. We our our vision is to encounter Jesus. Life for the world to encounter Jesus. That's one. And then live life in him, right? So there was a like we talked about practicing the art of elimination, you know, had to do with time. There were some things that Mary, or excuse me, Martha needed to like stop doing. There were things that she needed to eliminate. That's always a tough process with a bunch of people because it's not just subtraction. Sometimes it's addition. Sometimes it's like a, man, my my time, my all of my talent, all of my treasure, all of the things that God would give me. It's all about me. So what are the things that, and this is a good question to anybody that's listening, what are the things that you look at in all of your life? It all belongs to the Lord. He's given everybody the same amount of time. He's given you as an individual a certain talent, and he's given you as an individual or a family a certain amount of treasure. What are you doing with it? It's always a good, and viewing it through the lens of the gospel, are there things that you need to eliminate or are there things that you need to continue to add? And then this past week had to do um with a we were in, we were in actually Luke chapter 7. Uh, when man, all we tried to do was look at what Jesus did when this sinful woman entered the house of the Pharisee. Again, Jesus is invited to a party. I love asking the question, hey, what if like Christians threw the best parties? Because Jesus was invited to like all of them, it seemed like. She was a great sinner. We could sit here and speculate and guess on what that occupation may have been, but we don't need to. This Pharisee has this thought, and Jesus addresses that thought. Okay. Um and then we can get to walkaways, but how did how did the sermon, the text, all of that land on you guys? Let's just talk it out.
SPEAKER_05I think missing the narrative.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Missing what matters. I think there's a big warning in this for comfortable church folk as well. Um how easy it is, I think you said in there or you pointed out in there as well, the one that is forgiven of little loves little or is needed of a saves the need for a savior quickly. Yeah. I guess what we're boiling this back down to.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you think you have a little bit of sin, you just need a little savior. That's a great quote. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And how easy that is to fall into. You've been in this game for a long time. Maybe you've been in it your whole life. You know, maybe you don't see that need for that savior the same way that you used to. And how dangerous of a situation that can be for you.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah. And when you know how great your sin is, you also have so much more compassion to extend to others. And the reality is this Pharisee just doesn't have compassion for this woman. And it's because he's not aware of how mighty his sin is. He thinks if they're on a rating scale, he's rating way lower than her on sin. And the reality is he's just as much in need of a savior as she is.
SPEAKER_04No doubt.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it's all about your view of the gospel. If you, if you truly understand what the gospel means for you on an individual level, you can extend and see people who are maybe operating out of way more obvious sin, you can see Jesus through them. You can extend grace to them. And um, this Pharisee just was missing it.
SPEAKER_02The the killer line in this whole thing is when Jesus gives this parable, you know. A parable is like a teaching that comes alongside. It helps make the point. Jesus is really good at this all the time. He'll be in the middle of a conversation and he'll be like, consider the birds, you know, and just to just to like make a point. So he does this whole like money lending thing. This guy's got 500 denarii that he owes this guy or 50, and the guy forgives them both. And then he says, Which one do you think is like more grateful? Essentially, and Pharisee's like, the one who is forgiven a lot, the 500 days' wages. It's like a year and a half's salary, you know? And then Jesus does this. I love this. He's uh talking to the Pharisee, but he looks at the woman and he says, Do you see this woman? Like this is the that's the like killer phrase, that's the killer sentence question that I just wanted to hone on for our church, for myself. Do you see this woman? Do we have the eyes to see like needs around us? Like there's a question to be asked. When was the last time you made yourself uncomfortable with the people that you hang out with, or maybe even the people that you've invited into your home or into your circle to have lunch and coffee with? That if some of your like super religious friends, they'd be like, Hey, are you sure? Like if you knew what they did, do you actually know who they are? Is the question people would ask today. You know, you know who that is, right? It's the way that they would ask that question today. And you can be like, Yeah, you know, I do. I also know who Jesus is. But like the one thing that I wanted to ask you guys that I think would be maybe a kind of as we wrap up, what keeps you from seeing? What keeps you from like truly answering the question that Jesus asked? Do you see her? What are the things that are in our lives that just like flood the view? We get we get in our tunnel vision, like we're we're in our Christian huddles, you know? What is it that keeps us from seeing?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think for me it I fall into the busyness category quite often. I have my schedule time blocked to every hour. And when things go over, then I'm behind already. So I have a hard time looking up and seeing around me what I could be joining God in. I'm not great at being interruptible. And you know, that goes back to week one. Like, what do you need to eliminate? You gotta, you gotta leave room for God to um do a thing, you know, and join him in it. And so I think for me it's it's because I might just not even notice someone who is in need who who needs me to acknowledge them, notice them, uh, because I'm just so caught up in my own little world.
SPEAKER_05Which is an easy place to get.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05You're running businesses, you're raising families, you're you're you're doing life.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05It's an easy mode to get into, and it's a really hard one to break. Um, you're exactly where I have been as well. And in my last year, that's been my one of my number one focuses is to break that time factor um and finding ways to do it. And none of those are fun, none of those are easy. Um, but they're fruitful, and we serve a faithful God that makes the time beneficial, he makes the time available.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he multiplies time. It's crazy. When you just allow him to have your time, you you can do more.
SPEAKER_05Every time.
SPEAKER_00Every time.
SPEAKER_05Every time. You know, you you you think that you don't have the two hours on a Thursday to come do a podcast. Exactly. Right? Totally. And you're restructuring and trying to figure out how you're gonna squeeze the rest of the day in. And you will experience how faithful he is in in what you do next and what that time results in and how effective you are moving forward in the rest of your day.
SPEAKER_02Right. There's a I would love to recommend a book. I would love to recommend a book. Uh I had to read it in seminary, and it's by a medical doctor who I don't even think is a Christian. Okay. It's called Margin. It's called Margin. Thanks. The author is Richard Swinson. And again, I cannot remember if this dude is a believer or not, but it is literally all about restoring like emotional, financial, physical, and like time to overloaded lives. And it's four ministers. So for me, I think another separate podcast, it may be a really good podcast of like talking about gospel-centered time management.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, like a, you know, do you have the question that comes up a lot in this series was do you actually have like margin in your time to have interruptions? Yeah. Like divine interruptions. Because the road on the road to uh the Good Samaritan, was it the road to Damascus? I can't remember, the road to Jericho, dude, the priest and the elder, like the priest and the other guy, the Levite, walked right on by. Now there's old testament laws, they couldn't touch that bodies, blah, blah, blah. But they did nothing because, like, maybe they were on their way to the house of the Lord to go take care of the needs of all the other things. And it's like, whoa, man, time out. Do we have, can we be interrupted at all? You know? And uh, because sometimes there's like very little margin in my day, like you were talking about. By the hour, you've got your day blocked. And that's fair, that's good. You should. You should work hard, you should plan. I'm all about a good blocked out calendar to get work done. But what about the people that are around you? You know? And I'm not like it's a whole nother discussion, but view your lives through the lens of the gospel. Here's a couple of takeaways and questions that I would love to just leave for the listeners. How many of your immediate neighbors could you name today? This is why we have a block map. It's on our app, it's on our website. You could like fill it in and you could put it on your, you could download it, print it, put it on your refrigerator, and begin to pray for the names of the people that live like right next to you. Uh, another question: what keeps you from building relationships with the people who live around you? Could it could be with time, could be because like you don't feel good enough about your relationship with Jesus? Um, how might God be inviting you to be present in your neighborhood this summer? One of the ways that we want to model it is on June the 12th, we're having a summer kickoff in the parking lot of our church. Um, we're gonna have bounce houses, hot dogs, just so we can like hang, get to know each other, love on people. And it's a way we've only been like in our building for about eight weeks. And you know how when you move into the neighborhood, you just said when people moved onto your street, Katie, you took them like muffins. Well, nobody's bringing us like banana bread or nothing like that to the church building. But what we want to do is just go first and say, hey, it's an honor to be here. And we've got bounce houses for your kids and hot dogs, and we want to love on you guys well. Um, and so on June the 12th, from six to like nine-ish, whenever people start leaving and we start throwing away trash and flickering lights and stuff, that'll be the key. Like, I think the night's over. But just to be like present and say, hey, what's up? You know, is there anything we need to know about you that we can help and pray for? And there'll be people ready to engage in those conversations. But also we want to model it for our people that throughout the summer, maybe you throw a block party in your neighborhood and you and your neighbors get together and you get a bounce house for your kids, and it's just a really cool environment on your street for people to be like, man, I think those people are kind of into each other. It feels like I need that because people do. They need it, they want it. And what would change if you viewed your street as just a part of your mission field? That's a good, good question. So I love it, man. A lot of cool things coming up this summer. We started a series yesterday, if you're listening to this on uh Monday, called Stories of Faith, to where we're rooting uh everything we're doing in Hebrews 11. And then we're taking a look. We're going back into the Old Testament pages and taking a look at how these men and women lived lives of faith while also hearing our own stories of faith and testimonies of faith uh among our people. And so just to stir up our affection for Jesus and obedience, and I think it's gonna be really good. So we would invite you to be a part of that. And if you're not a part of a life group, three more of them are starting very soon. And uh there could be one right across the street from you. Our life groups are missional, they're meant to be uh not just together, but they're meant to be outward-facing. Uh so some of those life groups are gonna be having dinners and inviting neighbors. And so if you're listening to this, there's probably one near you. Check out our website and get you and your family plugged into one of those. But any closing, encouraging thoughts, anything we need to like just wrap a bow on? Thank you guys for your time. Anything else that you guys would add?
SPEAKER_00I think for me, and I'm saying this to myself, but the enemy is gonna want you to believe that it's a waste of your time to do the things that the Lord is calling you to be obedient in. He's going to try to convince you that it's a waste of your time. And it's a lie because the margin is there. And when you allow God uh to use that margin, it is crazy how much more productive you'll be, how much better you'll show up, how you'll be able to delegate tasks or just knock out a task quicker because you've fueled yourself with what the Lord has for you before you do everything for everyone else and for yourself. So that's my big takeaway in this. I'm going to listen to my own advice there, because I need to, and read this book. Margin, that's yeah, it's gonna be a good one. I can feel it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_05How differently would things look if you were able to reframe the interruption? If you were able to identify an interruption and rather than looking at it as a negative, right, look at it as an opportunity. How does that change the way you see it?
SPEAKER_00Changes all of it entirely.
SPEAKER_05I think there's some opportunity there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's good.
SPEAKER_02I love it. So good. That is that is it, man. Let's walk it out. We've encountered Jesus, let's live life in him. I'd love to pray for us. And then I've made notes about um next podcast. I think it'd be worth like maybe a maybe a part two, a little bit of this, because there's so many thoughts that we can contend to address the things that you just said about how you know you can combine your passions with other people. You can combine discipleship and things that you love to do and gospel-centered time management. You know? What is that what does that look like and how can we help? So let me pray for us, and uh we'll be we'll be free. Jesus, I thank you for the gospel. I thank you for doing for us what we could never do for ourselves, and may that change the way that we view things. How you left heaven, the throne room, and you took off the robe of royalty and majesty and the crown. And uh, as Charles Martin says, you did a swan dive to this earth to rescue people like us. And now you've given us this great command to love you, this great commission to make disciples, and you've allowed us to do it in our neighborhoods. So, Lord, open our eyes to the people that live right next door, to the needs in our community that we often just don't see. Uh, and allow us to um just be gospel light wherever we go. We trust you, we love you, we thank you, Jesus, and we pray all this in your name. Amen.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for joining us for this episode of Encounter and Live. If you have any questions, need care, or would like to reach out to us, please visit BridgerChurch.com. We can't wait to meet you at our next gathering. Until then, Jesus peace, big love, and give live life in heaven.