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From Sunday Services to Community Outreach: Exploring Rush Church · Rush Hour

• 0:17
  Cody Caudill: Welcome everybody to Rush Hour.
• 0:18
  Cody Caudill: This is our brand new podcast from Rush Church.
• 0:22
  Cody Caudill: This podcast is something we've been looking forward to.
• 0:26
  Cody Caudill: We've been planning it, we've been wanting to do it.
• 0:28
  Cody Caudill: You probably heard rumors about it by now that there's a podcast coming.
• 0:31
  Cody Caudill: If not well, here we are First episode of Rush Hour, and this podcast is designed to build a community at Rush Church.
• 0:40
  Cody Caudill: This is going to be focused on things that are going on at our church, the people of our church, and also some Bible study, just some topics that come up that we can discuss and just kind of learn together.
• 0:50
  Cody Caudill: Bring up some difficult topics, bring up some stuff from the Bible to talk about, pick things out of sermons or teachings that are going on at Rush Church, and just talking more in depth about those things.
• 1:00
  Cody Caudill: So we're excited about all this.
• 1:01
  Cody Caudill: We're excited about this podcast.
• 1:03
  Cody Caudill: Thanks again for joining us.
• 1:04
  Cody Caudill: I'm here with Brittany Oglesby and Ashley Phillips.
• 1:07
  Cody Caudill: My name is Cody Cottle.
• 1:09
  Cody Caudill: I'm the student pastor here at Rush Church.
• 1:11
  Cody Caudill: So those are kind of our roles and I'm just going to go around.
• 1:14
  Cody Caudill: We're going to introduce ourselves, tell you a little bit about us, our family, maybe an interesting fact or two, and then we'll kind of get into some of the stuff that Rush Church is doing right now, so I'm going to throw it over to Brittany Oglesby and she's just going to tell you a little bit about herself.
• 1:29
  Brittany Oglesbee: Hello, what can I say about myself?
• 1:31
  Cody Caudill: Anything you want.
• 1:32
  Cody Caudill: Well, not anything you want.
• 1:34
  Brittany Oglesbee: Well, first I'm a volunteer at Rush Church.
• 1:36
  Brittany Oglesbee: I've lived in Rushlevania my entire life.
• 1:42
  Cody Caudill: I haven't gotten out very much, you haven't gotten out of WrestleMania.
• 1:45
  Brittany Oglesbee: No, for a little bit, but then I came back.
• 1:47
  Brittany Oglesbee: It's a little fountain, it's huge.
• 1:48
  Brittany Oglesbee: I've been married to my husband, levi, for 13 years.
• 1:53
  Brittany Oglesbee: We have three children Kaylee, axel and Roslyn.
• 1:56
  Brittany Oglesbee: We've been worshiping with Rush Church since about 2018.
• 2:02
  Brittany Oglesbee: My day job?
• 2:04
  Brittany Oglesbee: I am a massage therapist.
• 2:06
  Brittany Oglesbee: I have been since for about 18 years probably Wow, long time.
• 2:12
  Cody Caudill: It's a long time.
• 2:12
  Cody Caudill: I did not know that.
• 2:13
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yeah, since 2007.
• 2:14
  Brittany Oglesbee: Is that 18 years Sure?
• 2:16
  Cody Caudill: I think so.
• 2:17
  Cody Caudill: It is Good math.
• 2:18
  Brittany Oglesbee: Thank you.
• 2:21
  Cody Caudill: You're welcome.
• 2:22
  Brittany Oglesbee: My kids are involved in the youth programs with children's ministry and student ministry.
• 2:27
  Brittany Oglesbee: They do play sports, so we spend a lot of time with that.
• 2:30
  Brittany Oglesbee: A fun fact about my family is that we do demolition derby.
• 2:37
  Cody Caudill: You take part in, like actually doing the cars driving around.
• 2:40
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yes, Well, Levi does and the kids do.
• 2:42
  Cody Caudill: I do not.
• 2:44
  Brittany Oglesbee: I just make sure they have like food and water and your support.
• 2:46
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yes, Cheer on the side, but yeah, that's, that's me.
• 2:52
  Cody Caudill: Very nice, awesome, good to know a little bit about Brittany.
• 2:54
  Cody Caudill: I'm going to go over to Ashley Phillips now.
• 2:57
  Cody Caudill: She's going to tell you a bit about herself.
• 3:09
  Ashlee Philips: Phillips, I have lived in Rushelvania.
• 3:09
  Ashlee Philips: Nope, I don't live in Rushelvania.
• 3:11
  Ashlee Philips: I moved to Ohio back in 2011.
• 3:13
  Ashlee Philips: I have been at Rush Church since about 2015.
• 3:14
  Ashlee Philips: I am married to my husband, darren Phillips, for 20 years now and we have three kids Hannah, who's a sophomore in college at Grace College, haley, who just graduated high school from Ben Logan last year.
• 3:26
  Ashlee Philips: She's headed off to esthetician school.
• 3:28
  Ashlee Philips: And then Carter, he is a freshman at Ben Logan.
• 3:31
  Ashlee Philips: He's involved in sports.
• 3:32
  Ashlee Philips: Soccer, basketball keeps us very busy and, yeah, we love Rush Church.
• 3:40
  Ashlee Philips: A couple things about us we love camping.
• 3:44
  Ashlee Philips: We have a big camper.
• 3:46
  Ashlee Philips: We go with a couple other families from the church camping around the state of Ohio other states too.
• 3:52
  Ashlee Philips: We stay pretty much on the east side of the US and fun fact about me is I'm a paddleboard instructor.
• 4:01
  Ashlee Philips: You're a paddleboard instructor.
• 4:02
  Ashlee Philips: I would like a class I can teach you how to.
• 4:03
  Ashlee Philips: Paddleboard instructor.
• 4:05
  Cody Caudill: You're a paddleboard instructor.
• 4:07
  Ashlee Philips: I would like a class I can teach you how to paddleboard.
• 4:09
  Cody Caudill: Can you just paddleboard anywhere you want Like.
• 4:10
  Cody Caudill: Can you show me on the pond?
• 4:11
  Ashlee Philips: I can Out behind the church.
• 4:12
  Ashlee Philips: All right.
• 4:13
  Cody Caudill: Maybe we'll do that one day, maybe next summer, but very cool.
• 4:17
  Cody Caudill: Those are the other two people that have been doing this podcast with me, and my name is Cody.
• 4:21
  Cody Caudill: Like I said, I'm the student pastor at Rush Church.
• 4:26
  Cody Caudill: I'm in charge of 7th through 12th grade.
• 4:27
  Cody Caudill: I've been in some form of youth ministry for almost 15 years.
• 4:30
  Cody Caudill: I've been paid for that about 12 years, and so it's just where my heart has always been with that age group showing them the gospel, showing them how there's a better way to do life and that's through Jesus.
• 4:41
  Cody Caudill: And so, yeah, and I'm married to Erica.
• 4:44
  Cody Caudill: We've been married for 11 years.
• 4:45
  Cody Caudill: We have two kids, timmy and Eden.
• 4:48
  Cody Caudill: Timmy's in fourth grade, eden's in first grade.
• 4:50
  Cody Caudill: They're involved at Rush Church and the kids stuff.
• 4:52
  Cody Caudill: They do a lot of sports, they're very active, and so that's our family.
• 4:57
  Cody Caudill: A little bit about me is I like to play disc golf a lot.
• 4:59
  Cody Caudill: I'm into watching lots of sports.
• 5:01
  Cody Caudill: I'm a Cubs fan for baseball.
• 5:03
  Cody Caudill: I'm a big Kentucky fan because I grew up in Kentucky.
• 5:06
  Cody Caudill: That's where I'm from.
• 5:07
  Cody Caudill: I lived my whole life in Kentucky until I moved to Rushelvania in 2019.
• 5:11
  Cody Caudill: And so that's a little bit about me.
• 5:14
  Cody Caudill: I also like to smoke meat.
• 5:15
  Cody Caudill: Sometimes I got a smoker a few years ago.
• 5:17
  Cody Caudill: I've been making delicious food for people and I just enjoy doing that kind of stuff.
• 5:22
  Cody Caudill: So, yeah, let me tell you a little bit about the student ministry here at Rush Church, since that's my role, and then I'll go around and see what everybody else is up to and what their role is here at Rush Church.
• 5:31
  Cody Caudill: So, like I said, student ministry is 7th through 12th grade.
• 5:34
  Cody Caudill: We offer classes on Sunday morning, both services 9, 30, and 11.
• 5:38
  Cody Caudill: Those are our church services and offer classes for teenagers during both of those.
• 5:42
  Cody Caudill: Sunday night is Rush Life, once again for 7th through 12th grade.
• 5:46
  Cody Caudill: Rush Life is a time to come kind of hang out together, build a community.
• 5:49
  Cody Caudill: We have volunteers that feed us, bring us meals.
• 5:52
  Cody Caudill: If you're interested in doing that, you can sign up to feed the youth, feed the teenagers, and we eat together.
• 6:01
  Cody Caudill: We hang out, we play games, we do activities, and then we always have some kind of teaching and then we have small groups so students are able to learn and then discuss, talk with their small group leaders, just either about the lesson that night or about life in general, what's going on with them, and then praying together.
• 6:13
  Cody Caudill: So yeah, we do lots of trips.
• 6:16
  Cody Caudill: We do different events throughout the year.
• 6:19
  Cody Caudill: We just finished our color war a couple of Sunday nights ago, which was a lot of fun.
• 6:23
  Cody Caudill: Had some students come out and play a lot of games.
• 6:29
  Cody Caudill: We had through colored powder at each other and just got real colorful, real messy and it was a lot of fun.
• 6:31
  Cody Caudill: And then we do stuff like paintball camp, we do stuff like TCTC.
• 6:34
  Cody Caudill: Those are trips and things that we go on and the whole goal of the student ministry for me is to always look at helping these students grow in their faith.
• 6:43
  Cody Caudill: I want them to be able to own their own faith, which to me is know what you believe and why you believe.
• 6:49
  Cody Caudill: That and it's good for you.
• 6:51
  Cody Caudill: It's good to know what you believe and why so you can tell other people about it, but also just for your own faith, just to know what you believe and be able to back that up and have confidence in your faith.
• 7:01
  Cody Caudill: I guess you'd say so.
• 7:02
  Cody Caudill: That's kind of a little bit about student ministry, a little bit about what's going on here at Rush Church with our students.
• 7:06
  Cody Caudill: I try to get involved in Ben Logan as much as possible and some of the other schools too, with some programs that.
• 7:11
  Cody Caudill: You know I try to show up at different things, but we can talk about that another time.
• 7:15
  Cody Caudill: I'm going to throw it over to Ashley.
• 7:16
  Cody Caudill: She's going to tell you what her role is here at Rush Church.
• 7:20
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah, so I am the children's minister at Rush Church.
• 7:23
  Ashlee Philips: I've been in this role since August of 23.
• 7:26
  Ashlee Philips: And we have about roughly 60 kids in each service for two services a Sunday.
• 7:39
  Ashlee Philips: So we've got a lot of kids back there.
• 7:40
  Ashlee Philips: I serve anywhere from babies all the way through sixth grade In the hallway.
• 7:45
  Ashlee Philips: We've got our nursery through two years old and then we've got our three and fours class in the hallway and then you go to the backyard once you turn five years old and we've got our pre-k and kindergarten.
• 7:55
  Ashlee Philips: Then we've got first and second grade, third and fourth grade and then fifth and sixth and then second service.
• 8:01
  Ashlee Philips: We have a combined worship time and most of our kids come together for worship time, for lesson games, we feed them, snack back there and they just have a great time.
• 8:14
  Ashlee Philips: But a little bit why I love kids ministry and a perspective of why I was called to this is first is that I love to see the kids experience God's love.
• 8:24
  Ashlee Philips: They experience it in a real and a raw way, very unfiltered when they talk about different stories or different concepts.
• 8:31
  Ashlee Philips: I just love to see their minds open up to what they can read back as a story, what they're learning back there.
• 8:39
  Ashlee Philips: It's more than just teaching.
• 8:42
  Ashlee Philips: It's also about relationship.
• 8:44
  Ashlee Philips: I'm really big on having a relationship with these kids.
• 8:46
  Ashlee Philips: I want them to feel comfortable with me.
• 8:49
  Ashlee Philips: I want them to be able to, you know, see me outside of church and say, hey, there's Miss Ashley, you want to run up and give her a hug, you know, or go talk to her.
• 8:55
  Ashlee Philips: You know, relationship with these kids is a big part of why I do this.
• 9:00
  Ashlee Philips: And then, of course, I want to see them come to Jesus.
• 9:03
  Ashlee Philips: You know, that's ultimately why we're here is to present the gospel to these kids, to give them a firm foundation in their beliefs, so they grow up and can be able to go out and be witnesses themselves.
• 9:13
  Ashlee Philips: So, yeah, that's what I, why I love what I do.
• 9:17
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah.
• 9:20
  Cody Caudill: Awesome.
• 9:20
  Cody Caudill: You never know what kids are going to say.
• 9:21
  Ashlee Philips: It's one of the fun parts about no-transcript.
• 9:40
  Cody Caudill: Well, I like to do everything that I can, because you're not on staff.
• 9:43
  Cody Caudill: You're just a volunteer, aren't you?
• 9:45
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, I just show up probably the well.
• 9:51
  Brittany Oglesbee: I do help with social media and the live stream which now has kind of taken off on its own, so I don't spend too much time on that and the website.
• 10:00
  Cody Caudill: So I help with that kind of stuff yeah, rushtourishcom you go on there you see how cool it looks all the information, because brittany keeps it updated.
• 10:07
  Brittany Oglesbee: So yes, it should have everything on there all the time.
• 10:10
  Brittany Oglesbee: Probably the thing that everybody loves the most that I do is hospitality.
• 10:15
  Brittany Oglesbee: That's every Sunday, probably.
• 10:19
  Brittany Oglesbee: Two years ago Ashley had thrown an event called the Women's Tea, which is in December, around Christmas time.
• 10:27
  Brittany Oglesbee: It has the best food, as women should.
• 10:37
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yes, for the women it has the best food.
• 10:39
  Brittany Oglesbee: And we actually had a ton of leftovers and I don't know that she was thinking of anything other than just getting rid of leftovers, and she had set out this great display for Sunday morning to just give people something to eat and our foyer was full and everyone was spending time with each other and we thought, oh, this is great, this is wonderful.
• 11:03
  Brittany Oglesbee: So I kind of presented the idea of doing that every Sunday and it was met with.
• 11:10
  Brittany Oglesbee: That's great, but the staff here is really busy.
• 11:13
  Brittany Oglesbee: So if you want to do it or if somebody wants to do it, by all means, that's fine.
• 11:20
  Brittany Oglesbee: So I did and at first it was just me setting out food and everybody was very surprised.
• 11:28
  Brittany Oglesbee: You know what is this?
• 11:29
  Brittany Oglesbee: Why is there food?
• 11:30
  Brittany Oglesbee: Why is there food?
• 11:32
  Brittany Oglesbee: But then it turned into now we have fellowship before first service, in between services and after second service.
• 11:40
  Brittany Oglesbee: After second service is pretty short.
• 11:42
  Brittany Oglesbee: It's mainly just kids running up to grab things before their parents make them get in their car.
• 11:46
  Brittany Oglesbee: So if you're looking for the fellowship part, it's more before first service or in between services.
• 11:51
  Brittany Oglesbee: But I have a great team my mom, sandy McCurhan she helps me a lot.
• 11:57
  Brittany Oglesbee: Kelly Johnson helps me, becky and Gerald Neal, laura Ramsey, kelly Hurley, mary Spence, lori Short they all help me, so they all contribute things.
• 12:07
  Brittany Oglesbee: People in the church contribute things too.
• 12:08
  Brittany Oglesbee: People will come up just on Sunday and handed a plate of cupcakes Like, hey, I had these things too.
• 12:11
  Brittany Oglesbee: People will come up just on Sunday and hand a plate of cupcakes Like, hey, I had these left over.
• 12:16
  Brittany Oglesbee: Do you want them?
• 12:16
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yes, yes, we do, you know.
• 12:18
  Brittany Oglesbee: And then everybody goes wow, brittany, this looks great.
• 12:20
  Cody Caudill: And I'm like yes, and you're like.
• 12:21
  Cody Caudill: You're welcome.
• 12:23
  Cody Caudill: I did this all myself.
• 12:24
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, I'm like oh, but you do have a good team of people.
• 12:26
  Cody Caudill: And you've kind of put this team together over the two years and it became this really cool thing at Rush.
• 12:35
  Cody Caudill: Church on Sunday mornings where people can come and they can have breakfast and coffee, and it's just there and you can just sit down and have a conversation with fellow church members that maybe you didn't have time before to actually have a conversation with.
• 12:44
  Brittany Oglesbee: The fellowship, the friendship, the building of relationships all of that seems to be working.
• 12:49
  Brittany Oglesbee: They just needed something to eat.
• 12:51
  Ashlee Philips: They met more people in the church by doing that than anything else.
• 12:55
  Cody Caudill: Food always brings people together.
• 12:57
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yes.
• 12:58
  Cody Caudill: It's just even in the Bible.
• 12:59
  Brittany Oglesbee: And I've definitely noticed that, even like family members that I have that have children or friends that have children, it's and for myself too.
• 13:07
  Brittany Oglesbee: I can take my kids out of class, give them something to eat, stick them back in class and then I can go to class, you know.
• 13:16
  Brittany Oglesbee: So it helps me be able to stay at church longer and get more out of my Sunday mornings than just in and out the door.
• 13:23
  Ashlee Philips: Right.
• 13:23
  Cody Caudill: Very cool.
• 13:23
  Cody Caudill: So, yeah, we're all really appreciative of your hospitality ministry and how that got started.
• 13:28
  Cody Caudill: Especially me, I love just showing up and there's biscuits and gravy or a breakfast burrito or just you know it's good.
• 13:35
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yeah.
• 13:36
  Cody Caudill: What else?
• 13:37
  Brittany Oglesbee: Okay, so I'm also part of the connection team.
• 13:39
  Brittany Oglesbee: Ashley and I do that together as well.
• 13:42
  Brittany Oglesbee: We do a lot of things together.
• 13:44
  Brittany Oglesbee: We do.
• 13:45
  Ashlee Philips: We love doing things together.
• 13:47
  Brittany Oglesbee: And now Cody's hanging out with us, and now I'm here too.
• 13:53
  Brittany Oglesbee: Wow, lucky me.
• 13:54
  Brittany Oglesbee: The connection team is right now just a group of women that are in the church, and our whole vision with the connection team, I would say, is designed to help new families find a circle, find where they belong in Rush Church, what Rush Church can do for them, to help them feel comfortable with their kids as teachers, to start building relationships and just okay.
• 14:21
  Brittany Oglesbee: I've came to church a couple times Now.
• 14:23
  Brittany Oglesbee: I'd actually like to feel connected to the people in church.
• 14:27
  Brittany Oglesbee: We also want them to be able to come and tell us you know, this is where I want to volunteer or this is where my kid might need help, or just things like that.
• 14:44
  Brittany Oglesbee: At the connection team we've had several dinners, or we've had one dinner we're going to have a second one.
• 14:51
  Brittany Oglesbee: Just to introduce the elders, the deacons, the teachers and everybody.
• 14:55
  Brittany Oglesbee: Just feel like they belong.
• 14:57
  Cody Caudill: So kind of the connection team was put together for the purpose of making sure guests or new visitors have a good experience at Rush Church.
• 15:08
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yeah.
• 15:08
  Cody Caudill: And it's kind of developed into offering other things along the way and like this lunch coming up.
• 15:13
  Cody Caudill: You know you can come and see who the leaders of the church are, you can ask questions, you can kind of get to know this specific church better in a general kind of way.
• 15:22
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah, it kind of started going in a direction of connecting not just the new people who are coming in, but also connecting the different ministries that we have, because we don't want to just be like, oh, they're the youth, they're over there, you stay over there.
• 15:33
  Ashlee Philips: The kids, you stay over there.
• 15:34
  Ashlee Philips: Do we want to connect the whole family as a whole?
• 15:36
  Ashlee Philips: So what can we also provide that brings us all together?
• 15:40
  Ashlee Philips: You know that can kind of connect.
• 15:42
  Ashlee Philips: So if you're interested in something like that, come talk to Brittany and I.
• 15:45
  Ashlee Philips: I mean, we would love to get you involved with the connection team.
• 15:54
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, team.
• 15:54
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, they do it together with other ladies.
• 15:55
  Cody Caudill: Yes, so you have your hospitality.
• 15:56
  Cody Caudill: Metropole loves that connection team, which is has a good purpose and does good things.
• 15:59
  Cody Caudill: What else?
• 16:00
  Cody Caudill: My favorite your favorite what?
• 16:02
  Brittany Oglesbee: rush 18 rush 18 is my favorite, rush 18, is is this amazing new development at Rush Church?
• 16:13
  Brittany Oglesbee: Rush 1-8 is from Acts 1-8, which essentially says that once we accept the Holy Spirit, that we are to share it with others.
• 16:23
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, essentially.
• 16:24
  Cody Caudill: Let me just read it for you.
• 16:25
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, go ahead, Full context of it.
• 16:27
  Cody Caudill: It says in Acts 1-8, Jesus actually these are Jesus' words, it's written in red but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
• 16:42
  Cody Caudill: So we get this idea that Jesus has given us a responsibility as Christians, as followers of his, to go out and be witnesses, Christians as followers of his, to go out and be witnesses and to witness how he changed his lives, how he loves us, how he wants good things for us.
• 16:58
  Cody Caudill: He has a specific way that we should live and that way of living is actually really good.
• 17:09
  Cody Caudill: And so we had this idea of we want to be out in the community, we want to go to these places where the people are.
• 17:12
  Cody Caudill: Basically, we want to go out where people are, meet them where they're at in the community.
• 17:16
  Cody Caudill: And so Rush 1-8 is something that we started doing this year, a little bit officially, but the idea came from a conversation you guys had, correct?
• 17:27
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yeah, so last year Ashley and I were talking about improvements we want to do to the church, to the building of the church.
• 17:38
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, what can we do to make this better for people?
• 17:40
  Brittany Oglesbee: To make everything better, and that turned into a conversation about an outreach program that Ashley used to run in Florida.
• 17:49
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, tell us a little bit about what you did in Florida.
• 17:52
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah, so I was born and raised in Florida.
• 17:53
  Ashlee Philips: I forgot to tell you guys that.
• 17:55
  Ashlee Philips: But back in our old church I had Darren and I my husband and I had formed a outreach called the Christmas Family Extravaganza, and it was a spinoff of the Christmas parade that we would do.
• 18:09
  Ashlee Philips: So we would spend time and a lot of money building a float and going down the streets in a parade.
• 18:15
  Ashlee Philips: We'd probably get to see people for like three to five seconds with our church name and hope that they could hear our Christian music playing and all that and pass out flyers.
• 18:23
  Ashlee Philips: But we weren't really reaching them for the gospel doing that.
• 18:27
  Ashlee Philips: So we wanted to have some more time with them.
• 18:30
  Ashlee Philips: So we decided to stop doing the parade and form this outreach, and so I went to different businesses, got donations.
• 18:39
  Ashlee Philips: The whole event ended up being free.
• 18:41
  Ashlee Philips: We had all of the carnival games, the food, we had a train come in that gave kids rides, we had bounce houses and pony rides, and so it was just a really fun time for parents to bring their kids have something free to do.
• 18:56
  Ashlee Philips: That was our biggest mission.
• 18:57
  Ashlee Philips: Well, our biggest mission was to bring the gospel, but we ultimately wanted it to be free because Jesus died on the cross.
• 19:03
  Ashlee Philips: That was all free gift for us and so, yeah, we just wanted them to be able to feel love at that time.
• 19:10
  Ashlee Philips: It was also during a really the housing market was crashing.
• 19:12
  Ashlee Philips: It was just during a rough time.
• 19:14
  Ashlee Philips: People were losing jobs and it was kind of hard.
• 19:16
  Ashlee Philips: Even myself at the time was like, how am I going to give my own kids Christmas gifts?
• 19:20
  Ashlee Philips: I was just rough.
• 19:21
  Ashlee Philips: But I remember watching families during that time and the biggest thing was just a mom coming up and being like, really, this is all for free.
• 19:31
  Ashlee Philips: Like my kids can go and play, you know, as long as they want, on all of this stuff for free, they can win prizes, they can have food.
• 19:37
  Ashlee Philips: I'm like, yeah, I see, you know Jesus.
• 19:40
  Ashlee Philips: Jesus gave up his life for free.
• 19:42
  Ashlee Philips: This is all for free.
• 19:43
  Ashlee Philips: We just want to love on the community.
• 19:44
  Ashlee Philips: So ultimately that's what we used to do in Florida and then we wanted to bring that here to Ohio and so we kind of found an avenue to be able to do that and I'm excited to see it grow.
• 19:54
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yeah, after hearing that.
• 19:57
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, what'd you guys?
• 19:57
  Cody Caudill: So, ashley, you guys had a conversation and she was like I used to do this thing, yeah, so she says this amazing thing and we're like yes that sounds amazing.
• 20:07
  Brittany Oglesbee: Can we do that too?
• 20:07
  Brittany Oglesbee: So our first unofficial Rush 1A event was the Rushylvania 4th of July.
• 20:16
  Cody Caudill: That was last year, in 2024, right, yes, yeah.
• 20:19
  Brittany Oglesbee: And we had nothing that we actually needed.
• 20:22
  Brittany Oglesbee: I mean, we did, but not in like travel form.
• 20:25
  Cody Caudill: It was like families in the church being like you have a tent and you have a tent, Bring your tents, bring some tables that you have laying around.
• 20:33
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yeah, we have some tables we're going to set up this thing at the park for 4th of July.
• 20:36
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yes, and so it was like trial run, if you will, and all of the volunteers got to experience what Ashley's talking about.
• 20:47
  Brittany Oglesbee: They also got to sweat and work very hard, but they got to experience showing that love to the community and I think we were pretty hooked after that.
• 20:59
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, it was a good experience.
• 21:00
  Cody Caudill: We did it and just kind of unofficially set it up and we did it for the day and everybody that helped, everybody that you know, volunteered and got to see the joy that people got from being like I can just have cotton candy for free and you're like yeah, take some.
• 21:16
  Cody Caudill: And then there's kids that came back through and had 10 cotton candies you know some of them were bigger than the child's head.
• 21:23
  Cody Caudill: Oh, yeah, and to watch their eyes light up, that's the thing about the cotton candy machine, who depends on who's running it, who's making those and how big they are.
• 21:30
  Cody Caudill: But uh, so, and that really got us really dreaming big about how can we take what we did today and make that a part of this church in an official kind of way.
• 21:40
  Cody Caudill: And that's where Rush 1-8 was kind of born.
• 21:43
  Cody Caudill: We've had this dream of doing it and now this year we've actually done lots of things with Rush 1-8.
• 21:48
  Cody Caudill: We have a big trailer, big pretty trailer with our logo on the side of it, and inside that trailer we have all kinds of stuff.
• 21:54
  Cody Caudill: Name some of the stuff we have, what we have that we can take places.
• 21:58
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah, we've got a.
• 21:58
  Ashlee Philips: We've got a 63 foot obstacle course.
• 22:01
  Ashlee Philips: We've got, obviously, tables, chairs, tents.
• 22:03
  Ashlee Philips: We can set up our own little connection area.
• 22:06
  Ashlee Philips: We've got cotton candy, popcorn, snow cones, yard games.
• 22:10
  Ashlee Philips: Got a big inflatable axe throwing that's really fun we've got a fully functioning gaga pit and we also have a huge outdoor sound system where we can do worship outside.
• 22:21
  Ashlee Philips: So that's, that's a new event we're hoping to plan this year is worship in the square.
• 22:25
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, so yeah those are just some of the things we have lots of.
• 22:28
  Cody Caudill: I mean, we have this trailer packed full of just.
• 22:30
  Cody Caudill: It's designed to be able to just come pick it up, hook it up to your truck and take it on location to different places where we want to go and be able to set up and just offer things to the community.
• 22:40
  Cody Caudill: So some of the things we've done so far.
• 22:42
  Cody Caudill: We did another 4th of July more official this year.
• 22:46
  Brittany Oglesbee: It looked a little cleaner.
• 22:47
  Cody Caudill: It was nice.
• 22:48
  Cody Caudill: We had all of our matching tents and signs and it was really cool.
• 22:52
  Cody Caudill: We did that.
• 22:52
  Cody Caudill: We did Rock the Lake, which was a big event for us.
• 22:56
  Cody Caudill: Rock the Lake is something here in Logan County.
• 22:59
  Cody Caudill: It's a free Christian concert out by Indian Lake and just thousands of people show up to listen to music.
• 23:03
  Cody Caudill: But they asked us to be there all day to kind of offer an area for families, for kids, and so that went well.
• 23:11
  Cody Caudill: I thought what?
• 23:11
  Ashlee Philips: do you think it did?
• 23:12
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah, I think it went really well.
• 23:14
  Ashlee Philips: I mean, we had close to 8,000 people showed up at the whole event, so let alone, I mean they all saw us there.
• 23:22
  Cody Caudill: It's really hard to miss a 63-foot inflatable obstacle course and say what's going on over there?
• 23:27
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah, yeah, and I forgot we also had our photo booth out there too.
• 23:30
  Ashlee Philips: Our 360 photo booth out there too, our 360 photo booth out there.
• 23:33
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, we have a 360 photo booth, which is where you stand on a little circle and the camera flies around you.
• 23:38
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, 60 motion.
• 23:39
  Cody Caudill: And like you, get to take silly video.
• 23:40
  Cody Caudill: Kids love it.
• 23:41
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, don't they kids like they get to take silly videos and then you just type in their phone number, it sends it right to them.
• 23:47
  Cody Caudill: So you take that with them.
• 23:48
  Cody Caudill: And we did something to film with that, didn't we?
• 23:51
  Ashlee Philips: yes, oh yes, oh yeah, yeah, we went to Rush Church went to prom.
• 23:56
  Cody Caudill: We were actually, you know.
• 23:57
  Cody Caudill: They asked if we would come to Ben Logan's prom and we set up at prom itself with our 360 photo booth and the students there really enjoyed.
• 24:06
  Cody Caudill: Just, we had props, we had stuff you could use.
• 24:08
  Brittany Oglesbee: I think my teenager really enjoyed me being at prom.
• 24:10
  Brittany Oglesbee: What about yours?
• 24:11
  Ashlee Philips: Yes, my teenager loved it.
• 24:12
  Ashlee Philips: It's what she dreamed of at her senior prom.
• 24:16
  Cody Caudill: Never expect that, oh good.
• 24:17
  Brittany Oglesbee: Our moms are here, but we kind of stayed out of the way.
• 24:20
  Cody Caudill: We were just over doing our video thing with our equipment and stuff and so they had a good time.
• 24:24
  Cody Caudill: We did it and went to after prom, set up some of our games and set up some snacks and stuff.
• 24:29
  Cody Caudill: So we've been able to do a lot of stuff so far with Rush 18, and we've got bigger plans.
• 24:34
  Cody Caudill: We want to do more things.
• 24:36
  Cody Caudill: We're excited about it.
• 24:37
  Cody Caudill: I'm sure you've heard if you're at our church at all, you've probably heard Rush 18.
• 24:44
  Cody Caudill: That's a new thing.
• 24:44
  Cody Caudill: Then we've made a video showing some of the stuff that we've done in form.
• 24:49
  Cody Caudill: If you hear it and you're like I'm still not really sure what Rush 8 is supposed to do or what it's all about, what do you think the best way for somebody to know all about Rush 8 would be?
• 25:00
  Cody Caudill: Come, yeah, come to the event Next time you, next time we advertise something, next time we do something, I would just encourage you to just show up wherever it's at and you don't have to do anything.
• 25:10
  Cody Caudill: You can just come grab some of the popcorn we're giving away and just watch and see how it's all done, see how it's all operating and stuff like that, which is the best way, right?
• 25:20
  Cody Caudill: So if you're still unsure, just come to the event, right?
• 25:23
  Cody Caudill: Come see us, come be there.
• 25:25
  Brittany Oglesbee: Also, if you're thinking about volunteering and you're kind of wanting something in particular, like if you want to be a part of the event but maybe you just want to be labor, we can help with that.
• 25:44
  Brittany Oglesbee: Or if you want to come to the event but you just are able to dish out popcorn and that's all you're able to do, we're able to work with anyone in any way that they want to volunteer and all abilities.
• 25:51
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah, we will show you exactly what to do.
• 25:54
  Ashlee Philips: Like Brittany and I will, come by step-by-step, teach you how to run it.
• 25:57
  Ashlee Philips: We're not, you know we're not stranding you, putting you out there you know, with nothing to do.
• 26:01
  Ashlee Philips: We're going to show you exactly how to do it, you know.
• 26:03
  Ashlee Philips: And new this year too is we're going to actually form a permanent Rush 118 team, so ones who are going to set up and tear down.
• 26:12
  Ashlee Philips: So if that's your, if that's your, you love that.
• 26:15
  Brittany Oglesbee: you know, we want you part of that we have some people that are really good at it.
• 26:19
  Ashlee Philips: They are, yes, man, jeremy Payne, wes Varner, jeremy is a professional.
• 26:24
  Brittany Oglesbee: He really knows how to roll up an inflatable.
• 26:26
  Ashlee Philips: I'll tell you that I think that's all that camping experience he has.
• 26:30
  Cody Caudill: He has some good people that know what they're doing.
• 26:32
  Cody Caudill: But yeah, setup team, teardown team.
• 26:34
  Cody Caudill: But if you can't do that, we have, I will say, Rush 18 is set up to really offer service opportunities for almost anybody.
• 26:39
  Cody Caudill: If you want to serve and you want to be involved, we have a spot for you.
• 26:42
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah.
• 26:46
  Cody Caudill: So I would just encourage you to come check it out or ask us about it personally.
• 26:49
  Cody Caudill: We'll let you know.
• 26:50
  Cody Caudill: What else about Rush 18?
• 26:51
  Cody Caudill: .
• 26:56
  Brittany Oglesbee: Have we talked about it enough?
• 26:57
  Brittany Oglesbee: I think yeah.
• 26:58
  Brittany Oglesbee: I mean it's going to keep growing.
• 26:59
  Brittany Oglesbee: I'm really excited for our calendar this coming year.
• 27:00
  Cody Caudill: Oh yeah, adding events, adding different things that we can take the trailer to right and I will say you know, ultimately our trailer is filled with things.
• 27:09
  Ashlee Philips: It's.
• 27:09
  Ashlee Philips: It's what it is, but that's not the reason why we're doing this.
• 27:13
  Ashlee Philips: The reason why we want to go out is because we want to love on the community.
• 27:17
  Ashlee Philips: We want them to feel hope.
• 27:19
  Ashlee Philips: We want them to see Jesus through us.
• 27:21
  Ashlee Philips: You know, we might not get to present the whole gospel while we're out there, but us just having a smile on our face and showing the love of Jesus, like that's what it's about.
• 27:30
  Ashlee Philips: We want to.
• 27:31
  Ashlee Philips: Some of these people may never have entered doors in a church.
• 27:34
  Ashlee Philips: They might be outside at a park or at the beach Oldfield Beach or whatever and they see us.
• 27:40
  Ashlee Philips: And because they saw us, we planted a seed In my ministry.
• 27:44
  Ashlee Philips: I live by one degree.
• 27:45
  Ashlee Philips: I'm not going to change a kid's life immediately on a Sunday morning, but that seed that's planted, if it's even just a one degree change years from now, it could have changed their entire path.
• 27:58
  Ashlee Philips: And so the purpose of this ministry going out is to just hopefully plant seeds in our community, hopefully show them the love of God and you're welcome.
• 28:06
  Ashlee Philips: We want you to come to our church.
• 28:07
  Ashlee Philips: We are going to tell you all about Rush Church, but if you're not in that area and you want to find a different church, we'll help you find another church, Like there are many out here in Logan County and surrounding counties that are great.
• 28:21
  Brittany Oglesbee: We just want you plugged in where Jesus is being taught.
• 28:24
  Cody Caudill: Agreed, the mission of this whole thing is to meet people where they're at.
• 28:28
  Cody Caudill: And yeah, we have Rush Churchill all over the place and my whole thing is you know, go to church, go, experience Jesus.
• 28:37
  Cody Caudill: And if that's at our church, wonderful.
• 28:39
  Cody Caudill: If not, like Ashley said, we know people in the county.
• 28:42
  Cody Caudill: I know a lot of people at different churches and there's good churches around.
• 28:46
  Cody Caudill: The point is to just go to church.
• 28:50
  Cody Caudill: That's what we want.
• 28:53
  Cody Caudill: Introduce people to Jesus Agreed.
• 28:54
  Cody Caudill: Oh good, I'm glad I just wanted to hit on that and be like why are we doing Rush 18?
• 29:00
  Cody Caudill: What's the purpose behind it?
• 29:02
  Cody Caudill: And for me I think it's a great opportunity to just start conversations with people, and so I want people to remember that these Christians they're out there and they're doing good things, and so maybe they don't come to church that Sunday after an event we do.
• 29:21
  Cody Caudill: Maybe they don't come to church, you know, any time after one of our events, but maybe later on in their lives a crisis happens or they're going through a really hard time where something happens in their life and they start to think about faith more deeply and they start to think about church in a different kind of way and they remember that event that we did for them.
• 29:40
  Cody Caudill: They talk to each other and be like well, remember that time we were at the park what was the name of that church?
• 29:44
  Cody Caudill: Rush Church.
• 29:45
  Cody Caudill: They started to do that stuff for us.
• 29:47
  Cody Caudill: Maybe we should go check them out, maybe we should go to church, and so that's kind of the goal behind this is, I think, to plant seeds, like Ashley said, and hopefully down the road they'll remember what we've been doing, different things like that.
• 29:58
  Cody Caudill: So Rush Monday is exciting.
• 29:59
  Cody Caudill: It's taking the church to people.
• 30:04
  Cody Caudill: But here at Rush Church we have all kinds of stuff for all kinds of different people.
• 30:06
  Cody Caudill: We talked about student ministry.
• 30:08
  Cody Caudill: We talked about children's ministry.
• 30:10
  Cody Caudill: We have newly formed young adults ministry for college-age kids.
• 30:15
  Cody Caudill: They meet two times a month on Thursdays, led by some cool people.
• 30:18
  Cody Caudill: We'll probably talk about that in the future.
• 30:20
  Cody Caudill: We have adult classes on Sunday mornings.
• 30:23
  Cody Caudill: We have a couple classes.
• 30:25
  Cody Caudill: I know Bill Johnson does one on Isaiah during.
• 30:28
  Cody Caudill: Is he first service?
• 30:29
  Cody Caudill: I think he's first service and I know Mark Long's going through.
• 30:32
  Cody Caudill: I think he's going through Job right now in his class during first service.
• 30:36
  Cody Caudill: Luke Skidmore is starting.
• 30:38
  Cody Caudill: Some of you guys are in his class, aren't you?
• 30:40
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yes, I'm in his class.
• 30:41
  Brittany Oglesbee: We're starting a new class.
• 30:42
  Brittany Oglesbee: Well, a new course.
• 30:43
  Cody Caudill: They meet during second service, and what are they going to be talking about?
• 30:47
  Brittany Oglesbee: We are going to read the New Testament in between October 1st and the first of the year.
• 30:53
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, it's called the Bible Recap, isn't it?
• 30:54
  Cody Caudill: Yes, we use the Bible.
• 30:55
  Brittany Oglesbee: Recap app.
• 30:56
  Brittany Oglesbee: It's 12 minutes a day.
• 30:59
  Cody Caudill: It's all it takes, if you read the Bible 12 minutes a day.
• 31:01
  Cody Caudill: You can be done in a year, right, yeah, wow.
• 31:04
  Brittany Oglesbee: So the New Testament.
• 31:06
  Cody Caudill: Oh, the New Testament.
• 31:07
  Brittany Oglesbee: The New Testament is from October to January, so I think that's right.
• 31:10
  Cody Caudill: If you do the whole Bible, you can do it all in a year.
• 31:12
  Brittany Oglesbee: 12 minutes a day Do it all in a year, but we're going to start so in that class which we still have one more class this Sunday, where Luke's still prepping us for the class or to start reading, but he's opened up a group chat to where you can text questions throughout the week.
• 31:29
  Brittany Oglesbee: But then on Sundays we'll be reviewing what we read.
• 31:34
  Cody Caudill: Yeah.
• 31:35
  Cody Caudill: So my point is there's all kinds of stuff happening for you to get plugged into, to be involved in Rush Church.
• 31:40
  Cody Caudill: So if you're listening and you didn't know about these things, ask questions, go to the Welcome Center.
• 31:45
  Cody Caudill: We have all this stuff that you can sign up for, know about, find information about what are some other things I don't know.
• 31:51
  Cody Caudill: We have casual coffee for the more wise age group.
• 31:55
  Cody Caudill: I would guess you would say, as John says from stage sometimes they meet the first Thursdays of the month.
• 32:00
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, they have coffee, hang out and talk discuss.
• 32:07
  Ashlee Philips: We have the new family, the new young family group too.
• 32:09
  Ashlee Philips: They call it Life.
• 32:09
  Cody Caudill: Group.
• 32:10
  Cody Caudill: They have young kids and they just meet and all together one night a month on Thursday.
• 32:15
  Cody Caudill: I think that's Grace Link.
• 32:16
  Cody Caudill: She started that up.
• 32:17
  Ashlee Philips: Grace and Miranda.
• 32:18
  Cody Caudill: Really, really.
• 32:20
  Cody Caudill: They have a lot of people, I think, coming to that.
• 32:22
  Ashlee Philips: So exciting things.
• 32:23
  Ashlee Philips: It's awesome to see these young families come together because they're in the same stage of life, like that's.
• 32:29
  Ashlee Philips: You know that's awesome.
• 32:29
  Brittany Oglesbee: Such a hard stage too it is.
• 32:31
  Ashlee Philips: I remember having kids that age and I was like help me please no-transcript church somewhere.
• 32:58
  Cody Caudill: But let's talk a little bit about why we feel church is important.
• 33:02
  Brittany Oglesbee: Well, I can start with saying how I used to think of church.
• 33:07
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, sure, maybe you have never Before.
• 33:09
  Brittany Oglesbee: I wasn't frequent flyer.
• 33:12
  Brittany Oglesbee: Frequent flyer, so there was a time in your life where church was just kind of not important.
• 33:20
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yeah, like there was a time in my life where church was just my Sunday thing Check off the list.
• 33:23
  Brittany Oglesbee: And I felt really good afterwards and I was like, oh good, I'm recharged for the week and that was a really I'm not sure what word to use for that.
• 33:34
  Cody Caudill: So you saw church as a time.
• 33:36
  Cody Caudill: I go Sundays and it makes me feel good.
• 33:37
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, I recharge for the week and then maybe I'll go back next week if I need another recharge.
• 33:41
  Brittany Oglesbee: If I didn't, if I had something else going on, that was okay.
• 33:45
  Brittany Oglesbee: You know, I mean, I'm being honest, I guess that's how it was.
• 33:49
  Cody Caudill: Why do you think you felt that way about church?
• 33:51
  Cody Caudill: I'm not sure, or is that wrong to feel that way about church?
• 33:55
  Brittany Oglesbee: And I don't know about that, but I can tell you how I feel now about church is completely different.
• 34:02
  Brittany Oglesbee: Like I actually feel, like I'm going to hang out with my family, I am completely plugged in.
• 34:11
  Brittany Oglesbee: Obviously, I'm very plugged in.
• 34:13
  Brittany Oglesbee: I am volunteering a lot to do a lot of stuff but the way that I look at it now is now I am trying in my best abilities to develop a christian or a christ-like mindset, and that has helped me so much through my day-to-day and what I'm experiencing all the time, whether it be parenting or house problems or You'd say, just life in general.
• 34:42
  Brittany Oglesbee: Just life in general anything death, birth, anything and just having that education.
• 34:48
  Brittany Oglesbee: That's something that I very much value from Rush Church is how much education we put out.
• 34:57
  Brittany Oglesbee: I can come home and say this is what I learned in my study, and I can start talking about it and my son which I've talked to, ashley before, because we have amazing teachers in the backyard and my son can say I know the rest of that story.
• 35:14
  Brittany Oglesbee: Can I finish telling that?
• 35:16
  Brittany Oglesbee: And it's just a really cool experience.
• 35:20
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, ashley, you have any thoughts about church?
• 35:25
  Ashlee Philips: Why church?
• 35:25
  Ashlee Philips: Yeah, so I mean, I've been going to church for a very long time, not just Rush Church, you know, I've been in church since I was a baby.
• 35:32
  Ashlee Philips: You know I was actually adopted into a Christian family.
• 35:35
  Ashlee Philips: So from the moment I was adopted I've never not been in church.
• 35:38
  Ashlee Philips: But I definitely think that for me, the body of Christ, being a part of the body of Christ, is huge.
• 35:45
  Ashlee Philips: Just feeling like I have a place where I belong, having community around me, feeling those relationships that you know.
• 35:54
  Ashlee Philips: When I'm struggling, you know, with something at home, or if I'm having community around me, feeling those relationships that you know when I'm struggling, you know, with something at home, or if I'm struggling with something internally, I can go to people who I trust and be like, hey, this is what I'm struggling with.
• 36:04
  Ashlee Philips: How would you approach it?
• 36:06
  Ashlee Philips: What would you do in this?
• 36:08
  Ashlee Philips: You know, in this scenario, and just being able to have that bond with people that you don't get when you just come on a Sunday morning listen to.
• 36:16
  Ashlee Philips: John preach and then leave.
• 36:18
  Ashlee Philips: You get that by sticking around, by going to classes, by getting to know people, talking, reaching out, finding those circles.
• 36:27
  Ashlee Philips: We're not an inclusive church.
• 36:30
  Ashlee Philips: We don't have circles that you are not allowed a part of.
• 36:33
  Ashlee Philips: We are open.
• 36:34
  Ashlee Philips: You are allowed to come join us in any area of the church that you feel called to and that you want to get involved in.
• 36:40
  Ashlee Philips: But definitely you know like recently I had a surgery to where I couldn't physically do anything, and I'm the kind of person who's go, go, go, and so for me to not be able to do anything was hard.
• 36:52
  Ashlee Philips: But watching people families from the church come and bring us food and feed us was just an amazing benefit of being a part of the body of Christ.
• 37:02
  Ashlee Philips: And that's just something small, but it's so impacting to see people who want to come around you and love on you.
• 37:13
  Cody Caudill: Really good insights on church in general.
• 37:16
  Cody Caudill: I think people who aren't Christians or haven't always gone to church have a certain view of what the church is and like what people are like in the church, and sometimes that view is a little off, I guess you could say, and even Brittany's story about what she used to think church was.
• 37:30
  Cody Caudill: It used to be just the thing.
• 37:31
  Cody Caudill: I don't know, I heard you talking, but tell me if I'm wrong.
• 37:35
  Cody Caudill: You kind of saw church as just like a checklist kind of thing.
• 37:37
  Cody Caudill: Yeah, I checked it off the box of what I'm supposed to do.
• 37:40
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yeah.
• 37:40
  Cody Caudill: I'm supposed to go to church and if I have time for it I'll go.
• 37:43
  Brittany Oglesbee: Like I knew that I believed in Jesus and that I was in my mind there, you know, but I didn't realize that I wasn't giving the relationship in the time that I should be to.
• 37:59
  Cody Caudill: And I think church helps us do that.
• 38:00
  Cody Caudill: Because I ask this a lot.
• 38:04
  Cody Caudill: I'm like can you be a Christian and not go to church?
• 38:06
  Cody Caudill: And I think you can be a Christian, you can follow Jesus, you can say you love him, you can make him savior and Lord of your life and not go to a church.
• 38:15
  Cody Caudill: But I do think God gave us the church for a specific reason.
• 38:19
  Cody Caudill: I think he intended us to go to church and he wants us to be with other believers for the reasons you guys already mentioned.
• 38:26
  Cody Caudill: Hebrews 10, 24 through 25, it says and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.
• 38:38
  Cody Caudill: So the writer of Hebrews is telling us here don't give up meeting together.
• 38:42
  Cody Caudill: It's important.
• 38:44
  Cody Caudill: You can do life together, you can encourage one another, you can spur each other on.
• 38:50
  Cody Caudill: He uses those words too when life gets hard.
• 38:52
  Cody Caudill: We have each other's back.
• 38:54
  Cody Caudill: And you said, brittany, you see the church as like a family.
• 38:57
  Cody Caudill: Now you feel like you're going to hang out with your family, and I think that's what the church was intended to be.
• 39:03
  Cody Caudill: God gave us the church because he knew life is difficult.
• 39:06
  Cody Caudill: He knew it would be full of challenges, he knew it would be full of hard times, and we're going to need a support system.
• 39:13
  Cody Caudill: And we have the Holy Spirit, we have Jesus and you can have that.
• 39:16
  Cody Caudill: But there's something about going to a place where you know everybody's going to share your faith with you and you know everybody is kind of on the same page and it's like a second family.
• 39:25
  Cody Caudill: When you pick a church, and you choose a church, that is family and they support you and they encourage you.
• 39:33
  Cody Caudill: And when you go through hard times, when you have a surgery, people show up at your house and bring you food because they know you're going through something hard or you're going through something difficult.
• 39:41
  Cody Caudill: So, yeah, can you be a Christian and not go to church?
• 39:43
  Cody Caudill: I think yes, but should you?
• 39:45
  Cody Caudill: No, you shouldn't be a Christian and avoid going to church.
• 39:48
  Cody Caudill: So if you're listening and you think like I haven't't been to church in a while, or I really go to church but I don't see the purpose of it or whatever, think about it that way.
• 39:57
  Cody Caudill: Think about the ways that you can get connected here at Rush Church.
• 40:00
  Cody Caudill: Think about all the things we've talked about, how you can be involved.
• 40:03
  Cody Caudill: And when you do get involved, you're going to start to build relations with other people around you.
• 40:07
  Cody Caudill: You serve together, you have class together, you talk about your kids together that are in the backyard, or your students or your teenagers or all these different things.
• 40:16
  Cody Caudill: So why church?
• 40:17
  Cody Caudill: Why is it important?
• 40:18
  Cody Caudill: It's because life's hard and I think the church is to encourage us, to give us a family to go to, to talk to, to work through things together.
• 40:29
  Cody Caudill: That's kind of my little short take on church.
• 40:32
  Cody Caudill: Why church?
• 40:33
  Cody Caudill: What do you guys think?
• 40:34
  Cody Caudill: You agree?
• 40:36
  Cody Caudill: I agree, disagree.
• 40:37
  Brittany Oglesbee: I agree.
• 40:38
  Brittany Oglesbee: I definitely have had the thoughts before where I thought when I first started okay, I'm going to.
• 40:45
  Brittany Oglesbee: What's the saying?
• 40:46
  Brittany Oglesbee: Get out of the pew and get in a circle, or?
• 40:49
  Cody Caudill: something like that.
• 40:50
  Cody Caudill: I don't know what the saying is.
• 40:52
  Brittany Oglesbee: When I decided that I was going to start building relationships.
• 40:54
  Brittany Oglesbee: Okay, I'm going to make an effort to do this.
• 40:56
  Cody Caudill: It's not going to just be me going to sit in a pew for an hour and going home and going about my week.
• 41:00
  Brittany Oglesbee: Yes, like I'm actually going to plug in and see what can come of this.
• 41:03
  Brittany Oglesbee: I was like, oh, I can't let these people actually know about my life though, because it is way too imperfect to share, turns out, Turns out, everybody's the same, everybody's going through a struggle, don't be scared at all.
• 41:21
  Cody Caudill: Everybody's got their own problems, their own issues and, yeah, it could be intimidating, but I think we're supposed to share with each other.
• 41:29
  Brittany Oglesbee: It makes it.
• 41:31
  Cody Caudill: It's awkward sometimes or it's like I don't really want them to know about this part of me, but once you kind of open up and you are real with people around you and you share that faith together, it actually makes you stronger.
• 41:42
  Cody Caudill: It actually gets you closer to Jesus, james.
• 41:46
  Cody Caudill: In the book of James, it tells us to confess to each other about things that are going on in our lives.
• 41:51
  Cody Caudill: Share Is it always fun?
• 41:54
  Ashlee Philips: No, is it awkward sometimes.
• 41:55
  Ashlee Philips: Yes, the amount of things I've confessed to Brittany Same.
• 41:58
  Ashlee Philips: Oh, we're going to have a whole podcast full of that.
• 42:02
  Cody Caudill: We've already been through that.
• 42:04
  Cody Caudill: All right, we won't do that.
• 42:05
  Cody Caudill: So, yeah, I think this was a good first episode, kind of let you guys know what this is going to be all about Hopefully know what this is going to be all about.
• 42:15
  Cody Caudill: Hopefully we'll have some guests on sometimes.
• 42:16
  Cody Caudill: Maybe you want to share your story or you want to have a question answered.
• 42:18
  Cody Caudill: You can talk to us or we'll have ways that you can maybe eventually email us or communicate with us to have suggestions for the podcast.
• 42:26
  Cody Caudill: But this was really good.
• 42:27
  Cody Caudill: So I just thank Brittany and Ashley for being here and, once again, this was Rush Hour episode number one, so hopefully this will be coming out every other week as we get going, so two of these a month.
• 42:37
  Cody Caudill: We appreciate you listening and we'll see you next time on Rush Hour.