A Little Better // BONUS Chat with Daniel White
Transcript
Aaron Hixson: Hey Northridge, welcome to A Little Better, where our goal is to know God better and to do better, so that we can be a little better.
Well hey everyone, welcome back to A Little Better. I'm already laughing because I'm excited about this episode of the podcast. This is going to be a bonus episode where we're going to be doing things a little differently, and what we are going to be doing is introducing a brand new member of our staff. You may or may not know this, but we have a new kids ministry executive director.
His name is Daniel White, and he has snuck in under the radar, without any, you know, fanfare or anything at all he's just dropped right into Rochester out of nowhere and we're excited to introduce you to him. He and his wife moved here in the middle of the COVID crazy, and so we haven't had a chance to do what we'd like to do, which is introduce them in person to each campus and all that kind of stuff.
We had a big roll out and all of it disappeared when COVID happened. So what we're gonna be having is an interview between some important people, not to include me, and you'll get to know Daniel a little better. So we've got Daniel White. Why don't you go and say hi?
Daniel White: Hey.
Aaron: So we got Daniel, we've got Nate Logan. He is our Pastor of Spiritual Development. So what's up Nate?
Nate Logan: Hey everyone.
Aaron: And then we've also got Courtney Dyer who -- I'm going to get her title right -- her title is Director of Human Resources?
Courtney Dyer: Yes, or Keeper of Aaron.
Aaron: Either one, either one.
Yeah, Courtney oversees all of our hiring processes, Nate will be overseeing Daniel and his role. Nate oversees all family ministry and that kind of stuff, so he brings leadership to that team, so he'll be actually Daniel's direct boss. Which, by the way, Daniel, I just want you to know like we have started a weekly prayer meeting for you, working with and alongside Nate Logan --
Nate: Great Guy.
Aaron: So you're gonna need it, you're going to need it, and we didn't mention that before we hired you. But yeah, let's go ahead and jump in. I know Courtney and Nate, you both got a litany of tough questions for Daniel in the hot seat. So let's let our church get to know him a little bit. Go ahead, Court.
Courtney: Sounds great. Daniel, so we are so glad to have you with us, and we just want to give you an opportunity to introduce yourself. Tell us, you know, where you're coming from, like, location-wise where you're coming from, and but also, you know, what you did there and how you got here.
Daniel: Awesome. Well thanks so much. You know, Aaron did say that we came from nowhere, and probably feels like it because I was born and raised in northeast Arkansas.
Aaron: Oh man, now I feel bad. I just was trying to make it seem like you appeared from the ether or something but no. Now I sound like I'm bashing this.
Daniel: That's okay. And so I'm from Northeast Arkansas, born and raised in a small community called Rector, like, less than 2,000 people in population. So I was born there, and my wife is from South Arkansas, basically in Louisiana. And so if you can hint an accent, you know, just very subtle, you're not dreaming it's it's real, and it's --
Courtney: Oh, it's very real.
Daniel: Yeah. Yes it is. And so, that's where we're from, I came from a community called Jonesboro, one of the bigger cities in Arkansas, about 90 to 100,000.
The best Northridge story that I'll go ahead and interject is we've jumped into some community groups online already. And there is an individual in our community group who said he's been to Little Rock. He's like, “Oh, that's a cute little town,” and it's the largest town in Arkansas and so that was fun. Like I was like, That's funny. It's a very rural state.
Aaron: Oh, that's not terribly offensive. Welcome to the biblical community.
Daniel: But I was a junior high pastor in Jonesboro at Central Baptist Church. I served there for three years. Before that I was at my home church at First Baptist Rector for three and a half years, during my undergraduate degree, and really enjoyed it.
So our family, so my wife's name is Rena. We have a dog named Millie. She's a cockapoo. And we're expecting our first human child in August, and so she's due August 18. And so we're really excited about that.
Courtney: That is so awesome!
Nate: I see we're doing this interview, you're actually holding Millie in your lap. Yeah, it's like she is part of the family.
Daniel: She is, she's all in.
Courtney: That's why he said "human child."
Aaron: Okay, I hope we get to hear from Millie at some point.
Daniel: If there's a squirrel outside, we will hear Millie, for sure.
Courtney: Love it. Well, Daniel, tell us a little bit about what you and Rena like to do for fun, I mean when you're allowed to go outside and when you're allowed to maybe be in public places and maybe be social. What are some of the things you guys like to do together?
Daniel: Yeah. And so we have a lot of activities and hobbies that we do together, one is Rena's favorite hobby is beating me at golf. So she's way better than I am. She doesn't like to brag on herself, but she went to, like, the state tournament every year in high school playing golf and would have went to college before she really messed up her shoulder pitching in softball. So she's super athletic, more than I am.
And we also like to cycle and so are ready for the day where we get out and cycle together. I'd be out cycling right now but she doesn't want me to go without her and she's seven months pregnant almost and so I was like, come on, why not?
Aaron: Rookie mistake, bro, rookie mistake. Which, by the way, you know you're into cycling when you call it cycling, because everyone else calls it biking, until you're into it and then they start calling it cycling. Right, Logan?
Nate: I appreciate that, Daniel. That's right, you got it Hixson. Yeah.
Courtney: I'm personally a bike rider.
Daniel: I was hoping you were gonna say biker Courtney and --
Courtney: No, that's next year's goal.
Aaron: Just this past weekend on the one nice day, I actually -- we have two bikes, which were purchased at a garage sale. The front tire of one was flat and the back tire of the other was flat, so I literally exchanged the working tire so that Lauren could go on a bike ride with the boys.
Daniel: Nice.
Aaron: So we could only one of us at a time.
Courtney: That's awesome. Well, Daniel, from what you know of Rochester from, you know, visiting prior to coming onto our team, what's something that you're looking forward to doing in Rochester once COVID is over and we can all leave our homes again?
Daniel: We've already been hitting up so many parks in the evening times on pretty days and everything like that. And I'm taking Millie on walks and just getting some exercise and fresh air and so we love all the, the feel of each different little park that that is in Rochester.
I'm excited to go to Niagara Falls. Like, I know that's not in Rochester, but it's really close and I've never been personally. That's one thing. And I'm ready for the snow, like, I love the cold.
Aaron: Hallelujah, this man.
Daniel: Right, praise God. And I'm ready for some like real snow. I want to get lost in it.
Nate: Well, you came to the right place.
Daniel: That's right. That's what I hear.
Courtney: You did, but I don't really want to hear that word again for at least five months. It just snowed here last week, which is very unprecedented for April.
So, so tell us a little bit about, like, some of your favorites, like do you have a favorite fast food restaurant that you like? Favorite snacks? Do you guys follow any sports teams? Help us know, like, your little intricacies.
Daniel: For sure, for sure> Food-wise, our favorite family food is pizza. And so, we love pizza, making pizza at home for ourselves, a good pizza place in general. In that regard, we love pizza. And just being together in that regard.
Sports teams, Arkansas doesn't have any professional sports teams. And there's a fun fact if you didn't know that. And so for someone from Arkansas, to be a sports team follower. It's always random, you know? It's like, why do you like that team? Because there's nobody even close. The Memphis Grizzlies NBA team was really close to us and so I like to go into their games and things like that. We're sports fans, in general.
Probably the closest affiliate to our family, it would be the St. Louis Cardinals because we're big baseball people, you know, my wife played softball, and I played baseball in high school. Yeah, so that's part of my story and, yeah, we love the Cardinals.
A little bit more intricacies about family and just a little bit in general. So Rena and I are both only kids that's, like, something very rare out there.
Courtney: That is rare!
Daniel: We're only children, but definitely don't want just one, Lord willing, and so hopefully want more, more than one child in our family.
Courtney: Thank you for sharing. Go ahead Aaron.
Aaron: Yeah, I'm trying to even remember, just going back to your biographical details. What did you study in school and what did Rena study in school? I'm trying to remember that, and where'd you go. I know you're doing seminary now.
Daniel: So, seminary till Saturday.
Aaron: Oh, wow.
Daniel: I graduate on Saturday, during the COVID season.
Aaron: Congratulations.
Courtney: Awesome.
Daniel: Yeah, so I just, before we jumped on, uploaded my last paper. Praise the Lord.
Aaron: Dude, that is huge!
Daniel: Amazing. Um, and so with school and stuff like that Rena, she's a school hopper. And so she got signed on a college softball scholarship, but in the first semester, really messed up her shoulder, and she was a pitcher. And so kind of softball got taken off the table for her.
And so she started studying nursing, transferred schools to go to a nursing school, but her softball injury really impacted the physical toll it took to be a nurse. And so that kind of, like our whole lives the first year of marriage was kind of like a whirlwind of just big life changes after another.
And so she's currently, she still has a few more semesters left to finish up her undergraduate, but she's doing a biology degree to hopefully be -- her end goal would be college professor for like pre nursing students and things like that. She's a really, really great teacher, just in general.
For me, I went to Arkansas State University for one year before transferring to Williams Baptist University, it's a small Bible College. I studied biblical linguistics, which sounds really nerdy.
Aaron: It doesn't just sound nerdy, it is nerdy, Daniel.
Daniel: Yeah, so I just studied biblical languages, and then finishing up my Master's of theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City. Shout out to Graham, he's also going in, that's where we met.
Aaron: That's right, G Money Spruill, I love it.
Daniel: That's right. Let's go, shout out.
Courtney: Daniel would you share that story? Because I know a few of us on staff have heard that story and I think it's phenomenal. But I would love for some in our church to kind of hear how you got connected to Northridge.
Aaron: Especially because of how nerdy you and Graham both are, it just makes me so happy.
Courtney: Well, Aaron you calling other people nerds…
Aaron: Yeah, doesn't really work. By the way, I'm just realizing that Daniel, Courtney and I are all wearing like some shade of pink or coral. So we're kind of rocking that right now. Logan, I don't know if you didn't get the memo.
Nate: Man, I'm just wearing black and white, I got gray on or something. So, I gotta go throw some pink on I think.
Aaron: All right, sorry Daniel, go back to that story. I'm killing this interview.
Daniel: Yeah, so how I got connected with Northridge and just Graham in general. So, Graham and I were both students at Midwestern, but working full time in ministry. So we went to school, online. But both of us had kind of really the desire to get connected with professors and fellow students as much as possible.
And one great thing that Midwestern and other seminaries alike do is they'll do things like study trips. So, in order to accomplish our church history credits, they offered a New England church history study trip. So just in the Boston, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine areas. That was what was offered.
And so we both were flying in to go to that trip last May, a year to date almost, pretty close. And both of our connecting flights -- I was flying from Memphis, he was from Rochester -- was in Philly. And I landed in Philly, walk into the terminal, there's a, there's a tall lanky guy sitting in the corner, reading, like, Church History Volume Two, which is like a 750 page book. I'm like, there's no way that that guy's reading that book, getting on this plane, and not doing what I'm doing.
I walked up to him, I was like “Hey man, you're doing this church history study trip?” And he was like, “Yeah,” so that's, that's where we got connected. We ended up being roommates on that trip, so we roomed together for like two weeks and really got to know each other and strike a friendship.
And then a couple months go by, we stay connected and he lets me know about this opportunity with Northridge. We started praying about it and God opened the door. So it was really cool.
Nate: Daniel, I remember this story is like so called evidence of God's providence. And I remember Graham coming in and talking to me in this search process. He's like, dude, Nate. What about Daniel? We should talk with him and see if he’d be even interested in this, you know conversation, this position. So I love just how this all kind of worked out with your life crossed the paths of our lives and serving together now.
Daniel: Mm hmm. Absolutely.
Courtney: I love it, love that God brought you guys together and God brought you here. What's one thing that you're most looking forward to about serving on the Northridge staff team?
Daniel: The day we get to gather again, as a church.
Aaron: Oh, so Labor Day weekend? Is that what? No?
Courtney: Aaron, don't say that!
Aaron: Oh, I'm just kidding.
Daniel: But I think one of the great things that just Northridge staff has done is connecting in various formats with Zoom meetings and things like that and, you know, Rena and I, we just felt really loved and appreciated, even in the midst of this, with different people just reaching out even a simple text message, email, groceries on our back door whatever the case would be.
But one thing we're looking most forward to is the people working alongside. There's just so many incredible people that we've already met, who have kind of the same cadence and heartbeat to reach people far from God and get families connected and moving in taking the next steps. And so that's what we're really excited about, to see what God does just during this season and even moving past it.
Courtney: Awesome. Awesome. So, you know, you talked about, shared how you connected with Graham and then they reached out and talked about this, you know this opportunity here. Why kids ministry? What makes you excited about kids ministry?
Daniel: Since like God called me into ministry, I'd always had a heartbeat for kids and family. We have a big family on both sides for Rena and I, even though we are only kids, like extended cousins and different things like that. Arkansas, right, Aaron?
Aaron: I wasn't gonna say anything!
Daniel: But I just love kids and love the family, and I'm in that aspect, and then putting that together with God calling me into ministry. I love just family ministry. Part of my faith journey is just my mother just pouring into me, even as a young child, and then through my teenage years and just her hand, and God working in and through her in that regard. And I just have that as my backstory and just saw the impact that parents who lead their kids in a godly way have on their lives.
And that was my heartbeat was, how can we resource families and parents better and every different ministry role I've had that's been the question that I keep coming back to. And then Northridge that is the first church where God brought that kind of all that to fruition together, and I'm just really excited to resource parents, to partner with them to inspire and introduce faith to their kids and then continue on through NYM and in their high school years.
Nate: Daniel, I love that, man, and I know you've seen some of the Northridge kids ministry from a limited perspective, just because we haven't gotten meetings in person, but I know you've been connecting online with teams and our incredible volunteers and our kids ministry across our campuses.
What have you seen from Northridge kids that excites you, what are you looking forward to doing to get when we're back in person? Just talk us through some of that passion for Northridge kids ministry as well.
Daniel: Yeah, that's, that's awesome. That's a great question. Some of the things we've been doing is, I've been trying to make as many steps to make as many connections as possible with volunteers and different families. Like this past week we've done Zoom calls with all the different campuses individually, and that has been really fun to get to see and connect faces with campuses and positions and ministry roles and things like that.
What excites me and what I'm really excited about is just bringing the passion that all these different people have in different ministry roles and just trying to channel that in a direction. I think Northridge Kids has so many great things going for it as a ministry of Northridge Church and our heartbeat is to better align those ministries across the board and reaching out our arms with NYM to better partner with parents and set up the family for the win.
And so some of the things that we're really excited about is, when we do get back together again, but also in that meantime, of figuring out ways to better get parents connected and get those who aren't connected connected, those who are connected, even better resourced and just continue that journey together.
Nate: That's awesome. Um, hey, you mentioned that you're finishing up seminary this this week and big, big step for you and maybe even get further education down the road. You mentioned that 750 page church history book, and you've been a part of some great teams, you know in the past, learning from some great leaders. What are some books that have influenced you or a person like who's really impacted your life, in your ministry journey so far?
Daniel: Like I see the questions that we sent out before this, and that was probably the hardest one of like, how do I just pick one book like, or just like a whole different books. I love reading, and really enjoy just learning about church leadership, Bible, theology. I just love reading, I always have a stack of books on my nightstand that I'm reading in different pieces.
But I would say just in regards to ministry and what my journey has been and who's influenced me the most, when it comes to people that's the easiest one to answer. I had a college professor at Williams, who really impacted me. His name was Dr. Norvell, who probably had the biggest hand in my heartbeat of clarifying all the passions that I had for discipleship, family ministry, and then my journey, bringing those all together. And he mentored me, my senior year of college. We met every Friday to talk about discipleship pathways and maps and like how to get people taking next steps in faith and so he's impacted me probably the most in the most recent phase of my life, several years ago. But then my mom played a huge role in that as another person who's impacted my faith.
When it comes to books, I think Paul Tripp and Dangerous Calling has been a book that's like, in pastoral ministry, as well as other books helping me clarify my calling like Jeff Iorg’s Is God Calling Me? and different things like that of what it means to be in ministry and have a heart for that. Other ones for just ministry sake, I could just list them I could keep going, but The Pastor as Public Theologian by Dr. Strachan. I mean they just keep, they just keep going. Jared Wilson's book on pastoral leadership, the title slips me in this regard, but it just talks about pastors' holiness and things like that. So, I could keep listing books that have impacted and influence me. I really enjoy reading and listening to podcasts and just always learning and growing.
Courtney: Do you have a favorite podcast, I mean, besides this, obviously.
Daniel: A Little Better. And so --
Aaron: Are there other podcasts? I'm pretty sure this is it.
Daniel: I didn't realize that there was more. And so --
Courtney: Good answer.
Daniel: Just to be short in this regard, I'll just list three. I'm trying to narrow it down in my mind. Before I answer. My favorite podcast probably to listen to is The Bible Project, just as they do like thematically and just dive deeper into scripture and like the message of what the Bible is actually saying. That's probably my favorite podcast that I am most religious about listening to, like, I always listen to the new episode.
I subscribe -- I think, Courtney, we had a conversation about this my first visit up here. I subscribe to a lot of podcasts, but then based on how good their title is is whether I listened to it or not.
Courtney: Yeah, those are excellent. Me too.
Daniel: Because I don't have time to obviously listen to a lot of things, but in leadership I love the Andy Stanley, Prager Show, and the Carey Nieuwhof podcast. Those are the three that I really enjoy listening to, as well.
Aaron: Yeah, if you had to say if I was the biggest influence in your life or, or the biggest five influences in your life, what would you say?
Daniel: Like you personally?
Aaron: Yeah, just me personally, yeah.
Daniel: I guess I would probably say over our one pot of coffee that you made me drink on February the first. I still remember it because I'm still jittering from it. My first interaction with Aaron, we went to a coffee shop and it just kept filling my cup up. I'm pretty sure I had seven cups of coffee in that one three hour interaction.
Aaron: Well, dude, you had gotten up at like 2am, flown in, and already had seven interviews by lunch, so I was just like, this man needs coffee.
Daniel: He just kept filling it up, and I was just jittery, and that was our first meeting, and I just kept drinking it. I wasn't even paying attention. It was like, man, this coffee is like a bottomless cup.
Nate: Dude, that's awesome.
Courtney: It's just because Aaron's such a snoozer.
Aaron: Oh, that's true. Most people that hang out with me need as much coffee as I can make them.
Courtney: Anyway, go on Nate, I know you got a couple questions tied to kids ministry here.
Nate: Yeah, we're wrapping things up here, but Daniel, anything you'd like to say to parents who might be listening to this podcast and as they're kind of looking forward to getting connected with you, and just hear your heart? Anything you want to share with parents?
Daniel: Absolutely. I think during this special season that we find ourselves in, with being at home and social distancing, COVID-19, all that kind of stuff like that. Just make them aware of the resources we're putting out. We're calling it Church at Home at northridgekids.org, just go and check that out.
A few things that we've done and just the shorts six or seven weeks that I've been here is we've started the parent blog back up to give weekly resources every Monday. They land in your inbox. Subscribe to that. That's going to be our primary mode of communication resource. Just like a lot of other ministries that Northridge do, like NYM and community groups, and the list goes on. So that's going to be our primary mode of communication, so just to stay connected in that way.
And we're constantly trying to refine and better clarify how we're partnering with parents. That's one of the big projects we're doing as a kids staff. Because inside of this unique opportunity, we now have a lot of time to devote to more specific things that probably would classify as working on the ministry. Since like some of the aspects for Sunday morning, we're no longer in it because we're not getting to be with people, and that's what ministry is and so we're getting to work on the things we're doing. And we're excited to come back with a vengeance whenever that is. And so, yeah. So those are the few things I'd say.
Nate: I love that, "coming back with a vengeance." That's awesome. I love what you and the team have been putting out and how you're serving our families. You guys are doing a really great job.
Aaron: I say that I would agree with that as a parent of a pre-k kid. I just love that Greyson gets to watch that. For us it's before the nine o'clock service because we get up real early with young kids, but that's been a huge blessing to us throughout this.
Nate: Daniel, how can we be praying for you guys, and then how can our church family be praying for you and Rena in this time, this transition, what are some things that we could lift you guys up in prayer?
Daniel: Absolutely, that's a great thing. It's a unique season to be having a baby and I know we're not the only ones, but you know, there's just a lot of moving pieces inside of moving across the country. While, you know, my wife's pregnant, she's approaching, like the third trimester, month seven, and so everything's healthy and looking good so far. But just being in prayer for her, what's this gonna look like inside of it, we're still in the midst of this social distancing when August comes. Hopefully not, but who knows?
Courtney: Hopefully not!
Daniel White: So that would be our biggest prayer request is inside of her pregnancy. And then, just for God to keep blessing in all the things that he's already doing and consistently does.
Aaron: I love it. Hey, Daniel, Courtney, Nate, thank you so much for jumping on. I hope for our church, this is a helpful introduction to a great addition to our team. I mean, goodness, we feel so blessed, Daniel, to have you and Rena around.
Daniel: I'm blessed to be with you, Aaron.
Aaron: Oh, you know what, I can't tell you how often I get that. How ridiculous.
No, but we genuinely are excited. It's amazing to see young leaders passionate about, you know, the deep things of God and simultaneously doing practical ministry. Those aren't always a gift set that comes together in one person. And I think people like Graham, people like you -- and many others on our team -- but I just think that having the two of you teaming together from birth through the end of high school is a really amazing combination that I'm excited for my kids to experience the leadership and discipleship of, you know, those two amazing leaders. And I'm sure Courtney and Nate are saying the same thing.
Nate: Completely agree.
Courtney: Absolutely.
Aaron: Discipleship for me at the moment looks like teaching my kids not to throw food on the floor, but it's one step at a time. But anyways, Daniel, thank you so much for taking the time. Everybody, thanks for jumping on.
And for our listeners and the people of our church if you've got questions you want to send to Daniel or his team or whatever, feel free to reach out to any contacts from our staff that go to your campus, or if you want to reach out to Daniel directly, you can do that by doing... what?
Daniel: There's two email addresses or things like that you can reach: dwhite@northridgerochester.com, or there's a blanket kids min, just kidsmin@northridgerochester.com, or just social media. Look us up on social media at Northridge Kids, or personally, you can friend me on Facebook.
Aaron: Daniel White, right? Daniel White.
Daniel: Yeah, just Daniel White.
Aaron: All right. Thanks everybody, and thank you everybody for listening to A Little Better. We look forward to hearing from you. And as always, questions, comments can come to us and we would love to address them on the next episode. Thanks for listening.
Transcript lightly edited for readability.
A Little Better // Don't Miss the Moment
Transcript
Aaron Hixson: Hey Northridge, welcome to A Little Better, where our goal is to know God better and to do better, so that we can be a little better.
Hey everybody, welcome back to A Little Better. Thank you for joining us for another episode. I'm coming to you with a very important person. His name is Drew Karschner, but he is more famous for his ability to help you paint like a pro. This is our lead pastor, who has some amazing skills that the CW keeps reminding us of.
Drew Karschner: Apparently I have bladder issues as well. So, I don’t know. I can paint, but I can't hold my pee.
[Both laughing.]
Aaron: That is perfect. If anybody has been watching on the CW or you check out from time to time the TV guide, a few times that we've been on TV, the CW has put up -- I don't know if these were previously paid, you know, advertisers or whatever it was. This past week it was how to Paint Like a Pro with Zoom Paint or something like that. And the first week was literally, what was the actual caption for week 1?
Drew: It was like, Trouble with Your Bladder or something like that.
Aaron: I got so many funny screenshot text messages of people, they would try to catch you with a funny face, and they're like, "having trouble with your bladder." I'm sure you got that too.
Drew: I have enough trouble, like, on my own of not making funny moments, or you know, dumb moments myself. Then the CW, obviously would like to help me out as well. Thank you for that.
Aaron: Just a little bit of extra boost as if we needed more opportunities for people to make some memes, but, oh my goodness, that's good. And by the way, if you do have any painting tips, I'd love to hear from, you know, the Zoom paint method. Let me know what that is. I'm doing some painting this week, so I need the help.
Drew: Nice.
Aaron: Yeah, let's actually go in a little bit more here. I have a question I think that maybe is related to the way we've been planning our services ever since COVID has hit. Something that, especially for people that listen to this podcast, they're probably insiders in our church and are familiar with how we do things normally.
We haven't typically done a lot of, like, at the end of a service, you might call it an altar call or an invitation, where people can raise their hand and put their faith in Christ, that kind of a thing. We haven't ordinarily done tons of that, but ever since COVID, we've literally done it every week since March the 15th or whatever it was that we went into COVID.
So I'm just wondering if you can let us know why is that, what's the thinking behind it. I haven't heard anything negative about it, I just wanna give you an opportunity to cast some vision around that.
Drew: Yeah, so the first weekend we had what we would call COVID series. If you remember, we were in the Unfiltered Jesus series. I was in a boat talking about storms in your life. Man, I preached that message and I watched it on the stream.
I felt really good about it, but there was one major regret that I had. I know in the season of fear and uncertainty, people have a lot of questions. I walked away from that service and went, "Man, I didn't give people a chance to respond to the truth of the gospel." And I felt this overwhelming sense of a little bit of regret, and I just felt like the Holy Spirit was like, “Drew, you need to lean into this moment and you need to go for it and give people a chance to respond to the gospel.” So, man, I prayed about it, and I just had this sense of confirmation that that's what God wanted me to do and how he wanted me to lead, so I just chased after it.
So, ever since that weekend, I've given people a chance to respond to the gospel. There's two reasons why I do that. One, because I think there's a lot of people out there who haven't experienced the hope of Jesus who need to experience the hope of Jesus. I want to give them a clear picture of what that is, the truth behind that, and the way you accept that.
But two, I think just as a Christ follower, for us, man, just because I've accepted the gospel doesn't mean I don't still need the gospel. And hearing the truth of the gospel, each week, and being able to pray for people in the moment where they're choosing to respond against the spiritual forces of evil I think is a really powerful reminder and a really powerful moment for our church.
And so, I just feel like it's something really God has led me to do. And we've seen God move in people's hearts. There's really no way of measuring salvation. That's something that only God knows. But we've seen, I think up to this point, 106 people say, "Hey, I said that prayer, I chose to respond to this message." And man, I don't know what that number means. I'll be the first one to be honest and say, man, we've had 106 people let us know they said that prayer. I don't know what that means. Only God does. But man, I'm gonna celebrate that people are responding to that, and I just think it's been really cool to see.
Aaron: Mmhmm. Yeah, I agree with all that. What's your thought, or what is the conversation thus far related to our plan, let's say -- I'm not even gonna throw a date out there. Let's just say when we're back together, and things are "normal," even though that will likely be a phased approach, what's your guess as to how or when we might continue this, or how long we would continue it?
Drew: I don't know if I know the answer to that question. I feel like I'm gonna just, you know, I think we'll continue to do it. I don't even know if going forward we'll continue to do it every single week the way we're doing it. If you've been coming to Northridge church, you know we like to experiment with things.
Aaron: Sure.
Drew: And we pull things and we add things fast and quick. And so, I'm gonna do it until I feel like, you know, God tells me to stop. I know that's kind of a generic answer, but I don't know. I don't know if we're gonna continue to do it or if we're gonna stop, but I've seen God use it, and I'm gonna celebrate that until we decide to maybe kind of change it or adjust it better for our services.
Aaron: Sure.
Drew: All that to say, I don't know.
Aaron: [Laughing.] That's an extended answer for the reality of I don't know. That's funny.
Okay, cool. I just think that’s really helpful for people to hear, and even for me, you know, to think it through. And I'm actually teaching this weekend, so it's good for me to understand some of those dynamics as well, even though we've talked about it some. Cool.
So, this past weekend was a cool one on a few different fronts, but getting to baptise Richie was definitely fun for me.
Drew: Amazing story.
Aaron: Yeah, incredible story. He worked hard to make sure he could express that clearly. I'm so thankful for Richie's willingness to share, and share honestly. I mean, obviously there's details in there that he could have easily told his story without including, and he chose to be honest. And he had even more that he shared especially about, the importance of Starting Point and the particular leaders who lead in the Henrietta campus Starting Point. Brad and Karen Files, Mike and Chris Maloney, are people that he shouted out in particular.
And I just, man, that environment across all of our campuses has been so crucial for people's faith. And I think he said it best. He said "they were there to recruit --" I'm sorry. Backwards. [Laughing]
Drew: Yeah, that's wrong.
Aaron: "They were there to inform, not to recruit." And I love how he said that. That's the reality of Starting Point. Now, at the end of the day, we are all kind of low-key recruiting, right? But the way that you want people to feel is that we're just letting you know the facts so that you can make a decision, and just be praying that God's at work in their lives.
Drew: Yeah, we recruit with love. I like that. It's not like people are a number to us. We just love them, and we allow God to do the work that only he can do. That's what he did in Richie's life. He used people to inform them of the truth, love him where he was, and God worked on him.
Aaron: Yeah. And if you believe that there's something really good that you're offering to people, even if you're gonna do it in a gentle and kind and loving way, you still are low-key hoping that they'll do it, which is at some level recruiting. You know?
So that kind of brings us to that missional relationship thing of living with urgency. Like, if I genuinely believe that I hold the keys to the truth of reality, especially life after death, then I am going to be at some basic level recruiting, but we don't have to think of recruiting in a negative sense where you're getting, you know, cold sales calls from people that you don't know and who don't care about anything but your money. Like, it's not that kind of recruiting, but we could be that kind of urgent. You know, t's a tension to manage, but the fact that he felt as if they were just there to inform, while in the back of their minds they're desperately hoping and praying that he'll come to know Christ, that's why that was so perfect to me. Because it illustrated how we're trying to come across, while maintaining a deep sense of urgency.
Drew: Yeah, I think that's well said.
Aaron: And you couldn't even see the gloves that I was wearing, so it really worked. [Both laughing.] I was kind of glad they weren't like bright purple surgical gloves, that were up to the elbows or something. That would have looked a little funny.
Drew: Dishwasher gloves.
Aaron: Yeah, dishwasher gloves. [Both laughing.] Which, by the way, do you ever wear those when you wash dishes?
Drew: No. My wife wears them every time. She's got, like, purple polka-dotted ones and bright red ones, I'm like, why? You know why I wear them? I use them for one thing and one thing only. You ever try to open a jar you can't open? Those gloves are bomb-diggity for getting jars. I mean, literally. I can squeeze my hand, my hand hurts, I put those gloves on, I'm like Hulk. I become the Hulk with that. I'm like, [grunts.]
Aaron: That's amazing. I gotta say, I've never had a jar I couldn't immediately open. Basically I just look at a jar, and it starts opening because I'm, like, incredibly strong.
Drew: It's cause Lauren twists them for you.
Aaron: Well, what? No.
Drew: It's cause she pre-twists them for you.
Aaron: [Laughing.] Whatever, whatever.
Dude, I actually -- Lauren somewhere along the way, like, had decided to grab some of those gloves and now I legit, like I don't want to touch anything in the sink if I'm not wearing those gloves. It's incredible.
Drew: I'm not sure I'd let the public know that, Aaron.
Aaron: No, seriously bro. Imagine doing like 15 minutes of dishes --
Drew: You're not gonna convince me on this.
Aaron: Dude, 15 minutes of dishes and there's no wrinkly hands afterwards. It's amazing.
Drew: Aaron, I like tubs. So that wrinkly feeling is -- I like it.
Aaron: Oh my goodness. Again, there's so much wrong with your whole approach related to water. I just feel like we need to do a whole segment.
Drew: You mean the most important resource in the world and I actually like it? You know your body is made up of like 75%, so like, right now, you're rejecting 75% of who you are and who God made you to be.
Aaron: No, I don't like to sit in my own filth. That's why I don't like it. [Laughing.] Whatever. The fact that you don't pre-shower before a bath is -- I can't, I'll never be over that.
Drew: Just to give a pre-reference, if I work out in the mud, in the field, I do pre-shower. But when I'm already clean and I wanna relax, I just get in the nice clear water.
Aaron: Okay, okay. Enjoy your lavender bath bomb. I’ll just -- actually, that would be amazing. I'll take a lavender bath bomb right now. I just would pre-shower.
Okay, so the series A Life That Matters, one thing I wanna lean into, we've gotten some feedback I think is actually really helpful around the name of the series and what people are understanding it to mean. Let me just set some context and have you give some clarity around it.
The tension is, A Life that Matters sounds as if what we're saying, cause the word matters has multiple meanings, and so if you think of the word matters in our culture, oftentimes it's coming up with like Black Lives Matter or All Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter and all of the tension surrounding that.
But what those hashtags are meant to convey, and in particular, Black Lives Matter, is just trying to illustrate that, you know, people in our community are sometimes treated as if they don't matter. And so this hashtag is meant to highlight the fact that these are lives that actually do have inherent value and worth. So they're using the word matter to imply, this life has value. Just in and of itself. Its existence has value.
So when we say "a life that matters," we're kind of making it seem as if, when you look at the world, there are some lives that have inherent value and some lives that don't have inherent value, because that's what the word matter can mean at times.
So, I don't believe we're saying that, and I would love for you to tell us what we mean by the word matter so that we can clear up for people that we're not demeaning the value of any human.
Drew: Sure, and I think we brought a little bit of clarity to that this weekend when we talked about relationships and, you know, we made this statement, I made this statement. I don't know why I said we. I guess it was just me and that empty room all by myself.
Aaron: The royal plural.
Drew: You know, we said every life matters. It has intrinsic value because God made people that way, he put his image in them, and so every life has value. That's the way God made us. And so, you can't argue that statement because God already stamped his approval, the truth on it. And so every life has value.
What we're really talking about in this series is what you do with your life. And does what you do actually make it count? And so your actions have a lot of weight on whether your life has impact, counts, for not just here and now, but for all of eternity.
And so we're looking at kind of the idea of legacy, of a legacy that you can -- and we're gonna talk about this in the series, so this is a kind of sneak preview of where we're headed - a legacy that lasts here on earth, but also looks towards eternity.
And so, this is really an action oriented series on what you're doing with your life and how much it can count if you're investing it in the right things.
Aaron: Got it. So it's more about the cumulative result of your life's efforts. And I love that word legacy. I think that's. A perfect description because that's what we're leaning into. If you get to the end of your life and you were to just tabulate what you've accomplished and who it will impact, and for how long it will impact them, will you be able to say your life matters?
And there's people who have accomplished a lot, but it's stuff that won't ultimately matter for eternity, like whatever, a sports legend who invests their entire life in sports and they get to the end of it, and they're like, "Okay, you got 6 MVPs" or whatever, but that's not gonna matter for eternity. That's not to say that the only thing that has -- the only thing you're allowed to do with your life, like if you're an accountant, you need to quit and become a missionary because you're crunching numbers and that doesn't matter. Of course that's not what we're saying.
But that's what A Life That Matters is meant to imply, is are you investing your life, whether you're an accountant, a pastor, an NBA star, whatever you're doing, are you using that platform and those opportunities to have a result of your life that you're gonna say, man I'm so glad that I was a basketball player this way, that I was an accountant who operated this way at work? You know?
Drew: Yeah, and I think it goes back to what Paul said this weekend, making the most of every opportunity so, it's learning to invest your time into the right things that not only have impact here, but have impact for forever.
Aaron: Got it. So, I think that we'll, if there are folks either struggling through that or trying to figure out if we're making it seem as if someone matters or doesn't -- in fact, I think it's important to say, no matter how you spend your life, it will not impact in any way your inherent worth. You can't make yourself more or less valuable to God by the way that you live your life.
Drew: Isn't that the great thing about God? How awesome is that. That truth is amazing, that no matter what you do with your life, doesn't change the value God has placed on your life, but it has significance for where you spend your eternity.
Aaron: Yeah. So, if people have questions about that, if you're still struggling through that, trying to figure out either what we mean, or if there's anything in this that brings up a tension in your own life, feel free. Of course, always reach out to any of us, anybody on our staff, any of our social media, we've made that clear. We want to be as accessible as possible. And we would love to bring up specific questions or tensions if you've got them.
One thing that we even talked about, Drew, as we were, I guess, sorting through this tension was -- something that came to my mind right away was a line from the book Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper, which, if you haven't read it, it's kind of like a Christian classic at this point. John Piper makes some really strong points about how to invest our lives, and I think it has really impacted a generation of Christianity.
But there's a moment -- John Piper's father was an evangelist. At one of his evangelism meetings a guy came forward, placed his faith in Christ, he was in his late 60s or something. John Piper has a vivid memory of this man in what felt like -- John Piper's a kid, so this guy felt really old. And he was at the end of his life and had just placed his faith in Christ. The refrain he kept repeating after placing his faith in Christ was, "I've wasted it, I've wasted it, I've wasted it." The guy, looking back on his life and realizing, "I have nothing to show for these 60-plus years of my life because I've spent it all on myself.”
So that person, this guy, he doesn't not matter to God. Of course he matters to God. He has an inherent worth. But he was self-declaring, "I've wasted my life. I've spent it on stuff that doesn't matter, and now I wish I could invest in something that does."
Drew: That reminds me, Aaron, this is kind of a sneak peak into this weekend is, we've got a story we're gonna share that is very similar to that. I think it's gonna be really powerful in your message. I can't wait. I just watched it. Man, it'll charge you up. It'll cause you to reevaluate what you're doing with your life.
Aaron: No doubt.
Drew: It's so powerful. Make sure you're inviting your friends. What a great story.
Aaron: It's an incredible story.
Drew: By the way, shoutout to Connor Ellsworth, who is actually in our Zoom call right now. Dude, you did an incredible job with the video.
Aaron: It came together really well. I've watched it, I don't know, a number of times, and each time, I keep thinking, the first time I listened to it I was like, "Wait, why am I preaching? Can we just play this?" It's like a four and a half minute video and I'm like, let's just play this and be done. I have nothing to contribute.
Yeah. It's so good. And his sentiment, this guy from the book Don't Waste Your Life and what you're gonna hear from Michael this weekend, it's just the idea that, "Man, I wish I had done this differently. I don't feel like my life had mattered until I started living this way."
Drew: And that's what this series is all about. We talk about death brings perspective. When you're facing death, it doesn't matter how well you lived your life. There's gonna be things you look back and be like, "I did a great job with this." But there's also gonna be areas where you're like, "I wish I would've changed things. I wish I would have done things differently."
It's crisis and death that actually give us the clarity that we need to see things accurately.
Aaron: I love that. Let's actually talk about that related to the different categories of relationships. What would you do differently, where do you think we tend to go wrong? This is related to everyday relationships, intimate relationships, missional relationships, and our relationship with God. Those are the four categories you talked about, and you even did a little bit of, you know, confession or honesty with us about phone-snubbing your kids or whatever and having regret around that, as we all have.
How have you processed this just since Sunday related to making the most of every opportunity and relationship?
Drew: I think the big things I was challenged by my message was, one, I want to have more boldness. I feel like I'm seeing that in this crisis. I've had way more boldness just to invite anybody and everybody. I've been, like, scrolling through my contacts being like, "Who haven't I talked to in a while and how can I invite them to the live stream?" And I'm realizing, the worst thing that can happen to me is someone ignores my text or says "I'm not interested."
This crisis has given me this, like "Dude, why haven't you been this bold before? What has stopped you?" And it's just creating a boldness in me. And I want more of that. I want that to continue to grow. I don't want that to fade as the crisis fades. I want to keep that, this urgency of, man, I can come up with all the excuses. But what urgency does is it just tears down all my excuses and says "Let's go for it." I'm learning a little bit of that with my missional relationships.
Then, with my everyday relationships, obviously I don't want to talk too much about my dad, because we've talked about him, but whew. Yeah. There's just some moments I regret, I wish I could get back. [Emotional.] So that's all I'll say about that cause I'm not gonna make it through.
Aaron: Yeah. And as much as sometimes we'll make it seem like you're the emotional one and I'm the nerdy one, I am a super sappy person when it comes to certain relationships, in particular with Lauren. Like, we legit can't watch -- even like romcoms are sometimes on the edge for me, like if there's breakups or spouses passing away or stuff like that. I'm always just like, "Oh, Lauren I love you so much, don't ever leave me" and "I'm gonna miss you." I don't know,something about seeing other people's tragedies that makes us realize that this relationship matters, but an hour ago I thought it was more interesting to be watching some YouTube video. We've all had that moment where either you're talking to your spouse or a friend or something, and the phone starts to creep in and now you're looking at your phone. I've done this a million times where I have to admit to Lauren, I'm like, "I gotta be real with you, I didn't hear a word you just said” because I was too busy doing something stupid.
You talked about how we replace the meaningful with the meaningless. I'm watching a YouTube video on how to set up dust collection in a woodshop and the love of my life is talking to me about something. Even if it's insignificant, and I've somehow decided in that moment that I'm gonna prioritize the dumbest video. And as you said, those are the moments that I'm just gonna say, "What was I thinking?" You know? We can't live our lives full of regret, like "Did I literally maximize every second of our relationship?" and I know that.
Drew: Right, right.
Aaron: But at the same time, I don't wanna lose seconds, you know? I want to make the most of every opportunity. Paul uses that in particular with missions. In both Ephesians and Colossians, those are specific to people who are far from God. He's saying, make the most of every opportunity, but I love that you applied it more generally to even just either your barista or the people that we know the most. Make the most. Why would you not make the most? We have such a short life. These people mean so much to us, and these people will be around for eternity, so catch every moment. You know?
Drew: Right, and I just think, you know, we've all worked a job where someone's a jerk to us. And we've all worked a job when someone was kind and appreciative. Sometimes it's as simple as that with your waitress or the person serving you coffee or whoever, your coworkers. It's just like, "Hey, I appreciate you." That goes a long way. Or, "Hey, thanks for my coffee. It was amazing." Or "Hey, how's your day going?"
One thing my wife is so good at, and honestly this is where I get convicted in my everyday relationships. We're checking out and I'm ready to go, and my wife is sitting there talking to the cash register. And I'm like, "Babe, shut up! Let's go!" Like, Drew, this is a person. And they're talking to me. And I'm like, dang. I'm a jerk. I am a jerk. I'd rather get on with my day than make the most of the opportunity in front of me. And my wife is so good at this. She'll sit there and, 30 minutes talk, even if there's people behind her. I'm like, "Babe, these people hate you back here, and this person loves you."
Aaron: Every cashier that's ever talked to Ashley loves her. Everybody who's behind Ashley hates her.
Drew: Like, just keep moving. My wife knows the people at where she goes, where she shops. She knows the name. When she shows up, they're like, "Hey, Ashley, good to see you," and I'm like, "Who are you?" And I'm convicted. I do, I view these people as a means to an end. Your job is to check me out, give me it as fast as you can so I can get the heck out of here.
Aaron: Mmhmm. Yeah. And it's very difficult when people serve a utilitarian purpose in our life, it's very easy to begin to ignore them, to not even see them. And you mentioned it, we right now care about these "everyday relationships" in a way we don't normally because, at the moment, your interaction with the cashier at Wegmans is now like --
Drew: Vital.
Aaron: It's also one of your only interactions with somebody that's not your family.
Drew: Can we talk, please?
Aaron: You're chatting it up with everybody.
Drew: Except there's a screen there. Back away sir. I'm like, "I just need a hug!"
Aaron: It's bulletproof glass and they're just like, "Please back away from the barrier."
But yeah, so we notice these people and we are grateful for these people, but, you know, life will go back to normal, just like a year after a funeral we go back to how we were operating. Months down the road after this crisis is over, we're gonna start ignoring people again.
And so, that's what this series, the essence of it is, you know, it's better to go to a house of mourning, learn the lesson there, and concentrate it into your life such that it won't take crisises in the future to make you care about people, to not miss moments with your family.
I know we keep coming back to what this series is all about, but I guess that's just what feels, that's the heart of it.
Drew: That's why we do this, cause they're so important. Everybody wants to go back to normal, which I get, at some level I do. But I think we would be missing what God's trying to do if we just go back to the old normal that we had. Maybe we create a new normal that is actually more effective and actually, with our lives, counts even more.
Aaron: Yeah, that's beautiful. Let's push toward that.
Anything we need to know about this coming weekend?
Drew: Um, the man with the beard is preaching.
Aaron: Mmm, Nate Miller. [Laughing.] No.
Drew: You're preaching, which I'm excited. One, I'm thankful. I just needed a break emotionally and spiritually and physically, so thank you for that. I'm excited to hear. We're gonna be talking about investing our resources, and so it's gonna be incredible, awesome.
We're gonna look at two stories, so I'm pumped about that. It's gonna be a great weekend. I've loved this series, and I think it's having some impact on people's lives.
Aaron: Agreed.
Drew: Do you have anything to say about this weekend?
Aaron: Um, well, other than, if you love it, then I did some tweaking. If you hate it, then it was Drew's original message. That's all I have to say. Whatever credit there is to have, I want it. Whatever blame there is, I'm dishing it.
Drew: I'll take it for you, bro. You're preaching for me, I'll take your blame.
Aaron: [Laughing.] Hopefully the CW, dude, if they give me -- I can't wait for what caption they give.
Drew: You know it's gonna be perfect because I'm not there. You won't get any pictures, no awkward faces with the bladder out of control, it'll be like, the title's gonna be Aaron Hixson is better than Drew. That's what they're gonna put.
Aaron: No, it's gonna be, like, a modeling agency or something. It'll be like, "Don't you wish you looked this good?" [Laughing.]
Oh my goodness. Okay. Well, we'll just wait and see. I don't wanna get too excited about what the CW labels me.
Thanks everybody for listening. Seriously, we would love to have a conversation with you. Send in comments, questions, concerns. We wanna alleviate tensions and help everybody the way that we can.
So, we'll see you this weekend on the chat stream or the correctly labelled CW. Thanks guys.
Transcript lightly edited for readability.
A Little Better // Death Is Staring at You
Transcript
Aaron Hixson: Hey Northridge, welcome to A Little Better, where our goal is to know God better and to do better, so that we can be a little better.
Hey everybody, welcome back to A Little Better, thank you for being part of our podcast community. We're so grateful that you join in each week. I know during the middle of COVID, if you're anything like me, I feel like my podcast listening time has been drastically reduced. Not having a commute means that my amount of listening has gone down. I don't know, Drew, are you the same way? What's that going like for you?
Drew Karschner: Yeah, I mean, it's difficult to play a podcast right now, it just is. No commute, it takes down my podcast time, for sure.
Aaron: Yeah. So anyway, thanks for still listening in. I don't know if you are now shifting when you listen to, you know, whatever, doing the dishes time, or shower time, what? I don't know, is that weird? [Laughing]
Drew: Trying to get away from your kids time.
Aaron: Yo, whatever, actually that's the same thing, showering. [Laughing.] But, yeah, thanks for still tuning in. And we've actually got some good options available. If you're the kind of person who has found yourself where you don't any longer have time where you can listen to something and feel like you could drive and listen or whatever, we actually had a volunteer come forward who wanted to provide transcriptions for the podcast, which is pretty amazing. So shout out to Sara [stuttering]. Wow, I can't talk. Shoutout to Shara.
Drew: Not to be confused with Shara.
Aaron: Yeah Shara. Easily confused. Shout out to her. And that's amazing that she's willing to do this. We're gonna make them available as easily as we can. Now, this is a volunteer who's willing to do this. I'm not saying, she has not signed on to do this for the rest of eternity, and we're not expecting her to, so obviously we'll keep you posted about how that process goes, but we're running it as an experiment for now, and excited that we get to have these available.
Drew: Thank you Sara.
Aaron: Yes, thank you. In terms of how we will make these available, at the moment they are on our episode webpage, so if you're savvy enough to know where the episode webpage is, depending on how you listen to podcasts, there's a million ways to get to it, so I'm not gonna describe all of the ways, but that's a button that you're looking for.
Maybe click the details button or something like that, and you'll find an episode webpage. It'll be available there in text format. If you're having trouble finding it, no problem. You know, you can email us, podcast@northridgerochester.com, or you can even just text me or Drew or anybody that works at our church and they'll get you to us, and we can make sure that we get that to you. You can text me personally at (585)484-7636, yeah whatever, I'd be happy to make sure we get that to you.
But that's just another way to make it A) accessible for our deaf and hard of hearing community, but then also at the same time, some people just prefer to read instead of listen, so. That's fine. Engage however you can engage. Cool.
All right, that was 2 minutes and 42 seconds of housekeeping. Thank you guys for your patience.
But Drew, hit me with some stories from quarantine. Have you had any like, funny things that your kids have done or embarrassing work from home moments? What's that been like?
Drew: I mean, you know, I got a lot of good stories. My kids are always trying to interrupt my meetings. I think the best one -- you have to understand my office. One, we took the door off way before COVID-19 happened, which was a great move until now. It's wide open, so you can hear everybody going on. And it's right next to the stairs that come downstairs, and so one day I'm sitting in my office. And I face the door to the stairs.
And I'm in, I wouldn't call it a super serious meeting, but I would say semi-serious, and so I'm sitting there and I'm talking back and forth with the people in the meeting. And Ruby-Kate comes down the stairs, and she peeks her head out and she smiles, and she comes all the way down the stairs so she's almost looking in the door frame, and she's looking at me, she smiles. She's got her pajama top on, and she turns her back to me. I'm like, what is she doing? But she doesn't move. And then all of the sudden, she raises her hands in the air, which reveals her tiny, cute little butt cheeks, and she starts shaking and she goes, [singing] "shake your booty, shake your booty,” and she's just wiggling her little hiney back and forth. And like, I just straight burst out in laughter in the middle of this serious meeting. I'm like, "Guys, I'm sorry. There is nothing I could do in this moment but laugh."
Aaron: You have been ambushed. Oh, that is so funny. How old is Ruby-Kate again?
Drew: She's two, yeah. Two.
Aaron: Oh my goodness, so cute.
Drew: The better question is, what is Ashley teaching her while I'm in the office?
Aaron: Oh my word, that's funny. Throwing Ashley right under the bus.
Drew: What about you, Aaron, Grayson do anything crazy like that?
Aaron: He hasn't bombed many of my meetings. Thankfully, being where I am, he's not really able to get there without some degree of help. If he's gonna come up, Lauren's usually checking my calendar or whatever to see if I'm in a meeting, which is very nice of her. So no booty shaking yet, but he did, in trying to explain to him, specifically with Gigi, who is Lauren's mom, Donna, they live in New Hampshire.
He was talking to her about why he wanted her to come or something, he wanted to see her, so they were talking about why she couldn't come, and she said, you know, trying to explain -- how do you explain COVID to a three-year-old? She just said, there's a bug that people are getting, and it's making them sick, and so I don't want to get that bug or whatever. She was just explaining it on FaceTime or something, and then the next time -- I don't know, it was a couple weeks later. She was on FaceTime with him again, and he said "Gigi, are the bugs still outside of your house? Are they still making everyone sick? Where are the bugs? Have you gotten rid of the bugs yet?"
And we were looking at him, like, what are you saying? And she's like, "I tried to explain it, this is the best I could come up with." And now he thinks there are, like, venomous bugs waiting outside of Gigi's house. Which, I'll deal with that. I'll take it.
Drew: If it was really a bug, we'd be good in New York cause the snow would have killed it a long time ago.
Aaron: Very true, very true. We would be hoping for a snowstorm. Oh wait, we had one last week. Unbelievable.
Drew: It's only April 19th, I mean, like, no big deal, right?
Aaron: Yeah, everybody loves an Easter snowstorm.
Drew: Where I grew up, we got 8 inches. 8 inches.
Aaron: What? This past week?
Drew: Yeah, 8 inches of snow. Like, the power went out and everything. Happy spring, everybody!
Aaron: I know. For once we get to say we're so glad we live in Rochester, we didn't get as much snow.
Drew: Jesus is alive, spring isn't.
[Both laughing.]
Aaron: Seriously. It's still in that grave. Come on out. That's funny.
But hey, one more -- I realized I have another housekeeping thing I wanted to mention before we jump into sermon discussion, and that is that we're recording this podcast these days Mondays around 3 o'clock. That's kind of our current schedule. We've done some pre-recording in the past, but because of COVID, we're doing it Mondays around 3. So I would really encourage all of our listeners, if you've got questions or comments or anything that you wanna say related to this podcast, from Saturday night services or Sunday services or whatever, if you have anything, just send it over to us, because we would totally engage with it, and now you have the opportunity to do so right now. We're in a phase where we absolutely could be bringing those things up.
Like I said before, podcast@northridgerochester.com, if email's not your thing, text me or Drew or anybody on our staff, that will get a question to us. Literally any way that you can contact us, social media, it doesn't matter. Get it to us by Monday around 3, and we'll see if we can include questions or comments or whatever. We would love to do that, and we're in a phase where we totally can even easier than other times. Hit us up.
Okay. So, week 1, A Life That Matters. And I have a couple questions for you. And Connor's listening in, so he might have to tune in as well, we'll have to see here. But that video, the title package, did we already talk about this? The title package was Devin Graf walking on 490 right by the Rochester bridge, right? It looks literally like he's in the middle of the road, I was thinking, ignore social distancing, say nothing about that, he's in the middle of the highway. How did he get there? So then I'm hearing rumors that it was a green screen and I don't believe it, so someone prove it to me.
Drew: I believe Connor has confirmed it was a green screen. Matt Snyder was behind Devin, and he was holding up a green screen, and boom, magic. It just shows you how amazing our creative team is.
Aaron: Where were they? In the middle of 490?
Drew: I think they were standing somewhere on the side of 490, and they green screened him into 490.
Aaron: So I'm guessing the reason they wanted to do it there was to match the lighting or something so that it would look the same? Connor's nodding his head. Okay. I just, that is crazy to me, because I've seen bad green screening, and that did not look like bad green screening to me, and I wouldn't have assumed we have the ability to do good green screening. No offense to Connor, I just assumed we don't have that kind of cool technology, but apparently you literally just need a green sheet.
[Both laughing.]
Drew: The green sheet they used to hang in our podcast studio.
Aaron: That's right, "studio." I love when we call it a studio. That makes me so happy, because it sounds so legit, and it's a basement. But, okay. Now that that's cleared up, it was officially green screen, which was very surprising to me.
Week 1, A Life That Matters. You talked all about how we need to begin with the end in mind, and I kinda want to enter into your experience. I know that this series came as a result of your dad's death. Talk to me a little bit about, we planned super far in advance. This was not the sermon series that was gonna be just post-Easter. I mean, I don't know. A month and a half ago? When did we make that change? That's a very, quote, "last minute change" for us, and I'd love to just bring everybody in to kind of the genesis of this series.
Drew: Yeah, I think when my dad died, obviously the point I said, death brings perspective, or crisis, so, I feel like I walked through both of those things, a crisis with COVID, and my dad's death. It has really caused me to reflect on my life and what's important and what's valuable.
I often teach out of the overflow of what God's doing in my heart. I just think those messages are more real. That's not always the case. I think there's series we do that we just talk about. It's not necessarily something that's churning in my heart, but this was just a series that God places on my heart. I've just gotta do this. If I don't, I feel like I'm gonna be disobeying God, cause I feel like he planned it in my heart.
So yeah. I just, through the season of life I'm in right now, God's been teaching me a lot of things, and I thought it would be valuable to walk our church through it. Weirdly enough, we're probably all thinking a little bit of those things right now, with the crisis that we're all dealing with. And it's really cool, again, how, even if you go back to Unfiltered Jesus and this series, and how God kinda laid it out for our church, I just feel really blessed with how he has planned our series for us. So we could be really relevant and engaging and impactful in this season.
Aaron: I agree. I remember when you first said, kinda like, coming out of the fog of your dad's death, with, you know, the first few days or 10 days or something, where your life wasn't normal. As you were emerging from that a little bit you were saying, like, "Hey, I wanna do this series," and I thought, well that's gonna be really cool to hear such fresh insights from you.
But at the same time, wondering, I wonder if someone hasn't experienced a death recently, would they find this to be as interesting, or whatever? And then COVID hit, so it was like, we planned this, and I was like, all right, let's see how it is in terms of relevance, and then COVID hit, and it's like, oh. Incredibly relevant. Yeah, been blown away by how it all came together.
And we had an original direction related to -- I think maybe the first title you had was like "Legacy" or something like that. Is that right? Or am I wrong?
Drew: No, I think it was -- yeah, I think "Legacies" or "Lessons from Dad."
Aaron: Oh, yeah.
Drew: So I mean, it's quite shaped and molded. And I didn't want it to be completely about my dad's death, you know? I want it to be about what you learn through those seasons in life, and so.
Aaron: Yeah, I think it is fascinating how, I can say this from even, death in our family. Lauren's cousin, this was June of -- I'm trying to think, a few years ago. It doesn't matter. A few years ago, her cousin, who's our age, passed away in a car accident. And student baptism was actually that same week, and so I ended up not being at student baptism, cause I was with the family up at the funeral and blah, blah, blah.
And I just remember, even in that moment, there's something about a death that creates like an, "oh my goodness, we have to be at the funeral, and we have to process this, and there's so much I'm thinking about, and like what really matters." And there's an urgency to that, that it feels like I'll never forget what this feels like. But for me, I think about her cousin's death. We're leaving the funeral saying "man, we gotta stay more connected, and we gotta talk more, and let's make that phone call, pick up the phone, let's stay connected." And actually, I remember Lauren's brother -- sorry, I'm kinda going on a rant here.
But probably about a year ago, Lauren's older brother was facetiming us or something. He was like, "Guys, I feel like we're still not talking as much as we said we were going to. Remember at Dylan's funeral we were all talking about how we were going to stay so connected, and here we are a couple years later, and we're already back to where we were before," almost like, did we learn nothing from this unexpected death? And I thought, yeah.
There's something so true about being at a funeral where you have like, just this lucidity about what matters, clarity around -- these people matter to me so much. I would be devastated if I lost them. But it's just so easy to lose that clarity. And so I think it's so key for us to hear from you as you're still in that phase of like, "I've still got very clear pictures of what matters to me, and I wanna speak to our church while those things are still on my heart."
Drew: Yeah, I think as people we have to learn how to keep those lessons fresh in our mind, you know? For me, it's easy right now cause everything I do reminds me of my dad, every place I go. I mean, my mom lives with us. But I do think, over the course of time, it's natural for us to just let that fade, or go back to the way it used to be or living the same way.
I think we have to learn to create constant reminders of that perspective that death or crisis gives us so we can live in a manner with the end in mind, rather than what's in front of us.
Aaron: Yeah, and I think that's a little bit reflective of why Moses' words are "teach us to number our days." This isn't something that we do natively. We don't automatically begin with the end in mind. We don't automatically remember that our lives are gonna end or just even a picture of our own mortality. We don't automatically remember that, and so it takes God's work in our lives to teach us to do this, like, teach me to keep track of the fact that I've got such a short life.
Drew: I don't think it's ever a lesson learned, like "Check that off the box, I got that." It's a constant, daily reminder, whether it's a reminder you set in your phone, or circumstances remind you. You know, there's certain lessons in life you have to constantly learn. And I feel like this is one that God teaches me over and over again through the circumstances that I walk through. It's like, "Dude, you've got plans, which are great, they're awesome, but who knows if you're ever gonna make it to your plans."
I've been at my Dad's lakehouse this last weekend trying to get things ready for Mom and situated. The constant thing that Mom and the family says is, "We've finally got this place the way we want it and Dad's not here." And this was Dad's place. It's called "Pop's Place." And so, you just constantly need those reminders that, man, life is short. Your plans might be great, but God's might be different, so how do we learn that lesson regularly rather than through the tragic or the crisis?
Aaron: Yeah. First of all, once again, yeah, I'm so sorry.
Drew: It's okay, man.
Aaron: But, that's why Solomon's words are, he says it's better to go to a house of mourning than a house of rejoicing. And I love that you used a wedding as a comparative, because there really is something -- there's something to be learned at a wedding. Right? I mean, if you've got a strong marriage or even a struggling marriage, a wedding can be a great reminder of, like, almost like a vow renewal. If you've got a strong marriage, you're like, "Baby, I love you all over again, I'd pick you all over again." If your marriage is struggling, it's like, "We gotta get back to this." Whatever. There's lessons to be learned there.
But it's different than the, like, "I had an unfixable, irreversible reality of death." That's what a funeral is. It's not like, “Let's recommit ourselves to our marriage.” You can change the trajectory of your marriage. Once someone's passed away, they've passed away. There's something permanent that's like, "What am I gonna do differently now?" And so, funerals just have an incredible ability to do that. But hopefully we don't have to go to a million funerals before we learn the lesson ourselves. You know?
Drew: That's the hope. But, I'm guilty so many times of going to a funeral. I don't know if I'll ever go to a funeral the same way anymore. And I think I've had such a good life in the sense of, I haven't lost anybody really close to me that has hurt this bad or stung. You know, I've lost people, but no one like my dad, that close to me. And I think, you know, thank the Lord that he's protected me and my family this far, but I'm telling you. There are certain things in life that I just won't look at the same.
You know, as a pastor, death is common. People getting sick is common, people having heart attacks. I think it's gonna reshape the way I pastor. It's easy for me to get numb to, "Oh, someone died." Nope. Not anymore. My heart is gonna break for people who lost people. As a young person, I could have easily been like, "Okay, this is part of life." It is a part of life, but that part of life really stings and really hurts. And I think I'll be able to weep with people and mourn with people and hurt with people in a way that I just couldn't.
Aaron: Mmhmm. No doubt. That's so real for any life experience. Once you had it. It's the walk a mile in somebody else's shoes, but you can't walk a mile in somebody's shoes until you've done it in certain cases. You can't really put yourself in the same framework as someone who's had a parent die or something like that until it happens, and then you're in a whole new ball game, you know?
Drew: Yep, and that's why I love what Moses said about refuge. It's unique that he brought that up. Of all the things as he's looking back at his life, I love -- and I'm learning this -- that God is the best refuge. He offers comfort that people can't offer.
In this season, I'm actually tired of people saying "I'm sorry." I'm tired of people saying "Are you okay?" And they all mean well. I'm not saying people shouldn't do that, but there's just nothing like a refuge from God. A place where God just -- like, sometimes even with my own family, when I wanna cry, I don't want people around me. I wanna be with God, and I wanna just mourn with God because he is that refuge for me.
I've read Psalms 90 so many times. It's one of my favorite Psalms. It's actually the first passage I ever preached. So my first message ever --
Aaron: That's awesome.
Drew: -- to a live audience was Psalms 90. And I've read those words, like "Lord, you are our dwelling place," you know. But again, I'm learning this. I think we've talked about this in other podcasts. Those words are so different to me right now in this season in my life. A dwelling place. Man, I dwelled with God in such a real way lately, where I'm just like, "God, I don't want to go to anybody else but you, because I believe there's a level of comfort, and security and stability that only you can give me, and that's what I need right now."
Aaron: And you'll come out of this stronger in that sense, your relationship with God, having been to this place with God, it doesn't go away. Your connection to God that is now stronger, better. What you've just described is literally a longer version of the phase "crisis brings clarity." I mean, you now know things you didn't know. You experienced things you could have never experienced. You know God in a way you didn't know him before. And that's a super bitter pill. Nobody wants to take that. You know, that's horrible, but it's God at work in you.
Drew: I also think about, you know, a lot of times when crisis hits, people run from God. What I'm going through, I realize that people miss on some of the best moments with God when they choose in crisis to run from God, because they miss out on what I think I'm experiencing now, it's this level of comfort and stability and security that God gives. And when you choose to run from him because you're mad at what he chose to do, or what he was in control of that didn't stop, you didn't like the circumstances. It's crazy that, in the midst of that, people who run miss out of something that's so beautiful that God offers only in crisis, only in the crazy and uncertain times of life.
Aaron: I'm not gonna add anything else, cause we're gonna end right there, man. That's really helpful, and I'm trying to do my best right now to believe that, to lodge it into my soul so that, when my crisis, like yours, comes, I'm more ready for it. I'm glad we all get to learn along with you, and this series is gonna be all about that. So, very much looking forward to it. Is there anything we need to know about this coming weekend or that our people should hear from you about?
Drew: Couple things. One, we're gonna talk about relationships this weekend. It's like Rodney said. We talk about our relationship with God first, and Rodney said the second thing is relationships with people. And so we're gonna talk about how we create a life that matters through our relationships. Also, we're gonna be having a baptism, so it's gonna be an awesome celebration.
Aaron, I believe you have an inside look at that baptism, because --
Aaron: Yeah, I do. It'll be a little bit different because we have an executive order from our governor that requires a mask for any time which you cannot socially distance, so it's gonna be the weirdest baptism we've ever done, most likely, but we're gonna try to comply with every restriction and also make sure that we still do more and better.
So, I got to be a part of it, and I can't wait for you guys to hear Ritchie's story. It's a great one. I guess I can say, it's already done. That's probably okay to say. Oops if it wasn't. We recorded it this morning on Monday. Very excited about it. You guys'll love it. All right. Let's be done. My friend, talk to you guys later. Thanks Drew, thanks Connor, thanks to our listeners. Please send us comments, questions, and thoughts. We would love to interact with you. We will talk to you next week.
A Little Better // Unfiltered Pursuit
Transcript
Aaron Hixson: Hey Northridge, welcome to A Little Better, where our goal is to know God better and to do better, so that we can be a little better.
Well hey, Northridge family, welcome back to A Little Better. Happy Easter. We are glad that you're with us. Today is the day after Easter. I don't know if that has a name, but I'm gonna still call it Easter. I'm the kinda guy who says "Merry Christmas" well after Christmas is over, so, I guess I'm just that guy.
Drew Karschner: Do you really say “Merry Christmas” after Christmas is over? Or before it has happened?
Aaron: Yes. Both, both. I mean, it's just like the Christmas season. It's a generic timeframe.
Drew: No, the Christmas season ends after Christmas. It just makes sense that way. You got 25 days that lead to Christmas. You say “Merry Christmas” all the time. But once Christmas is over, you're not walking around like "Merry Christmas!" December 26th. That's weird, bro. That's weird.
Aaron: I still do. I don't know. Okay. Well, anyway, happy Easter.
[Both laughing]
So, tell me about your Easter, Drew. How did it go down in the Karschner household?
Drew: Well, we had a beautiful day with my mom and my family and my brother and sister. We watched the services. And we had turkey, so we baked a turkey, and we had some good food, great celebration. We hid some eggs, and when I say "we hid some eggs," I mean I threw them in the most obvious places for a five, a three, and a two-year old to get them.
So we had a little Easter egg hunt with candy and little pennies in there, and the kids loved it. It was great. Yours?
Aaron: Awesome. It was good, it was good. How many services did you guys watch? I feel like you're the kind of guy that would watch -- you're always watching other churches and seeing what they're doing. So did you check out other churches or just Northridge or what did that look like?
Drew: I watched every Northridge service and I watched other church services as well. It's amazing. All day long my computer was full of services, so.
Aaron: Yeah, you're like -- you get so many bonus points for how many Easter services you watched. I was present for all three of ours as well, 9, 10:30, and 1. I guess -- wait, do we have a Monday?
Drew: We have one tonight at 7. Yes.
Aaron: Yeah, we have one tonight at 7, that's right. So I guess I haven't been present for all of them yet. I've been present for all of the ones that have happened. But actually we're switching around service times. Have we already talked about that? Why don't you tell us what's coming this week for service times?
Drew: Yeah, we're just moving -- so, Monday night at 7, it's been a great little experiment, and so we're going to shift it to Saturday night at 7. So, we're gonna take that Monday service. The only thing that's changing with our weekend services is we're taking the Monday night at 7, and we're moving it to Saturday night at 7.
One reason why, Monday night was just a harder night for people to engage. I think after Sunday, they kinda move on to the next week, and so, a lot of churches I have worked for have had a Saturday night service, so we're gonna try this out, see if it works, and yeah. Praying God does cool things with it.
Aaron: All right, so it's moving, not adding. We're just moving. There won't be a Monday starting next week.
Drew: Exactly right, yep. We are moving the Monday night to Saturday night.
Aaron: Sounds good. Yeah, I definitely have never heard of a church with a Monday night service. I do think it was a cool experiment, but I can't recall ever seeing that before. Saturday does make some sense. And we have the ability to do it, since we're having to pre-record right now, so that's cool.
But hey, the big thing about Easter, obviously Jesus is alive, that's amazing. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Did you guys grow up saying that in church, "he is risen"?
Drew: I mean, I think everybody says that. Even now.
Aaron: No, I mean, it was like a call and response. It was like a real live thing every easter, you'd say "he is risen" and the church would say like "he is risen indeed." Did you guys -- was it just me? Maybe it was just me.
Drew: No comment.
[Both laughing.]
Aaron: Anyway. So, we're excited. Jesus is alive. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the response from Sunday? What are we hearing from our people? And even people placing their faith in Christ. Did you have any of your pi2 people show up? Talk to me about that.
Drew: Yeah, so Sunday was an amazing celebration. So one thing if you watched on our live.northridge platform, you saw a couple unique things that we've been adding. One of those is you could see when I gave the gospel and people had a chance to respond, you could see people say "raise a hand if you prayed that prayer."
Aaron: Yeah, that was a cool thing.
Drew: Yeah, it was really cool. Our team worked hard on that. Over our three services, we saw 27 people say yes to Jesus Christ.
Aaron: Wow.
Drew: Plus, three more that came in from a different avenue in that way. And so 30 people said yes to Jesus Christ. If you think about that, over four weeks, that is 61 people. 61.
Aaron: Amazing, amazing.
Drew: I mean, how amazing is God? And you know, we're griping and moaning over this COVID-19, but God is totally using it to draw people to himself. I know we talked about it, but I hope that never gets old. 61 eternities have been changed because of this, and whew! Let's go! I'm ready for more, I'm ready.
Aaron: I know. That is very exciting. And I just love that we were able to capitalize on this season. You know, not every series and not every timeframe would be perfect for that kind of a shift where we're offering opportunities every single week, but this was just like the perfect moment and God utilized it, so I'm really excited about that. That's a very high number.
Of course the number is reflective of stories and people that know and people that we’re following up with. They're not just nameless numbers. These are stories we care about and that we're checking with. So, that's very exciting.
Drew: Yeah, and kudos to the people of our church for inviting. I got a couple messages from people who texted me and said, "Hey Drew, my friend texted me and said they said yes to Jesus." And that, just stirs a fire in people's hearts. My contractor. We've been adjusting some things in my basement for my mom to move in, and my contractor texted me this morning, so today, I think it was around 9:30. He says "Hey, we tuned in and it was awesome. Thanks for that."
I got a message from my high school sixth grade teacher, who said, "Hey, I haven't felt that much hope in a long time. Thank you so much."
Aaron: Oh my goodness. Wow.
Drew: I mean, again, cool stories of God just working. He's fulfilling our mission. More and better, baby, more and better. People are growing closer to God and people are meeting Jesus for the first time. So, let's go.
Aaron: Beautiful. And Drew, dude, I love that you're living pi2. I mean, it would be easy in your position, I think maybe mine too. We've talked about pi2 endlessly, especially back in the Paul series. It's easy at times to feel like that's outside of our purview because we're, you know, we work with a bunch of Christians and stuff, but I love that you've got names of people that you're thinking about. I love it.
I've sent out some invitations, and got some positive responses. Some people ghosted on me, but, you know, that's gonna happen. And so, anyway, we'll see what comes from that. I loved getting texts during that morning. Like “Hey, my friend from wherever is tuning in, please be praying.” You know, people just in the moment being like, “I'm so excited they came!” I love that feeling for people, and just that they're sharing and spreading and praying, and we're all kinda like waiting with bated breath for what God's gonna do. And yeah. It's an especially expectant time because of the sadness and the distress and the fear that people are feeling, but then also of course with the biggest Sunday of the year in terms of people being interested in church.
Drew: Yeah.
Aaron: Yeah, so let's jump in and talk about the resurrection a little bit. Let's talk about this sermon from Sunday. I have some random thoughts that I might end up sharing that just were from my own devotional time on Sunday morning before church. But that's a whole 'nother thing that I'm looking at my notes here. We'll see if that comes up.
But for now, you talked about how the resurrection should impact our daily life, and I just kinda thought, what does that mean? What would it mean for the resurrection to, as a believer, impact my daily life? How does the fact that Jesus is alive change what I'm doing day to day?
Drew: I mean, if you truly believe in what Jesus accomplished, I don't understand how it cannot change everything. I mean, it should change your motives for getting out of bed. It should change the way you think about life and eternity. It should change the way you choose to live and act towards the people you love and the people you don't love. I mean, every fiber of who you are should be changed by the resurrection.
Now, that doesn't happen in an instant. You know, it happens over a life of living in the perspective of the resurrection and how the resurrection gives you victory over your sin. And so, I think the major way that the resurrection has changed my life is the battle between my flesh and the Spirit. Living in light of the resurrection, man, my flesh wants to do things that I know I shouldn't do, and so the battle that wages within me, it helps me overcome the sin that I was enslaved to but now have freedom over.
And so my daily choices of how to respond to my wife when she annoys me or how to have patience --
Aaron: Wait, that's -- I'm gonna have to stop you there. That doesn't happen.
Drew: It's actually usually in reverse, probably for my wife and me annoying her, but every once in a while --
Aaron: Good clarification.
Drew: But I think of patience with my kids, when we're locked in a house all the time together. I think of just the random emails that you get of frustration of people. Just every area of your life, the resurrection can impact. From my desire to want people to experience what I've experienced, you know. When you truly see the amazement of the resurrection and how it can change your life, it should create in you a desire for people to experience that as well. To love your neighbor, to tell your neighbor about Jesus.
When I look at my life and I think about the resurrection, that Jesus is alive, what it really does is it makes me alive. It gives me life. And out of that new life, it changes everything I do.
Aaron: That's great. I was thinking even to -- I don't know -- at the kind of really granular level, or really practical level, the fact that Jesus is alive, the reason you're saying it should impact everything is you're walking through the implications almost in an unstated way.
You're like, if Jesus is alive, that means . . . and there's like five or six boxes that you're checking as a result of that truth, but like, why would a person 2000 years ago change my life? It's because what that resurrection means, as you said. That he's conquered sin. That resurrection means every claim he's ever made is true. That means that, if we have victory over death, even now in the midst of COVID, I don't have to be terrified of anything. I don't have to be terrified of even getting COVID and dying. I don't have to be afraid of people that I love having this disease and dying. I don't have to be afraid of economic ruin, or anything, global conspiracy that's making this whole thing up. Literally name your fear or whatever. None of it stands a chance against the fact that the worst thing that can happen to you is you lose everything and you die, and none of that can be -- the resurrection is more powerful than any of that.
Drew: Right, and you think about this series. We've talked about, okay, you go back to Jesus' baptism, right? We talked about that giving him his identity. We talked about the temptation. It gave him his credibility. I think the resurrection gave Jesus -- it validated him as the son of god. It just took every claim Jesus had made in his life, as crazy as they were, and they said, check that box off, because that was true.
You know, I think of even when he was crucified, the soldier, after he died, the veil was torn, the earthquake happened, the soldier says, "truly this must have been the son of god." It's like yep, checked that box. This was God's son. He did exactly what he said he was going to.
And out of that, out of his resurrection, whew. The implications of that are endless in someone's life.
Aaron: Yeah, and I don't have to -- if my spouse annoys me or if life isn't what I was expecting or if I never get married or if whatever, none of those things, as disappointing, frustrating, and hard as all of those things are, they're not ultimate. We have an ultimate truth in the form of Jesus' resurrection that overcomes everything.
And so, it's kind of one of those "if all else fails" things, like, but it's not just an all else fails, break the glass in case of emergency, like, if your house is on fire, "oh no!" Quick, grab this last ditch effort. It's like, this is so important, so ultimate, that it actually can be pervasive in every detail of your everyday life. It's not just helpful in the biggest things. If you allow it to be, it's life-changing in the smallest of things.
Drew: Exactly. And we're not saying that there are times in life where -- you know, life is hard and difficult. Right now, people are dealing with some really difficult things. And we're not saying, hey, walk around like "Oh, I got COVID-19, but don't worry, Jesus is alive." Like, yeah. He is alive. But that doesn't take away from the things in life that are hard and difficult. What the resurrection does in the midst of COVID-19, or in the midst of my dad dying or in the midst of anything that happens in life, the fact that Jesus is alive can change my perspective on any situation I go through.
Aaron: I love it.
In the midst of the story that we talked about on Sunday, there was obviously two guys, they're walking away from Jesus, and from faith. It's just insane to me. I was reading my Bible on Sunday morning before church in light of what I knew was coming in your content. It's just so remarkable to me how no one was expecting him to come back to life. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, and so we know how this whole story ends, but these two guys, it's not like they were walking away because they hadn't heard. They had already heard that the women had come, they had gone to the disciples, it had spread enough through the disciples. These guys had already heard. There are already claims of a resurrection. They're like, “Yeah, but we didn't see him, so...” They're just walking away.
And here's what I was struck with as I was reading my bible. After Jesus dies, Joseph of Arimathea comes. He goes to Pilate. He gets Jesus' body. He puts him in a new cut cave, puts the stone over the entrance. So immediately Jesus is buried. First of all, that's fine. It's to be expected. But it does indicate to me at least on some level -- they didn't want him laying out on the ground rotating, but I'm wondering like, why are you doing this? If you genuinely expect him to come back to life, it might be a little weird, but like, I don't know. Put him in your backyard on a patio chair or something. Like, he's coming back. Just give him a minute. You want to be there when it happens. But they put him in a tomb. Okay, that's fine.
But then the religious leaders -- this is what blew my mind -- immediately they go to Pilate and say, “Hey, this guy claimed to say he was gonna be resurrected.” That's interesting to me. They knew that. Second of all, they said he's gonna be resurrected on the third day. That's what he claimed. So they had comprehended and, at least to some degree, believed it was going to happen. At least they expected that his disciples would be expecting it and they would try to fake it.
So they're like, “This dude's gonna try to pull off that he came back to life. Can we just put a guard and seal the tomb?” And Pilate's like, “Yeah, that's fine. Do whatever you wanna do to seal the thing.” So they put two guards. And they're standing there. And then the women go on the first day of the week, and they're bringing -- again, this blows my mind -- they're not bringing party hats and kazoos, waiting for the third day to happen, they're bringing burial spices because they expect him to die and rot, and they don't want him to smell.
It's like, the only people who took Jesus' words seriously about coming back to life were the Pharisees. All the disciples were like, "Aw man, he's dead. And now he's gonna be dead forever." And the more I was reading that, I was so confused. And these disciples, Cleopas and whatever his friend is, we don’t know the name, they're walking away too! I'm like, what is happening? Why did no one comprehend it? And I would cut them some slack if it weren't for that the religious leaders did!
Sorry. I just went on a random rant. I told you I had stuff from my devos. But I've never put it together before that the Pharisees were legit like, “Yeah, he definitely thinks he's coming back and it's gonna be on the third day, so let's make sure that doesn't happen.” And the disciples are like, “Well, I don't know what's gonna happen.”
Drew: I think the Pharisees were worried that the disciples were gonna come and steal the body. I don't think they actually believed that Jesus was actually gonna be alive. I think they thought, okay, they're going to try to do some trickery to spread this lie. But, think about it. It doesn't surprise me.
Can you imagine if someone came into our world and made claims that Jesus did? I think this is a really good question. How many of us would have recognized Jesus if he walked on the face of our earth right now? What's crazy is, the people who claimed to know the most about God were actually the people who killed God. The Pharisees were the ones who walked him through court. They're literally in a circle, looking at God, and they don't know him.
Aaron: I guess the thing that's blowing my mind about it is they knew enough, they had understood Jesus' teaching about the resurrection thoroughly enough that they were taking active steps to prevent him from being able to fake it. Like you said, they weren't expecting it to actually happen, but they're like, “Let's just post a guard to make sure these guys don't try to fake it.”
I guess I'm thinking, the disciples, what would have been cool is, even if they weren't sure I'm telling myself -- and I'm being way too generous to myself -- but I'm telling myself, I think I would have gone, "Okay, he said he was gonna come back to life, he said it was gonna be on the third day, it's Sunday, can we just go chill? Let's just go sit there and let's just see what happens." You know what I mean? "I'm not actually expecting it, I don't really want to get my hopes up, but let's just go."
Now, at the same time, I recognize it was dangerous for them and blah blah blah, and I'm being way too kind to myself, but it just never clicked to me that the religious leaders were like, "Yep, this is probably gonna at least get faked, so let's work against it," and the disciples were not taking any actions.
Drew: But that's exactly what these two guys did, Aaron. They didn't leave until Sunday. They waited around, I don't know if they waited around because they thought at some level Jesus was going to come back --
Aaron: That's true, that's a good point.
Drew: But they obviously didn't believe it that strongly, because they heard the rumors that he did come back and still left!
Aaron: They're like, “Yeah, I know.”
Drew: That's pretty pathetic if you really think about it. Okay. “Jesus is dead. Okay. He's gonna rise again. Oh, he did? Nah, let's go.”
Aaron: I know. So bold. They're just like, yeah, probably not. Let's at least go find out. Normally I'm not a disciples basher because I recognize I've got my issues. I would not have handled this better than Peter or whatever, but some aspects of the resurrection are like, guys, why not just stick around a couple more days and just see if you can at least find out who stole his body or something. Then you'll be on the inside. Don't just peace out.
Then I love that Jesus walks with them the whole time, explains the Old Testament scriptures, gets to the very end, and they realize it's Jesus. I love what you said in the video where you're like, at first they probably were really embarrassed or whatever. I loved that point because I would have just been like, "Oh no. We look so dumb.”
Drew: What do you say to Jesus? I mean, like --
Aaron: Thankfully he disappeared.
Drew: I was just gonna say, I betcha they were so glad he disappeared. Because do you know how embarrassing and how shameful? I mean, in all seriousness, it's funny, because we're not them, but sometimes we are, aren't we? How many times do we doubt God? Like even right now. You think of COVID-19 and all that we're going through. We say things like this all the time as Christians. “Hey, but God's got this, he could take this away in a second.” But do we really believe he can?
Aaron: I know if he did, and he were standing here, I would be like, “Well, I gotta say I didn't see that coming.” Like, I intellectually believe it, but I'm fairly certain I don't actually believe it.
Drew: And think about how, I mean, it's one thing to take a disease away. To raise yourself from the dead. Again, we've heard this story so many times that what we say and what we claim feels so normal because we get the repetition of Easter, the repetition, but like to hear it for the first time, to believe someone's actually going to do it, it's hard to put ourselves in their shoes, because we know the story. We've heard it over and over again. This was so fresh and so crazy in their culture and their day that, if I'm being real, I probably would have been the guy that would've been like, "Jesus, I love you. But you're crazy. You're crazy, dude."
Aaron: Yeah. Obviously my life indicates that I'm no better than these people when it comes down to the details, but it just does sound -- I love what you said on Sunday too, about how it's just another -- I actually can't remember exactly how you said it. It's just another thing with more traditions that's lost its meaning or something like that. You kinda compared Easter to Christmas. I heard it three times. I should be able to quote it, but I can't.
But I love that because I do think that that's true, where it's so common. They're like ah, Jesus rose from the dead. But it actually is a crazy sounding thing. Cause it is a crazy thing. And I've even found -- I don't know if this is true for you, Drew -- but like, occasionally encountering other religions and studying them a little bit and finding out what they claim, all of their claims sound so audacious, like what? Like "Mohammed is capable of what?" or you know, whatever. Like that's just ridiculous. But then I go, “Oh no, wait.” That's of course exactly how all the claims I make sound about our God. I just have grown up with them and so it's very kinda, "Oh yeah, Jesus came back to life and that's what we celebrate."
So, that brings us to how we lost the amazement of Easter. And I think that's so relevant for all of us to think through whether or not this has just become one more Sunday where we dress up, or where we have a nice lunch. Have we lost the amazement?
When do you feel like you've been most amazed, and when were low times for you in terms of amazement of what Jesus did?
Drew: Well, I think one thing that's been really helpful for me in recapturing the amazement has been my kids. You know, telling my children, like Joelle, who is really on the cusp of fully understanding the gospel and believing in it. I think seeing it through her eyes is so refreshing. It takes me back to when I was a new believer. Just explaining to her what Jesus did and that he rose again from the dead, the amazement in her eyes is the amazement that I want, hearing the story like as the first time.
If you've got kids, I encourage you, share the stories with your kids and watch their reactions. Listen to their questions. I think this is why Jesus says to have childlike faith, where you can believe in something and you can submit to something even if you don't fully understand it. And kids, they believe things greater than we do, because they don't have, you know, the logic of life just stripping away from the faith that you have.
Aaron: That jadedness that develops.
Drew: Yes, and I see the lack of jadedness in my daughter and in my son when I tell them the stories. Joelle, just looking and watching her listen to the story and watching her eyes and her being in awe that God could do that, I'm like, "God, give me that again." You know, like just give that back to me. It has really helped me recapture.
I think I'm in a season now too where I'm emotional cause you know, my dad's dead. I just think God is refreshing and giving me a new sense of amazement for life. I mean, my mom said while we were watching services, she was like, "I wonder what Easter's like in heaven."
Aaron: Ah, yo.
Drew: I wanted to cry. But I also wanted to rejoice.
Aaron: I'm trying not to right now.
Drew: Because like, man. Dad is literally with the risen Savior. It was a hard Easter for our family, but it was also helpful in recapturing how amazing Easter is, and to know Dad is with Jesus. Again, what are Easter services like in heaven? Come on, you wanna talk about a party, let's go. Jesus is alive!
Aaron: I bet they have Monday night services.
Drew: I betcha they get a little charismatic in heaven.
Aaron: [Laughing.] Oh man, I had so many other things I was thinking about saying, but I'm fighting back tears right now, so I think we should end on that.
In fact, I want to use that as a segue to talk about what's coming next. I'd love for you to just give us a little bit of even just excitement about what's coming in our next series, and I think obviously it's got some ties to what we were just talking about, so what's next?
Drew: Yeah, so one, I'm saddened to see Unfiltered Jesus go away. What an amazing series.
Aaron: Oh man, me too.
Drew: And you know, again, I wanna just say thank you to the Davidsons, Drew and Meg. They're volunteers in our church that have put so much blood, sweat, and tears into this series. They got regular jobs, but they're making and creating these videos. God did some amazing things through these videos, and so, Drew and Meg, thank you for --
Aaron: I don't think he's done using them.
Drew: He's not. He's not. And thank you so much for your time and energy. You guys are amazing. I also am excited for our new series. It's gonna be different, but it's called A Life that Matters. And really, I'm gonna be just kinda teaching you what God's been teaching me in this series, through, you know, my dad's death, through COVID-19, what really makes a life that matters?
I think death and crisis brings a level of focus to our lives, where we really understand what is important and what's not important. And really that's what this series is all about, getting us to get back to the place in life where we're not distracted, where we're zooming in on what truly lasts for all of eternity. And so, it's gonna be a fun, and challenging series, but I think it's what we all need right now in this season.
Aaron: I love it. Crisis brings clarity, and I'm looking forward to the clarity you can bring us starting this Sunday. It's gonna be a great series. Thanks for jumping in and joining us again, and everybody thanks for listening.
We've got some cool things coming for the podcast, just some updates even just to make it a little more accessible that we're hoping to be integrating, so we'll talk more about that in the weeks to come. Thanks for listening, sharing, send in your questions, podcast@northridgerochester.com, we'd love to be able to interact with those.
And especially now that we're in a season where we're recording after Sundays, if you've got things that come up while you're listening on Sunday, if you shoot those off on Sunday, we might even be able to talk about them in the podcast. We'd love to be able to do that. Please reach out, podcast@northridgerochester.com, or, since Drew puts up his email every single week these days, you might as well just email him. Actually, email whatever you want @northridgerochester.com. It'll probably make its way to us. That's if you can stay awake long enough to type “northridgerochester.”
Thanks, guys for listening, we'll see you next week.