Episode 20 Schools & Soul-Winning

speaker-0: Welcome to the Thrive On Mission Podcast, the podcast of the CRA, the Christian Restoration Association. I'm Dave Jones and as always here with Jim Book. Jim, great to see you back home.

speaker-1: Good to be home, my friend. Good to be home. Yeah. We we had an opportunity to go back to my old stomping grounds. Cause Simi Christian Academy had their ⁓ graduation and the they do a big eighth grade graduation. And so we had that and then closing ceremonies and awards ceremonies. And so they said, Can you come up and do the award ceremony on Thursday morning and speak to the to the family and the parents and the graduates that evening? Which I did. And Dave, I'll tell you. The the principal said, We we we have a young lady I've been working with, she wants to be baptized at the program. I was like, Well, that's great. And then she said, What if we were to right in the middle the program offer an invitation to anybody that needs to get right with Christ, get baptized, you know. I was like, Well, ⁓ that would be great. Why not? We we can do that. I mean, we're not I don't have the NEA, I don't have the teachers union to beat me up. Okay, let's do it. I mean, we this is why we're a Christian school, right? And so I said to the families, we're gonna do something we've never done before in a school program. You know, we're gonna offer an opportunity for you to make the same decision the students made, because if you're not right with Christ, you need to. And I said, I I think I even said, you know, you came to a school program, but a revival broke out. So so we had a lady come up for prayer, which was great, and we had different guys standing up ready to receive. And after the school program, I was out in the in the ⁓ overhang because The eighth grade graduates all get to go in a limousine. So they do every year and they take them to this fancy restaurant. And so all the teachers and the faculty and what have you join them. And this lady walked up to me. She said, I want you to know I was this close to coming forward. And I was ready to make a decision for Christ. And I was like, Whoa. And so she called the principal the next day and said, I'm lining up to have my baptism done. And ⁓ and then another another couple was baptized Saturday at their church. Because of the school program. So the reality is, man, I mean, just like we weren't that was just an add-on. Like, well, why don't we do this? But it's amazing, amazing how when the gospel's presented, ⁓ people take, you know, they respond to it. And the moment was perfect. You know, seize the moment, seize the moment. So it was a great program, great to go back, great to see everybody. And so ⁓ I was honored and blessed at the same time.

speaker-0: That's great. Jim, you've always been an advocate. I've said before that ⁓ Christian school is in your blood. Have you ever quantified is there any way to really quantify the impact of a like even just at Kissimmee, the impact of the school onto the church and its growth?

speaker-1: You know, from a financial standpoint, it's been great because the school helps pay for a lot of the things that the church ⁓ shares. So from a financial standpoint, it's been beautiful. But I'll tell you the the spiritual impact has been unbelievable. The number of families ⁓ and children that have ⁓ become Christians through the school and advocate for Christ and who whose worldview is completely changed by the ministry message of the church, even teachers who've who've come to to know Christ better. You know, even though they're Christians, they they're professed Christians as they teach, but yet they have a deeper walk with God because of the church. I I I'm excited about the number of churches that we're working with right now, Dave, through the CRA, through Mission 120, that are getting ready to launch their Christian schools over the next couple of years. It's been one of the the offsets, ⁓ not offsets, but one of the the ministries that we do through the CRA is to provide coaching for that. So we've got three churches working with right now that are preparing to do that. But From my perspective, it was a boom for our church. ⁓ because it was just ⁓ low-hanging fruit. They were there, and we would, you know, naturally we would, you know, gravitate to the parents and the students with the message of the church. And our goal was to look at it like a three s like a three ⁓ pronged ⁓ fork. You know, you've got to have a h strong home, a strong church, and a strong school. You take any one of those out and you don't have a complete fork, you know. So ⁓ I think stool would be a better example, three, three legged stool. So we thought, okay, what if we were to partner with parents and the school and the church and provide that opportunity? And we did. And it was a blessing on the for the church in so many ways.

speaker-0: That's neat. So for churches maybe that have it in their mind, maybe it's come up in a in a trustee or in a elders meeting or discussion within the church, we should start a school. I wonder what it'd be like if we started a school. What are maybe one or two, maybe three things they should be thinking about in the very early stages if that's part of their conversation?

speaker-1: Number one, the administrator is key. Just like a church has to have a preacher or you don't have an evangelist, you you're missing a major part of your puzzle. You've got to have a solid administrator. So shop for that first. Number two, ⁓ the eldership needs to be completely behind it because now you're sharing everything. You're opening up a sec almost a second work inside the present work because that's what the school is. It's a separate ministry in and ⁓ you know, under the auspices of the church. and ⁓ And and and then you know ⁓ develop ⁓ your application material, your student handbooks, your faculty handbooks. Now here's what we'll do. The CRA provides all of that through through our ministry. We take everything that we've put together over the years at Kissimmee Christian Academy, student handbooks, teachers' handbooks, ⁓ application material, all the material we give to churches. All they have to do is put their logo on it. Now they can change things if they want, they don't have to use everything or they don't use any of it. But we do all the heavy lifting for you to help. coach you through this. And so it's part of what the CRA does in in regards to helping churches grow if that's the venue they want. Now not every church wants a school I get. We also help them with their homeschool outreach. I we ⁓ have a separate homeschool ministry at Kissimmee Christian Academy and we can help you develop a strong homeschool ⁓ program at your church if that's the direction you want to go. So again it's another avenue, another road to the baptistry, another road to the kingdom. And more roads that we have leading to the baptistry in the kingdom, the more growth we're gonna see. It's not the only place to grow, the only tool to use to grow, but it is a big one. And we can help you with that. And I first hand, I could tell you it was huge for us what it did for us.

speaker-0: Yeah, and what a great illustration with that that baptism at the bat ⁓ graduation and just the work that continues that way. Good stuff. Hopefully people are interested, they'll they'll reach out to the CRA and to Jim and he'll ⁓ give some direction. Each week we give a game ball, Jim. And ⁓ last week I reached out to ⁓ one of the preachers I thought we'd given a game ball to and said, Hey, did you get did you get your twenty five dollar gift certificate from the CRA yet? And he said What game ball and what gift certificate? Well, I thought we did yes, I thought we had, but we didn't. And so this week, long overdue, is a game ball to Jeremiah Scadden. Jeremiah is the senior minister at the Parkview Christian Church in Worcester, Ohio. It's ⁓ about two hours north of Columbus and about an hour and a half south of Cleveland in a very prime location, right across from a a college there and they're just killing it, doing some great stuff, ⁓ re revamping so much in the church that needed to be done so to just communicate the gospel better and to reach into their community. So ⁓ really appreciate the work Jeremiah and the elders are doing ⁓ there at Parkview and he's building a great team of people there. So Jeremiah, promise this time ⁓ gift certificate is coming your way. And so grateful for Jeremiah and so many of that are doing that work. So we are ⁓ wrapping up in the next couple of episodes here, Jim, ⁓ the Axe Model of Church Growth. We started this way back when, it seems. And we've reached the S in the X model, A S A C T S and it's spirit driven. And before we get there, just remind us of what ACTS stands for in the effort of church growth.

speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, X we just took the the it made an acronym out of A accelerated growth. Again, read the book of Acts. It wasn't just growth, accidental growth. ⁓ they all knew what they were doing. They were very mission-oriented, very purpose-driven. So it was accelerated growth, not pragmatic growth, accelerate accelerated growth, just letting the gospel do its thing. And T, you know, ⁓ C culturally relevant. When you read the book of Acts, you know, they don't. d dodge issues, man. They they deal with the issues hard on. The Pauline epistles are very specific. ⁓ as Paul starts ⁓ churches in the Gentile community, Peter in the Jewish community, but they were relevant to the culture around them. And and and I believe the church is should be and is the most culturally relevant institution in the world. T theologically sound. doctrinal delusion is is is is a frightening crisis in many churches. You know, deconstructionism says we'll just take verses and And narratives in the Bible that we feel uncomfortable, remove them and just won't speak of those. But ⁓ the Bible teaches us to preach the whole counsel of God. And theologically sound churches are growing and they're developing. And the S, as you mentioned, Dave, just simply stands for spirit-driven. ⁓ we don't quench the spirit either I, by neglecting the scriptures, or b, ⁓ suppressing the spirit as it moves within our churches. And that's that's dangerous. So spirit-driven churches. are seen throughout the book of Acts. I mean, they let the Holy Spirit set them on fire. And once that happened, ⁓ sky was a limit for the early church.

speaker-0: Goodness. Spirit-driven church is an unstoppable church. And our focus has really been in First Peter chapter four. We've talked about a praying, sober-minded church, a church that loves, a church that's hospitable and ministers to one another. And this week, ⁓ we end up in verse 11 of 1 Peter 4. It says, Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. In order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And so the unstoppable church, a spirit-driven church, speaks the message of God to others, the oracles of God.

speaker-1: So let's talk a little bit about okay, how do we get our people to buy into evangelism is everyone's responsibility. It's not, and this, and we've compartmentalized so well in the church. We Hire professionals. And we got the evangelist, that's his job to baptize. We got an associate. He makes up where the preacher can. And ⁓ we're very consumer-driven. You know, we we come in and we expect the church do everything for us, worship for us, pray for us, teach for us, and just hold our hands to heaven. But I realize the early church, man, everybody saw it as their responsibility to sp to take the message to others. Okay. Now, and that's one of the things mission 120 is trying to do. Mission 120. Focuses in case you missed on this, that's fine. Acts the first chapter, the 120, verse 13, played a huge role in launching the church. But I think the 120 were doing everything. Maybe they didn't have the gifts of the apostles. I get that, but I think they were baptizing, servicing, equipping, opening up their homes, being benevolent. There's no way the church gets up to 5,000 X4 unless somebody's talking it up. I'm serious. You can't get you can't grow like that unless everybody's in. And so I believe the the the message of God is is is was on their lips and their hearts every single day. So, you know, mission 120, again, we start off broad ⁓ broad and and work our way in. Part of mission 120 is getting everybody in the church involved in planting the seed. That's why we're big on these invitation cards, ⁓ business size cards with the name of your church, times, QR code, whatever you want to on there. But get those in the hands of people and get everybody involved in playing the seed throughout the week. I think the early church grew because everybody had a buy-in.

speaker-0: Yeah, I was talking to a group of church leaders. This is last year, and we were talking about soul winning. And I just asked the question, what is evangelism? And an elder in the group, he said, You know, I know this isn't right, but the way that I operated for years was that that evangelism was inviting my friends to church and the preacher preaching a strong sermon so they would walk the aisle and get baptized. Yeah. So where do you think the church how did it come to be that the church became so much centered in the preacher's responsibility? And it is a great responsibility, but the preacher's job is to do all the soul winning. Where did that come from? Any idea?

speaker-1: Yeah, I so I I read Oswald Guinness's book, The Calling. It's a very popular book. Oswald Guinness is a reformationist, so this is not an endorsement on Oswald Guinness's theology universally. I've just obviously some real hiccups with some of it, but he does a deep dive in where we where we evolved in in Protestant and cr in the evangelical movement in regards to the superiority of the priest and the clerical organization and then the common man. Now, of course, his point is God never deciphers between the common and uncommon. In fact, he hates those terms, common and uncommon, and we all have a commonality as Christians, and that's a responsibility to share faith. But Catholicism, I think, really, really has played an impact even in the evangelical or I would even say the ⁓ restoration movement churches. ⁓ so there's this laity and and amongst the priest or the preacher ⁓ and the And and and it's the the priest, preacher, evangelist job to to network with unbelievers, to coach them to the baptistry and to equip them. And and the laity just basically comes, throws some money in the plate, and and cheers the preacher on. And so this it is birthed out of Catholicism, but we got come out of that. ⁓ because you know, Peter really speaks to every member ministry when he says we're all a part of the royal priesthood of believers. And the royal priesthood is everybody is a part of has a part and parcel to play in the growth of the church. It's not just segregated to the preacher or the evangelist or elder or associate or student minister, which I think again, and I'm not opposed to those offices, but I think we've created so many specialized departments in the church. What we've done is we've taken responsibility from the laity and we've made common and uncommon, you know, the common man, the uncommon man, we made it, I think it's it's it becomes the the message of today which it shouldn't be.

speaker-0: You also have to wonder if the early 20th century movement of crusades and revivals, though there's nothing wrong with a good revival, but you almost have to wonder if the work of Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and and the revival movement, even within our brotherhood, led to this mentality, I'll bring them and you save them. Really just putting an over-emphasis on that.

speaker-1: Right. Right.

speaker-0: So what helps a church, Jim, that you've seen in making that shift from being more preacher centered, doing all the work of evangelism and spreading that out amongst all the members?

speaker-1: Well, I I think the preacher has to see himself as a coach. ⁓ and a lot of preachers, they they b in their mind nobody can do it better than them. Nobody can articulate the message better than them. When you stop and think about it, the preacher of the evangelist, he's got the microphone more than anyone else in the whole church. And that's not wrong. Okay. I understand all that. ⁓ but all of a sudden i i he he begins to think in terms of ⁓ I set the vision, I've got the microphone, I'm the I'm the I'm the rally. Raha guy. I'm the preacher. I'm the focal point of everything. Because generally speaking, on a Sunday, he is. But then he begins to do everything for his people. And people are complacent. Look, you know, growing up, I had a brother and sister. If my mom and dad said, Hey, we're going leave for go out to dinner, we'll come back, you all clean the kitchen. You all, all three of you, decide amongst yourselves. If one of us decided to do it, and like, I'm just going to do it, the other two of us were like, Go ahead, knock yourself out. You know, we're like high fiving each other. I think as long as the preacher's doing it and doesn't require or expect others to join him, they won't. Remember, Jesus refers to his flock as sheep. What are sheep? They're not naturally aggressive. They don't naturally get in line on their own. They don't actually take charge. They only go where the shepherd tells them. So I blame the preacher and the shepherds. And I was guilty of this too. You know, as long as things were happening, we had a high powered staff. We're growing. You know, I got my act together, which is not always the case, but I kind of thought I did most of time. ⁓ Do what? must have faked it pretty good, but you know, we're growing, we're doing well. I just needed my people to kind of applaud, throw some money in the plate and cheer us off. That was a mistake because it takes the joy out of church growth when we don't allow them or encourage them to get involved, at least at that level. Look,

speaker-0: Fake it pretty good. You fake it pretty good.

speaker-1: Evangelism is so easy. It's just someone said it's like one beggar telling another beggar to find bread. Okay, it's really just hey, I I was lost and now I'm found. You're lost, you can be found. And what was it that ⁓ our first podcast, Dave? ⁓ Jeff Fall really, I mean he hammered this point home. Discipleship starts with sitting next to a friend and on the football bleachers and going, Hey, did I ever invite you to my church? ⁓ how are things going in your marriage? Hey, before we leave, can I pray with you? He said discipleship begins with those innocuous conversations. And everybody in the church can have those. My goodness, you don't have to have a degree in theology. You don't have to be a preacher just to care enough about their soul to go, hey, I'd love to invite you to my church. In fact, I'm going to, and this is what God's done in my life. And if he can do this in my life, I bet he can do it in yours. Can we just say that, right?

speaker-0: Jim, as I look around our movement right now, it seems there's a lot of churches that are really starting to spark. There's some good stuff happening. And the ones that are having baptisms on a very regular basis, maybe every week, even every few days, they are churches where it seems it's not only the preacher that's immersing people into Christ. Yes. And I think there's a distinction there between a church that adds to the body of Christ and a church that is multiplying. And And the more that our congregations I should say, the more our leaders are focused on the Ephesians four role of an elder and evangelist, where we are equipping the saints for works of service and letting them do the work. And the less we are holding on tightly to the the responsibilities that we believe we have, the more the church seems to grow and multiply. Time and time again, that's happening. And the beautiful thing is too, one of the most Joyful things I consider in ministry aren't necessarily the times that I've had the chance to baptize people into Christ. Though that's a that's an honor and a privilege, but but the times that have meant the most to me are when I've discipled somebody and I get to watch them baptize somebody into Christ. ⁓ S so Jim, when we about the importance of evangelism for the the ⁓ for all of us as not not those in any sort of specific role, what are some keys? that the the average person can keep in mind as they're ministering to their friends, sitting in the bleachers next to their friend or at work. What are some things we can encourage them to do?

speaker-1: Okay, so I I I think you know there's a lot of programming that we're doing in our churches that are really good, but I think we sometimes we limit it towards well, that's that's kind of for the members. I think we have to tweak that. Everything it can be a member driven event, but does it have to be exclusively for members? Why can't we open it up and invite non believers to attend it as well? For instance, you know, we sometimes have like an all church picnic. Okay, that's great. Primarily for the believers, primarily for the church family. But why does it have to be exclusive? Because you've got somebody out there that's scared to death to walk into a sanctuary, auditorium. Ooh, but man, they they they they go to you know barbecues all the time. What if we were to say, hey, we're you know, our church is doing a barbecue. You don't have to bring your Bible, you don't have to dress up, not that anybody dresses up anymore anyway, but the fact of the matter is very low-key, but but we just got to condition our people, every event now is not exclusively for the members. It isn't. Now communion is. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about extracurricular events. Vacation Bible school needs bring one unsaved kid with you. One kid. So if you have 50 averaging in the church, now you got a hundred. All right, so I just think we just have to think terms of ⁓ of ⁓ revising the way we're doing things and making everything do an outreach. How do we make this ⁓ simple, innocuous event an outreach event? Not just something for the believers, but something for an unbeliever to come to and at least have their interests sparked.

speaker-0: ⁓ that's good. And so from the ministry leadership perspective, really advancing that idea. And a lot of that comes from the preacher because he does have the microphone and it's how we communicate it and encourage people to live that out in their lives. One other thing I've seen that's working very well for for our folks here is we've tried to equip them to evangelize better. recently we've really just tried to focus on that first Peter 3:15 model. Be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. And there's a lot of answers we could have, but that verse specifically says, be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. And so we've just encouraged people to tell people. why they're happy to be Christians, why they became a Christian. They don't want to go to hell. They want to go to heaven. Why they like their church and why they should come to church with them some week. And so really just making it more of a personal message.

1 Peter 3:15

speaker-1: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I look, I I don't want to oversimplify things. Some people call me a reductionist. Like, Jim, you always reduce everything to three points. But I think the three biggest questions the world's asking, if we can just get these three down, how do we get here? You know, either a naturalist view, we time and chance, or we've been intelligently created, designed. Number two, what's gone wrong? We can talk all day long about crime and welfare dependency and all the other social pathologies, but it really boils down to man offended God, we call it sin. And thirdly, where am I going? Well, you got two choices, heaven or hell. Okay. So how can I get from here to heaven? If we could understand now that's just a quick overview, but if we could get those three questions down and provide quality answers, biblically sound, culturally relevant answers, because the Bible's very relevant, I'm telling you, we are on our way of directing people to the cross. Now, there's a lot of stuff that goes under those three questions. I get that. But those are the three predominant questions the whole world is asking. I don't care where you live. How did I get here? What's gone wrong? How can I be fixed? That's, as you said, Dave, give a reason for the hope. Can you give a reason for those three questions, folks? If you can, you're well on your way of being a soul winner.

speaker-0: our friends They value your opinion. And eventually they want to hear your story as to why those three answers gave you hope to become a Christian. And then you can direct them down that path as well. So, you know, we really encourage people to know their story. ⁓ If you know why you became a Christian, you know enough to tell somebody else how they can become a Christian.

speaker-1: Absolutely, absolutely. And I I may be wrong about this. I think I'm right. When Philip gets to Samaria in Acts the eighth chapter, the town was already fueled for a revival. Miracles were done. Philip calls the apostles to lay hands on people because Philip couldn't. He wasn't an apostle, right? And then verse 8 great joy came on that city. I believe, in my opinion, the reason why that town was fertile. For the message of the gospel from Philip and the church that was being persecuted that left Jerusalem to go to Samaria, I think had everything to do with the woman at the well that conversed with Jesus. I think she was so impressed by his message of redemption and hope. She began to advocate for Christ before Philip got there. I think the town was ripe because of her witness, her testimony. As you said, Dave, I think if we just can we share our story because everybody's got a story. And I mean my story won't save you. I get it. It's the story of the cross and the empty tomb and what Christ did. But why don't you tell people what Christ did for you? That's a great place to start.

speaker-0: Jim, as you look around the church ⁓ of Christ as a whole right now, I think we're ⁓ in a in a great spot. Are there some ⁓ areas for improvement? Are there that are struggling and need to to grow? Is there a need for more preachers, more qualified, stronger doctrine? All of those things absolutely, but people are excited to hear about Jesus. And we have more opportunities today, in my opinion, than we've ever, ever had before. And so if if you're working with a church, a group of elders and a preacher to help them better equip their people to be the priesthood of all believers that you talked about earlier and help other people discover who Jesus is, what are some things that you're going to be telling the preacher and the elders to do to develop that spirit within their church for everybody to share the gospel?

speaker-1: Okay, first of all, the f the crowd only gets ex gets as excited as the the guys on the field. You know, when when a crowd when a when a football team performs poorly, the crowd booze and they start exiting early. Third quarter, they start hitting the great. So if you want the crowd to stay, you want the crowd to continue to pay ridiculous money, you want the crowd to continue to cheer you on, you gotta win. Winning starts with the leadership. No way in the world is the is the body gonna get more excited than the leadership. The leadership sets the thermometer and the tone and the temperature for that within the church. So Dave, when I travel, it takes me five minutes to know exactly where the people are. Cause I you show me your leaders, I'll show you where your people are. Always it it's always that way. If the leadership is not excited about where the church is, if the leadership is ⁓ running on empty, if the leadership has a laissez faire attitude towards growth, development, and vision, I Guarantee you that's exactly where the flock are going to be. Now, juxtapose that. The preacher, the elders are on fire. Takes you five minutes to realize, okay, this church is getting ready to take off like a rocket. I was at a church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Ecclesia Christian Church, went in for like a service during the week. I mean the excitement from the minute you walked in, people opening the door, they had all matching shirts. It's almost like they couldn't wait to go and worship. They they were expecting visitors. The place was packed. And I knew it's trickled down. This excitement, this energy has been infused from leadership to people. So if you're a preacher and you're like, I think our people are lazy, they're not talking the church up. They're not talking Jesus up. I would give I would I would put a thermometer in everybody's mouth in leadership, starting with your elders and your church staff, and I would take the temperature of them. And if it's mediocrity, ⁓ again, indifference, ⁓ there's a lack of excitement and joy in their lives, it's never gonna happen in the church life. And you say, Well, it's more than emotion. It is more than emotion, it's a solid message that's practical and real. But I I cannot believe, I cannot believe that this message does not transform emotionally a person from it, it does. And I I just would challenge the leadership, man. If you're not doing anything that excites you, ⁓ then start. But nothing excites a church more than seeing the baptistry water stirred. That stokes congregations. And if you don't believe it, start baptizing and you'll be amazed at what it does to your flock.

speaker-0: ⁓ outstanding. So the motivational aspect, the leaderships example, number one and key. ⁓ what's number two? How would you equip the people to do that work then? What are some tips that you might give?

speaker-1: We don't, we don't, we don't, we don't enough in the church. We just don't celebrate enough. Dave, you guys do such a great job. ⁓ but we have social media at our at our at our disposal. If someone's baptized during the week, ⁓ it needs to go all over social media and let the church know, man, these guys are serious about baptism. They're baptized people on a Friday afternoon. What's the big deal? Because it is a big deal, all right. And and we need to celebrate on Sunday morning. If I were I so I was always I I should have been a circus clown because I'd walk up on the stage and I'd go, you know, I've got good news. If I didn't think the people reacted well enough, I was like, Well, I'm not gonna tell you. But then they all want to hear it. It's like, ⁓ you really want to hear it? Okay, here it is. Boom, baptism celebrate recovery Thursday night. Boom, four Haitians came forward And then everybody applauds. But I wanted them to you are you ready for what God's doing? So ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ it, man. Don't assume Anything. Don't assume anything. So I told our principal, I said, before I left, we had those baptisms. It's like I would be emailing the elders right now. Right now. They don't know any of this stuff because they they don't, of course they don't know. They they weren't there for those conversations, and that's fine. And then I said I would blitz the church staff. Hey guys, just so you know, we had a revival in our school program Friday night. But promote it, man. Preachers promote, you've got you've got the best news in the world. Now, I think if we start promoting it better, our people are like. I want to be a part of this. I want to, I want to have a story that we can celebrate. I want to be able to share this kind of stuff. So marketing, sharing it, cheering it on, celebrating, we should all do a better job of that. And I'm gonna tell you, the book of Acts did. Man, it's like Peter's always I just one scripture. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was Shaken, Acts 431, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. They all, not just the apostles, everybody in the room was going nuts. Yeah. Why can't we? We can. We just got to start thinking about it, doing it, and celebrating everything. And if it's if somebody comes to Christ, that's where stopping the press is for. And the whole church needs to get on that excitement. And it is exciting. And it should be.

speaker-0: Yeah, that's good. You know, and we ring the bell out in front of the building. And one of the things we try to do is really give honor to whom honors due. if somebody has discipled that person. led them to Christ and done that baptism, we're talking about that person as well. And what what we've seen that do is it gives everybody else in the church this mindset, wow, he did that? I think I could do the same thing and lead somebody, lead a friend. Absolutely.

speaker-1: That is huge. If he could do that, and and that's kind of how the response we had, that young lady in sixth grade was baptized. Parents were going, if a fifth or sixth grader can do that, why can't I? And that's what we want people to start thinking. Yes, why can't you? momentum is is a great thing. And and and there's vibe shift in America. I just like you said, Dave, there's we're experiencing something I don't haven't seen in years in our country. There's a political revival. But there's also a spiritual revival. And I just, this would be a bad time for the church to take a hiatus, the church of Christ. Let's get on this wave, man. This is a this may only come once in a lifetime. I'm excited about it. And I think, man, that the energy is there, the shift is there. This is a good moment for the church to to ride this wave as long as we can. Right up to eternity. Right till Jesus comes back. How's that?