MetaChurch Service: Consumer or Create

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Hey MetaCurch, it's Pastor Clayton.

And if you weren't here, last Sunday I announced that starting in October, we are adding a third service at 1.15.

That will give us three service times to choose from, and we're so excited about how God continues to grow this movement.

We also are gonna be starting a phase one of construction for an entirely new Metakids experience.

Now, with all of this advancement, comes so much anticipation of all that God is going to do.

And it also creates a very real need, and that need is volunteers.

Every Sunday it takes a small army of volunteers to run our services and to create an environment for more and more people to come and connect with God and learn what it means to believe in and follow Jesus.

And we don't want to just make a simple ask or try to convince you to come volunteer.

We want to really lay out the reasons of why it will be impactful to your life, to your community, to your connection with God and to the city around you and the movement here at MetaCurch.

And so today we're starting a two-week series called Consume or Create.

In these two weeks, we are going to try to really lay a strong foundation of how Jesus calls us to be actively involved in our local church.

And so we're gonna start today by having several of our team leaders come and share some different aspects of what volunteering does and how it can be impactful for your life.

I'm so grateful that you're a part of this movement, and we're wanting to make a simple offer for you to move from consuming what's happening at MetaCurch to coming alongside and creating what is happening at MetaCurch.

I love you guys, and I hope you enjoy today's service.

How are you all doing today?

Man, so good to see you all.

There's some happy people up in here.

So good to see you all on a Sunday.

If we haven't had that opportunity to meet, my name is Ryan, and I'm our your next gym pastor here at MetaCurch.

That simply means I get to lead our Metakids team and I get to serve as youth pastor to all of our students who are part of our meta-youth movement.

In fact, can we just go ahead and give a round of applause?

Give a hand for all of our Metakids volunteers, our meta-youth leaders.

They pour into our children and our students week in and week out, and we're so, so grateful for them.

You know, as Pastor Clayton said, I'm so excited for many of you to make this move from consumer to creator here at Medichurch.

But before we even get started, I wanted to say that for many of you, this this uh season may be exactly what you need to be consuming to be receiving what God has for you in your life.

And so there's no shade on you for that.

But for many of you, we are praying and we are inviting you to join us as a creator with what God is doing in our city through Meta.

So let me be clear about this.

When we talk about being a creator, we don't want something from you, we truly desire something for you.

Because becoming a creator has so many amazing uh features and aspects of it.

One thing that's always stood out to me, though, in my life and in my experience, is that creators get to use their gifts.

Creators discover and use their gifts.

And we're actually looking that in scripture today.

Would you join me in the book of 1 Corinthians?

We're gonna look at chapter 12.

This is actually to a church that Paul started, and let's see what he has to say about it.

Verse 12.

For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Now that's a lot of words, but basically what he's saying there is that just as your physical body is made up of many different parts, so it is with the body of Christ, with the movement of Jesus.

But as it is, he continues in verse 18, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body, get this, just as he wanted.

Just as God wanted.

And if they were all the same part, where would the body be?

Where would the body be if they're all the same part?

I mean, could you imagine?

Like if someone's body was just made up of nothing but eyeballs?

I mean, that's creepy, right?

Even worse, what if it's like armpits or something like that?

I mean, that's the stuff that horror movies are made out of.

And if they were all the same part, where would the body be?

And he wrapped up by saying, as it is, there are many, many parts, but one body.

Now, this passage of scripture actually comes in contact context where Paul was talking to people about the gifts that God has given each of them.

And what was clear in this passage of scripture is that Paul believed everyone, everyone has a gift to share.

That was true back then, and that is true today.

Everyone has a gift to share.

Now, you may not know this about me, but I actually didn't become a pastor until about seven years ago.

I actually was trained, went to college, and worked for about 17 to 18 years as a civil engineer, which I know sounds crazy, right?

Make the transition to pastor.

It wasn't until pretty recently that I stepped into full-time ministry.

You know, at the time, all my friends just decided I really hated making money.

So I stepped into full-time ministry.

But here's the truth, though.

Engineering was a skill set that I had.

It was a skill that I developed, and God really did use it in some cool ways.

He used it to develop me as a leader and as a mentor to others.

God used that, but God developed my gifts in the context of our local church.

You see, for my wife, Nadine and I, we discovered our passion and our purpose working with uh students in our community who were at need, people students that have been labeled as at risk.

And so we did that for several years.

It turns out we were actually both pretty gifted in that.

And here I am today serving as a youth pastor.

My wife, Nadine, she actually actually works as a special ed teacher in our local high school.

We had discovered our passion, we discovered our purpose through serving.

And this is for our students that are with us today, too.

This isn't just for adults.

Students, this is your movement as well.

This is your opportunity to discover your gifts as well.

You know, maybe you're sitting here today and you're like, Ryan, I have no idea what my gifts are.

Or maybe you have an idea, but you're like, I don't really know how to use them, I don't really know how to develop them.

You know, for Nadine and I, we discovered our gifts through serving.

You know, and we actually didn't start by serving with youth.

The truth of the matter is, we the very first opportunity we had to serve in our church, we were cleaning bathrooms.

I mean, it was nasty.

It was not all was cracked up to be.

We started by cleaning bathrooms, then we served in the nursery, we served in the production booth.

Ultimately, we found what really clicked.

We found our fit by serving our youth.

And so my advice for you today is if you're feeling like you're not sure what your gifts are, you're not sure how to develop your gifts, my advice for you today is to jump on a team and to simply start serving.

What we want for you here at Meta is to find your fit.

Like I said earlier, we don't want something from you.

We truly want something for you.

We want you to find your fit.

Because here's what I know one of the best ways to discover your gifts is by serving, not sitting on the sidelines.

You see, creators get to discover and use their gifts just like my friend Casey.

I've known I've wanted to be a teacher since second grade, and then I started volunteering at church in sixth grade, and then it wasn't until about like 10th, 11th grade that I found out I wanted to do special ed because of church.

So I had only been attending MetaCurch for about a month before I volunteered, and it was right kind of at the start of the school year when we're really trying to get new volunteers, and so it was really perfect timing that I had just decided this was gonna be my church home.

I've volunteered since sixth grade, so it's just kind of natural that I pick up at whatever church I'm at.

When I heard that they're looking for volunteers, I went to the meeting.

So the thing that I love most about volunteering is that I really get to pour into the kids, and not only do I get to teach them about something that's so important to me, teach them about God, but they also teach me so much.

And so while I'm helping them grow, they're helping me grow even as an adult.

So after getting to volunteer with a child with special needs and seeing his perspective on life, I realized that there is just so much more that our minds can be open to.

That now I get to surround myself with 11 kids every day that just bring a whole new part of the world to me.

So it really came full circle for me when we had Summer Blast, and we had a handful of students with special needs that came in, and it just really showed me that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be.

That this was what first got me into special ed and what helped me find my passion, and now I'm getting to live it out not only at work, but also here at church and volunteering with them.

What an incredible story! Good morning, everyone.

My name is Nori, and I'm the community coordinator here at MetaCurch.

I can relate to Casey's journey as well because I'm also in the process of discovering some of my gifts.

Like Ryan, I didn't go to school to study ministry or start out in the church world.

I oversaw three Montessori daycare in San Antonio.

I was good at my job and developed a lot of skills.

But I started to find my passion gifting when I got involved in this odd church that meant in a barn.

I wasn't in a public volunteer role, and honestly, I never wanted to be.

I never thought I'd be, and I never ever thought I'd be on stage with a microphone.

But I was way behind the scenes.

But I found something so valuable here.

Other like-minded people.

One of the beautiful things about becoming a creator here at Meta is creators cultivate community.

In the book of Proverbs, it says, Proverbs 27, 17, iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.

As I got around other members of this movement, they began to sharpen and refine who I was, how I was thinking, and my ideas of how God wanted to use me.

If you would have told me then I would be a community coordinator today, I would have immediately left.

However, God was doing something.

When you join a volunteer team here at Meta, church is no longer something you just attend.

You are put into a community of people, all working hard towards the same goal.

We all need community.

As a volunteer, you help build community for other people, and you place yourself within that community of your team.

It really is a win-win.

I started as a volunteer who had convinced herself that she belonged in the back of the room.

Now God has used the community around me to sharpen my focus on the impact that I can have for his movement, and I believe God wants to do the same for you.

My name is Amber Cadis, and I serve with Meta Youth.

When I decided that I wanted to volunteer at MetaYouth, I had no idea that I would be getting people who are willing to carry my burdens with me.

When you step into this building and the people really make you feel like whatever you're going through is not too much, it's not too heavy.

And they're here to walk alongside you and really be God's hands and feet.

What I love about Muddy Youth is that we can go from having a good time, laughing together with the kids, to our circle times where we dive deeper, we hear some real stuff that comes from these kids' mouths, and it gives us a chance to be a person in their life that they might not have when they step out of those doors.

And I just think that Medi Youth gives us and the kids a place where we can all just talk and leave this building feeling like we've got somebody in our corner.

I would encourage anyone to get plugged into this movement by getting rid of that voice in your head that says you're not qualified or you can't do it because you have no idea how much your story or what you can bring can affect somebody else that might be going through the same thing or might need exactly what you have.

Now, when I say creators build bridges, I'm not talking about literal, actual bridges, right?

But if that excites you, we can get you hooked up with Pastor Ryan.

He has the engineering degree.

He could probably help you do that if that's something you want to do.

When I say creators build bridges, I mean cultural bridges.

Now, in the first church, which started in the first century, there was this huge debate going on about who would be allowed into this church and how strict the rules would be that they would have to follow.

You see, much like today, back then, churches were heavily regulated and super exclusive.

Uh, many of the first converts to uh Christianity actually came from another religion called Judaism.

And what they wanted to do, what they were trying to do is bring a lot of the rules, laws, and customs over into Christianity.

And this was a huge problem because as the word of Jesus' good news, the gospel was spreading further and further away from where Jesus actually taught, they were reaching more and more Gentiles, which just means people who are not Jewish.

Well, when these Gentiles heard about all these laws, they saw them as impossibly complex, and many of them turned away altogether from Christianity.

You see, the laws of Judaism were not a bridge, they were actually a huge barrier for people to get to Jesus.

Well, the apostles, which were the men who were spreading the good news of Jesus, saw this as an enormous problem, of course, and so they met together to make a decision about it.

And what they decided has been hugely instrumental here at Metachurch.

Here's what it says in Acts chapter 15, verse 19.

Acts 15:19

It says, Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God.

In other words, we need to tear down all the barriers and we need to build all of the bridges.

It's what we do here at Metachurch.

The way we say it is that we will do whatever it takes to reach people for Jesus.

Why do we sing the songs we sing?

It's to build bridges.

Why do we dress and talk just like everybody else?

It's to build bridges.

Why do we talk about relevant topics that are going on in our world today?

It's to build bridges.

In fact, every single team at MetaCurch has been super intentional about building bridges so that everyone who walks through these stores, and you've probably felt this at some point, can feel welcome and comfortable in this church.

Now, there's gonna be some of you who are consuming today, probably many of you who aren't ready to quite make the move to becoming a creator.

And let me just tell you, that is absolutely okay.

We say this almost every week, but MetaCurch is a place where you can belong before you believe, and it is certainly a place where you can sit before you serve.

MetaCurch is a community of messy, jacked-up people that are trying to figure it out and by the grace of God are getting better incrementally.

We've just used our gifts and talents to turn them back and help bring people the good news of Jesus.

Here's what I know that if you're consuming today, if you give it enough time, I do believe one day you will be ready to become a creator, just like my friend George.

You know, we got fortunate enough to to open up for lots of bands and get the attention of the music industry.

And then in uh 2011, I believe, it was uh Universal Records that came knocking on our door.

From 2011 to 13, it was just a crazy time of my life of not knowing where I'm at sometimes and just craziness of you know being in a touring band.

And during that time it was very dark as well.

You know, you would think I was having the time of my life, but you know, I was further and further away from my faith and what I knew, what I was comfortable with.

The catalyst to me quitting the band, actually, just wanted to be with my family more.

You know, I felt like there was just more to this life than just that band.

You know, there's more music inside of me, uh more that I wanted to experiment with musically.

I will say when I first started uh serving here, I was very reluctant, again, because of where I've been, what I've done, not feeling worthy.

You know, that kind of sediment of like, you know, well, if they knew what I was doing Friday night, you know, I wouldn't be here.

Just really feeling accepted, regardless of where I've been, where I'm at.

Just warmly being accepted.

So when I had the opportunity to play with Meta, you know, it was like kind of a no-brainer.

You know, it's really the one gift that I know that God has given me.

I'm happy to give it whenever it's needed.

It helps me refocus.

It really does.

It connects me back to where I know I need to be.

And I think that's where I connect best with God is through my gift.

So creators use their gifts, they cultivate community.

Creators build bridges.

You know, this is how Metachurch thrives, but let me let you in on a little secret.

This is also how you thrive in your life.

And let's remember that this life is not just about us.

God is inviting our story to be part of his greater story as we reach this city for him.

So here's the next step for you.

We will actually be having two identical creator events coming up on Wednesday, September 14th from 6 p.m.

to 8 p.m., and on Saturday, September 17th from 10 a.m.

to noon.

Again, these are two identical events where because we wanted everybody to have two opportunities to kind of choose what works best for your schedule to invite you to become a creator here at Meta.

You know, at these we'll be able at these events, you'll be able to learn about all the different teams that you can be a part of, that you can discover and explore to discover your passion, your purpose.

Uh, you can talk to different team leaders.

You can really get guidance on how to find your fit here.

And you'll be able to sign up for whatever team you want to be a part of to become a creator.

So be sure to mark your calendars on September 14th from 6 to 8 p.m., September 17th from 10 a.m.

to noon, and be sure to sign up at MetaCurch.tv slash creator.

Now look, as we said in the beginning, if you're in a season where you're uh being a consumer is right for you, then we are all excited for that.

But we are praying that many of you would consider and pray and take that step of faith to become a consumer or become a creator with us here at Meta.

Would you pray with me?

Father God, we just thank you for the stories that we heard today.

I thank you for each of those stories that were told of how people discovered their gifts, the purpose that you had for their life.

I thank you for uh the stories we heard, how they found community and relationships through serving and how they helped build bridges to others to share your love with the community around us.

And Lord, I just thank you right now for all of our uh people who are volunteering in so many different teams, whether it be in production or metakids or welcome team, meta youth worship team.

There's so many different teams where people serve.

I just want to thank you.

And I pray that you would just pour out blessings on them above all they could ask or think.

And Lord, I pray for those who are sitting here today and they're like, you know, I'm just not ready.

I'm I still need to consume what you're, I still need to receive what you're you're pouring into me right now.

Lord, I pray that they would take steps to grow further and grow closer to you than ever before.

That they would lean in to through maybe prayer or word or getting and connected in a life team.

I pray that they would take next steps to getting closer to you.

And Lord, I pray that you, God, would inspire many hearts today to step up and to step out as we reach this city for you, Jesus, as we as we serve in whatever capacity it may be.

And I believe that uh just as Paul said in scripture that each of us has a gift to share.

And I pray that you begin to kind of shine a light on the gifts that people have, the talents, the passions that you've given them, and that you would show them how they can put those into action and reach this city with the love of Jesus.

It's in your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys and I hope you have a great rest of your day.