A lot of things can never go back to the way that they were, but our relationship with God can. God's grace is more than a simple pardon. It's an opportunity for complete restoration. This sits at the core of who God is - across both the Old and New Testaments. So, this Christmas, we celebrate God's gracious story.

Also, as this is the last show of 2023, Pastor Trey and Pastor Emily run down the top 5 things that they learned about how to restart a church in the 21st century. The answers may just surprise you.

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Sometimes, God changes things all at once. We wait and wait and wait and think nothing will ever change. Then, in an instant, God changes everything. The arrival of Christ is one of those moments. God's people waited for hundreds of years, with no sign of change. Then Christ shows up, and the world shifted on its axis.

Also, Pew Research put out a study looking at new ways to talk about spirituality and religion. Turns out, the vast majority of people are still spiritual in some way, shape, form. This shifts what it means to have faithful conversations with an increasingly non-religious world.

Pew Research Center: Spirituality Among Americans

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/12/07/spirituality-among-americans/

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God's people arrive back in Jerusalem from exile, and all is not well. The city lies in ruins, and even though they're back, it still fees like God has turned God's back on them. They weren't the first or last group of people to experience this particular kind of disappointment. You think the one thing will make all well, but it doesn't turn out that way. It does work out for them, eventually, but we get this honest and reliable reaction first.

And, when we find ourselves in those kinds of places or working to rebuild a church (and automatically find ourselves in that kind of place, we have to take care of ourselves. That way, we can care for others.

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At the end of Matthew 25, Jesus portrays the judgement as a separation between those who served others and those who didn't. This is also a way of looking at faith. We are meant to have a faith that motivates, that produces action, that leads us to care for the people that God cares for.

Also, Pastor Trey and Pastor Emily watched the Righteous Gemstones, and while, yes, this is perhaps an untraditional pieces of media for a show that opens with Scripture, it something that should deeply challenge anyone in the work of growing a church. Whose glory are you working for (says the rated TV-MA send up of modern church)?

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The Parable of the Talents applies to humans and churches alike. God has poured out incredible gifts, and we keep not using them for God's purpose. Then, we wonder why things aren't going well. We have to move beyond scarcity to see the abundance of God's gifts.

Also, Pastor Trey and Pastor Emily are joined by the crew from Grace UMC in Palestine, TX, Pastor Jimmy Calvert and Sister Brandy Dudley, to hear about their ways of reaching new folks and inviting them in.

Check out more of Pastor Jimmy and Sister Brandy's work:

Facebook.com/PalestineGraceChurch

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Live your faith genuinely - not for show. It can be easy, when you live everything else for the likes, to add your faith life into that column. We are not the first people to have this issue, and why you're living your faith may not change your actions. God care about your motivation.

Also, Pastor Trey and Pastor Emily are joined by Pastor Robert Burke to talk about his life as the pastor of a new church start in Amarillo, Texas that may be born out of a denominational crisis but seeks to be a faith home for everyone.

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We call it the love commandment, love God and love neighbor, because its a, you know, commandment. Jesus claims his authority as God among us, and says, what his audience already knew. God loves, so we love. This should be of fundamental orientation - the way that we direct our entire existence.

Also, Pastor Trey and Pastor Emily watched the movie Jesus Revolution, about the birth of the Jesus Movement back in the 1960s and 1970s, to maybe see if we are seeing history repeat itself.

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For generations, we've been sold the idea that the stuff that we accumulate will mean something down the road. We can buy for it a high price, keep it, and sell it for a higher price. This process will bring us peace and security - except when it doesn't. This isn't God's priority for us. Instead, God call us to invest in God's Kingdom - our relationships in the world.

Also, Pastor Trey and Pastor Emily are joined by Luke Edwards, Associate Director for Church Development for the Western North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, who also has a new book out called Becoming Church: A Trail Guide for Starting Fresh Expressions, to talk about fresh ways that churches can invest in the relationship building process.

Check out more of Luke's work: https://www.thelisteningchurch.com/

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How are you doing in this stressed out world? Is it crushing you, mind, body, and soul? The story of the Golden Calf is certainly about idolatry, but the Hebrew people were also incredibly traumatized and stressed. Like the rest of us, they weren't exactly at their best. This doesn't make idolatry okay, but it does mean we need to be cognizant what's going on and find ways to help us all be a little less stressed.

Also, the Associated Press did a huge project on Nones around the world. It reveals a lot of the places where organized religion has fallen short of the mark and that spirituality remains a strong part of the human experience.

https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/the-nones/index.html#:~:text=These%20so%2Dcalled%20%E2%80%9Cnones%22,numbers%20of%20people%20are%20secular.

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