Fall Vision Weekend

Good morning and welcome to Orchard Hill.

This weekend in all of our locations in Butler County in the Strip District, Wexford in the Chapel.

We're going to do something that's a little different.

Normally, what we do is we read a passage from the Bible and then we consider it together and we learn from it and let it shape our thinking and our lives.

And today we're going to do something that's a little different.

Instead of a single passage, I'm going to talk from kind of several passages about really where we're headed as a church.

So if you're a first-time guest today, in some ways this is an abnormal week, but in other ways it's a great week to be here because you'll get to hear a little bit about the heart of this church.

But before we jump into that, I want to take a few minutes and address something that has been in the news this last week.

And we don't often do this here, but from time to time there are news stories that it seems that to not comment on them misses part of the point of us gathering here together.

And what I'd like to just spend a few moments talking about is the abuse scandal that we've read about, heard about in the Catholic Church.

And it may seem to you that that doesn't need to be commented on, but uh because it's a church and and it's local and it's so uh pervasive and really horrific if you've read anything about it, I want to just say a few things about it for us as we gather.

First, just as a church, we grieve for those who were abused within the confines of the Catholic Church.

We know that as anybody who walks through abuse, it's a horrific thing, but it seems even more horrific when it is in the place where you would think that there should be people looking out for others.

And so we're just grief for those who've walked through this.

But secondly, I want to say this, and that is anybody who brings children to any institution, to a school, to a church, to a gym or a club or something, you have a hope, an expectation that's a realistic hope or expectation that there are good safeguards taken for the safety of your children.

And here at Orchard Hill, we take that very seriously in all of our locations.

For years, long before it was the law, we insisted on background checks for anybody who would work in our kids or student ministry.

Even our kids' fest program, with as many volunteers as that takes, we insist that everybody gets a background check.

But but there's something else that we do as a church, and that is we are always striving to be too deep.

And what we mean by that is to always have two adults present so that when kids are with people, there's always multiple adults present so that so that there's an accountability built in.

It's one of the reasons why volunteering for kids ministry is such a significant value because we want to always have that racial right so that we can do our best to provide the most secure environment that we can.

Now I say that we can because I realize you can't control everything that happens, no matter how much you plan.

But we as a church want to take every significant precaution that we can.

And then whenever something comes up to our attention that seems a little off, one of the things that we're committed to is to not just trying to handle it internally, but if there's anything that's that that's kind of egregious or concerning, that we'll take it directly to the police.

And we have done that as a church on several occasions, sometimes to irritate people within the church, but but we feel like that we're not trained or equipped to deal with all things, and so that's something that we're committed to as well.

And then finally, I just want to say this certainly the Catholic Church is a different entity than the Protestant Church.

This is certainly the way it's organized, it's theology.

We have substantial differences in theology, not just in practice, with the Catholic Church.

But I would like to just say this, and that is this is one of those times when people can say, Well, I always was suspicious of the institution or of any institution.

And something I've said a couple different times is we have the capacity to separate individuals from institutions when we want to, but sometimes when it comes to something like the church, and and the Protestant church has had its share of scandals and things that aren't right.

Sometimes what we do is we say, well, because of that instance, I can't believe or I can't trust or I can't participate in.

And again, I'm not advocating here participation in one church over the other, as much as I'm just speaking in general, saying that we should have the capacity to separate what individuals do from the mission of an organization.

And probably the best example of this that I've used is this, and that is when a Steeler player, you know, if you're from this region, you care about the Steelers, and if you don't, you're either somebody who doesn't care about sports or you're just that guy, that gal, who's like, I'm too cool to care about the Steelers.

And so when a Steeler player does something egregious, something stupid, something unethical, something maybe even evil, you have the capacity to say, that's that player, it doesn't tarnish the whole, and to still say, I can cheer for the team without supporting the individual.

And my point is just this, and that is to say very simply that when it comes to the church, there will be people who will do things that are evil within the confines of any church over time.

And one of the important things that you and I will need to be able to do is say that individuals do not make the whole.

Now, certainly we hope that a church or any institution will respond well when things come to light.

And that certainly seems to be where the Catholic Church did not respond well.

And what I mean by responding well, by calling it out, by taking it to authorities, by saying we won't allow this to continue.

And I certainly hope that in the days ahead that the people at the leadership level in the Catholic Church will respond and not just hope that the scandal goes away.

But we just wanted to take a moment just to communicate about how we address things here.

So would you just pray with me?

Father, we come to you and just pray for the people who were victims in these scandals within the Catholic Church.

We pray that you would bring healing and hope to those individuals.

Lord, we pray uh that those in the leadership of the Catholic Church, and although we're a different entity entirely and in many ways don't share some key tenants theologically, but they still do things in your name.

And so, Lord, we pray that they would act honorably with the new information, whatever that means in the days ahead.

And God, we pray that you would continue just to protect people who are engaged at Orchard Hill in all our locations, all the things that happen, all the ministries, that this would truly be a safe place for all people.

And we pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, as I mentioned, this is going to be just a little bit different of a weekend.

And our thought was with uh kids going back to school next week, next week we'll be back studying a New Testament book.

But but with kids going back to school, that some of us are just starting to think about the fall again and what the fall looks like.

And here's what some research says about the church in general, and that is uh different surveys have come out and said that on a whole, spirituality is up in our country.

In other words, people are more interested in spiritual things, in in having some kind of a connection to something divine, but that participation in the religious institutions, especially the church, is down.

Now, there are some uh surveys recently, some data that's coming out that's saying attendance is actually on an upswing again within the church.

But be that as it may, you probably have experienced this where you know people, you you maybe you've been this person who says, I care about God, I care about spiritual things, but I don't need the institution of a church in order to foster my own spiritual life or to be a part of anything.

And so what I'd like to do today is spend a few moments just asking the question, why church?

Why church at all?

And there could be probably a lot of different responses to that, but the the response that I think is maybe most significant is this in Matthew chapter 13, verse 45 and 46, Jesus is talking about these different little stories about what the kingdom is like.

Matthew 13:45

And so he's painting a picture about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.

And here's what he says: he says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.

And when he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything that he had and he bought it.

And what that is simply saying is that is that the kingdom of God, the things that are spiritual in nature, are worth more than anything else that you and I can invest in.

Because here's what the merchant does he's finding a pearl and he says, I'm gonna go sell everything else to get this, because once I understand what this is, I understand this is worth more than everything else in my life.

It'd be like being in a garage sale somewhere and coming across something that you knew was of infinite value, and you saying, This is worth so much, I'll sell my house, my cars, I'll empty out my retirement account and all of my assets in this world in order to get this.

And what Jesus says is if you come to understand the kingdom, if you come to understand what I'm offering, you'll say this has more value than anything else in this world.

Now you may say, well, okay, that's God talking about Jesus talking about overall value of his kingdom, but that doesn't have anything to do with the church.

I don't see the church as being particularly valuable.

Well, in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus is talking again, and he uses the phrase again about the kingdom, but listen to how he uses it here.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Verses 18 through 20, it says this, I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

Now, some within the Catholic Church see this as a statement of papal succession, that Peter was the first pope, and that God said, I'm going to build my church on you, and whoever you appoint in successive generations, and whoever they appoint.

But but what's really happening here is he's just saying, on my followers, on my disciples, on whoever claims my name, I'm going to build my church.

And then he says this: he says, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Listen to this.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

And so what Jesus does is he says, the keys to the kingdom I'm giving to my followers, and he ties it to the church.

He says, the church will be the gathering of my followers that has the keys to the kingdom.

In other words, this will be what shows people in this world what my kingdom is like.

Now, again, my guess is some of us hear that and we say, Well, I don't experience that.

I mean, I go even to a great church like Orchard Hill, I hear good music, I hear teaching, I have programs, but but it isn't a pearl of that kind of price.

And I wonder sometimes if that's true because we simply do not have a sense of how significant it is what God wants to do and is doing through his church.

When the first disciples gathered together in Acts chapter 2, we see something about their priorities.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And this is a well-known passage, Acts chapter 2, verse 42 and following.

Acts 2:42

But we read this, it says, They devoted, and this is the first disciples, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, and to breaking of the bread and to prayer.

And here's what we see if we read through Acts, especially Acts chapter 2, and that is that the followers of Jesus met in large groups.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They met in the temple courts, and we know by the way that it's told that thousands would gather in public settings to devote themselves to the apostles' teachings, and they met in smaller groups in different places.

And here's what they were doing: they were meeting because as they met, their worldview, their thinking was being reshaped.

This is what happened in Acts chapter 2 when Peter gives a message and he talks about the story of God, the kingdom of God, and how it intersects individuals.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And then they devoted themselves to this teaching, meaning what happened in the early church was that people would gather in large groups and in small groups, and together they would relate, but they would also learn together.

They would be open-minded to new ideas and their worldview, their perceptions would be changed so that they live differently in the world.

Now, again, some of you may say, Well, how does that change things?

Well, when people, you, me, start to see things through the lens of the kingdom, through the lens of our God, rather than through the lens of our society, what happens is we bring different values to bear.

And what our political system, our education system, what our economic system can't do is what the kingdom can do, and that is the kingdom can change hearts.

You see, we can educate people about how to be politically correct, but if they don't care about valuing people, then the education will simply be to say, well, I guess I have to be PC, rather than saying, I want to value every person.

And if there's something that will help value every person, then I'll be a part of it.

See, it takes a heart change.

And what happens when our values are reshaped by the teaching, the apostles' teaching, then what happens is we begin to become people who live differently in this world.

And instead of valuing how much we can get, we start to value what we can contribute.

Instead of saying, I'm going to choose a selfish path, we choose a path that serves the world in which we live.

And what you see in this early church was that the people were so consumed with the word and with deeds that they lived in a way that the people around them said, these people live so radically differently that they must have a different set of values and beliefs.

Now, some of you may say, well, that's nice, but I can do this on my own.

I don't need a church.

I can seek God.

In fact, I can dial up a podcast I want, of a teacher I want, a series I want, I can listen to it when I want, I can get on Facebook Live and see services, I can hear great music, and I feel closer to God when I'm on my boat than I do in church.

Anyway, I I know what you're thinking.

But do you see that what happened with the early followers of Jesus is their large group and their small groups became such a part of the rhythm of their lives that they knew it shaped them?

And by the way, you know this is true.

Because if you've ever tried to, let's just take something as simple as workout, what do you typically do?

Now, some of you can say, I'll just get on my own plan and I'll do it, but the reason things like Peloton or Beach Body or going to a gym, belonging to the CrossFit thing locally works so well is because there's something inside of us that says, when I go with others and we share values, when I'm part of something, then I will live the values that I really want to live.

And you see, that happens spiritually too.

When we just say I'm going to do this on my own, we may or may not have the strength to follow through.

But when we're part of something bigger and part of a community that says, I and we live these things out together, then we become stronger.

Now, there's another facet to this, and that is that we're called, I believe, if you're a follower of Jesus, to be part of a representative body to the world.

And I don't think you can do that on your own.

There's a teaching in Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus was teaching, and this has been made famous by a kid's song.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Maybe you, if you've been around church, know the kid's song, This Little Light of Mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

You know, put it under a bushel.

No, any of you?

Okay, maybe not.

Um if uh I'll stop there.

So so here's here's what we read.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 through 16.

Matthew 5:14–16

You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everything in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

And what we've done with this verse on a whole, partly through the children's song, is we've individualized it.

Very much an American view of Christianity.

I'm gonna let my light shine.

I'm going to shine for Jesus.

I'm gonna be be somebody who lets my light be seen.

But do you know that in the original language, the you, you are the light of the world.

It's hard to see this in English because we have one word for you that means both plural and singular, but it's a it's a plural verb.

So what that means is if this was written to people in Pittsburgh today, here's what it would say: Yins are the light of the world.

You all are the light of the world.

Not you individually, you collectively, yins are the light of the world.

You didn't think you'd hear yins in a message today, did ya?

But it fits.

In fact, if you write in your Bible and you really love Pittsburgh, you should write yins in there so that you always remember that this is collective, this is not individual.

It's not saying you personally go be the light of the world.

It's saying you together are the light of the world.

And here's part of why church matters.

You see, church isn't just where you come to get something, it's where you come to say, this is what an alternate city, the city of God, would look like existing in our city.

This is a different way of living.

But so often, what happens instead is we treat the church like a consumer item.

And what I mean by that is what we do is we say, I've got some options today.

There's brunch, there's church, there's golf, there's church, there's kids' sports, there's church.

Let's see what we can do.

Now, I'm not someone who looks at that and says, Oh, that's awful, but what I'm saying is we treat church not like we're part of a collective whole that's giving an alternate city vision to our community, but we treat it like I only need to come as long as I'm getting something.

You know, if the music's really good this week, if I like the series, oh, they have something better going on over at church, X, Y, and Z.

Maybe I'll go there for their midweek Bible study because I like what they have going.

Rather than saying I'm part of something where together we are the collective representation of Christ in this community, and this is something that is very clear in the pages of scripture about what church is.

So there's a reshaping of us that goes on when we understand how the kingdom is contained in the church, but then we become the representatives to the broader community of what God wants to do.

There's a little book for that came out a few years ago called The All Better Book.

And what the book is, is they take complicated issues and they ask kids to solve them, how they would solve them.

So, for example, uh, one of the questions asked, What would you do about unhappy workers in their jobs?

And Andrew, age eight, writes, I would pay everybody twice as much.

And whenever people were unhappy, I would have a tickling machine and we would tickle them until they had fun.

But one of the questions that they ask in this book is, What would you do with all the lonely people in the world?

And one little girl said, Well, what I'd do is I would get the names and addresses of all the lonely people.

And I would connect them to people who aren't lonely and give them each other's names and addresses.

Not a bad idea.

Another little kid said, I would get them either a pet, a wife, or a husband.

Not sure what that says exactly.

Here's what Dallas Willard once wrote about church, about God's agenda.

He said this.

He said, God's aim in human history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with himself as the primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.

You see, when church is what it's designed to be in the pages of Scripture, it's not a performance that we grade.

It's not an item that we consume.

But it's a community of people that are doing life together in a community that give breadth and dimension and a human sense of what it's like to be followers of Jesus in a different era than the era of the Bible.

That's an exciting mission if you get it.

Maybe you're here and you're saying, you know what, I'm about to head to college and I don't know that I need church for these years.

I mean, I can kind of listen to what's at home, or I've always wanted to slay being part of a church isn't just about what you get.

It's about saying, this is part of the people that I identify with.

Maybe you're from somewhere else and you just happen to be around this weekend and you're saying, there's no good church where I live, no church that represents.

You're right.

There is no church that's perfect.

This church isn't perfect.

This church is far from perfect.

And what that means is that is that part of what we do when we commit to somewhere is we say, I'm part of making this place what it can be, what it should be, what it is.

Because I love how Billy Graham, I think it was, once put it.

He said, if you're waiting to join the perfect church, go ahead and join one that you like and once you've found it, but it'll cease to be perfect as soon as you've joined it.

There is no perfect place.

But really, what church is is it's imperfect people coming together and saying we worship a perfect God, and together we're trying to figure out what that looks like together.

So here's a second question, and that is why Orchard Hill?

There's hundreds of churches in the region.

What would make Orchard Hill unique?

And there are probably a lot of ways that I could answer this.

I've been around for 13 years, almost 13 years.

And you might expect me to say this as the pastor, but I can tell you there's a lot of pastors who don't feel the way that I feel about this church and what I'm about to say.

I love this church.

And I don't mean the buildings and the campuses and the and the growth.

What I mean is I love the people that are part of this church that represent the kingdom of God in this community.

Because there are people here who say, I want nothing more than to honor God with my life and with my engagement.

Now, does that mean everybody here lives that?

Of course not.

But over and over I meet people, I discover people who are part of this church in all of the different locations, and I see how God is orchestrating something, but but there's something more to this too.

And that is, I think at Orchard Hill, we are uniquely positioned in our community.

And I say that for this reason, and this goes all the way back to the founding of this church.

One of the precepts, one of the things that was said over and over about what we wanted to be was we wanted to be a church that was theologically pure and culturally relevant.

And that idea comes from 1 Corinthians 9, where Paul was talking about the importance of the gospel, and he said, But I'll do anything I can basically to win some.

And what he does in that passage is he says, there is the importance of the gospel.

This is what we're about, and at the same time, there's the importance of saying we want to be culturally relevant, we want to do all that we can to reach people.

Now, here's why this is important.

Because there are some churches that say, we're all about the gospel, and we're so pure in it that we don't care whoever comes or can access it or be part of it.

And then there are churches that will say, we're so into meeting people where they are that we aren't necessarily all about the gospel.

And what happens is they can become, and this is a danger here as well, but but any church can become a church that is guilty of what's talked about in Galatians 1, verses 1 through 5, where he says, I'm astonished that you've so quickly abandoned the gospel for another gospel that's really no gospel at all.

Galatians 1:1–5

You see, what happens sometimes is churches will say, Look, we're gonna sell you, for lack of a better word, an experience.

Come here and you'll have a great experience.

Come here and we'll be part of this social awareness or action.

Come here and we'll give you a really good TED talk with a Bible verse so that you feel good about your life and it becomes rules and standards to go live by.

But but at Orchard Hill, when we say we want to continue to be theologically pure, we don't mean that every doctrine that we hold, we think we're right against every other church.

What we mean is that we will continue to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the need of humanity, the thing to celebrate, and the thing that brings freedom.

And here's how that works out for us week after week after week, as we believe that as we come here and we focus on that and celebrate that, that that is what brings the power to change our lives and lets us live and be transformed as we have God's story imprinted on our story, and then we live differently in the world.

So we are unapologetically focused on celebrating and savoring the message of Jesus Christ week in, week out, while at the same time saying, how can we be as culturally relevant as possible?

Meaning we'll continue to use whatever means we think we can to reach more and more people because we believe that God has placed every church in order to reach people, help people, find and follow Jesus Christ.

And so we're going to be unapologetic in our mission.

You see, what happens sometimes in churches is people will come and they'll say, Well, I want this to feel more like the churches that I've had in the past.

But at Orchard Hill, we consistently say we want to prioritize people who have become disenfranchised with church, have never been around church, have been spiritual, but not necessarily Christian.

And what that means is we consistently try to find language and ways to communicate these truths in a way that will help people connect with Jesus Christ.

And what our real hope is is that we'll continue to connect people to God through ever-increasing congregations, growing in size, growing in number of congregations, campuses, that more than just Butler and the strip district and Wexford and the chapel, that we'll see more and more places have congregations that take the DNA of what this church is about in order to change the spiritual landscape of Western Pennsylvania and beyond.

And in many ways, I feel like Orchard Hill is just on the runway of where we can be and where maybe God is calling us.

Now, we're going to uh just have a moment here where Kay Warheight's going to speak to the group in Butler about what's happening there this fall.

Joel Haldeman's going to speak to the group in the strip district, and I'm going to just continue to talk here about what's coming in Wexford.

And so what's coming in Wexford this year, this fall, in many ways, may not seem like it's anything different.

And that's because in many ways, what we're going to be doing this fall is what we've been doing.

And I sometimes get people who say, Well, what's next?

What's our new thing?

And certainly when we get to our year-end capital campaign, we'll talk about some opportunities to enhance the ministry through capital projects.

But what we also believe is that when we as a church do the same things over and over again with excellence and with passion, that that's when people connect.

And so what we try to do here is say, let's have an excellent worship experience where you encounter God.

So one of the reasons that we launched the chapel service is we want something that's for people who say, I want a different kind of worship experience, to connect with God in a different way.

We want to continue just to teach the text in a way that says we're devoting ourselves to the apostles' teaching and in our life groups to have people talking about and going deeper with it in terms of what it means to them personally.

We're going to continue to invest in the next generation.

As a church, one of our great strategic places that God has placed us is in a place where we get to invest in the kids through Kidsburg, the students in Collide and in 724, and every year there are hundreds and over the course of years, thousands of kids who come through this place.

And here's what you don't always see.

I get to see it, especially having been here as long as I've been here now, is that kids who come through Kidsburg and Kids Fest and Collide in 724 end up going off to college and living and having lives in other places around the country.

But the investment that's made here pays kingdom dividends all over the place.

And so we're going to continue to invest in that and we're going to continue to try to facilitate relationships.

I talked earlier about the the church as a place where people can connect, where we're not lonely, where people are in real relationship.

And that means being in life groups or Bible studies.

We have a list, I think, in the program, our adult ministry team can help you today to connect to a life group or to a study this fall.

But here's what I've seen in years and years of being a pastor now.

And that is people get out of church involvement, what they put into it.

And what I mean by that is if you decide to say, I'm going to come a couple times a month and just show up at the service, and that's the extent of my involvement, you'll feel like, you know, that this church is just kind of a thing.

But if you're engaged with people and have real relationships with others, what you'll find is that it's bigger than just simply a place that you go, but it's a spiritual family.

And so we're going to continue to do that.

And then as a church, we're going to stay focused on a sense of mission.

Now we do have our two campuses, Butler and the Strip District, that are off-site, have some exciting things happening.

In Butler, they're moving next weekend into a new facility for them.

We're going to be sharing some space with a church there.

And then in the strip district, we're renovating the old St.

Elizabeth's Church.

And we're going to see that come to fruition.

And those are exciting things for us.

And one of the good things about multi-site is that it is that we get a chance to be a part of God's movement all through the region.

And to say, I'm part of something that God's doing in Butler and the Strip District in Wexford, and hopefully one day in other places all around the region.

And so that leads me to one last question, and that is, how can you partner with this?

How can you be a part of this?

And there's a rubric we've used around here for years that is very simple, and that is we just simply say, show up, grow up, and step up.

And what we mean when we say this is show up, just simply make a commitment to say, I'm going to be a part of what happens week in, week out.

And what that means is that you say, if I'm not out of town, I'm not sick, I'm going to find a way to be part of what God's doing.

Week in, week out.

Because without that, what happens is again, we become those consumers who say, I'm choosing week to week, rather than just saying, this is part of what I do.

And as I show up, our hope is that we invest in other people's lives and invite them to come and to experience what God is doing here.

And then we grow up, and that's our kind of phrase for being part of a group and saying, I'm going to either be part of a study or a life group in every season that I can in order to grow further.

Our life group curriculum mirrors kind of what happens on our weekends.

And then we have several studies.

I have a favorite study this fall.

My wife and I are going to be teaching a class on marriage on Wednesday nights.

I think that'll be a great opportunity just to grow in another area of your life.

And then we talk about stepping up, which means get engaged, serve somewhere.

We have lots of opportunity with kids, with the whole being too deep.

So saying I'm going to be at one service and then maybe serve in a second service and take care of some kids and play with them and lead them or be part of a small group or parking team or first impressions is a way to just say I'm engaged or to use our resources in ever-increasing ways to say I want what happens here to be used in God's economy for things that are even bigger than what I could do on my own.

And you see, when that becomes true, then we really do get a chance to see God at work.

And I I toyed with as I was working on this weekend, just what like good story could I tell to kind of say, here's the story of life change and how God has changed lives.

If you were here last weekend, there was a video of a man who told about just his own addictions, some of his own struggles, and how he even got to a point of being suicidal and then came back to church and how God used it.

And you know, those stories we don't often tell because they're individual stories.

Once in a while somebody says, Hey, I'll tell my story, and and we tell the story.

But I can just tell you that there are stories of life change that are happening here all the time.

There are people who come through these doors who are saying, This is my last chance.

My family's a mess, my world is broken, I feel alone, I feel abandoned, I've been abused, I'm using, I'm running from God, and we get to see God meet people and help them get free from addiction.

Great stuff on Thursday nights for that.

We get to see God put marriages back together, and sometimes even when the marriage isn't put back together, giving somebody the strength to make it through the split that they didn't want.

We get to see God reunite families, see God bring people who've been far from Him close.

And maybe you don't see it every week.

Maybe you come and you say, I get to talk to some people here and there, but the story is being told.

That's why we say this all the time.

The story is being told in the changed lives of people.

You know, the story of Orchard Hill, helping people find and follow Jesus Christ is not about the size of the rooms or the buildings or even the campus multiplication.

It's about people whose lives are changed.

And it happens because a group of people say, I'm committed to the apostles' teaching with a group of people, large group, small group, and and together we're living as an alternate city in our city and seeing what God will do.

Will you pray with me?

Father, I ask today that you would just meet each of us here, that we would not just see church as something we go to, but uh but a family of people that we're part of.

And that in that we would see you work.

God, I pray that that for those who maybe are are here today and saying, I'm not sure about God or where I fit in, that even as we just talked about the message of grace, the gospel being our core message, that your son is the substitute, the savior, that there would be a draw to say, I want to experience Jesus in that way.

And God, for those who have already experienced Jesus as their Savior, I pray that wonder would never leave us and it would so change us that we live differently.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.