Becoming Unhindered

Hey friends, welcome back to the Pastor Talk podcast.
We are overjoyed today to begin a new
series here as we kick off this series we’ve called Unhindered every Thursday.
Now for the next few weeks we’re going to be reflecting on spiritual health,
our spiritual lives, and what we as people of faith can do to not only be aware of our current spiritual health,
but what we can do as we enter into this new season.
We’re releasing this here in the beginning
of 2022 and so with that comes an opportunity to try to sort of look above the fray a little bit
to ask some questions about how are we doing in our spiritual health and we look forward to sort
of laying out today the framework of where we kind of think we’re going to go in the next few weeks.
Yeah to some extent we’re piggybacking on the cultural movement that happens in early January
every year when people make some assessments of the year to come and what they hope to accomplish
and we know that most resolutions last for a little while and then kind of fall by the wayside.
But our thought is that as we enter this year it’s a good time to look at an area of life that we
sometimes leave unexamined.
You know we often think of our spiritual life as something that either
is on or off and we don’t always think of it in terms of degrees of health and so I think
that as we undertake this series,
as we kick it off today,
we want to explore first of all what
it means to be spiritually healthy.
How do we determine that and how if we determine there are
places in our spiritual life that are unhealthy,
how do we address that and that really forms the
backdrop for most of this series and I think the opportunity in it is for each of us to kind of be
challenged to imagine areas to examine areas in which there might be some opportunities for growth.
Yeah exactly and you know maybe as we kick off this conversation it’s worth
just taking a moment to lay some foundation here Clint because the idea of health is an
interesting one to bring up in the present moment.
You know 2022 we’ve now had this idea of
pandemic and sickness and disease that’s just dominated conversation and culture now for
more than a year and a half and so I think as we come to a conversation about spiritual health we
inherit a little bit of baggage from that if we’re going to be honest to say that in some ways
people are sick about talking about health,
they’re sick about talking about all of the different
regiments and things that should be and can be done and then you put that on top of those who
have just had negative experiences with health from the start.
People who for whatever reason
have struggled with maybe it’s a genetic disease or people who’ve struggled for a long period of
time for some people my point is
coming to a conversation about health comes with a lot of
baggage, it comes with a lot of self-guilt,
comes with a lot of struggle,
comes maybe even with a lot
of sort of struggle in your own emotional kind of strength like I don’t have the energy to deal
with another health thing and when we come to this conversation Clint that’s not what we mean we
don’t mean add another thing on top of a list of other things rather to ask a question about you
know in this moment can I be reflective about my spiritual life,
about my faith,
about the depth of that faith, about the strength of that faith,
are there places where I could take real actions
that would help me to grow deeper into that faith and the the health here framework I think is really
helpful because it reminds us that our spiritual life is real it’s grounded in something but it’s
not a conversation about guilt and about adding another diet to your life or however you think
of health we mean this in the most open-armed welcoming kind of uh invitational way and I
hope you’ll hear it that way yeah I think health is a pretty helpful framework Michael because
just as in our our physical health there are dimensions to our spiritual health we we may
be very strong we may be very healthy in one area and yet we may have another area in our life where
we have growth we may have some pains in our spirit some of which we didn’t create just as
we inherit genetically some medical predispositions some of our health is under our control some of
it is not but even then our response is something that we have some input in and and I think the
same is true of our spirits there are some wounds that we didn’t give ourselves that some of us have
to unpack and some of us have to deal with and some of us have to respond to in in other cases
we’ve done some of the damage ourselves we’ve we’ve created patterns or we’ve created ways of
doing things which have you know built some barriers to spiritual health in our life and
we want to be able to talk about those I I think maybe to start with is especially given
what you’ve said you know we are a little tired I mean we have talked a lot about physical health
so what does spiritual health look like what what is what is it that we’re aspiring to achieve what
is it that we’re chasing and I think you know for the Christian clearly we hold up the person
of Jesus what is it for us to grow into a deeper um a deeper understanding of who Jesus is a deeper
reflection of who Jesus is and a more full discipleship as we seek to follow Jesus and
and as we do that as we talk about how we get healthier unfortunately that means we do have to
talk about what are the things that get in the way yeah right that the reality here is Clint and
we’re going to have to tackle this right away is you know we come towards quickly maybe a little
too easily sometimes towards like discipleship and I think it is connected to this thing that
you’re raising that as we look to what it means as Christians to have healthy and what I mean by
healthy is really vibrant spiritual lives we have to tackle this word discipleship because as
Christians we believe that our spiritual life grows with the indwelling of the spirit some
spiritual traditions conceive of us being emptied sort of getting the nasty out Christians have
historically understood that to be a process of indwelling that God comes into us by the power of
the holy spirit but we see that language of the the spirit coming all throughout the new testament
and Christians have have read that historically to mean that as we come closer to the creator
redeemer savior that what that means is that these other things that hold us back what we would call
unhealthy parts of our spiritual life that they will naturally be pulled away from us now naturally
doesn’t mean easily or painlessly I mean I think C.S.
Lewis some of his books describes how
sometimes leaving behind the painful spiritual things that we have inherited or that we have
taken upon ourselves can be very difficult but yet those things go in the same measure that
Jesus Christ indwells and lives and works within us and so when we use a word like discipleship
what we mean is that our physical lives our practices our words our actions our priorities
which are reflected in our daily lives that these things begin to more and more look more like the
person of Jesus because that is an outward reflection of a spiritual and inward truth in
other words as he becomes more real within our lives and he becomes the eyes through which we
see the world he becomes the hands which we touch the world these are very biblical images when
this happens then our discipleship has increased we become more like the one who lives in us and
that is a full measure of what we would mean by spiritual health it would mean that the more and
more it’s reflected in our daily lived lives then this is a reflection of a an inner thing that is
become more and more true for us and i think michael that’s that creates one of the places
that the health metaphor the health framework is maybe less helpful because when we aspire to be
physically healthy that’s generally about us we’d like to live longer we’d like to live without
pain we’d like to enjoy what we do longer before it’s compromised by health challenges when we
talk spiritual health yes there is a benefit to us yes we hope that our personal discipleship
will grow but really the point of our spiritual health is outside of ourself it’s our relationship
with others it’s primarily our relationship to god through jesus christ it is something that
is internal but is far more external than our than our physical health and maybe that’s where
some of the comparison breaks down but but i think it’s important on the front end to understand
that as we talk about what it means to be spiritually healthy and some thoughts on how
we might all get there to or at least take steps that direction that’s not primarily so that we can
be quote unquote healthier or better it’s so that we can be more faithful it’s so that we can
practice discipleship more fully it’s so that we can serve more faithfully that we can embody joy
more completely it it it certainly benefits us but it is not primarily about us yeah right so i
want to maybe take a moment here you’ll see if you’re watching the video the title of this series
is unhindered and actually there’s a whole series of conversations behind this whether we should
this or not we gave some thought to it because in some ways calling this series unhindered is a
little bit of a false advertising in other words we don’t really believe that at the end of our
time together that either clint or myself or or you are joining us in this conversation that we’re
going to be completely unhindered of the things that holds us back that that would be to discount
the reality of the entanglements of our lives but there’s a sense in which your point here clint is
really well taken that fundamentally the fruit of tending the garden of our souls is ultimately
that we can weed out some of the things that we are carrying with us and i you know i think a
metaphor that’s really stuck with me is i i came to the church here in spirit liking and got to
begin working with clinton over that period of time you know i came to know and appreciate his
long history of cycling and so at one point he was gracious enough to help me get my own bike and so
we went through sort of the process of learning some of the things that go into a road bike versus
you know other positions and and you know where’s the strengths and weaknesses and i remember sort
of learning early on in that conversation as i was working my way toward my own bike was how
much detail and attention is given to just tiny amounts of weight that are added to a bike it was
crazy to me clint like well you know this type of wheel adds a few grams but you know it’s it’s
probably okay in your use case i think to myself dude a few grams i i add that in a day when i
drink a glass of water right so what’s the deal with that and and you come to learn or i came to
learn that these small things add up and and they add up not just in the total weight of the bike
but when you figure that over 20 30 maybe at the extreme edge 100 or 200 miles every single
ounce of weight that you add to the bike is weight that you have to carry it you have to push it you
have to pedal it it’s something that you’re physically going to have to move and i begin to
realize that it’s the small things that add up that can have significant impact over the long term
and so there’s a few things there one is you have to be willing to look at it for that long term you
have to understand that these small things add up but then the second thing is you have to ask your
self some questions you know is it really worth spending five times as much to get a few ounces
or grams off of the bike is that really worth it and you know to move that into the spiritual
conversation there are some things that are going to require substantial work clint there’s no way
around it but if you’re willing to see that long term vision it may help you be willing to bear
some of the weight or some of the cost to work towards a healthier less encumbered spiritual
life right there’s a another i think very helpful kind of illustration i used to take kids
backpacking and you know you there’s sort of an object lesson you take a very small pebble
that weighs almost nothing and you could say i can i can add this pebble to to you and it will
it will almost break you and of course kids look at it and go that thing doesn’t weigh an ounce
what are you talking about right and you say put it in your shoe put that same pebble in your boot
right and within a couple miles you’re hobbled so it’s it’s not only what affects us but how it
affects us where it affects us and and all of us i suspect if we’ve ever tried to seriously
follow jesus we have found ourselves hobbled in some area of our life we are all predisposed
to struggle to grow spiritually that that is built into the process and and as you say if
that’s one thing here and there but when those things add up and we carry them we drag them
around with us and we continue to have the same deficiencies in the same areas over and over and
over again they do cumulatively create a significant burden for us and and they
hamper us they hinder us and so this is really about are we willing to explore where those areas
might be um what could we learn from exploring that and what could exploring that teach us about
the opportunity perhaps to leave some things behind to shift the pack to you know do whatever
it is that might help us move forward in a better way and and i think that’s the spirit that we
undertake this series today and the reason why we sort of linger here so long is really to maybe
get to this point is to let’s just be honest with one another about our anxieties here let’s just
admit this is tough work and nobody particularly likes assessing their spiritual life i mean i
suppose we probably would say that about most things most of us don’t love going in for checkups
to the doctor we don’t love having someone tell us our blood pressure went up or they don’t love
going to the dentist to say yeah it’s probably a cavity or or worse you know so there’s a reality
that when you come to talking about our spiritual health the temptation might be to say i don’t
really want to look at the strength because i might be afraid of seeing the weakness i might
be afraid of seeing the place where i need to grow and i i just would prefer not to do that
and i want to really encourage you to first of all know that you’re not alone in that that there’s
really no one who doesn’t enter into a a process that involves the the deepest meaning of our lives
that doesn’t do so with some timidity and i would hope that we would do that with some humility
to recognize that we don’t know exactly what we’re going to find but there is great great
value and value is not even exactly the right word claim there is a deep kind of meaningful
opportunity that comes when we open ourselves and we invite god to say show us our strength
and our relationship with you and show me where that remains weak where where i continue to need
to grow where i may be young in my faith where where i may have a plank that needs removed so
that i might serve another right there’s a sense in which as we as we look to this idea of diagnosing
and and trying to look at our faith from a holistic view we we need to just account for
that’s going to come with some tough revelations it’s going to happen and i want to just say that
and i hope that you might be able to add your voice to that to say it’s okay you know when we get
there it’s going to be okay because the same god who is with us and called us as his own is the very
god who will hold you in that moment but here’s the great gift the gift is when we see our strengths
we for a moment can see ourselves as god sees us god sees us as the beloved the ones who are created
in his own image and and god desires in that for us to know that even as we look at those places
that don’t reflect that image in the way that god intends that we can grow there too that we can
that can be healed it can be touched by the grace and love and compassion of jesus christ
and if we’re willing to see that then once again that’s an opportunity for the things that hinder
us to be let go it’s an opportunity to live a more full and vibrant not only spiritual life
i would say life or without adjective right that is an absolute gift but we have to be willing to
admit clint that there’s going to be some struggle as we look to this idea of where are we strong
and where are we weak right and i think it’s a very important reminder that we do all of this
under the grace of jesus christ there is no threat in this there is no judgment in this this
is an exploration this is to say are there areas in my life that i could improve are there areas
in my life where i’m struggling and what would it look like to address those is there a pain
that i’m carrying around that really isn’t helping me is there are there practices are
there patterns in my life that aren’t sending me in the the directions that i hope to go in my faith
and if so what might god be inviting me to do i i think it’s it’s easy in this to feel
like this is about judgment and it’s easy in this to feel guilt and and guilt is an interesting
gift in the church because it is helpful to the moment it convicts us and then when we use it
or when we allow it to hold us back it’s no longer helpful the the idea of guilt is to move
us to a place of being ready for something else to be convicted but at that point if we continue
to carry it around it it really is detrimental and not beneficial and so this isn’t about feeling
guilty this is about being honest trusting in the grace of christ that i am no less worthy or less
loved if i admit a struggle in this area of my life than if i don’t and we live in a kind of
culture of denial that that likes to turn away and and not admit things not face some of the
things that we don’t want to see and you know this is just about are there ways we can move past
some of that and um as michael said we had lots of conversation about the word unhindered but
less hindered is is awkward and it doesn’t fit on the screen as well but that’s the idea can we be
less hindered can we allow ourselves to receive the gift of god to drag less stuff around with us
that doesn’t help our faith and and that’s that’s what we’re talking about so how are we going to
do that you know i think that’s a fair question you know if you if you’re thinking you know okay
this intrigues me you know i i’m interested i’m with you so far you know but what does this
actually mean i i think it boils down in a few very simple ways so first of all we’re going to
be each week presenting a new aspect of the spiritual life and it’s going to be wide ranging
so every week will be different and in that conversation i at this point we can see that
going with two major sections so so the first is we’ll talk a little bit about what it looks like
to be spiritually healthy what what spiritual hindrances look like in that aspect of our faith
and we’ll talk just a little bit about you know from a pastor’s vantage you know what does it look
like when we’re living into a good season in that spiritual aspect and when does it when might there
be some warning signs on the dashboard and then the idea is that about midway through about the
second part of the conversation that we’ll switch into a little bit more of a practical tool-based
kind of conversation so what are some things that you could add to your routine what are some books
or practices or maybe spiritual disciplines of the historic church that may help you in this area
and the the goal in that is to connect from the idea well what does it look like to diagnose our
spiritual strength or weakness or or health or sickness however you want to frame that in the
first part to say okay now what can we do in the second and the the flow of that conversation is
intended to provide an opportunity for you to mirror it in the week so so you start with a
reflective question how am i doing in this part of my spiritual health and then that can lead you to
an opportunity to either add or affirm or strengthen the practices and tools that you
may have at your spiritual disposal and the idea would be it becomes for you a living opportunity
to live into this new year not only with some new ideas but maybe even with some new practices
that come out of those ideas and and this is where michael i think the health framework is
very helpful because if you go to the doctor for a checkup they’re going to look at several areas
you know they’re going to take your pulse no that that seems very good they’re going to check your
blood work they may come back and say hey blood sugar is a little high let’s let’s cut a few
things out of the diet but it’s not or they may say hey there’s a significant issue here we need
to talk about it may be something as simple as hey you know what gain a few pounds why don’t you
add a walk a day what can you walk a mile a day for the next season and see how that happens
and and to get there there has to be a kind of checklist a kind of inventory and so each week
we want to provide as helpful as we can on inventory in that area if we’re talking as we
will next week prayer and study how do we evaluate our lives our spiritual lives through the lens
of how much time and effort in a productive way do we invest into praying and studying scripture
how do we how can we improve there and it may be that looks really good you may take that
assessment and say okay i’m happy with that you may say there’s room for growth you may say
boy i’m i’ve got a lot of room to work here i i need to and it doesn’t need to be fixed all at
once it’s not this isn’t a kind of win the lottery thing this is how do we begin to practice how do
we begin to make progress how do we begin to take small steps you know a lot of people derail
their efforts by making by the idea that they have to do it all at once you know i’m going to
lose 50 pounds this month well most of us are not most of us need to lose a pound and then another
pound and and that will be the tenor of this work how do we identify what it is that we might have
an opportunity even a need to work on and then some thoughts on how do we work on it but it
starts with that kind of evaluation that that checklist and i do think in that sense health
is a very good word it’s a helpful image and we want to try and provide that as a tool which gives
us a place to start so what that looks like really practically is every week we’re going to
create a document that you can print at home and that you can literally go through we’re going to
have questions you know some of them rate on a scale of one to five some of them a little bit
more reflective you know how much time have you spent doing this and and how would you rate uh
and how would you explore or explain this part of your relationship with god or your practice with
others whatever it might be and so the idea is every conversation is going to be paired with this
physical thing that you can print and go through and you know i would just really recommend this
is a great opportunity uh find a three-ring binder somewhere in your house uh that’s either
no longer useful or you know pick one up if you need but you know every week uh three-hole punch
that and put it inside and build this up over the weeks fill this out this isn’t for others we’re
going to ask you to send them in to us or to share them with others if you have a bible study
maybe invite them to do this with you that this would be an easy conversation to come back into
a group and to talk about but realistically the idea is this is for you and and as you do this
uh week by week another piece of paper a few short questions a few reflective sort of
opportunities this is the amazing thing the end of this series right we’re going to be finishing
this series right before length right before as we as a church community begin a process of
introspection and spiritual reflectiveness you will have already started a spiritual diary is
what it will become an opportunity for you to begin building up a reflective conversation with
god about your relationship and discipleship that that’s the amazing beauty of a thing that happens
slowly over time is when you look back you can see how much ground you’ve traveled so i really
hope you know part of this conversation is really to explain our process to explain kind of what
we’re thinking about the weeks to come and and all of this may seem a little slow i’ll just admit this
to you the reason for that is really we’re trying to invite you to commit to to be part of this
conversation with us and what that commitment means we hope will be that you’ll say i’m gonna
reflect on these things for myself i’m going to print out this question there i’m going to do
this survey every week i’m going to build this spiritual diary and in doing so i’m going to be
all in i’m going i’m going to ask some of these difficult questions and i’m going to see where
god takes me in it if you’re willing to do that i just am excited to see what god might do through
right and there’s some good news and bad news about these assessments the tools that we’ll
provide to you the the good news is we’re going to ease our way into them so we have arranged this
series we think with the hardest things to answer the the most difficult areas later in the series
so we’re going to start off as easily as we can and that’s the good news the the bad news is if
you take these seriously and you take this journey with us i can assure you that at some point there
will be questions that you don’t want to answer there will be answers that you’re uncomfortable
with that’s why these are just for you but we in order to be effective we each need to get to a
place where we have to admit something we have to confess something that may we may not want to face
we we may have to make an admission about the very thing we don’t like thinking about we don’t
want to talk about we don’t want to deal with and that is both the blessing and the curse of
an opportunity to wrestle spiritually with our growth is that it will inevitably and purposefully
bring us to the very place we need it most and and that is the good news and the bad news we hope
that that will be down the road we’re not starting there we’re not jumping into the deep end on week
one and week two but we hope that as we move our way toward that you you will be able each of us
will be able to grow into that because the reality is as we talk about this health imagery
one of the things that’s been i think during the pandemic one of the things that’s been difficult
is that this uh the covid business has so many symptoms everything could be an ending right well
it pales in comparison to the symptoms of sin the the symptoms of sin in each of us are varied
and multitude and so as we face them we will find some that we say oh yeah and some
that really really convict us and again that that’s a hard thing but it’s a private thing
it’s not for public it it is not um intended to uh bring shame or guilt or pain to anyone
it is an opportunity the the doctor has to explore what hurts us the most in order to move
us toward health and the same is true spiritually you know clinton we’ve talked about this in other
context i think it applies here and i i want to encourage you as we’re at the outset of a project
like this that we sometimes in the protestant church especially have left behind a little bit
of the resource of the historic church that is to say that we do things in community so this is
personal it’s private and it should remain so but there’s another sense i want to encourage
you to consider that maybe this is also an opportunity for you to walk alongside someone
else maybe this is an opportunity to walk alongside a spouse maybe a very close friend
maybe a sibling maybe a parent you know this could be done as a family even there is a gift that
happens as we both are honest with ourselves and we can hear and see and affirm another person and
so i can see how for some this conversation is going to be between you and us the kind of private
safety of putting on earphones and listening to this podcast and being part of our conversation
that is just us three and that’s great and and i hope that you’ll be all in with us i could see
for others that this may be an opportunity to walk alongside another person that you’re going
to send them an email or make a phone call say hey you know our church is going to do this series
or our pastors are going to have this conversation and and i would wonder if you might want to tune
into this first one and see if you’d be interested in doing it with me you know that has a kind of
power of doing something with another believer a brother or sister in christ and in doing that
it opens an opportunity to not just know ourselves but to grow deeper in relationship with others so
this may need to be done differently for different people i just want to give you blanket permission
if you feel that that would be right for you maybe you felt isolated in this season of covid
maybe you felt like your spiritual life has not been as rich then this is an opportunity
to build a relationship in connection with another person follow as the spirit leads and i think
that’s the best that we could ever do yeah i think those are good words michael and i think there is
another way that this is communal in the sense that you know for thousands of years men and women
have sought this goal of spiritually growing of deeper discipleship and they have wrestled with
particular sins they’ve struggled with grace they’ve struggled with forgiveness they’ve dealt
with pain and loss and grief that they have been where we are and we have access to their journeys
many of them have left for us very helpful practices and thoughts and ideas and theology
and reminders and we we bear the blessing of having access to those and so this won’t be
the kind of thing where once we identify an issue we’re on our own we we have a great deal
of resources to bring to bear from our history and our heritage as people in a long line
who have tried to follow christ together and there is i think something encouraging in that
that as much as we seek this individual growth we do so under the umbrella of
what faithful have always done for thousands of years which is seek to be better disciples and
better able to serve christ and to allow christ to transform more of our lives into that which
is in keeping with his his will and his work you know clint we’ve been having conversations this
is sort of how it happens you know we sometimes sort of simmer conversations over long periods
of time and then eventually they grow into a a more formal conversation in a class or a series
and i think at some point maybe this will turn into a series but i think it’s reflected here
you know we’ve been talking a little bit about this idea of sort of therapy and mental health
and we sort of live in a culture that’s very attuned to these sorts of issues and that’s
an aspect of health that we not explicitly named as part of this conversation but it’s
certainly intersex right certainly this image of this metaphor of health is physical health
that we have that in mind but we’re doing this in a time and moment which our culture is very
attuned to you know personal mental health and sort of these different therapeutic sort of language
what’s interesting is that we live in a moment in which our culture you
not too long ago clint used the word sin people are less comfortable using the word sin than
than probably for the the entire history of the christian faith and certainly as we engage this
conversation it it must be done with the language of the christian faith that we we believe inherent
in this frame uh is real deep meaning that uh is mineable that that if we’re willing to submit to
it it has something to teach us that said i do think there’s something very contemporary about
this conversation and in the sense that when you begin to allow the language of the ancient faith
to really come into the center i think what you might be surprised to find
is that these ideas that seem very contemporary about our health have been there all along in
other words the ancient christians are not going to be in any way surprised by some of the concerns
that we bring to the faith like well how about people who you know have been traumatized or
people who uh have in some ways um heavy burdens to bear in their mental health and you say well
you realize that this has been a part of our ancient understanding that you know when sin
lives and when we fully understand the full extent of that sin that that it it does impact
these other parts of our life and that there’s comfort and grace and compassion to be found
for all of those who experience these things my point here is to say that you might be surprised
to discover that some of the very prescient present sort of demanding conversations that are
at the forefront of our culture right now have very ancient sort of forebears and though the
vocabulary may in some ways seem different you may be surprised as we have these conversations to see
that this is not the first time that the church has been asked to think on these things and
in many ways we discover in old tools tools that may have very present and contemporary help
yeah i think we continue to live out those words of jesus you know love the lord your god with all
your heart with all your mind and with all your soul and we could talk about those various aspects
i think by and large in this series we will be landing on the plate of soul that that will be
kind of our guiding premise is is what in what state are our spirits now and what are the
indicators of areas that might need some attention that that may have a little friction right now
and and how do we grow through those areas and through those challenges we’re grateful
that you would be willing to take some of this journey with us you know in terms of it being
helpful i i think that’s going to take a commitment on all of our part to be honest as we work our
way through those assessments to answer answer them honestly to answer them openly to be willing to
be accurate as best we can about the areas in our life that are doing well right now and the places
where maybe there’s room for growth and i think if we can do that then it gives us the best
opportunity to know where do we need to dig in in the follow-up conversations where do we need to
put some of our time and some of our effort and i i hope that it’s encouraging knowing
that we join you there that it may be a little different checklist for each of us your areas
and our areas may not be the same but we will all have them i assure you part of the reality
of being human is we all have places to grow we all have places where we’re missing the mark
and we all have things that we can do to try and improve in those areas and so i hope it’s
an encouragement that you will be doing this with others you may not know who they are
in many cases you may not know what their particular struggles are going to be we will
probably admit some of our own to you along the way and and some of them you probably know from
being around us but we we will do this together and i hope there’s something that um in that
togetherness that provides you a sense of community and and a sense of strength as we do what can be
a difficult task yeah i think uh the maybe the last word that needs said is as we look to start
this process you can do one thing today uh the one step you can take today is to get connected
so that you can be part of this however you want to get it by audio or video so if you’re on youtube
you would subscribe hit that button right now you’ll get those videos if you are uh someone
who wants to get it by audio go to pastortalk.co there you can sign up for emails or you can
go to whatever app you want on your phone to get signed up for these so that whenever the
conversation comes out it sends you a notification uh if you need help doing that uh just you know
we’ve got a com uh we’ve got a uh little box there where you can send us a message do that
you know however it’s going to be helpful for you to really get on to the conversation ramp
do that and and that’s as easy as clicking the button right now um and certainly if there’s
someone who you think who might appreciate or be encouraged by this conversation uh consider
sending him an email or or share it on facebook or however is most convenient for you give him a
phone call the point is uh friends as we set out on this process we do so with the awareness
that come what may we’re grateful that god goes with us and and that god is always drawing us
closer to that triune life and always simultaneously drawing us closer to one another
so we hope that you’ll be encouraged by that invitation and we certainly hope that you’ll
commit to be part with us on the journey absolutely that that same god wants for each
of us that we be less hindered that we be closer become closer to him and that fewer of the things
that hold us back continue to hold us back as we follow christ together uh we thank you for
listening to this podcast our first assessment which will be used next week will come out uh
very soon it will be available on our webpage there will be linked in all the places you listen
to this we will get that to you uh you can you can find it lots of places will make it as easy
as possible and join us next week as we begin to work our way through this series and this process
and we’re grateful for your being a part of it