Few to Many
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer Carey. I am a church planting resident here at Mill City. It has almost been a year. This June will be a year since we've been down here starting the work of planting Antioch Church on the other side of Lexington. It's been a good year.
It's been a year that has been a joy to be serving alongside you guys, to be learning from you guys. We've felt a lot of love, and it's been great. We're excited for where God has ahead for us. And this morning, we are continuing our Extraordinary Series, and we're going to be talking about community groups and how they can be used for mission. Conventional wisdom says that if you want to accomplish a goal or win a game or whatever, you choose the best and the brightest to field your team. And that's practically true in sports.
In sports, in professional sports, the most important position that you hire for as an owner is a general manager, the GM. The GM chooses the head coach, which is hugely important. He also chooses the players. He's the head of scouting. So I'm a huge Indianapolis Colts fan, which means the last five years has been somewhat painful because we have one of the best quarterback prospects since Peyton Manning, and it's been terrible to watch because we had a bad GM who chose really bad players and a not-so-great coach.
I think of other sports. I think of Major League Baseball. Probably the best GM in sports is Theo Epstein. He helped build the Red Sox and ended that curse, and then he went to the Chicago Cubs where he just ended that curse. So he's really good at what he does.
If you want to win ballgames, you feel the best team. The same is also true in advertising. If you want your product to sell, you choose the best and the brightest. In our culture, that seems to be celebrities. Celebrity endorsements is where it's at. One of my favorite celebrities who endorses products is Shaq.
Shaquille O'Neal, he's just hilarious. He was one of the most dominant power forwards in the history of the NBA, and then he comes out, and he's just been selling products ever since. One of my favorite products he sells are Buicks. He is seven. You don't know who Shaq is. He's seven foot one.
He's massive, and they show him inside of a Buick, and you're like, there's no way Shaq fits in a Buick. He has business selling tanks, but not Buicks. That's not how that works. One of the worst celebrity endorsements that I've seen is the Sarah McLachlan abused animal commercials. You know what I'm talking about. If you've watched TV past 11 o'clock, you have seen these.
The first time you watch it, her song, In the Arms of an Angel, comes on, which is an extremely sad song. And then they show a picture of an abused puppy, and you're immediately like, this is really sad. And then they show a hurt cat. And you may not be a cat person. That doesn't do anything for you. But then they show you more pictures of dogs.
And you're like, oh my goodness, this is terrible. The first time you watch it, I mean, it moves you a little bit. The hundredth time you've seen it, it infuriates you. You want it off the TV. You change the channel as fast as you can. But that's what companies, that's what nonprofits, that's what teams.
If you want the best way to sell your product, the best way to win ballgames, you choose the best and the brightest. That's conventional wisdom. Jesus defies that. He defies conventional wisdom by choosing a bunch of scrubs and equipping them to do ministry. If you don't know what a scrub is, a scrub is one definition. It's a guy who thinks he's fine who's also known as a buster.
That is one definition of a scrub. An alternate definition of a scrub is just someone who generally lacks talent. Not very special, not an all-star at all. And this is who Jesus chose. So we're going to look today, we're going to walk through this.
We're going to walk through who Jesus chose and why he chose them to change the world, the 12 apostles. Then we're going to look at how he equipped them to do ministry. And we're going to see how God still wants to use us today. So before we dive into that, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. God, I pray that you would use it this morning to show us what mission looks like and how our community groups can be used to reach this city.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so we'll start at who he chose. Matthew 10, 2 and following. The names of the 12 apostles are these. First, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother.
James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother. Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector. James, the son of Alphaeus. And Thaddeus. Simon, the zealot.
And Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. All right, so Jesus chooses 12 ordinary men that represent kind of a common cross-section of that culture at that time. You look at Peter, James, John, Andrew. We know they were fishermen. All right, so blue-collar, probably uneducated, fishermen.
Then you get Bartholomew, James, Philip, and Jude Thaddeus. Thaddeus being a name that exhibits both testosterone and biblical value, which is why our son who is coming this summer will have the middle name Thaddeus. These four, we don't really know who they were. They could have been farmers. They could have been shepherds. They could have been fishermen.
They don't have name recognition. We don't really know who they were. They were just common people. Then you get to Thomas. Thomas is probably a common trade, too, but we do know something about Thomas. He's a bit of a skeptic.
So he kind of represents the skeptic part of their society. Then we get to Matthew and Simon. Matthew, we'll start with him. Matthew is a tax collector. He's a Jewish tax collector. Which means he's one of the most hated people in his culture.
He was a Jew who worked for the Roman government who was oppressing the Jews, collecting taxes on behalf of them, and taking more than his fair share. Like, we hate the IRS. This is the IRS and steroids. This is like China oppressing our country and having to pay taxes to an American who takes more than his fair share. So he's hated.
And then on the other extreme, we have Simon the Zealot. He is a part of a group of revolutionaries called the Zealots. They actively sought to overthrow the Roman government, rebellion after rebellion, until finally about 70 AD, the Romans were done with it, and they went and destroyed all of Jerusalem. They destroyed the temple, which is why there's only one part of the temple called the Western Wall that is still in existence. The Zealots hated the Romans. They hated tax collectors who were sellout Jews who worked for the Romans.
So Jesus chooses two people on opposite ends of the spectrum. And then we get to Judas. We know Judas was the one who betrayed Jesus. He could have been an accountant. We don't really know. He handled the money.
But he's just a common person that ends up betraying Jesus. And that's the team. That's the all-star team that he chose to change the world. Defying conventional wisdom, Jesus chose ordinary people to do something extraordinary. And even worse, he chose people who were more likely to tear each other apart than actually unify under a common cause. So why did Jesus choose this group of people to change the world?
For a few reasons. Because God looks glorious when he chooses the broken, when he chooses common, uneducated people to accomplish his purposes. Like the sovereignty of God, which is his rule and his reign, looks more glorious when he uses jacked-up people to advance his kingdom. We see that from Old Testament to New Testament. God gets to flex when he takes a zealot and a tax collector and unifies them under a common cause to see the world changed. It is clear who's in control of the mission when he chooses a common group of people to advance his kingdom.
And they're all so different. And I see that on a practical level now. Even being at this church the last year, thinking of two pastors that came to plant this church, Chet and Matt. They are so different. Like we knew each other in college. But I've gotten to know them more since I've been down here.
And they're so different. You take Chet, for instance. Chet kind of has a stoic, kind of hard face that doesn't look as friendly. He's not very touchy-feely. He's more likely to punch you if you hug him unannounced. That's just Chet.
He's not very touchy-friendly. But you get to know him. He's actually very friendly. He cares a lot. And then as you get to know him more, you see he has a soft spot for musicals and broadways and a little bit of folk music. Then you get to Matt Freeman, who looks happy all the time.
He has got a very kind of light-hearted, very happy spirit about him. He's more likely to hug you unannounced. Hug you and pick you up unannounced. And behind all that, when he gets into competition, he gets gritty. He gets nasty. It's fun.
Especially when you beat him in ping-pong and you get to see it. But God uses both. They're so different. You can go on down the line and show their differences. God uses their differences to bless this church and to make the mission here better. And the same is true if you're honest in your community group.
I mean, be real. Think of the people in your community group right now. Would you have ever connected if it wasn't for Christ? If it wasn't for the reason why you're here is because of Jesus. Would you have ever connected as a community group? Would you still connect?
For some of you, maybe. But for many of you, probably not. Every one of your community group is very different. I think of the community group that we started when we launched community groups off the ground for Antioch in the fall. I've got a little bit of intense personality. I love the Gamecocks.
I love going out to restaurants and eating good foods. I love good coffee. I like weirder music and weirder movies. And then you get to Jeremy Powell, who moved down here last summer. And Jeremy is way different. He's a personal trainer and he loves working out.
I hate working out. I hate it. He likes five different types of food. Unseasoned chicken. Rice. Oatmeal.
Broccoli. And if it's crazy, sweet potatoes. And that's it. Like, that's all he eats. And we're so different. I think of the Pruitts who moved down here.
We're different. They're Clemson fans. We're way different on that. I think of the Garcias who moved down here. They're New Yorkers. We're all so...
When I think about the people who helped launch our community group, we're just... We're all so very different. But what comes out of those differences is a diverse group of people united by the gospel. What comes out of that is a beautiful display of empathy with others. It is a patience with personalities that might clash with you. And it grows you.
And it shapes you in ways that would never happen if you got to choose the people that you want to journey through life with in a community group. And in being different, we all bring something different to the table. We bring different spiritual giftings to the table. Romans 12 is a passage that is one of a few passages in the New Testament that talks about spiritual giftings. Spiritual giftings are just giftings and talents that the Holy Spirit has given us to serve one another in the church and serve those outside the church. Romans 12 gives a few of them.
In verses 5 and 4, we'll read them. It says, So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. All right, hear this. We are one body with individual members with individual different spiritual giftings. I mean, some of you are unreal gifted at serving in hospitality. I serve on host team week in, week out, and I get to see it firsthand.
You make this church better by being such great hosts that bring people in here to hear the gospel. Some of you are just very good at exhorting and encouraging other people. Like, it's just good to be in your presence, to hear your words of encouragement. You're good at that. Some of you are able to teach. That doesn't always look like what happens up here.
Sometimes that's in community group leading a discussion. Sometimes that's walking somebody at a coffee shop through a Bible study. Some of you can teach. Some of you are good at making money, and you have generous hearts. And we can meet here on a Sunday. We can gather together because of that.
It costs money to use this place, and we get to see more ministry happen because of it. We all bring something different to the table in how God uses us to impact one another and others. And what we see from how Jesus chose his apostles is that our diversity is a means of grace that God uses to impact many. Our diversity is a means of grace that God uses to change the world, which is why Jesus chooses the people he did. And it makes God look good. So that's who he chose.
That's why he chose. I want to take a look at how he prepared them for ministry. The primary focus of the four Gospels is Jesus spending time with his apostles, preparing them for ministry. That's it. He had a large-scale ministry, absolutely, but the primary focus is him pouring into the twelve over and over again. You read how Jesus was doing ministry with his disciples, and he was modeling how to do this.
Because the plan wasn't that he was going to stay here forever. So he spent three years modeling this. He spent three years praying with them, teaching them how to pray. He spent three years showing them the importance of the word. There are over 66 different references to the Old Testament in Jesus' dialogues with the disciples. He showed the word is central to what you are going to do.
He modeled solitude and the importance of that. He did large-scale ministry. He did get away with the twelve. Sometimes he did get away with the three. And then he would also get away by himself to spend time with his heavenly father, showing that all of us need time alone with God. Even if you're an extrovert like me, even if you're even more of an extrovert, you need time alone with your father.
He modeled mercy ministry by having compassion on the crowds. He modeled how to have a good time. One of his first miracles is changing water to wine at a wedding party. And I mean, it's so much so that the Pharisees accused Jesus of being a drunkard and a glutton. Now we know that's not true because getting drunk is sin and Jesus is sinless.
We know that never happened. We know that he wasn't a glutton. But he must have been having such a good time with his disciples on a regular basis that they can make those accusations. So he did all this and more. He spent three years showing them how to do this so that they would know how to do it when he left. And just being around him, they soaked up a ton of stuff.
And that makes sense on a practical level. I think on a practical level with my relationship with my daughter, she is almost two years old. And she absorbs a lot. She absorbs some of the good stuff that we do. So we teach her how to pray, what that looks like.
Every night we try to read the storybook Bible so that she can get a rhythm of hearing the gospel, hearing the stories of the Bible come to life. We try some good patterns and then some bad patterns she eventually picks up from us. One of the bad patterns that she picked up a couple months ago, she looked at our dog. We have two dogs. We have one dog who is a sweet puppy who we know she's going to be awesome. Like we can see the long run.
This is going to be a great dog. And we have another dog who's objectively terrible. And she looks at that dog and she goes, shut up, Rolo. And my wife looks at me and I look at her and I look at Ellie. I'm like, no, you shut up. That's not how that went down.
Immediately, I'm like, I'm a little mortified because I know it's me. I know it's my fault because this dog, he's just bad. He's bitten us. He's disobedient. And one of the things that he does that drives us crazy is when she's napping and you have a toddler that's trying to nap and you don't want that interrupted. He barks at everything.
He barks at noises outside and he wakes her up. And I want to take him and put him in front of the TV and watch Sarah McLachlan commercials and say, this could be your life. And my go-to response is, shut up. And she heard it. And so we had to correct that. We had to slowly teach her that, no, say shush, don't say shut up.
But she picks up a lot. You pick up a lot from people around, especially people that you might be influenced by. And for three years, the apostles got to spend three years with the God of the universe. And they picked up a ton. They got to see the heart of God on display for three years. And it impacted 11 of them in profound ways that changed and shaped the future of their ministries until each of them died.
So after spending three years modeling this, Jesus goes to the cross. He goes to the cross where he pays. His blood is spilt. It pays for their sins so that they can have a right standing before God. He goes to the tomb where he conquers death at the resurrection, loosening the grip of death and its power over his followers, giving them a chance to have a new life in Christ through belief in him. And then he sends them out.
He commissions them in the Great Commission. He says, go make disciples. You have one Job. Go make disciples. Do what I have done with you the past three years and change the world. And then the event of Pentecost happens.
They go to Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit descends upon the church at Pentecost. Peter stands up, gives a sermon. Three thousand plus people are changed in a moment. Changed by his grace. They are baptized.
And as you're reading Acts, you might be thinking, this must be the pattern of ministry that's going forward. They're going to travel around and they're going to preach. And there's going to be thousands of people that come to Christ. That is why the church exists today, right? No. This is a special, specific, just beautiful event.
That is not what happens going forward. What happens going forward is directly what follows that in Acts 2, verses 42 through 47. It says, And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And all came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And hear this. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. That's the pattern that follows for the rest of the book of Acts and the early church. After spending three years with Jesus, the disciples simply modeled his ministry.
They prayed together. They studied the word together. They ministered to those who had need together. They broke bread and ate in their homes together. They kept it simple, making everyday disciples an everyday life. And that's the vision of why Chet and Matt moved down here to plant Mill City.
That is why we moved down here to plant Antioch Church. That simple vision of ministry that we would gather together on Sundays where we'd worship, we'd hear the word preach, and we'd be sent out and we'd scatter into our homes and community groups throughout the week. That's why we preach community groups so much. That's why you hear about it every Sunday. Because we see that God wants to use community groups to change the world, to change this city. And part of us talking about it a lot is a little bit of a reaction to the fact that for most people in this culture, down south, church is a building.
Church is an event that happens on Sunday. It's a social function of sorts. And that's not the biblical definition. The church is the people of God. We gather together for worship and we scatter into community groups. That's the model.
So that's why we have preached this so much. We believe God wants to use you and me to make disciples who will make disciples. God wants to use us to plant groups across this city. We believe that he wants to use us, the few, to impact the many. That's why he chooses everyday scrubs like us to change the world. So in order for us to do that, there's got to be a little bit of a mindset change.
We've got to change our mind on how we look at this a little bit. So we have to see community groups as a missional vehicle, as a place for mission, as a people for mission. We have to see it as that. For many of us, community groups has become a place of refuge, a place of safety. And some of that's for good reasons. Some of that is because community group is a place and it's a people we can gather together and we can be honest with one another.
We can love one another. We can be around our community group members and just be real. And inviting new people into that kind of breaks that up sometimes. It kind of makes it difficult at times. So we have to have a mindset change that says, yeah, community group is a place where we can be fully loved and fully known and fully loved.
But it's also a place where we can see lives changed by the gospel. And in doing that, we're going to grow. And that's going to have to cause us to plant new groups. We have nine community groups represented in this room. And we'd love to see in a year's time that double. We'd love to see 18 community groups happen.
Which means we've got to plant and launch more groups. And when we do that, the cycle of starting new groups is painful and beautiful and good all at the same time. It's a little bit painful because the people that you've journeyed with over the last year or so, you're going to launch some of them out into a new group. Now you're going to see them on Sundays and you're going to hang out from time to time. That's going to happen. But the weekly rhythm of gathering together as a community group, that's going to shift a little bit.
That's going to change completely. They're going to be in a new group. But what happens, what comes out of that is it allows more space for new people to come and experience the gospel. So we're going to have to plant more groups. And the other mindset change that has to happen is we have to see that everything counts. Every aspect of our life counts for the mission of the gospel going forward.
The church that sent us out down here, the language they used was location, vocation, recreation. You'd be missional in your location where you live, your vocation where you work, your recreation where you play, where you live life. So for many of us, we have to do some mindset changes and seeing that we have to be missional in all of those areas. So where we live, your neighborhood, your location. Get to know your neighbors. The neighbor across the street whose yard is a wreck, maybe the yard is a wreck because they have poor health and they can't take care of their yard.
And we get to go and serve them and cut their grass and get to know them and invite them into our community groups. For some of you, many of you work, you work eight to ten hours a day at a job where you're around people, some of whom don't believe the gospel. You get the opportunity to get to engage them, to get to know them, to go out and get lunch with them, to spend time with them, building a relationship so that you can talk about the gospel. You can invite them into groups. Many of you have hobbies. Some of you have like ten hobbies.
You probably should reduce that a little bit. Some of you have just a few hobbies, which is good for your soul. You should use those hobbies as a means for mission. If you love going to workout groups, there are people in that workout group who do not know Jesus. Get to know them, engage them. Whether it's hunting or fishing or bowling leagues or whatever, see where you enjoy life as a place for mission.
So if we make those adjustments in our mind, if we see a community group as a primary vehicle for mission in the church, if we see the call to plant more groups and how that is advancing the kingdom here in Columbia, if we can make the adjustments to see that everything counts in every aspect of our life, we can start to get practical about how to make our community groups more missional. So I'm going to run through a list real quick of ways we can make our community groups more missional, and then we'll close out. The first one is to really love one another. Now I know when I say that, you're like, yeah, we get that.
I mean really love one another in a way that looks way different than the outside world. I mean our culture, our culture is so fake. It's so fake. People put their best faces on Facebook. There's not real relationships. They're not honest about their brokenness.
The world is fake, and everyone is so tired spending plates in that world trying to get by. And in our community groups, when we gather together for our meeting times, when we gather together outside of it, we get to be honest. We get to be real. We understand we're not all stars. We're scrubbed saved by grace. Like we get it, that Jesus is good.
So we can confess our sin. We can be honest about our brokenness. And when people from the outside world come and see that kind of love, they see something way different and way better. And we have to love one another. Even the people in our groups, and they clash with our personalities, we have to love one another in spite of our differences and model the gospel. If we don't have love, our community groups will not be missional.
Secondly, you are a community group. Therefore, you can do things outside of your normal community group meeting time. The difference there is sometimes we see community group as an event that happens on a Tuesday night or Wednesday night. The community groups are not the event. It's the people. You are a community group.
So you can do things outside of your normal meeting time. So go bowling. Go to the zoo. Go do things. Hang out. Live life together.
Some of you, you can go to lunch with your coworkers and invite somebody from your community group who can join you. And you go get lunch together. And they get to see your dynamics of how you love one another and how you care for one another. And they get to see the gospel lived out in a piece of your community group. So you are a group.
Do stuff outside of your normal group meeting time. Thirdly, use your strengths. Use the strengths that are in your group. Some of your groups are kid-friendly. And by kid-friendly, I mean there's like eight kids in it. We're about to have seven kids in our community group.
And it's messy. And in community group meeting time, you might be thinking, who wants to be a part of this? We've got one kid that is now naked. We don't know how he got naked, but he's naked now. Then we've got another kid that has blown out their diaper.
And then two kids collide. And there's crying. And there's screaming. And you're thinking, who wants to be a part of this chaos? People with kids. People with kids want to be a part of that.
People who have not had an adult conversation in three months with anyone other than their spouse want to be a part of that. They want to bring their kids to be a part of that. You have kids. Use your kids as a missional opportunity to invite people in to experience the gospel. Go to the splash park and invite other families from your neighborhood. Your kids can be a great missional tool.
That's a biblical good thing. They're awesome. And they can be used for mission. All right? So use, if you're kid, if y'all are kid friendly, use it.
If you have someone in your group that is like a relational Jedi, and they maintain 30 friendships with unbelievers on a regular basis, And you might be an introvert, and you might be thinking, how is that possible? I have two close friends, and that's all I have time for. That's okay. Be stretched a little bit. That's okay. But what you could do is you could see your relational friend.
You could see someone like Jordan Surratt as a person to come alongside, to spend time with some of their friends, get to know them, and invite them in to life together with us. Some of you are admin gifted. You are gifted in administration. And we need you badly. If we don't, this is what taco night looks like. Seven people bring lettuce.
One person brings cheese. And one person brings tortillas. That's not a taco. There's no such thing as a vegetarian taco. It does not exist. So we need you to be the admin person that makes group run smoother, that makes our time together run smoother, so that everyone's bringing stuff that's good, and that we can be hospitable to those who might visit.
Some of you are coffee snobs. Who else loves coffee? I'm a coffee snob. I embrace it. People will throw that label at you, and you can shut it down. Okay?
Because it's good to love coffee. I love roasting an Ethiopian Yerga Chop bean in my garage and bringing it to community group. You may think that's weird. I say that's good service. All right?
Some of you love serving good food. Right? Some of you might love throwing steaks on the grill and have the money to bring steaks to the grill. Do it. Invite your neighbors. Some of you, like Rask said, only got money for hot dogs.
You make a hot dog, you make a friend. Use your Memorial Day to grill out to get to know people and to invite them in. Some of you are awkward and small talk. You should grow in that. All right?
But while community group is kind of, our meeting time is kind of winding down and dishes need getting done and people are still talking, go wash the dishes. Some of you are great at small talk. And when somebody new comes, you actually go and talk to them and invite them and make them feel welcomed. I could go on and on about the different giftings that we have, the different strengths we have. We all have different strengths, but the reality is we're all a group of scrubs. When we gather together, we see our strengths come together and we see that we are better together.
Fourthly, be persistent and play the long game. Be persistent and play the long game. What I mean by that is, is that this takes time. In our culture, it just takes time. What we do in community groups, I don't know if you know this, is not normal. It's not normal for us to gather on a regular basis, to be honest about our brokenness, to talk about the gospel, to read the Bible.
That's not normal in our culture. Even in a southern churchy culture, that's not normal. So when you invite somebody and they say no, don't be shocked. Like this takes time. It takes time to get to know people. You may invite them and they may say no.
And you may invite them three months later and they may say no again. But eventually, if you're persistent, not annoying, don't be the person that invites every single moment you can. Be persistent, not annoying. But the more time you spend with them, the more time, more lunches you get with them, they might actually come. And then if they come, they might not come back for another six months. But if you're persistent, hopefully by God's grace, one day they're going to see their brokenness and their need.
And they're going to see the world that they're in is fake. And they're going to remember the time when I came around a group of people who actually loved one another. And they'll say, I need that. And they'll come back and they'll experience the gospel and they'll be changed by his grace. So be persistent and play the long game.
All right, here's the final two. Know that this is hard. This is difficult. You will get hurt in doing this. Jesus spent three years pouring in a 12 and one of them betrayed him and had him handed over to die one of the most gruesome deaths imaginable. If you do this, you will get hurt.
My wife went out in a community group in Louisville. We spent a year and a half pouring into a woman who we helped pay for rent. We helped keep the lights on. We babysat her kids. We got her jobs that she eventually got fired from. We helped with legal fees and a custody dispute.
We spent a year and a half pouring into her. And we received lie after lie. And we got used. And then she moved on. And that's painful. Like you invest a year and a half into something like that.
That hurts. And you might be tempted to think, is this really worth it? Is it worth it to open myself up to that kind of pain? And I'll close with this. It's absolutely worth it. Because this is where joy is found.
This is joyful. When I get to see stories like what's happened in our community group with the Garcias moving down here. I think of Jen Garcia got baptized here about a month ago. And I get to see her story of her searching for God. Doesn't really have handles for what that looks like. Has never really heard the gospel.
Comes down as a part of our community group. She gets to hear the gospel. She understands that she believes. And she's growing in the grace of our Lord. When I get to see that, when we get to baptize her and see that change, it's worth it. I've gotten to know the Pabones, and especially Josh, the past year.
When we first, one of the first meetings Josh Pabone and I ever had, we're talking with Chet and Matt. And all of a sudden Josh goes, listen, we're not friends yet. And then he's kind of moved on. I was like, oh, okay. We're not friends yet. We've grown to be friends.
And as I've gotten to hear his story, and he gave me permission to share this. When I got to hear his story of how him and Aideen are on the brink of divorce. And their life is in shambles. And someone invites them to a community group. And they come, and they experience the gospel, and they see a place where they can belong. A place where they can be loved.
And their marriage is changed. And now they're community group leaders. And they're opening their home up, being hospitable, seeing other lives be changed. When I hear stories like that, when I think of this church that sent us, and the stories that happened there of lives being changed, of marriages being restored. When I think of the stories that are happening here, and I see them, I'm like, this is absolutely worth it. I'm sold.
I want to be a ragtag group of scrubs being used by Jesus to see this city be changed. Our hope is that each of us would see our community groups as a place to see lives be changed by the gospel. That we would plant more groups across this city where we see lives be changed, marriages be restored. That is the hope for community groups. That's the hope for us going forward as a church.