It's a Movement - EKKLESIA -Sept 20 2026

Hey everyone, and welcome to the brand new Burnett Church podcast.

My name is Tim, and I'm your host and the pastor of Burnett Church.

Today's podcast is the audio from part one of our series called Reactions Speak Louder, in which we start to unpack how our reactions affect the world around us and also say something about our relationship to ourselves and to Jesus as well.

We hope you enjoy the episode.

Last week we began a conversation about a word.

A word that we find in the scriptures that we call church, but wasn't actually church when it was originally written down.

The word that Jesus used that gets translated church now in our Bibles is the word ecclesia.

And what we discovered last week is that it actually isn't primarily some of the things that we first think about when we think about church.

It's not a building.

Ecclesia didn't mean an event.

That word doesn't mean an institution.

What it meant was simply a gathering of people for a purpose.

Better words might be congregation, assembly, or movement.

And so what we talked about last week is that we don't just, as people who come here on a regular basis, if that's you, and I know that it's not everybody's habit yet, some of you might be here and go, oh, this is the first time I've been in church in quite some time.

That's cool.

You are welcomed.

We are so glad you're here.

We believe that you can belong before you believe, and we're glad that you came.

But those of us who are here, those of us who would say, I'm, you know, a church person, I go to church on a regular basis, we don't just attend church.

That isn't what Jesus meant when he used the word ecclesia.

We are the church.

We are a movement of people.

And because we are the church, we are responsible for it.

Which sounds like an inspiring idea, until you really think about it.

And go, responsible for what exactly?

Because responsibility can be a privilege, but it can also be a challenge.

There are several answers to that question, responsible for what?

You know, and over the series, over the next number of weeks, in fact, we're gonna do this in two chunks, three weeks now, and we're gonna take a bit of a break and we're gonna come back to it in November.

One of the clearest things that Jesus meant or built into this idea of his movement, his people, from the very beginning, was that the movement was always supposed to be moving outward.

And you can see that before the church even has a public face, before anybody but the small band of people who Jesus met with after his resurrection were the only people in the movement.

It's Acts chapter one.

If you have your Bible, you can open it there.

We're gonna read a couple of verses from it.

What we find in Acts chapter one is the resurrected Jesus is with his closest group of followers.

And he's meeting with them and he's talking with them about what the movement is going to become.

And the question that they ask him is Lord, at this time, are you gonna restore the kingdom to Israel?

Okay, so so here's what you need to know a little bit of history lesson.

At this point, Israel has been under fairly consistent occupation as a people for over 500 years.

Okay, it's been 500 years since their temple was destroyed, and 400 years since anybody has tried to speak on behalf of God to Israel.

And so they have this expectation that someday God is gonna rescue them and he's gonna restore the kingdom through their people, through their country.

And so the question they're really asking is, hey, Jesus, now that you've come back to life and proven that you have power over death, is this when we finally win?

Is this when our nation finally has its day?

Is this when our people are gonna get our kingdom back?

Jesus, is this when God finally takes care of us?

It's either their imagination, the best thing that they can imagine at the moment, is something for them.

Their people, their nation, their future.

And Jesus, because he's so kind, doesn't shame them or say that that's a silly thought.

He simply gives them a bigger picture, a much larger vision of what he's about to do.

And we find that in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, when he says, You are gonna receive the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of my spirit living in you.

Acts 1:8

And when that happens, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

What would our BC equivalent be if Jesus made the same promise to you that the Holy Spirit was going to empower you to be his witnesses, he would say, in in Maple Ridge and the Lower Mainland and British Columbia and on out to the world.

Right?

Notice the movement starting near with them, but moving farther away.

Moving out to people that actually they would normally avoid altogether.

Right?

Samaria.

Samaria is is the place where the Samaritans live and and and biblical Jews weren't supposed to interact with the Samaritans at all.

They were at war with them, they had these fundamental differences of opinion about how God works in the world, but Jesus was going to say, you're gonna witness to them and beyond.

Jesus' vision for his movement, the ecclesia, was always bigger than the people who are already in the room.

God's always intending to do something in and for others through people like us.

The disciples in that moment are wondering, how is God going to restore something for them?

But Jesus is telling them that God is about to do something through them.

The movement was never designed to be an inward-facing group.

It was always meant to be looking beyond its own walls.

And then we see in Acts chapter 2 the opening day, the first public day, launch day for the church.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And God makes the point absolutely impossible for us to miss.

This happens as Jerusalem is full of people for the festival of Pentecost.

So there are people from all over the world who have come to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem's packed with other nations, different regions, different cultures, different languages.

And that's the day that God sends the Holy Spirit to empower that group of followers.

And what he empowers them to do is share the good news in every language that was represented.

What the people experienced was as these uneducated fishermen began to speak, they began to speak in all the languages that were represented there.

Because I believe God wanted the first public moment of his movement to sound like good news to everyone.

Everyone, even if they didn't already belong.

Acts chapter 2 describes visitors from across the Roman Empire hearing about the wonders of God in their own languages.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And Peter.

Peter eventually stands up and explains what's happened, which we've talked about over the last number of weeks.

Peter just seems to keep making his way into our conversations here, right?

If you remember, like we first started talking about Peter back when Peter failed, back when Peter was a coward, back when Jesus was arrested and Peter couldn't even admit to a little girl that he knew Jesus.

This Peter has an encounter with Jesus after his resurrection and appears to change entirely.

Not only does he have this miraculous temporary ability to speak in all these other languages, he has the courage to stand with Jesus.

And he stands up, and what's recorded for us in Acts 2 is Peter telling the story of what's gone on with Jesus, his life and his death and his resurrection.

And in Acts chapter 2, verse 41, it says, those who heard accepted his message and were baptized.

Acts 2:41

And about 3,000 people were added to their number that day.

I want to do just a little side thing here for a quick second.

And I just want to talk about baptism really quickly.

Because it seems to be one of those things that like people know that they should do, but they're not exactly sure why they should do it.

To me, baptism is you telling the story of what God's already done in you to the people around you.

And it's always been a part of the movement of Jesus.

It's always been something who've identified themselves with Jesus, decide, you know what?

I'm going to be baptized.

We actually borrowed it from the Jewish culture that they were in already.

Anytime somebody decided to convert to Judaism, there were baptism pools all around Jerusalem.

And people will get baptized.

And the tradition keeps on today.

For those of us who have decided, you know what, I'm going to make my life about this movement of Jesus.

Jesus said you should get baptized.

So you should get baptized.

If you're sitting there thinking, like, should I do it?

If you consider yourself a part of the movement of Jesus, if you've given your life to him and you are trusting him to be your Lord and Savior, if we want to use that kind of old school language, if that's where your heart is, you should get baptized.

You should get baptized.

Okay, back on to the main thing.

Opening day, people are added, people from different places and races and cultures, and the circle immediately expands beyond those who just knew Jesus.

From day one, the movement of Jesus was always outward facing and multiplying.

Which should, I think, raise a really practical question for us.

How does a movement keep moving?

If we're the ones who are a part of it and we're the ones who are responsible for it, what does that mean for us?

And sometimes when we think about, okay, like how can I how can I play a part?

Again, our mind goes back to buildings, which are great, or you know, modern advertising, or, you know, I don't think the church moves that way.

I don't think it moves just because I got better at recruiting people to be a part of the church.

The movement moves the most when people, the ecclesia, experience Jesus and then decide that personally they're gonna make room for somebody else.

Back in the summer, if you were here, we when I was on vacation, the one video we showed was by a guy named Joel Thomas.

And it talked about this idea of investing and inviting.

And I just want to bring our attention back to that.

I know a whole bunch of you weren't here because it's the summertime, but I think that this is a really, really important thing for us to understand.

And I want to give it some context because I think inviting people to church is something that's weird for some people.

I'm aware that the topic creates some anxiety whenever it comes up because we're Canadian.

We're so polite, and we generally keep to ourselves unless somebody keeps threatening to annex us.

I'm not gonna ask you, okay, to all of a sudden not be a Canadian.

I'm not gonna ask you to all of a sudden become a street missionary who runs out into the middle of town and starts shouting at people.

In fact, I think that's a really bad idea almost all the time.

I'm gonna have somebody come up to me after the service and say, you know, I've seen that work, and yes, you have.

That's why I said almost all the time, not all the time, okay?

But but here's what I think, here's what I think you can decide to do.

You can decide to be really genuine about your story and willing to do for somebody else what has already been done for you.

Okay?

Now, I know that there's a bunch of people in here, and I would I would put myself in this in this camp.

It's like you've been at church since before you can remember anything.

Okay?

And it's like, well, nobody but my parents brought me here.

Everybody's family has somebody who invested in them and then included them in their story.

Every family can go back.

If you trace it back, everybody's got a person.

Everybody's got a person who invested in their family in such a way that it actually made people go, you know, maybe God does actually love me.

Someone was there for your family in a difficult moment.

Somebody showed up when it was incredibly inconvenient for them.

And this is the kind of investment I think we need to have on our minds, right?

That we need to we need to find people that need somebody to love them.

Right?

I think this is how the movement has always moved.

We see with those early followers of Jesus that people just they were so attracted to them because they they kept sharing things and giving things and being hospitable in ways that were uncommon.

But but what I don't want you to hear me say this morning is that I need you to find a new project, a target.

Right?

Like I think your investment has to be genuine, at least genuinely, you practicing how to love others with someone else.

Right?

Like what I want you to do is think about who is somebody that you could get to know their name that you don't already know.

Hear their story, care about what is happening in their life.

Show up, listen, and be a friend without turning them into a project.

Guys, I and and this is I'm I'm you know what, I'm speaking to myself so much right now because I feel like I've had phases in my life where where, you know, because of the job that I do, like the lines between just like like friend and work get blurred.

And so you meet somebody and you're you're you're you're you're keen for them to kind of know about who you are.

Well, all of a sudden it's just like the only thing on your mind is well, how do I get them to, how do I get them to be part of this thing?

You know, it's like when people get crazy about Avon or whatever, you know, like you, you know, you go to coffee with somebody and then they slam you at the end with the Avon catalog, and you realize this wasn't about coffee at all.

This was just about the Avon catalog that came at the end.

You know, you want to get me into your triangle of sales, right?

Anybody ever had that experience?

Yeah, people have had that experience, right?

Christians do this all the time to people, right?

It's like, oh, I love you, I care about you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I haven't told you about Jesus yet.

You know, in the most awkward, weird, socially anxious way they can think of.

It's awful.

That is not what I'm asking you to do, okay?

Is everybody really, really clear about that?

I'm not asking you to be an Avon salesman.

Okay?

But look, if what we're trying to do here is to learn to love like Jesus, right?

I think that's the calling for all of us.

I think that's what Jesus said.

Hey, go and love others the way that I have loved you, right?

So if our if our singular mission is to learn to love like Jesus, you cannot love like Jesus without people in your life who you can love on.

People who maybe the sole purpose in their life is there's somebody that you have chosen to show kindness and graciousness and love towards.

Right?

And if and if you do that, then you will genuinely get to know people.

Right?

And so if an opportunity comes for you to invite them, then it's not weird and awkward at the end of the coffee with the Avon catalog anymore.

Right?

It can say something really genuine, like, come to church with me, come sit with me, come to come to dinner.

It doesn't have to be the church at all.

Come to Trunk Retreat when we do this thing for the neighborhood.

Come meet some of my friends at a barbecue.

Come explore your questions with me at a place like Starting Point.

The invitation isn't always the same, but the posture needs to be the same.

Here's my story.

I found something helpful to me.

And I would love to share that with you if you want.

Right?

And it's got to kind of be both and, investing and inviting.

Because investing without inviting is just kind of like too passive.

But but inviting without investing gets really weird.

Right?

The healthiest version of this is that you choose, as a person who's learning to love like Jesus, to love others.

And because I love people, I pay attention to them.

And then if there is a moment that makes sense, you can invite them.

I I I would I would I would want to coach you a little bit on this, and I'm gonna give you three things, um, three reasons not to invite somebody to church.

Okay?

Don't be motivated by these things.

And I'm gonna give you three things that that might actually help you find the right moment, okay?

First, I'm not telling you to do this because I want you to make the church bigger.

Okay?

Your motivation should not be to grow the church.

Right?

That's not what I'm asking you to do right now.

Even though I, yeah, sure, do I want Burnett to grow?

Yes, because I think healthy organisms grow.

Right?

But but I don't want it to grow artificially, and I don't want you to go invite people to our church just because it makes it look better or feel better or makes us look successful.

We care about people.

Amen?

Great.

Not impressive attendance numbers.

Crowd is not the goal.

People genuinely encountering Jesus is the goal.

Number two, not because this is what Christians are supposed to do.

Don't get motivated by that.

Anything done purely from obligation gets weird real fast.

Right?

Every conversation all of a sudden starts to feel like it's gotta end with an invitation to church.

And I'm not asking you to do that.

Right?

You know, hey, isn't the weather awesome?

Great, you should come to church with me tomorrow.

You know, don't do that.

The third thing is that you shouldn't do it, not because you think there's something wrong with the other person.

Nobody wants to feel like somebody else's improvement project.

If the invitation communicates, I'm fine, you're broken, we've missed Jesus.

So then why should you think about inviting somebody?

Because when something has brought you life, hope, grace, and direction, it is natural to want to share that with other people.

Right?

If you are experiencing these things, you know, it's like this.

Um a couple of years ago, my favorite band uh came to Vancouver.

Um they're called the Brothers Landreth, they're a Canadian band uh from Winnipeg.

And and and when they came, I told a whole bunch of people here how awesome it was to see them live.

Like they are phenomenal musicians.

Absolutely phenomenal.

I went and told a whole bunch of, you know you know what's you know what's weird?

I started getting phone calls because they're coming back in in November.

I've started to get text messages and phone calls from people going, hey, are you going to see the Brothers Landrith again?

Because I was excited about what they did.

I told them really naturally about the thing that I was excited about.

And so then they did their own research and they've decided that they want to go to the show.

You see the parallel here?

Right?

You don't, it it when something is happening in your life, it's not weird to share the things that you're excited about.

It's so much more natural than sometimes we make it out to be.

And if you share your story and you wait for other people to share their story and you pay attention and you listen and you care about them genuinely, there will be cues.

Here are some cues that might help you to know whether it's appropriate to invite something or someone with you.

Three knots.

Three knots that will help you figure out whether the time is right.

Knot number one, it's not going well.

Right?

Somebody will tell you.

My marriage is struggling, my kids are having a hard time.

Work sucks.

My health is not good.

I'm lonely.

I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this.

And and and again, proviso, pain is not an evangelistic opportunity, but pain is a moment when someone has trusted you enough to let you know things are not going well.

And if you've been here for a while, most of those things, marriage, kids, work, health, are things that we talk about here because they're because they're part of they're part of growing as a human being.

And that's part of what Jesus wants to do in us.

You know, in fact, I was just talking to somebody this morning that said, kids going through a hard time, and I was like, yeah, just remember, we've got youth on Wednesday nights.

It will be great to get them connected to that.

See how easy that is?

How natural it is?

Things aren't going well for this person.

Hey, I've got a possible solution.

My kids seem to like it when they come.

Maybe your kids will like it too.

The key line here is like, uh, don't pounce.

Pay attention.

Right?

Sometimes the loving response is to just listen.

Sometimes it's not the right moment.

Sometimes it's to offer to pray or to let somebody know that you're praying for them.

But sometimes the opportunity is there to say, hey, you know what?

Um, actually, this is something that we talk about regularly at my church.

I would love for you to come sit with me.

And learn with me.

The second knot is uh I'm not prepared for this, right?

Life transitions.

Expose how little control we really have.

Ask a new parent how much control they feel they have, right?

Uh your first child starts school, and suddenly there's a whole new world of things that you need to be equipped to have conversations with your kids about.

The teenage years.

Right?

A new marriage, a new divorce, a move, a new job, empty nesting, retirement.

There are all these transitions.

And oftentimes we get to those transitions in life and they sort of sneak up on us.

I realize this happened to me with my oldest daughter who graduated from high school this year.

And um, and as she was, I was sitting listening to her, so proud of her, as she as she sang in her school's musical.

I I literally left there with a tension headache because it suddenly hit me that I wasn't ready for her to graduate from high school.

I wasn't ready for the moment that came.

People experience this all the time.

The season sneaks up, and sometimes that season can create some openness, right?

Right?

And I think this one matters to us because we want to be the kind of church where family could arrive in a disoriented season and discover there are people who are willing to walk with me through this season.

Right?

That's why we say no perfect people allowed, because people are gonna show up here in seasons that they're not prepared for.

And if it seems like we've got it all together and they're the ones who are broken, you know, like just if we can all keep admitting we've all got something.

We've all got a step to take.

There's no perfect people here, I think that we can be valuable to each other.

And I mean the third one might seem super obvious, they're not in church, right?

Um sometimes you'll talk to people about your experience with church.

And they'll say, I've actually never gone to church before.

I have no idea what that's about.

Increasingly, that's the story of the people that we run into.

No religious history whatsoever.

Right?

And so then there's a really natural thing to be like, hey, you could come see what it's about with me.

I'll even buy you lunch afterwards.

No sales pitch, no pressure, right?

No assumption that you know their whole spiritual story, just a really genuine invitation.

Something as simple as you can come with us sometime, and I'll save you a seat.

Right?

The cues will tell you the who's.

Do you like that?

The cues will tell you the who's, right?

Because it's not for everyone all the time.

Right?

But it's for some people some of the time.

And and I just want to push back against that Canadian thing that goes, nobody wants to hear what I have to say.

Nobody cares.

It's not true.

It's not true.

Do you know we've had verifiably over 400 first-time guests at our church this year?

Many of them, simply because we've been running this ad on Instagram.

Start asking people how they got here.

Right?

Happens all the time.

You know, people are like scrolling through their Instagram at night in their bed and they're like, oh, church?

Yeah, sure.

And they sign up and they come.

And I'm like, hey, how did you find out about us?

Like on Instagram?

I'm like, really?

That actually works?

Seriously?

But here's the crazy thing.

If your assumption is nobody wants to be invited, like I've got 400 people who would disagree with you in the last eight months.

400 people have come because we asked them to come on Instagram.

Imagine what would happen if like real people who really cared invited people to church.

Wouldn't that be something?

Man, wouldn't that be so cool?

There's a story in the scriptures, in the book of John, that I think is really, really, really helpful to us when seeing all this come together.

It's the story of uh Jesus and the woman at the well.

Maybe you've heard this one before, right?

So remember earlier when I said that like Jewish people weren't supposed to interact with Sumerian people?

That was a part of their culture.

Jesus ends up stopping in the Sumerian town on his way to Jerusalem.

And he goes to the well in the center of town because, well, it's the desert and they're thirsty.

And Jesus' followers keep going into town because they're going to look for food.

And what happens is Jesus ends up being here at this well with this woman who he's not supposed to have conversation with.

You know, in their culture, uh one man and one woman being anywhere together alone was a no-no, and then add the cultural disconnect to it.

And what does Jesus do?

He strikes up a conversation with her.

Asks her for some water.

It's all like super mundane stuff.

And we don't have, of course, all the details of the conversation, but what ends up happening is this this woman starts telling Jesus about her life.

And Jesus listens and engages.

And when the time is right, gives her some feedback.

And what happens?

You know, like it's not a high pressure.

Put her in a headlock, give her a noogia until she says the sinner's prayer and believes in Jesus.

He just kind of waits.

His followers come back, and she leaves and she goes into town.

And she starts talking to her neighbors.

And she starts inviting them to come and see this man who told me everything I ever did.

Notice what she does not do.

She doesn't go away feeling like she's an expert on Jesus.

She doesn't go away and begin a theological debate with them about whether they should come see this Jewish guy.

Because remember, they don't believe the same thing the Jewish people do.

Right?

She's not there to win an argument with her neighbors.

She doesn't even try to force a decision.

She just says to her neighbors, hey, why don't you come and see for yourselves?

And many in the town initially respond because of her story.

Then, after encountering Jesus for themselves, they make their decisions.

She didn't change them, she didn't force them.

She just invited them.

And it's such a, I hope, a freeing picture of our responsibility.

You are not responsible to convert anybody.

You are not responsible for anybody else's response.

You do not need to have every answer worked out ahead of time.

Your responsibility is to love people well enough to make an introduction when the time, if the time and the opportunity come.

I mentioned we're going to do this series in two three-part chunks.

And I want to show you something today that I hope you will consider using over the next couple of months.

At the end of each one of these messages, I'm just going to have a little invitation for you.

Something that I would love for you to take part in.

And today, my question for you at the end of this message is can you make room for somebody?

And who would that person be?

Doesn't have to be 20 people.

One person.

One person that isn't a part of your church circle that you would make time to invest in over the next 12 months.

One person.

At the end of this series, we're going to collect these cards.

Russ, do we have the card?

Please tell me we do.

Awesome.

You're going to see these floating around the church for the next little while.

Because I think, I think, guys, I think our church is at a space where we're ready to take some steps.

There's some growth that we want to see happen here.

Some things that we want to see for you.

And all of these messages are sort of designed to hit on something that's like, man, if we took intentional steps in these areas together, we would see God do some incredible things in our lives.

So because the ecclesia is a movement, we want you to experience movement personally.

So every one of the messages is just going to land on a pretty simple challenge for the most part.

Maybe one or two of them aren't so simple.

Not because we want something from you, but because we want something for you.

Real, God-inspired growth.

And sometimes, sometimes it isn't until we write it down that it becomes real.

Right?

We've all got steps to take.

And we're hoping to help guide each one of you through those steps.

So this is the card.

I kind of blurred out the other ones because I don't want to give away yet.

I don't want you to know what's coming yet.

Okay?

But today, here are the questions that we're going to ask.

And we would love for you to like, we're going to collect them all around the end of November.

Okay?

Because we want you to have like prayerful, thoughtful consideration.

I'll commit to investing in one new person this year who's not a part of my church community.

Or I will invite somebody to come sit with me at church.

Or I need more resources on how to do that well.

Or I'm not ready to do any of those things.

Right?

We would rather know and be able to help you where you are than have you say, hey, I'll do this and then not do it.

Right?

What we're trying to do is create a culture together over the next number of weeks where we can see some real meaningful growth happen.

So today's step is pretty simple.

I want you to go away and pray, is there one person that I might consider investing in?

And if you need some help with that, let us know.

We would love to help.

Start with just one.

Don't pick a family, not your whole staff team at work, not your whole neighborhood.

Just pick one person that you can intentionally invest in this fall.

Learn their story.

Make room in your life for them.

Pay attention.

Listen for those three knots not prepared, not in church, etc.

And when the moment is right, if the moment is right, include them in your story.

Maybe that inclusion is not to church, maybe it's to have coffee or dinner.

Maybe it's just to talk.

The goal here is not to force the moment.

The goal is to be ready and open when the moment comes.

Last week Jesus said, I will build my ecclesia.

I will build my movement.

And this week we start to see how he intends for that movement to move outward, through people, through relationships, through stories.

And it moves.

It moves because somebody made room for us.

And we're gonna make room for somebody else.

Could you pray with me for a minute?

God, we are grateful that at some point, at some point somebody made room for us.

Somebody made room for somebody in our family.

Somebody wrote an invitation card to a youth event that then changed everything.

That's my dad's story.

His girlfriend invited her to church and he came because he liked her.

Sometimes just being involved in somebody's life is all it takes.

Help us to make room.

Make room for others.

So that your your movement keeps moving from us out to those who you love.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.