Vision Sunday 2024

Well, it's good to be with you this morning. And I'm excited about today because we are talking about vision. We're talking about vision and what it is that we believe that God wants from this body of believers here at Whitewater. If you're a guest with us today, it's a great time to show up to see kind of what matters most to us and what we're hoping for, the future here. If you would like to connect with Whitewater any further today, you can go out to the information desk out in the lobby and you can get any questions that you have answered.

You can learn how you can take a next step here. My name is Josh, if we haven't met, and I'm glad to be with you today. Many of you know that. Excuse me. Many of you know that I just stepped into this role a little bit over seven months ago, and in some ways it feels like a long time, and in some ways it feels like it's been 10 minutes or something.

But I spent a lot of time really preparing for the possibility of this job. Not only in 20 plus years of ministry before this, but especially in the 10 months between the time that I submitted my resume and I stood here on this platform and you met my family and me on February 25 for the very first time. I spent a lot of time with preparing for the possibility because I knew that this was, this is a big job. This is a big responsibility. And quite honestly, we prayed far more that God wouldn't let us touch this if he didn't want us to be here.

Then we prayed that he would bring us here. And during that time, I spent a lot of time praying. I read a ton of books. I was reading blogs and watching videos and talking to other ministers and trying to figure out if this is going to happen. I How do I step into this appropriately?

Now, in all of the preparation, as I studied and asked and received advice from others, one of the bits of wisdom that was on repeat through that whole season was that everyone said, make sure you slow down, slow down. Everyone said it would take 18 to 24 months to build relationships and trust. Everyone said, make sure that you don't try to do anything major in the first 12 to 24 months. Everyone said, slow down, lower your expectations. The staff and the eldership and the church, they'll need way more time than you think they will need to be ready for whatever's next.

And so that's exactly what I set out to do. I set out to slow down, preach the word, build Relationships let everyone get used to us. But it became just a short time into this kind of concerted effort to slow down. It became obvious that God was starting to give glimpses to me that the staff, the congregation, and the eldership were hungry, ready, looking forward, excited to get moving. And so favor and trust and readiness were growing.

So much so that after being away for a few weeks in July, we came back, and the number one question I was getting asked is, what's next? Where are we going? Where are we going? Where are we going? What's next?

Excited about the future. And so I kept thinking, this can't be. Like, this can't be true. Every book said, this can't be true. All the wisdom and advice said, slow down.

And still I was inundated with excitement and questions and readiness. Where are we going? What does the future look like? What are your thoughts and dreams for this or that? And it seems our church is ready to start dreaming and moving towards the future.

But I want you to know what I attribute this readiness to, what I genuinely, truly believe is miraculous readiness. This shouldn't be. And still it is. And there's something that I attribute it to, and it certainly is not me. It's not me.

It's not because I did anything. It's because God used all of you and many leaders here to do some really significant things. Most of you will know that ultimately our church is led by a board of volunteer elders. And over the last seven months, I've spent a lot of time with these guys, getting to know them, getting to know their hearts, lots of conversation, lots of questions. And I can tell you that these.

These men are men of obedience. And they are selfless men. They're men who are only focused, genuinely, no agenda more than any church I've ever been a part of, no agenda other than whatever God wants us to be and do. That's what they're after.

And when things got sideways, they stepped in. They protected the church, they led, and they did it with great care and love. These men and their families sacrifice a tremendous amount of hours, days and months of their lives serving this church well. When they needed to move quickly, they moved quickly. And then they had the wisdom to slow down, to slow down.

In that time of slowing down, they helped work to help the staff and the congregation heal and mend. They spent a lot of late nights, a lot of Saturdays, doing their best to care for and lead the church. And in that same season, most of you know, Jess Adkins stepped up as well to lead the staff. To help hold things together, keep consistency. And he did it with great poise, even in a very difficult situation.

And this. Amen.

And then the staff. The staff, too, they kept showing up. They did whatever it took to keep things going. And they saw some very difficult days. Our budget was cut by over a million dollars.

Most of the staff took a substantial pay cut. Some of our friends and loved ones left the church. Things got really hard. But the elders, Jess, the staff, and many of you, you stayed the course. You trusted God's timing.

You prayed, you gave generously. You serv. Served and you sacrificed. And all of that, all of that work, all of that sacrifice, all of that prayer, all of that obedience paid off. The bleeding stopped.

The budget balanced. The church started to heal. And by the grace of God, by the time my family and I showed up in February, there was already excitement, already readiness in the air. You might remember the first day that I preached. I talked about that, this readiness that was in every corner of this church.

So before we talk about the future, I just want to take some time to say thank you to our elders and their families. If you are an elder or a family of an elder, would you stand up for just a minute so we can thank you? I know you're not doing this, so we'll. So you can stand up.

Stay standing if you will. Sorry. And if you're on staff here at Whitewater, if you're staff or family of staff, would you stand so that we can say thank you?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you on behalf of your church family. Thank you.

I know you didn't want to stand up and be thanked this morning, but thank you for your sacrifice, for the many late nights, for time away from your families, for the tears. Thank you. We are only where we are today because of all of you and because we have an incredible family of believers here at Whitewater. But today is a new day. Today's a new day.

We're stepping into a new season. And I cannot wait to see what God has in mind for this little outpost of his kingdom here in Cleaves, Ohio. Over the last seven months, I've been praying and meeting and collaborating with staff and elders, getting to know our people, getting to know our history and our systems, learning from others, asking God what he wants for our future. And from all that work and collaboration, we've written a description of the church that we want to be in the next three years. This description is a painting of what could be.

This is what we want to be able to say is true of us 36 months from now. There isn't anything earth shattering or novel in this. At its root, it is be the New Testament Church in Cleves, Ohio. That's it. Not very exciting, other than the fact that it's extremely exciting.

Okay, now I'll try to set this up the best I can here so we're on the same page. First, a lens to view this through. This is a painting of what could be. It isn't a description of all the tactics and strategies and all the things that it's going to take to do there. It's an aspirational picture of what could be.

Second, this is an extremely collaborative description, including content from every ministry area, from our whole staff, and from our eldership. And third, I know this is a lot to consume in one bite. It is a lot. But we're going to do it. And over the next five weeks we're going to start to just dig into the details of what it's going to take to accomplish this.

So I just, I'll read this 36 month aspirational picture and then we'll dig into some details in 36 months. We want this to be able to be said of the body of believers here at Whitewater. We are a people of the word, a people of prayer, and a people led by the Holy Spirit. We are a welcoming, vibrant church, a home for believers and a refuge for the broken in suffering. We are a place where everyone can find hope, care, community, and the healing power of God.

We are dedicated disciples of Jesus Christ, committed to making more and better disciples both here and not here. Disciple making is woven into everything we do. We are an intergenerational church that values people in every stage of life. We are champions of the next generation, raising up young disciples and leaders who actively shape our church's future. At the same time, we honor the wisdom and experience of older generations.

And we foster opportunities for all ages to learn from and support one another as we grow together in faith. Emulating Jesus, we serve one another with humility and love, encouraging and building up the body of Christ. We view our gifts, resources and spheres of influence as tools for expanding God's kingdom. And we share them generously. We each feel a personal call to evangelism and boldly embody and share the gospel.

Starting in our homes and extending into our neighborhoods, workplaces and communities. We are unified in our aim to fulfill and embody the Great Commission, go into all the world and the Great Commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and Strength and love your neighbor as yourself. We are a church where people are frequently coming to faith and where baptisms are a regular celebratory part of our community. We generously collaborate with local and global individuals and organizations that share our values and mission, offering financial support, resources and volunteers to advance kingdom work in other places every day, in every place, we seek first the Kingdom of God, making Christ known, embodying the fruit of the Spirit, and joyfully building a kingdom legacy for generations to come.

That's the kind of church we want to be.

A lot of this stuff we're doing already and growing in already. But imagine if we were that church in 36 months from now. That would be amazing. Now, at the root of all of this is this phrase, making more and better disciples, both here and not here. What do we mean by this?

Well, let's look at each part first. This comes from the Great Commission. This is what we find in Matthew, chapter 28. These are the final words that Matthew records from Jesus to his disciples. It's at the end of the book of Matthew, starting in verse 18, Jesus said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. This is called the Great Commission because this is what every single Christian church in the world is exists to do. This is our job. These are our marching orders, our instructions. If we do a thousand other great things, but we don't do that, we are not the church.

The Christian Church exists to make disciples of Jesus of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything he taught. This is more and better. This is the call of every church. So what exactly is a disciple? Well, a disciple is a student whose aim is to become progressively more and more like their teacher.

A synonym for us to use would be apprentice, or for all of us Star wars nerds out there, a Padawan. There are two roles in that relationship, right? There's the master apprentice, the one who is the example, and the one who spends time with, learns from, emulates, and becomes over time, more and more like the example. Jesus first gave this instruction to make disciples to his disciples. These are the men who spent time with Jesus.

They learned from him. They watched him, they emulated him. For three years they worked together and traveled together, shared meals together and talked together and, and this time spent together formed them more and more into an ever increasing likeness of Jesus, of their rabbi, their teacher, their master. They certainly weren't perfect, though. All you have to do is open up the New Testament and you find that they messed up a lot.

They said the wrong things. Sometimes they didn't understand some of the things that Jesus was teaching them. They had too much ego sometimes. Sometimes they didn't have enough faith to be obedient to what they knew Jesus was calling them to do and be. And still they were his disciples, his pupils, his apprentices, and he gave them the responsibility of building his church.

When we say that we want to make more and better disciples, it includes two key things. First, it includes evangelism. Evangelism is the work of proclaiming and embodying the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. More disciples come from evangelism. Paul talks about this in Romans 10.

Starting in verse 13, he says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one that they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.

Evangelism, proclaiming and embodying the gospel is the work not just of the staff at the church. It is the work of every believer. Andy Stanley put it this way. He said, to follow is to fish. To follow is to fish.

We cannot be biblical followers of Jesus. We can't be true disciples without fishing, without discipling. This is the more side of more and better. And we'll spend a lot more time in the weeks and months ahead talking about evangelism, what it looks like to go and be the church, the better side of more and better disciples. It's almost like a redundant phrase, since by definition a disciple is one who is increasing in the likeness of their master or their teacher.

A better disciple is looking more and more like Jesus. This is the work of sanctification is the word here. Sanctification in its simplest form is the process becoming more like Jesus. That's it. When we first come to faith, we are made right with God instantaneously.

That's called justification. But then sanctification is the process, over time, of us becoming more and more like Jesus. And it's the process that's guided and accomplished by and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The disciples had Jesus in front of Them to learn from directly. Those of us who are believers have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ in us.

Sanctification comes through collaboration with the Holy Spirit. Now, notice that Jesus does not say in the Great Commission, go into all the world teaching them to know everything that I know. He didn't say that. He said, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. This requires knowledge of what he taught and obedience to what he taught.

So with all this in mind, here's our working definition of a disciple. Here at Whitewater. A disciple is an everyday person growing to be more like Jesus by studying and practicing his ways and helping others do the same. An everyday person, you and me, growing to be more like Jesus by studying and practicing his ways and helping others do the same. So we will be a church committed to making more disciples through evangelism and better disciples through study and practice and through the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification in our lives.

Now, let's look at that second phrase here and not here. Now, without spending too much time on this, here is the simplest explanation of what we mean by here and not here. More and better disciples are to be made everywhere. Everywhere. Disciples are not only made in small groups or Bible studies or at church on Sunday mornings or in Sunday school.

Jesus did not say that the only way to make disciples is by building a building and gathering together for an hour on Sunday morning. Jesus did not say that the only way to make disciples was by having home groups and sharing a meal and a Bible study together. Jesus did not say that the only way to make disciples is to go to the streets downtown and to serve and love the least of these. Jesus did not say that. What he did say is that we are supposed to go into all the earth.

All the earth. And I take that to mean that disciple making is an activity for. For every place, every environment, everywhere. So whether we are here, and by that, I just mean that Whitewater is in the center of the hub, so to speak, that we are resourcing. We are the ones who are putting it together, hosting, making something happening.

Or we are not here, which is anytime that Whitewater is not in the middle, not resourcing, not hosting, not making things happen. We can be making disciples. We must be making disciples. So on Sunday mornings, in every age and stage and in every ministry area, more and better disciples better be being made in our homes. More and better disciples are being made in small groups in our homes.

More and better disciples are being made on the streets downtown. More and better disciples are being made. I think you get the point. More and better disciples here and not here, in every place, at every level and in every activity. This is the root of everything we do.

Because if we don't do this, we are not the church. What if we actually became this church? Now there's a lot to talk about, but how can we possibly be pull this off? Here's the truth. We can't.

We can't. We can give and serve and show up and grit our teeth and work really, really hard, but we cannot do this. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit. It takes the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. It takes God to become this.

Because we just finished a whole series that talked about how we are at war. We are at war. Now, Jesus says that we have to do something first. There's one thing that we have to do first. It's in Matthew 6, verse 33.

Jesus says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Jesus said, seek the kingdom first. But what does this mean for us? Well, when you look at the immediate context here, Jesus is talking to a group of people who are much like us. They're struggling with worry and fear and anxiety.

It's amazing how little humans have changed over time, isn't it? We're dealing with the same things today that they were 2,000 years ago. But Jesus says to them, all of those concerns, all of everything you're worried about, everything you're anxious about, everything that keeps you up at night, lay all that aside, pay attention to one thing, seek the kingdom first. And when you do, he says, everything else falls into place. Everything falls into place.

So over the next five weeks, we're gonna just look at what it looks like for us as a church to see the kingdom first. And with that, we'll also see how it is that God wants us to become the church that we have described. But in the rest of the time that we have left today, I'm just going to do a quick flyover of some things that are going to have to be true, some things that we're going to have to do together to even begin to become this church that we're describing. First, we. We must pray together.

We must pray together. We just close out the Armor of God series where Paul instructed us to always be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. He said, pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. We must be a praying to church and we need to be praying in Unity together as one body. And here's how I think we can start doing this today.

At every exit on your way out, there is a small prayer list. This is a prayer list that I want all of us to take home and be praying every day over. Maybe you put it in the dash of your car or on your mirror in your bathroom, wherever it is. I'm just going to ask you to join us in praying for the same things. Our staff, our elders, and all of you praying for the same thing.

Here's what's on that list. First is a prayer that we would have a hunger and a longing among us for the future that God has in mind for Whitewater Crossing. We are not going to accomplish anything that we are not hungry to accomplish. So we're praying for hunger. The next thing is protection, unity and restoration for our church body, elders, staff, leaders and families.

This is praying for protection, unity, restoration for all of us. We are praying for all the Lord's people here at Whitewater. Third is God's providence. We're going to need God to show up in a big way to become this church. We will need financial providence from God.

We'll need workers for the harvest that Jesus says, pray for them, ask for them volunteers. And we're going to need resources in order to do this. The next thing I want us to pray for are the two neighborhoods, one on either side of our church. We're in a very unique place as a church church, and we have unique neighborhoods on either side of us. It is not happenstance that God put us here.

And this is our neighborhood. These are our neighbors. And I don't know what all God has in mind, but I want us to be praying fervently for these neighborhoods. They are the group of people who are closest to us and who God has put in our sphere of influence. Next, I want us to be praying for evangelistic hearts to grow.

This longing for others to know about Jesus and come and be a part of our family here at Whitewater. Yes, but even more importantly, come to be part of God's kingdom.

Next is an awakening and revival in our church body. We got to be stirred up and reminded of the joy of our own salvation. We've got to be stirred up and reminded of what great gift we have been given in Jesus. And if that's not boiling up in us all the time, we will just show up and sit in our seats and go home and we will pat ourselves on the back for having gone to church. But.

But we will never have been the Church. And the last thing is what Paul closes with. He says, pray for all the Lord's people. So we're going to pray for the whole kingdom, all of God's people all over the world. If we are going to become the church that we've described, we must be praying, praying against the enemy and praying for God's will.

So join us in praying. Second, is this showing up. We've got to be a people who show up. Now, I'm hesitant to make too much of this, but the truth is that if we want to become the church that we've described, then it is so important that we speak the same language. It's so important that we actually know each other, that we are actually in community with one another, that we actually love one another, and that we're here for the mutual encouragement and blessing and relationship that the New Testament describes.

We cannot do this well if we follow the national norm, which is to show up to church a little over once a month. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. Church attendance isn't earning your salvation. It doesn't give you a bigger mansion in heaven. You don't get gold stars for it or anything like that.

It does not prove your Christlikeness. But it matters. It matters because real biblical community comes with time spent together. But beyond showing up, we also have to be a people of hospitality while we are here. Here's my challenge.

First, commit to showing up. Commit to showing up. And second, commit to meeting at least one person every Sunday that you don't already know. Because most of us, we come in, we talk to that same group of people. If we talk to anyone.

I've seen you, too, okay? If we talk to anyone, we talk to the same group of people because we always sit in the same spot. Turns out all the seats are just as comfortable as the one you're sitting in right now. So be a people who actually gets to know the people who are part of your family. Can you imagine living in your home and not knowing the people that you live with?

That's ridiculous. We've got to be a people of hospitality. The number one question that people have when they show up here is, how do I get connected? What they're really asking is, how do I find my people? How do I find my people?

And let's be honest, Westsiders, we've had our people for 60 years, okay? There are people because we live in the same house that we were born in, and our mother lives next door and our brother lives next door, right? We have our people, but you know how many people come into this place and don't have anyone? We need to be a people of hospitality. Now the next thing that we have to do together is something that no one likes to talk about.

We got to become the church that is a generous people. Not just generous with our time, not just generous with our resources, but generous with our finances. And I know nobody likes to talk about this, but this is all over Scripture. So let me take a quick overview of where we've been financially. This is a question I've gotten a lot.

Where we've been financially and where we're going. And I'll just be super transparent. Super transparent. So our past budget was affected by some major things. We had Covid in the middle of everything.

We all experienced that. We had a major transition of senior ministers and then we had another major transition of senior ministers. Every statistic on the planet shows that that is havoc on a budget. So here's what happened. There was a season where every single month we were hemorrhaging 75 to $80,000 a month.

Most of you didn't know that we were bleeding 75 to $80,000 month. Now, in response to all of that, you heard this part. We weren't going to make budget. And so we cut over a million dollars out of our budget. That is over 30% of our budget as it was, was cut.

That's not easy. That's really hard. Imagine cutting 30% of your budget at home and how difficult that would be. This was a huge and painful sacrifice. And I assure you that every dollar that did not make need to be spent was not spent.

Every budget area was cut that could be cut. And we stopped paying for any luxuries and any extras around here. On top of that, I told you earlier, the vast majority of the staff took a significant pay cut in that time. Some staff were let go, other staff left and we didn't replace them. We are down from a high of 36 staff to 16 now.

And that's okay. That's where we are and that's what God has given us now to build this building, this beautiful building, this incredible building. When I walked through this building the first time, I thought, this is everything that every church wishes that they had. Basically when this building was built, when this facility was finished, we said, what's all the things that we could ever need as a church? Don't take anything off the list.

This is an amazing facility, but we're still in lots of debt. Our current debt load is just shy of $4.7 million. 4.7 million. That means that in 2024, we will pay a total interest of $165,756.15. That's a lot of interest.

Now, another part of our future is getting out of debt. I hope that we can do that, and I've got some ideas, and we'll talk about this more. But that $165,000 could be so much better spent than paying the bank for some interest. Now, here are some numbers. I don't want to hesitate to share these numbers because they should open our eyes and they should matter to us.

They're significant numbers. 82% of all giving here at Whitewater comes from 20% givers, not 20% of everyone. 20% of those who are giving. 80% of every dime that comes in here comes from 20% of givers. 93% of everything that comes in comes from half of our givers.

That means the other half of people who are giving are giving 7%. Now, again, I know everybody's hesitant to talk about money. The point isn't that I want to get a car or I want to have a bigger office or we're trying to do something terribly significant like go build a huge building or something like that. We're talking about filling this place. We're talking about preaching the gospel, blessing our community and being the church.

That's what we're talking about doing. And as long as we're in debt and as long as our budget is where it is, thankfully, we're in a place where we're not bleeding anymore. We have balance. We're on the right side of negative at this point. That's very good.

But here's my ask. First, if you call Whitewater home, if you call Whitewater home, that might mean online. You've been blessed with these services online. We have so many people that watch our services online. It might be that you just come and you call Whitewater home.

If that's you and you are not giving anything here. My ask is that you would start. That you would start somewhere and that you would start giving regularly to Whitewater. That's the first ask. You can do that these three ways on the screen here.

I'd be happy to talk to you about this so that you can hear my heart further if this makes you uncomfortable. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. And I'll gladly have a conversation with you about what the Bible tells us about generosity. The second thing is this.

If you Call Whitewater home and you give on occasion, or maybe only at the end of the year. I would just ask that you start giving monthly. Here's why. Because when you give monthly, it helps us to forecast appropriately for the future. It helps us know what we can depend on, and it keeps us from having to dip into our savings when certain months we have less giving than and more expenses.

That happens. And so to balance that out, giving consistently, giving monthly would make a difference for us. And last, if you call Whitewater home and you are already giving monthly, here's my ask, consider, pray and consider to increase your giving by 1%. 1%. Now, I know that that 50% of you who are giving 93% of everything might be thinking, me, I got to give an extra 1 1%.

No, you don't have to give an extra 1%. But I'm asking you to. I'm asking you to pray about it. Ask God. Consider it.

And if God doesn't ask you to be obedient by giving an extra 1%, that's fine. Some of us can give more than 1%. And if you want to, fantastic. But that's my ask. If you're not giving, start giving.

If you are giving but you don't give monthly, give monthly. And if you're giving regularly, consider, pray about giving an extra 1%. 1% goes a long way if we do it together. Now, the last thing I'll mention today that we have to do together in order to become the type of church that we have described is we must be a church who serves together. If you haven't started serving at Whitewater, you, we need you.

We need you. There are two sides to this. First, if we are going to accomplish this vision, if we're going to do all of these things, then the truth is we need far more hands helping. But we don't just need you to do things around here. The deeper truth, truly my pastor's heart, what I long for more and what I care about more than that is the Bible says very clearly that God has placed gifts in all of us.

All of us have been given gifts. I like to think of them as little bits of God's likeness that he has placed in us. And they are here for one reason only. To glorify God. They're here to glorify God.

And the way that that plays out in the New Testament church is that everyone brings the their gifts together. And it's for the mutual encouragement and edification and blessing of this family. If you're not serving, you are missing out on one of the key elements of being a Christian in Christian community. It's just an extra plus that it also helps around here, quite frankly. It really is.

So if you're not serving in some capacity, pray. I tell you to do this all the time. I don't mean this lightly. Pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where he wants you to serve.

Ask him to stir something up in you. This longing. Those of you who are just kind of grumpy people and you're always looking at something that needs fixed or repaired, do it. Do it. And I mean that with affection.

Be the answer to your disgruntledness, okay? If you're the kind of person who just thinks, man, they need somebody to do that, step up and do it. This might be the very thing that the Holy Spirit is calling you to be and do and share as a unique gift with one another. Now, attached to this idea of having more hands to help is the next thing that we've got to do in order to accomplish the vision for the future. We're going to have to evangelize and invite.

We have to. We got to evangelize and invite. The truth is this facility is built to handle at least three times the amount of people in two services that we have here right now. That's not need. That is opportunity.

There is rich opportunity for this community around us. And we got a bunch of empty seats in. In this room that have somebody's name on them. And we're going to be talking about our plan for that in the coming weeks. More hands to help.

More lives growing in Christ likeness. More spheres of influence, More gifts being shared. All for God's glory. Church. I believe we have an incredible opportunity sitting in front of us.

We are poised and ready. And God has blessed us with every single thing. We need to become the church that he is calling us to become. So let's go. Let's go.

Let's become this church. Let's become this church. We love this place. You know, how many people are missing out on a community like this? How many people are missing out on someone else who knows them, who shows up when they're in need, who helps them?

The biggest problem we have in our community is that everyone feels like they have no one to call.

This is what we can be for this community. Let's be this church.