A Conversation with Justin and Rachel Robling: HeavenEarth Church Stories

What would it look like to start a community that was really

it's for the people like Jesus would be for welcome to Heaven Earth

Church.

I'm Ross Stackhouse, the founding pastor of Heaven Earth Church.

From the start, our heart has been to be a church for people who

don't fit neatly into church.

We want to meet people where they are and know their stories because

in every story there is God's story.

And this podcast is just about that.

It's about inviting you into the stories of the people of Heaven

Earth Church.

So let's turn to the story.

Hello good people and welcome to the Heaven Earth Church podcast.

This is the podcast where we look to share a connection about

a church whose vision is is to make a lasting impact in our community.

And a part of what we do is get to know the folks who are part

of the Heaven and Earth Church community.

And we're really pleased to have as our guest today on the My

name is Brad Miller, one of the producers of the podcast.

But our guests today are Justin and Rachel Roebling, who come

to us as a part of the church family here.

Justin, it's awesome to have you have you with us here on the

podcast and we just like to get to know you a little bit, what

you're all about and your and a little bit about your connection

to Heaven and Earth Church.

And Justin, what's.

What's hometown for you?

Hometown is actually Whiteland, Indiana.

Awesome.

I am in hometown.

I actually grew up right across the street from here.

Well, tell, tell me about something in that home life.

Tell me about a room in your house.

Maybe that was not your bedroom but someplace else in the

house that was a place that you enjoyed or do you place it was

kind of a warm feeling for you.

It's probably the backyard.

I've always loved sports.

I sort of had a basketball goal out there.

I had a soccer goal, baseball, just anything and everything.

I spent the entire day until my parents drove me in, just hanging

out outside, playing sports.

Rachel, let's chat with you for a second.

Tell us about you.

What's hometown for you?

Indy and then we lived in Greenwood for a while and then we

moved back to Whiteland.

Well, tell me about some member growing up.

Some memorable either pet, some thinking about growing up in

Bargersville.

It was unique for, for you maybe you bet a pet or something

like that.

It's going to be a pet.

It's going to be a pet.

I had a dog, Corey.

We had a.

We had the dog and she had puppies and my mom told me I wasn't

going to be able to keep it.

I was probably.

I was probably 10.

Told me I wasn't going to be able to keep a dog.

And she.

I took her and let her sleep in bed with me.

And so my mom caved and I kept that dog.

She was 19 when she passed.

Wow.

Yeah.

So she was through everything for me.

So.

Yeah.

Part of your lucky.

Part of your life growing up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, that's awesome.

How did you two come to get to know each other and end up getting.

Getting married and I think that was.

Just from my sister's husband used to have, like, poker parties,

and you started coming and I was there.

Monday night poker.

Every Monday night.

Yeah, we met and that was 19 years ago.

We've been together 19, married 11 years.

Been together 19.

Been about a week knowing each other and the narcissist.

I understand pets are a big part of your life, your home life

right now.

So it comes about.

I mean, tell me about the pets in your life.

I.

Oh, gosh, we've had.

He never met Corey, but then I.

After Corey passed, I got another little dog, Penelope, and

she lived to be 18, too.

So she was with us.

Yes.

She was like two when you met her.

Yes.

And so I had Chihuahuas for a very long time.

And then he got a Chihuahua.

So at one point we had three.

Three Chihuahuas.

Couple cats.

Now we have a very large dog.

He's over or he's right at £100 now.

Yeah.

Wow, that's a lot of dogs.

That is a lot of dogs.

Great Dane bloodhound, rig back.

We don't exactly know.

He's just a big mutt.

It's a big, huge dog.

She's like a Boston French bulldog kind of make.

She's a muddy little dog, too.

So that's.

That's part of the joy.

Your life sounds like the joy.

Yeah.

Hey, the big dog's name is Buddha.

Just because he's just.

He just lays.

He just.

He's very still.

There you go.

Well, tell me a little bit about what do you do, what you kind

of career things you have.

Justin, what kind of things you do?

California closets.

I am a programmer and a product manager.

So I take the designs and that we get from the designers and I make

it to where it's actually applicable so we can make it in shop.

So I take like what they.

I try to decipher, like what they give and create like a.

Like a.

Like a bomb or a cut sheet and just try to Figure out any sort of

issues.

So you're.

You're not actually designing closets as such, but you are doing

the.

Yes, more just like the back end.

The back end.

I have to feed.

Feed all the programs to the machines, make sure.

Yeah.

All right.

Good.

Good for you.

Rachel, how about you?

What kind of career do you have?

Insurance?

I work at home.

I have been home 16 years, something like that.

Yeah.

So we had an office in Indy that closed, so they moved some of

us home.

So that's why I've worked from home for so long.

But now our whole, you know, after 2020, our whole office is at

home.

So it's nice.

You know, I have a lot of teams meeting, but I'm an onboarding

rep, so I bring agents into our small business service center.

I haven't seen you in any of the commercials for that.

Tell me a little bit about any kind of, I don't know, church or

religious background that you may have had before you started getting

connected with heaven or church, but if at all, Rachel, start

with you?

Yeah, I actually grew up in church.

My family still goes to the same church that I grew up in.

Wonderful church.

It just, you know, sometimes at different seasons, you just want

something else.

And I probably stopped going in high school and then did not regularly

pick it back up until probably 2015.

And we've been to several different churches, I guess, through

that timeframe.

And again, wonderful churches.

Just for whatever reason, you know, we were just looking for something

else and then landed here.

And he asked me earlier, and I want to say it was 2020.

Well, we'll come to that part of the story in just a second.

Just a little bit of background on you, Justin, maybe

any church background growing up or anything else along the line.

Yeah, we always went to church as well.

We always went to Franklin Church of Christ.

Growing up just right down the street on 31.

My dad always sung probably a few times a month, and just a great

church always felt more of, like, an obligation.

So to Rachel's point, we.

I was kind of the same way, and I just always had a lot more

questions, and everything was just a little bit more absolute in

the way that I grew up with religion, so.

Well, tell me how that came about then.

Were you.

It sounded like you were kind of actively searching for a church

in many ways.

So how'd you first hear about Heaven Earth Church?

And then what led you to kind of come and check it out?

Initially, it was Dave that, like, originally told us about.

We'd seen him at, I think a funeral.

David McMillan was one of my guidance counselors at Wyler High

School and just a stellar guy.

We saw him at a family member's funeral and he actually

invited us to church here and told us that he was.

He's been taking his mother in law and it's just a really great

place.

Yeah.

So we checked it out online and David shot.

So tell me then you checked it out and you gave it a shot.

So tell me a little bit about some of those initial experiences.

The first time or two you were here.

What, you know, what kind of experience did you have?

And then kind of around that.

What kind of conversation did you two have after that?

Yeah, well, we watched it online and at the time it was a lot

smaller and Ross was doing a lot of like the songs and everything

himself.

Remember?

He was just up there.

It was like him and a garage or him and a guitar.

Yes.

And.

And I was like, I just want to check it out.

And when we came in, Ashley, who used to be on staff here, I mean,

immediately came up to us and welcomed us.

Well, of course we saw Dave and I mean just the people were just

really friendly.

And we'd been to some churches before that were very small and close

knit and it was a little hard to break in and you know, to kind

of, you know, everyone had their clique that they would talk

to each morning.

So it was refreshing that there was a lot of people that were

willing to speak to us and that made it a point to speak to

us.

Yeah, because we also went.

I've been to a few big churches as well.

And it's the opposite.

Like we don't.

You almost felt like you, you weren't even noticed.

And not there's anything wrong with that, but we're just looking

for somewhere right in the middle.

So it sound like this, you were actively searching.

So it sounds like you took a little bit of time to kind of get

connected.

You were.

So tell me about that searching period.

What I mean by that is I assume that maybe you, you came and

you left, maybe you went to other churches, whatever.

But what brought you back after that kind of that initial interest

here?

Well, I really like just the, the conversation really, you know

that I'd never been to any place that, where you could just

like speak.

Like how Ross asked questions and you can just speak.

So, um, that always brought me back.

I don't think we went to any place else since we came here.

No, we were just kind of more sporadic.

And it wasn't just, you know, mission to Go to church on Sunday.

Like, it just, you know, if we got up in time, we went, you know,

so we were just a little bit more sporadic.

And I think, like, last year is when we kind of really decided

that we were gonna really make it a priority.

Okay, well, let's go there.

Yeah.

What was that pivotal moment?

What was that aha moment that kind of made it move from kind of

a checking it out period or kind of a sporadic, as you said,

Rachel, to being more committed?

So what.

What was.

Was there a moment or was there kind of a.

Tell me about that experience.

What led you to that?

I want to say we hadn't been in, like, two weeks, I remember,

and it was right around Christmas or right before, and Ross

Reese reached out and asked us if we wanted to light one of the

candles.

And so we did.

And then, I mean, it was just that the church is really good about

reaching out.

And I just feel like that at that time, we weren't putting in

the effort that we needed to.

And Ross reaching out and kind of, you know, pulling us in really

was a big.

A big step.

And Justin Cisa and I understand you've took a step forward

in leadership in the church.

So tell me about how that evolve for you.

Yes.

So I've.

I've always just really enjoyed learning, and I've been in

leadership positions, and I.

I really love John Maxwell.

That's who I look up to the most, probably.

And his whole big thing is just adding value to people.

And that's kind of my mission.

I just want to add value to people.

A lot of people do not feel seen, heard, valued, or anything

like that.

They never have.

So that's.

That's my mission.

And so someone nominated me for the board and a lot of discussion

and prayer.

I decided it was something that I wanted to take on.

We now have got you.

You've made a community part of the church, and you've stepped

up in various areas of your.

And what are some of the areas you're involved with, Rachel, that

you involved with the church?

I.

I really like the hospitality portion of it.

You know, I like greeting and, you know, bringing in the treats

and getting the coffee ready.

And we live so close, it's nice to get in early.

So that's.

That's really what I.

I enjoy.

I know that was a big thing for me, like with Ashley.

And so when she left her position, I really just didn't want

that to kind of fall away and, you know, we lose that connection.

So not that I am anywhere near What Ashley was and how hospitable

she always was.

But I really try.

Yeah.

To greet everybody.

Tell me about a time here at the.

In the life of the church where you kind of had a.

A God moment where you saw there's something that's going on

here that's a little bigger than kind of connecting kind of interpersonally

and things like that feel good about the people, you know, the welcoming

and all that that people gave to you and that you give to others.

But with time when you kind of think, you know, this is a little

bigger than.

Than that this is a God thing.

I think it was probably.

We did the.

They did it.

Ross did a class the Shaped by God through scripture last year.

It was during Lent and it was right after we'd really committed

to, you know, coming every Sunday.

And that was probably our first time really getting to know

everybody in the church.

And I had done at the same time I was doing.

They opened up a book club and I did that as well.

So it was really like connecting, being around people that

I felt like.

Felt the same way I did.

And it wasn't with church earlier.

It wasn't so absolute.

There was questions and it was okay to have questions.

You know, it wasn't.

You know, Ross doesn't claim to know everything, you know, so

I like, how would you.

Justin, do you have any kind of God moment that you've experienced

here?

I would say doing kids church and asking the kids questions about

Jesus and God and then sometimes knowing more than you or

having just a different perspective.

I feel like I see God a lot when I met.

When I'm back there with the kids.

Let me kind of take a little different twist on this conversation

here for a second.

Made the journey, as it were, from checking out the church to getting

committed to the church and having these God moments as getting

to know other people.

Kind of being part of the hospitality team now, part of the

leadership.

Why do you think people are not only connecting?

Why do people connect with heaven or church, but why are they

staying?

Why would people stay?

I think it's the community.

Community.

It's very inclusive.

I feel like you can come exactly as you are with all the questions

that you have and be greeted with nothing but open arms.

I also feel like it's a church and I haven't always felt like this

in the other churches I've been to that I know I can invite

anybody.

Doesn't matter what they believe, what I mean, just anything.

I mean, just.

It doesn't matter.

I can invite them here and I know they are going to be greeted

and welcomed like anybody else.

Has that happened?

We haven't invited anyone.

I mean, we've invited.

Yeah, no one's taking us up.

Yeah, yeah.

So we're waiting.

That's cool.

Because that's a part of what we're talking about here is being

a church that is not only invitation, not only welcoming, but

also invitational and to be welcome here because it's, you know,

the mission statement of the church is to make a lasting impact

on our community here.

What does that mean to you?

Let's just start with you.

What does that mission statement mean to you, Rachel?

I think it just means.

I mean, and that's why we.

We had never been to a church in our, like literally in our community.

And so I think that was a big pull for us to want to check out

this church that it was in Whiteland and we live here and just

to be a part of a church that, I mean, you know, they give away

vegetables that they grow in the garden and just the community

partners with the resources of hope and the one today, the upstream.

So I just like that it's so, just so inclusive and you know, they

care about the.

The bigger issues that are affecting.

How would you add to that, Justin, or would you.

We do have a heart for, for.

For certain things, for recovery, for.

For homeless children, for the upstream, which is the anti suicide

prevention.

It's just very meaningful and a lot of, A lot of people need it,

especially in today's day and age with just all the hate that's

out there.

So I really love that we do that kind of stuff.

One of the taglines is we're a models of the church is something

to the effect of if you think you don't fit in church, you fit

in here.

Is that true?

And if so, how is that true?

I think, I mean, I think the churches I have been to, they've

always been very.

It's very structured, very.

And the people that I've met have.

I mean, you know, they know a lot of scripture and you know, they

can recite it.

And that's always a little overwhelming to me because I'm not

that type of person.

Like I read the, the scriptures, I just.

I'm just not good with the memorization and can pull them.

You know, I can paraphrase, but not word for word.

It doesn't matter what level you're at in your spiritual journey.

I feel like here, like you can go deeper if you want to, but if

you want to, you Know, kind of ease in.

You can do it that way, too.

Let me ask you the same question, Jessica, with this take.

Have you seen situations where it appeared that people were here

who may not have fit in other experiences you may have had?

The model was, you know, if you think you don't fit insured,

you fit in here.

I'm just curious if you've seen that type of thing played out.

Rachel says she thinks that's true.

I want to see if you've seen that manifested here in some way

or another.

I believe it's true because I believe it's happened to me.

I've always said, and this might be the most controversial thing

maybe, but I've always thought that I followed a different Jesus

than other people did.

And I really believe it because I feel like the Jesus that

we talk about here is different than the Jesus that's always

blasted out.

So I personally.

I personally feel like that.

So let's just talk about that for just a second.

Different Jesus.

Do you think that this different Jesus, that as you've experienced

it and you've experienced your understanding of Jesus in this church,

a little more so than maybe you've experienced in other experiences

you've had in life?

Is that a fair statement to make?

So do you think this different Jesus is a Jesus who can be approachable

to people who are, for lack of a better term, those who.

People who feel like they don't fit in?

I do.

I do.

I actually think that's a really great way to put it.

You articulated a lot better than I could.

I think saying a different cheese is a pretty darn good way

of putting that there.

Yeah.

Yourself.

So having said that, what would you say, Justin, speak to you

first?

What would you say to that person who may be kind of like you

were going.

Getting online and checking out Heaven Earth Church and maybe

check seeing this, this podcast or this video of you and

have you and Rachel here.

What would you say to that person who may be just checking things

out?

I would say, come on by.

We'd so.

We'd so love to have you come by and get some coffee, some donuts,

stick around for a great conversation, great music.

You're very welcome.

Let's bring it around to one more thing here.

And Rachel asked you just.

You've mentioned a couple times about the conversations being

important.

That's kind of the framework that the messages are done.

How important is this ongoing conversation with you?

Pastor Ross's way he does messages tell me about the importance

of conversation.

I like it.

I mean, I don't.

I'm not.

And I've been coming here and I know that can be off putting to

people to think that they have to answer a question.

And I'm here to say I think I've maybe answered one time like

I've answered, you know, so it is very still very new to me.

But I do love to hear other people's perspectives.

I just love to hear.

And the kids some, I mean, sometimes when they speak up too,

it's just, you know, it puts a spin on it.

I think Brandon said something today.

He always says something that I'm, you know, I never even thought

about.

So I just love, you know, not just hearing from one person, but

hearing that and, you know, it's probably stirring the same thing

in me.

And I can hear it in other people too.

Awesome.

Even if we don't speak up necessarily during the service, though,

it creates a space to.

To unpack it on the way home or once we get home or later on that

day or later on in the week.

So I think, I think it's very important.

But the conversations don't only have to be kind of during the

message time.

It could be what happens after the worship experience or on the

way home between you two or your friends and neighbors or co

workers, this type of thing that.

That can be a part of that conversation.

And I think that's part of what we're saying here is a part

of this being a church that is for people who may not fit in church.

They can be a part of an ongoing conversation.

You don't have to jump in and be, you know, like a biblical scholar

right off the bed or whatever, that kind of thing.

So let's just leave it with this.

I'll give you, both of you, just one more chance.

What would you.

Just any.

Just thoughts you just want to share about your life in the church

or anything else here.

Rachel, we'll start with you.

I think we're both introverts at heart.

You know, we can be extroverted if we need to be.

And so coming to a new church, it is very hard to make those connections,

especially as adults.

And I would encourage anyone who wants to make those connections

or, you know, come to church and wants to feel that bond to just

jumping and serving in any type of way, because that is how

I really have felt grounded and connected with this church is

just from serving and you know, it really especially greeting

because you get to say hello to everybody.

So you don't just have to walk up to people and say Hello.

So that's been.

Well, just will give you the final word here.

What would comet Just any comments you want to make about your.

The life of the church and your connection to it.

I'm just saying that I'm just so grateful for this church.

I really do feel like that it has just kind of turned up.

Turned up my faith.

It's helped me be very intentional in us be very intentional

about just our relationship with Jesus and just.

Just a wonderful spot.

Thank you for sharing from your heart, both of you, and for

being a part of the Heaven Earth Church.

Heaven part of Heaven Earth Church and being our guest here on

the Heaven and Earth Church podcast.

And we thank you for joining us here on the Heaven and Earth Church

podcast.

I'm one of the producers of the podcast, Brad Miller, and we

hope that you'll connect up with us and continue the conversation

at a church which engages in this and looks to make a lasting

impact in our community.

You can find the church@heaven earthchurch.org we.

Want to thank you for spending time with us today.

My name is Ross Stackhouse, the pastor to Heaven Earth Church.

And you may think out there that your story is over, but in fact,

your faith story may just be beginning.

If you want more information about our church or you're interested

in the next step, you can go to heavenorthchurch.org Otherwise,

we look forward to being with you next time at the Heaven Earth

Church podcast.