Latest / Every Church Flourishing by the Great Commission Association / Episode 6: Prayer is a Non Negotiable With Dr. Se J. Won + You Ain't Got This Alone + Learning From Ministry Failure And The Mysterious Missing Bos Rooibos Tea Crime and Review
Transcript
- 0:14Chase: All about helping churches, leaders, and pastors find health,
- 0:18Chase: encouragement, practical advice, soul care, and resources that work together
- 0:22Chase: to build up your local fellowship and the broader kingdom of God.
- 0:26Chase: Join hosts Dr. Michael Stewart, Pastor Chris Cole, and Dr.
- 0:30Chase: Chase Thompson from California's SBC Great Commission Association as they explore
- 0:34Chase: the frontiers of ministry and aim for the goal of making every church flourish.
- 0:39Chase: Welcome into another episode of Every Church flourishing. We have a great guest for us today. It is Dr.
- 0:46Chase: CJ Wan, who is the Major Domo, the Director of Mission Operations for the Great
- 0:51Chase: Commission Association.
- 0:52Chase: He's going to talk to us about prayer, abiding, things along those lines.
- 0:57Chase: It was a deep spiritual conversation.
- 0:59Chase: And before we get into talking about him, Chris, let's talk about some prayer resources.
- 1:06Chase: Dr. CJ talks about a couple in his interview. Let's you and I talk and preemptively
- 1:10Chase: bring up some of our own. What have you got for us?
- 1:14Chris: So I think my favorite book on prayer or resource on prayer
- 1:19Chris: Over the past few years is a book I was introduced to about six or seven years ago now.
- 1:27Chris: And it's a book called A Praying Life by Paul Miller.
- 1:32Chris: A Praying Life by Paul Miller. The book's been out for a while.
- 1:36Chris: When I got it, you can see at the top, 350,000 copies had been sold.
- 1:42Chris: Now, if you go to Amazon, the new edition of this, there's over half a million
- 1:47Chris: copies of this book sold. So it's certainly been popular.
- 1:50Chris: But what I gained and gleaned from this book was not really so much the techniques of prayer,
- 1:57Chris: although there's some really good practical tips about building a prayer journal
- 2:02Chris: and how to structure an active prayer life, but really the posture and heart of prayer.
- 2:09Chris: Paul taught me, not only through this book, but through some conferences I got
- 2:14Chris: the privilege of attending with him, to talk to God as a child.
- 2:18Chris: And I realized that I had to get past some of my own childhood wounds and the
- 2:24Chris: way that I thought parents felt and approached people to understand that God's
- 2:30Chris: approaching as a loving father and delights to answer.
- 2:34Chris: Paul's got some great resources in the book talking about what keeps us from
- 2:38Chris: going to God, our cynicism.
- 2:40Chris: So he addresses a lot of the underlying unbeliefs that keep us from going to
- 2:46Chris: God in an active prayer life.
- 2:49Chris: And the idea that we should be experienced
- 2:52Chris: expecting God to answer our prayer. So he just blessed and encouraged me,
- 2:57Chris: not only with this book, but if you get a chance to attend one of his See Jesus events,
- 3:02Chris: Whether it's J Curve, which is another one of his resources,
- 3:06Chris: or A Praying Life, I think you'll be much encouraged and strengthened and equipped in prayer.
- 3:12Chris: Now, you, Pastor Chase, have a prayer resource that you'd like to share as well.
- 3:17Chase: Yeah, and if you were watching the video of our conversation,
- 3:20Chase: you would notice that for the first 90 seconds that Chris was talking, I was distracted.
- 3:26Chase: It's not because I was checking my fantasy football team score or anything like that.
- 3:31Chase: I actually was sold pretty early on in your conversation about the Paul Miller
- 3:35Chase: book, and I just bought it on Audible.
- 3:38Chase: But a book I know that you and I have both read is by Pastor Jim Cimbala of
- 3:43Chase: the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church.
- 3:45Chase: I hesitated to, I was aware of this book for years, but I hesitated to buy it
- 3:50Chase: because the only way I knew the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church early on is that
- 3:55Chase: they had some sort of famous choir that did a lot of singing.
- 3:59Chase: And I don't know. I didn't think that sounded very familiar.
- 4:04Chris: Super spiritual or whatever.
- 4:06Chase: So I didn't give Pastor Jim Cimbala much attention.
- 4:10Chase: But finally, somehow, someway, a few years ago, somebody convinced me to read that book.
- 4:14Chase: One of the best books I've ever read on prayer and the way he goes about talking about it.
- 4:20Chase: There's so many stories in there that I really like.
- 4:23Chase: Show me, you know, you want to get me to value something. show me how important it is.
- 4:30Chase: And Jim Cimbala does an exceptional job of showing us how important prayer is
- 4:37Chase: in the life of a congregation, how necessary it is.
- 4:41Chase: We keep talking about John 15, abiding in Christ and how that is the underlying
- 4:48Chase: key to every church flourishing.
- 4:50Chase: Cimbala's book just does a fantastic job with testimony after testimony,
- 4:54Chase: story after story to point God's people to be a people of prayer.
- 4:58Chase: I cannot recommend it highly enough.
- 5:02Chris: Absolutely. And I would amen everything you just said.
- 5:05Chris: And if you're a pastor or a leader in a church that is struggling,
- 5:10Chris: you're plateaued, you're declined,
- 5:13Chris: you're sort of just running out of hope, that book, Fresh Wind,
- 5:17Chris: Fresh Fire, is a great encouragement towards your situation.
- 5:23Chris: In fact, the testimony in the book is about how they went from a deeply broken,
- 5:28Chris: weak church to a church that is thriving and flourishing largely through the
- 5:34Chris: power of prayer and the faithfulness of the people of God to petition their heavenly father.
- 5:40Chris: That book, along with the book that CJ mentioned, in the interview,
- 5:44Chris: Daniel Henderson's book, Old Paths, New Power.
- 5:46Chris: Those will be in our show notes for this episode, and you'll be able to find
- 5:51Chris: all of the resources we recommend there.
- 5:54Chris: Now, we like to do, in every one of our episodes, a little segment where we're
- 6:00Chris: sharing in various soda flavors from around the world.
- 6:05Chris: We had planned for us to drink together a sparkling rooibos iced tea, strawberry flavor.
- 6:15Chris: And that was supposed to be on our schedule for this particular episode.
- 6:21Chris: But as it happens here at the GCA offices, apparently somebody else saw the
- 6:27Chris: tea in the fridge and decided it looked really good. It has disappeared.
- 6:32Chris: So Pastor Chase, I don't have one of these.
- 6:35Chris: So we're going to have to rely on your palate alone and exclusively to tell
- 6:41Chris: us how many Spurgeons is this tea and what are the nuances of the flavors.
- 6:46Chris: We're going to have to do all of that. So we're looking forward to hearing your
- 6:50Chris: take on the Boss Sparkling Rooibos Ice Tea.
- 6:54Chase: Yeah, and look, I'm happy to do that. But this whole incident with the tea going
- 7:00Chase: missing raises an even bigger question.
- 7:03Chase: Do you think the evangelical church can handle yet another scandal of there
- 7:11Chase: being a thief in the Great Commission Association offices who just willy-nilly steals?
- 7:19Chase: Sodas like that?
- 7:20Chris: Willy nilly steals. Yeah, we searched high and low and we even,
- 7:26Chris: in the break, we sent messengers out,
- 7:30Chris: electronic messengers out to find out where has the tea gone?
- 7:36Chris: We know it was here just a few days ago, but it has in fact disappeared.
- 7:41Chris: So there's a few possibilities here, but I'm going to be charitable,
- 7:46Chris: Pastor Chase, and believe this. that one of my coworkers came along and we didn't
- 7:52Chris: get it labeled properly for the podcast.
- 7:54Chris: And somebody else looked at that and they said, that looks delicious.
- 7:58Chris: And I need some of that sparkling rooibos tea.
- 8:03Chris: And I hope it was an encouragement to their day.
- 8:07Chris: They might have needed that pick-me-up, right? They might have needed that blessing.
- 8:11Chris: So I'm just going to assume that I didn't need the blessing today.
- 8:15Chris: They needed that particular blessing.
- 8:18Chris: And maybe in the future, I'll get to try this if it's good. Now, here's the thing.
- 8:23Chris: If it's bad, if it's bad and they took it.
- 8:27Chase: It's grace. It's grace. Yeah. Yeah. If somebody had taken the Lester's Fixin Ranch soda.
- 8:34Chris: That would have been so good.
- 8:36Se J.: That would have been grace.
- 8:37Chris: If I had been watching you drink that alone,
- 8:40Chris: I would have been laughing hysterically because it would have been such a good
- 8:46Chris: moment to watch you have to down that as I was not having to down it.
- 8:52Chris: So if this is bad, the good news for me is I don't have to try it and I,
- 8:59Chris: I'm not responsible for that reality. Right. Yeah.
- 9:02Chase: Yes, that's right. That's right.
- 9:03Chris: All right. Well, let's, should you go for it?
- 9:06Chase: Let's go for it. Okay. Let's smell it. Oh, it's got a good, clean,
- 9:11Chase: fresh smell, strawberry flavor. It's kind of fruity.
- 9:15Chase: It does a little bit. There's a picture if you're watching at home on video.
- 9:19Chase: The Boss Sparkling Rooibos Ice Tea.
- 9:24Chase: Whoa, that's not exactly what I expected. Let's try another sip.
- 9:30Chase: Okay, yeah. So I will tell you, Pastor Chris, at the Thompson household,
- 9:35Chase: we keep rooibos tea on hand because I read years ago that rooibos tea,
- 9:43Chase: for reasons I've long since forgot, is really good for asthma.
- 9:46Chase: And sometimes when the kids get sick, we will drink rooibos tea,
- 9:50Chase: and it seems to help a little.
- 9:51Chase: Not sure if that's the placidabo effect or not, but I think it's a bronchodilator that really works.
- 9:57Chase: And so I'm familiar with the taste of rooibus. It's not real tea.
- 10:02Chase: It doesn't come from the Camellia Sinensis tree bush. So it's a different kind of thing altogether.
- 10:08Chase: But the thing that threw me on my first sip, it's carbonated tea.
- 10:13Chase: Which is weird, I guess, but it's not bad. It's not bad.
- 10:18Chase: I don't know that grace has protected you from this.
- 10:22Chase: I think whoever drank this probably enjoyed it, but also might have thought
- 10:27Chase: it was weird. So what does it taste like?
- 10:30Chase: Well, you can kind of taste that rooibosian red tea, bush tea kind of taste there.
- 10:38Chase: That's pretty prominent. And you can definitely taste the carbonation.
- 10:43Chase: It's got a good, light mouth feel.
- 10:46Chase: This would be a great can to drink if you're watching a baseball game or picnicking
- 10:51Chase: or you're out in the sunlight somewhere and you're hot and kind of thirsty.
- 10:55Chase: What I would really like more of, though, is I want some more of that that strawberry
- 11:01Chase: flavor to punch a little bit harder.
- 11:05Chase: It's fruity ish, fruity adjacent, but I really wouldn't mind it being a lot
- 11:12Chase: stronger in the strawberry department.
- 11:15Chris: OK, now that product, Roybus Ice Tea, this this particular one,
- 11:20Chris: it comes from South Africa.
- 11:23Chris: That's the boss brands. So that's a South African sparkling beverage right there.
- 11:28Chase: Yes. And you know what? I'm going to go ahead and give you one out of one on
- 11:33Chase: our trivia questions, because most teas come from somewhere in Asia, Japan, China or India.
- 11:40Chase: But rooibos comes from one specific mountain in Cedarburg.
- 11:45Chase: And the name sounds a little Dutch, but as you have already revealed,
- 11:51Chase: the country of origin for rooibos tea is South Africa. And let me hit you.
- 11:55Chase: I'm sorry you can't experience this. Let me give you the Spurgeons and then
- 11:58Chase: I'm going to hit you with a couple of more questions.
- 12:01Chase: I'm going to give this three and a half Spurgeons. Very drinkable.
- 12:05Chase: Not as delightful as our ginger beer. Maybe a slight bit under our Chupa Chups
- 12:13Chase: bubblegum flavor, but very drinkable and probably healthier than either one of those.
- 12:19Chris: It's 234 kilojoules.
- 12:24Chris: Okay. Now I had to look that up. Okay.
- 12:27Chase: I'm glad you did. Cause I don't know.
- 12:29Chris: I don't know what kilojoules are. I'm not that sophisticated.
- 12:33Chase: It's a thousand joules. How about that?
- 12:34Chris: Well, it is right. It's a thousand joules. Now I have a, uh,
- 12:38Chris: my oldest daughter is a, is in medical field and she works as a nurse and she's
- 12:43Chris: very, very good scientist. She has degrees in chemistry and other things like that.
- 12:47Chris: So she would know what this is. I had to look it So 234 kilojoules is apparently
- 12:53Chris: 55.9 or 56 calories, kilocalories.
- 12:58Chase: Yeah, okay. So better than a Coke, better than a Mountain Dew,
- 13:03Chase: better than a Chupa Chups, and it's tasty.
- 13:05Chase: So I'm going to say three and a half Spurgeons out of five.
- 13:09Chris: Three and a half Spurgeons on the rooibos tea.
- 13:12Chris: So somebody that needed the pick-me-up and disappeared, how about we use that?
- 13:18Chris: They disappeared the rooibos tea from the fridge here at the Great Commission Association offices.
- 13:26Chris: That person enjoyed it, is what you're telling you.
- 13:30Chase: I hope they did. It's a pleasant red beverage. It's got a good smell to it. It's fresh.
- 13:35Chase: I'm happy with it, and I'm happy to drink it for the rest of the show.
- 13:39Chase: Let me ask you a couple of questions about rooibos tea.
- 13:41Chris: Absolutely. Let's go for it.
- 13:42Chase: The word itself is Afrikaans, so Dutch origin. And it can be strange to pronounce,
- 13:48Chase: but I think we're doing a pretty good job. It's rooibos, even though it's spelled R-O-O-I-B-O-S.
- 13:55Chase: But if you look at the tea itself, what it is is very literal.
- 14:00Chase: Based on the color of the drink I told you, what do you think rooibos translates to in English?
- 14:08Chris: Translate. Pink.
- 14:10Chase: Close.
- 14:11Chris: Red.
- 14:12Chase: Red, red what?
- 14:14Chris: Red, red, red butter.
- 14:19Chase: Red bush.
- 14:20Chris: Bush.
- 14:21Chase: Because it comes from a red bush. So that's what rooibos means.
- 14:25Chase: And that gets us to our second question.
- 14:28Chase: As I said, it's not from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis.
- 14:32Chase: It's from a broom-like legume, kind of related to beans and things like that.
- 14:37Chase: Because of that, what jittery, anxiety-inducing substance is rooibos naturally completely free of?
- 14:48Chris: Caffeine.
- 14:49Chase: You got it. Caffeine.
- 14:50Chris: All right.
- 14:52Chase: That gives you a two out of three batting average today. So you are very close
- 14:56Chase: to being an expert on rooibos.
- 14:58Chris: I'm so close to being an expert. That is really, really good.
- 15:01Chris: Well, I hope our brothers and sisters in the churches in South Africa enjoy
- 15:06Chris: their rooibos tea and enjoy that sparkling beverage there.
- 15:11Chris: So we're always glad that around the world there's brothers and sisters that
- 15:15Chris: get to enjoy these beverages.
- 15:17Chris: Although I don't think anybody, wherever Lester Stixson's ranch dressing soda
- 15:23Chris: comes from, no one's enjoying that.
- 15:25Chris: That's not a thing. I think that's not a good experience. But maybe in Jamaica
- 15:31Chris: or in the UK, they're enjoying that old Jamaica ginger beer.
- 15:35Chris: And here we hope our brothers and sisters in Christ are enjoying that rooibos tea.
- 15:41Chris: So we should probably segue from this into an interview that we think you'll
- 15:47Chris: enjoy as Pastor C.J., Pastor Dr. C.J.
- 15:51Chris: Talks to us about prayer, the importance of prayer, and how prayer is key to
- 15:56Chris: leading churches into a place of flourishing and communities into gospel transformations.
- 16:02Chase: And we have the privilege now of being joined by Dr.
- 16:06Chase: Pastor C.J. Wan, who is the Director of Mission Operations for the Great Commission
- 16:11Chase: Association of Southern Baptist Churches here in Central California.
- 16:15Chase: Dr. C.J., thanks for being with us.
- 16:17Se J.: Good to be here.
- 16:18Chris: C.J., a lot of people don't know perhaps these things about you,
- 16:23Chris: but you are an expert on so many different kinds of ministry.
- 16:28Chris: You've done a wide variety of ministry. You minister around the world, literally.
- 16:34Chris: You lead a Bible study devotional for people in Beijing.
- 16:39Chase: I did not know this.
- 16:40Chris: Yeah, it showed up on my calendar system. That's how I found out about this.
- 16:43Chris: But CJ does this on a regular basis.
- 16:46Chris: He is a very talented musician. Once again, see, I told you I'm the only person
- 16:51Chris: on GCA staff that's not a musician, apparently.
- 16:56Chase: I have no talent myself.
- 16:58Chris: Exactly. But CJ is a very good vocalist, guitarist, many different skills and
- 17:04Chris: ministry experiences, and you've done a lot of different roles with GCA over the years.
- 17:09Chris: But right now, you lead our mission operations team, helping support our schools,
- 17:14Chris: our ministries, and then you also minister to a lot of our Asian American churches,
- 17:20Chris: helping connect them into our ministry, and we appreciate all of that.
- 17:25Chris: But I think one thing that does stand out in your life is prayer.
- 17:29Chris: People that are around you know that you value prayer. Prayer is one of your
- 17:33Chris: life messages and one of your life priorities.
- 17:36Chris: So maybe the first question to ask you is, how did prayer become an important
- 17:40Chris: part of your life and ministry?
- 17:44Chris: And then maybe a second question that would be related to that is,
- 17:47Chris: if you're counseling or encouraging a pastor to prioritize prayer,
- 17:51Chris: what would you give them as an encouragement to do that?
- 17:54Se J.: God has given me different roles throughout, I guess, my ministry careers.
- 18:00Se J.: And even here at GCA, I've been given different roles, and God was to credit
- 18:06Se J.: everything that happened here, good and bad and the ugly.
- 18:09Se J.: And so I don't take any credit for any of those.
- 18:13Se J.: Nonetheless, I think the prayer is really something I can't say I'm good at
- 18:18Se J.: or I'm mastered at or anything like that.
- 18:21Se J.: It's just that I know for a fact that prayer is the fuel that moves anything
- 18:29Se J.: and everything that we do here. It cannot be without prayer.
- 18:34Se J.: We are pretty good at doing church. We're pretty good at doing ministry.
- 18:38Se J.: We know how to do that. And there's books and books and podcasts and anything else about that.
- 18:45Se J.: But really, prayer for me was an area that perhaps I could credit to my grandmother
- 18:51Se J.: who prayed on a regular basis three, four times a day on the clock across different
- 18:57Se J.: times and lifting up pastors, missionaries,
- 19:00Se J.: and everybody else in the family, obviously.
- 19:03Se J.: But it's really because I have come to realize my limitation on who I am and
- 19:09Se J.: my reality of what I could do.
- 19:13Se J.: And I think knowing how powerless and limited I am and the role that he's given
- 19:18Se J.: me has always been bigger than me.
- 19:22Se J.: I don't know if that's true with you guys, but anything he asked me to do, I'm going, what?
- 19:27Se J.: You want me to do this? And so it's always come to a wall where I was staring
- 19:33Se J.: at and sometimes sitting in the parking lot going, Lord, I don't know what this looks like.
- 19:38Se J.: I have no idea how to push this part forward or I don't even know what I don't even know.
- 19:44Se J.: And so I think it came down to me just saying, God, I need you to show me the next step.
- 19:49Se J.: I don't need to see the whole thing, but show me next step.
- 19:53Se J.: Help me to get to the next thing. And so that's sort of been my practice.
- 19:57Se J.: Now, there's tons of resources and other things out there that will help pastors
- 20:03Se J.: and books and other things.
- 20:04Se J.: I've mentioned in the other podcasts as well. But it's really a ministry that
- 20:09Se J.: sometimes we don't highlight enough.
- 20:11Se J.: We talk about it. We preach on it and teach on it, but we don't sometimes actually do it.
- 20:17Se J.: And so that's still my struggle for myself and my wife.
- 20:22Se J.: We put it on our calendar every January, February or so, 30 days,
- 20:26Se J.: 60 days, 90 days. We tried all of it.
- 20:29Se J.: Probably going to stick to 30 days this year of 30-day fast,
- 20:33Se J.: dinner, just to skip and spend time just praying.
- 20:37Se J.: Because you'd be surprised how many things come up in your life,
- 20:42Se J.: in your ministry, your family that just needs prayer.
- 20:45Se J.: But if you just set aside a time, I think that helps you to focus on the stuff
- 20:52Se J.: that the Spirit would reveal once you give them space.
- 20:55Se J.: But for us, I just have to create that space intentionally.
- 20:59Se J.: And first thing I do when I get to the office is that 15 minutes,
- 21:02Se J.: 20 minutes, just to sit there and say, God, I got stuff and,
- 21:07Se J.: you know, I need your help here. And so that's really what's been happening.
- 21:11Se J.: There's many teachings on how I believe God is wanting to bless us,
- 21:17Se J.: wanting to release his power upon our ministry, our family.
- 21:21Se J.: But I think he might be waiting for us.
- 21:25Se J.: That's what my thought was. I think he's waiting for me to cry out to him for it.
- 21:31Chris: Because James says, do not have because you do not ask.
- 21:34Se J.: Yeah, and it's not even in your radar. So God is saying, I'm just going to wait
- 21:38Se J.: until you realize you need this, until you realize that you need my help.
- 21:43Se J.: And so I think that's the major points that stuck to my mind about prayer.
- 21:50Se J.: And the other flip side is, again, and as Chris mentioned, my teachings or devotionals
- 21:55Se J.: I do with Beijing friends, and I've been doing that for 14 years,
- 21:59Se J.: so it's kind of a long time.
- 22:01Se J.: And as you do that, and one of the teaching was on prayer, and I told him this,
- 22:06Se J.: if you are not praying, there's a significant issue, theological issue.
- 22:11Se J.: And that is, you're actually telling God, I don't need you.
- 22:16Chase: Yes.
- 22:16Se J.: In this part, this life, this segment, this thing, whatever it is.
- 22:21Se J.: And so I certainly don't want God to feel like I'm telling him,
- 22:25Se J.: God, thank you, but step aside because I got this.
- 22:28Se J.: And so I think those are main things that prayer and simplest that can be,
- 22:33Se J.: I have to remind myself, I don't have it solved. I don't have a solve.
- 22:40Se J.: And so I have to just ask.
- 22:43Se J.: And giving him space, I think is, Chris, you mentioned, you know,
- 22:47Se J.: how can we help our pastors? I think that's one thing.
- 22:49Se J.: I think if pastors could just carve out a space in their time,
- 22:54Se J.: day, week, month, or whatever. If they could carve out a specific time and space
- 22:59Se J.: just to be with God, you don't have to have all the prayer things.
- 23:03Se J.: I think that will be a big start that will help them shape their ministry
- 23:10Se J.: Many things will happen. Supernatural things will happen when you give God space.
- 23:15Se J.: And the other books I mentioned before, that studying the topics of prayer in
- 23:20Se J.: the Bible, studying the prayers of saints in the Bible, I think those are great.
- 23:26Se J.: And then I mentioned Old Path, New Power by Daniel Henderson.
- 23:30Se J.: I think that's also very significant.
- 23:32Se J.: It just kind of drives and kind of unearths many things that we might have taken
- 23:38Se J.: for granted, it, but he just kind of brings it forward. So that's helpful.
- 23:42Se J.: So yeah, prayer is not because it's big on my life, but it's just that knowing
- 23:47Se J.: at least the tidbits that I mentioned today,
- 23:50Se J.: knowing that I feel like, oh, I don't want to be caught not praying,
- 23:55Se J.: not caught, but I don't want to be a person not praying because there's so much
- 23:59Se J.: repercussion of what I'm actually
- 24:01Se J.: doing and saying spiritually and theologically if I'm not praying.
- 24:06Chris: Yeah. You know, I think there's so much good in what you just shared.
- 24:10Chris: I was thinking about John 14, 15, and 16, where in the middle of that,
- 24:16Chris: John 15, Jesus says, you know, I'm the vine, you're a branch.
- 24:20Chris: If you remain in me, and if I remain in you, then you will bear much fruit.
- 24:29Chris: But apart from me, of course, you can do nothing. And then that passage is saturated, John 15, John 14,
- 24:35Chris: with these crazy promises that if you ask, I will do these things over and over
- 24:43Chris: again. Ask me anything, Jesus says.
- 24:45Chris: Greater works, right? You know, one book that I found really encouraging on
- 24:49Chris: prayer is A Praying Life by Paul Miller.
- 24:53Chris: That's a fantastic book to challenge us in a sort of thinking through a personal
- 24:59Chris: practice of prayer in a systematic way that genuinely is dependent on the way CJ's talking about it.
- 25:08Chris: Pastor Chase, any works or recommendations or resources on prayer that have been beneficial to you?
- 25:13Chase: Absolutely. I'll go old school and recommend a book called Reese Howells,
- 25:18Chase: Intercessor, and the diaries of George Mueller.
- 25:22Chase: George Mueller was a fascinating guy, Bristol.
- 25:26Chase: He was German, but he lived in England, started orphanages, never asked for
- 25:31Chase: an offering or anything like that. He just prayed.
- 25:34Chase: And ultimately, he and his wife, in the orphanages he started,
- 25:37Chase: took care of like 10,000, 12,000 kids.
- 25:40Chase: His diary, his journal, journals all of his prayer requests.
- 25:46Chase: And there's thousands in there. It's like four volumes.
- 25:49Chase: And he prayed and kept careful track of God's answer.
- 25:55Chase: And again and again and again, it's astonishing how much it is.
- 25:58Se J.: I think we make the mistake of coming to God in the wrong approach.
- 26:03Se J.: We come to him and ask for him to fix our problems once we messed it all up.
- 26:09Se J.: Rather than saying, God, this is your problem. We need you to direct and resource this.
- 26:15Se J.: And so we got it off. We got it in the wrong order. And so most of our prayers
- 26:20Se J.: that I've done many, many years is, God, please help fix this.
- 26:23Se J.: Get me through this problem that I made. I caused this trouble,
- 26:27Se J.: but help me to overcome this issue.
- 26:30Se J.: Well, as you mentioned, Chris, if we are remaining in Christ and He is in us,
- 26:36Se J.: then none of those things really should be our focus of prayer.
- 26:40Chase: Yes.
- 26:41Se J.: He should already know that. He wants to provide all the nutrients and everything we need.
- 26:45Se J.: Everything will be given to me. But I sort of take the other approach and say,
- 26:49Se J.: God, I will do my thing. And if I get this wrong, if something goes south on me, please help.
- 26:57Se J.: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, if we are to experience a,
- 27:03Se J.: again, just my mind wonders, If our churches and pastors and others could get
- 27:10Se J.: tapped into this power that is overflowing, and God wants to,
- 27:15Se J.: and He has all the capacity to. It's not a strain.
- 27:18Se J.: It's not a strain. He could do this on a wimp. He could just do it.
- 27:22Se J.: He doesn't need any of our help to do it.
- 27:24Chase: Yes.
- 27:25Se J.: It's just that we seem to be the one getting in the way.
- 27:28Se J.: I seem to be the one getting in the way of what God wants to do in me and through
- 27:33Se J.: me and through our churches.
- 27:35Se J.: And so if our churches and pastors starts calling out on him and tap into this
- 27:40Se J.: source of power, all of us will get goosebumps of many, many answered prayers
- 27:46Se J.: or even prayers that we didn't even ask. And God decided, hey.
- 27:50Se J.: You are faithful with few. I'm going to bless you with more.
- 27:53Chris: And as Paul says, more than we could ask or imagine.
- 27:56Chase: I was raised by a father who's still alive and very self-sufficient,
- 28:01Chase: very successful, a lawyer, very much pull yourself up by your bootstraps,
- 28:06Chase: make it happen, that sort of thing.
- 28:08Chase: And so that's very wired deep into me.
- 28:11Chase: And early on in ministry, God sent me a partner named Sam, who his life message
- 28:16Chase: is from John 15, abide. And apart from Jesus, you can do nothing.
- 28:21Chase: And he's the one that introduced me to Reese Howells and maybe George Mueller as well.
- 28:26Chase: And in my early days of ministry, I read a lot of Leonard Ravenhill and people
- 28:31Chase: like that who were just really strong.
- 28:33Chase: Prayer, prayer, prayer, revival, that sort of thing. So that's in my early ministry DNA.
- 28:40Chase: But in my earliest DNA, it's this Protestant work ethic.
- 28:46Chase: I got to make it happen. I got to work hard. So probably a lot of people are
- 28:50Chase: listening to this right now, deacons, Sunday school leaders,
- 28:52Chase: moms and dads, and pastors in particular, who are self-starters,
- 28:57Chase: who are motivated people.
- 28:59Chase: It's almost like they have the mentality, I'm not going to bother God with this,
- 29:03Chase: I'm going to make it happen myself.
- 29:05Chase: What kind of counsel, Pastor CJ, would you give to people like that who,
- 29:10Chase: in their flesh, it's difficult for them to have that impulse of prayer?
- 29:16Se J.: I think it's not so much that they don't want to see God or that they're anti-God
- 29:23Se J.: in praying. I don't think it's any of those.
- 29:27Se J.: If they are, they're in trouble already. They're in the wrong place.
- 29:31Se J.: Yeah, that's a separate podcast.
- 29:33Se J.: But if they are just coming to the realization that
- 29:38Se J.: This is a spiritual thing that we do.
- 29:41Se J.: It has powers beyond and implications beyond what any of us can do.
- 29:47Se J.: We are his servants, his vessels.
- 29:50Se J.: But at best, God could choose to use us or not use us. And he could still accomplish
- 29:55Se J.: his will, with or without us.
- 29:57Se J.: But if we lean into him and say, God, here I am.
- 30:02Chase: Use me.
- 30:03Se J.: I want to be used for your glory today.
- 30:06Se J.: I think there is a simple as that, just laying it before God, your calendar.
- 30:13Se J.: If people have a hard time figuring out how to do that, well,
- 30:17Se J.: stare at your calendar one by one. Just say, God, be with me in this meeting.
- 30:20Se J.: Be with me in that email. Be with me as I prepare.
- 30:24Se J.: I mean, there's easy things that'll saturate, I think, your focus on God.
- 30:30Se J.: And that's really what it means. If you're praying, you are wanting God to intervene
- 30:36Se J.: and interject in any way he wants. But you got to give him that room.
- 30:40Se J.: You got to acknowledge that, God, I got four meetings today.
- 30:42Se J.: I need you to be in each of these meetings and have your way in each of these
- 30:46Se J.: meetings. Well, that's a different setup.
- 30:48Se J.: Rather than going into the meeting, blowing it all up and say,
- 30:51Se J.: God, please help this elder.
- 30:53Se J.: You messed it up. Yeah.
- 30:56Se J.: So I think those are going to be some practical things. But I think prayer itself
- 31:01Se J.: helps align us to God's will.
- 31:04Se J.: When you're in prayer, you're able to align, not because of how wise you are,
- 31:09Se J.: but by the work of the Spirit.
- 31:11Se J.: Spirit intercedes on our behalf about things we don't even know and fathom.
- 31:15Se J.: But you give them space and time, I think God will be able to direct your mind,
- 31:20Se J.: your thoughts, order things, and align them.
- 31:23Se J.: And I think this is a big thing. If pastors are
- 31:27Se J.: not praying I would say They're not in the wrong direction But they just have
- 31:30Se J.: a misalignment Totally And when you're in misalignment It'll wobble It'll go
- 31:34Se J.: to the wrong direction Wrong path And other things will break But I think When
- 31:39Se J.: you're praying I think it aligns you With the will of God And we are prone to wander,
- 31:45Se J.: brothers And we want to do our will Not that we overtly say We want to create
- 31:51Se J.: our kingdom But we certainly want to do our own things Peace.
- 31:55Se J.: But I think when you give space and time for prayer, he interjects and he aligns us with his will.
- 32:03Chase: Yeah. You said one thing early in your answer that I think is very profound
- 32:08Chase: for pastors in particular, but every other church leader. Much of what we have to do is spiritual.
- 32:13Chase: Much of what people complain to us about, the squeaky wheels essentially, is not spiritual.
- 32:19Chase: And so a pastor might have a tendency to do those things so that everything's
- 32:25Chase: running smoothly and they neglect, you know, it's the meme, the expression,
- 32:31Chase: you had one job. We have one job.
- 32:33Chase: It's a spiritual job. And apart from Jesus, that one job, we can get everything
- 32:38Chase: else done. We can even grow a big church.
- 32:40Chase: But apart from Jesus, that one job, that one focus, that one thing is not going to be done.
- 32:46Chris: You know, I just thought of something when you said that, Pastor Jase.
- 32:49Chris: I was thinking, I've been in ministry, this is my 34th year in ministry.
- 32:53Chris: I've never had a church member come and complain to me and say,
- 32:57Chris: you did not spend enough time in your private prayer closet, Pastor.
- 33:00Chris: But I know that is a truth that has happened at various seasons in my ministry.
- 33:06Chris: And yet I've never had a complaint about that. Not once. No one's ever said,
- 33:10Chris: you're not praying enough.
- 33:11Chris: And yet, I think that's a big miss, right? That we're not prioritizing that in that way.
- 33:19Chase: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Same here, 30 plus years of experience
- 33:23Chase: in ministry. I guess we're old.
- 33:25Chris: Yes.
- 33:25Chase: Nobody's ever said, hey, you're not praying enough. But I'm not,
- 33:28Chase: and I'm not just being humble.
- 33:30Chase: I mean, that is, you know, I have a tendency to not pray enough,
- 33:33Chase: and that's one of the greatest dangers of ministry.
- 33:36Se J.: I don't know if we could ever pray enough.
- 33:37Chase: Sure, sure.
- 33:38Se J.: But going back to your comment that when we deal with logistics and, you know,
- 33:44Se J.: issues and broken pipes or, you know, whatever other things that tangible problems
- 33:48Se J.: that come our way, none of those are, I would say, we could excuse all of that
- 33:53Se J.: and say those are not spiritual.
- 33:55Se J.: But if we're doing the ministry here on earth, everything we touch has a spiritual
- 33:59Se J.: element to it. We have to make sure that the faucet is working.
- 34:03Se J.: We have to do all the other work, but we need to bathe them in prayer.
- 34:07Se J.: The whole operation has to be made in prayer.
- 34:10Se J.: It's not, well, we got this, God, and you just blessed the Sunday worship at 9 to 10.
- 34:15Se J.: That's not how it works. The whole mission, whole ministry, everything we do
- 34:19Se J.: at GCA, everything is of Him and for Him.
- 34:22Se J.: So we have to do everything with spiritual work.
- 34:25Se J.: Tone to say, this is spiritual work that we're doing, although sometimes it feels like it's not.
- 34:31Chris: And it's such a key element to see every church flourish.
- 34:35Chris: We've been talking about leaders and pastors in particular and their personal
- 34:39Chris: prayer lives, but we haven't even touched on this.
- 34:42Chris: We probably won't in this podcast, but we need to probably do a whole future
- 34:46Chris: episode or two or three talking about what does it mean when we invite the congregation
- 34:52Chris: into an active kind of prayer life together and create those communities and
- 34:58Chris: cultures of prayer to facilitate that reality, right?
- 35:03Chase: Yeah, we're called to produce fruit that remains. And there will not be any
- 35:08Chase: churches flourishing apart from abiding in Jesus and apart from prayer.
- 35:12Chase: Well, Pastor CJ, our church loves you. You were the interim pastor there for
- 35:17Chase: six months. That's been eight years ago.
- 35:19Chase: They love you. You've had a lot of successes in ministry, but I think most of
- 35:23Chase: us, many of us at least, we learn more from our failures and our horror stories
- 35:27Chase: than we learn from our successes.
- 35:30Chase: So can you share with us one significant failure or horror story you have in
- 35:34Chase: ministry and what you learned from it?
- 35:36Se J.: I had a hard time choosing because there's many.
- 35:39Chase: I have a list as well.
- 35:41Se J.: And some are right for this podcast, some are not. Okay. But I will...
- 35:47Se J.: Talk about two things. One is a personal thing and the other is a professional
- 35:51Se J.: thing. Personal thing is financial issues.
- 35:54Se J.: And this is probably known to anyone or maybe not known to anyone.
- 35:58Se J.: So here it is. Before I got to GCA, about 15 years ago, I was in a,
- 36:04Se J.: I had to resort to a debt consolidation, debt settlement program.
- 36:08Se J.: Had to get a credit lawyers and others to help me fix and get over this issue. I was young.
- 36:14Se J.: I was not making enough, but cost, credit cards and other things started compounding.
- 36:20Se J.: Couldn't pay everything on time. And I think this is not a one-off story, but I was there.
- 36:27Se J.: And it was painful and it was regulated.
- 36:32Se J.: It had to get done. And so
- 36:34Se J.: That started probably prior to I got to GCA, but it served me and God by His grace.
- 36:43Se J.: I got it all done, but by His grace, He taught me many things.
- 36:46Se J.: The painful lesson about resource, and we cannot not do without resources here on earth.
- 36:54Se J.: I've did some talks and other things about how we need more margin to do more mission.
- 36:59Se J.: Well, that's true all across. If you're family, your personal credit line,
- 37:04Se J.: or if you're in financial shamble, it's difficult for you to do great work.
- 37:10Se J.: And I think what I learned is I got to, first of all, learn to be content with
- 37:14Se J.: what God has given me and to know that I have limits.
- 37:18Se J.: And, you know, being 30 some year old, whatever, it's hard for you to know what your limit is.
- 37:23Se J.: You think your next job or next thing will solve this problem and you do what
- 37:27Se J.: you can. But the painful reality of managing and learning to be good steward
- 37:32Se J.: of what God gives you is a lesson I learned.
- 37:36Se J.: Right now, it's kind of ironic that I'm in the role of operations helping with
- 37:41Se J.: GCA over all this thing because I think that was a painful lesson God taught me.
- 37:45Se J.: You cannot do life or ministry here on earth without resources.
- 37:50Se J.: But you have to make sure you're a good steward of it. If you're not, you can't do more.
- 37:55Se J.: And I think the scripture really teaches us that. If you're not faithful or
- 37:59Se J.: good with few, he will not trust you with more.
- 38:02Se J.: And I've taken that to heart that the lesson is, yeah, you know,
- 38:05Se J.: as an individual, as a father, as a husband and pastors and leaders who's listening,
- 38:11Se J.: if we don't have that area managed and stewarded,
- 38:15Se J.: I think we are in for a painful learning lesson because that is a big part of
- 38:21Se J.: mission that we need to do and must do.
- 38:24Se J.: And I really believe if we are faithful with the few, God will entrust us with
- 38:30Se J.: more. And that will be the proof.
- 38:32Se J.: Is God trusting us with more or not? If he starts taking more stuff away from
- 38:36Se J.: us, we know that we're on the wrong side of the equation.
- 38:39Se J.: So that's one of more of a personal, you could edit and cut that out as much
- 38:45Se J.: as you want. But on a professional level, I think the lesson I learned about is leadership issues.
- 38:53Se J.: And it's really title and position. And I think I struggle with it even now.
- 38:58Se J.: And many of us across, when you're in different churches and ministries,
- 39:03Se J.: you're given a position and a title, and you somehow believe you are fit for it.
- 39:08Se J.: But I've already told you, that's not how I felt.
- 39:11Se J.: I feel like I've learned that's not who I am. But when you're given a title
- 39:15Se J.: as a pastor or a church planter, you do what you can.
- 39:19Se J.: But I think it's really a test from God to say, can you grow into that role or the title?
- 39:24Se J.: The mistake I made is really swinging the title or position, thinking that I am.
- 39:30Se J.: And I've learned early on from my English ministry position to church planning position,
- 39:39Se J.: as well as a director for education foundation across different overseas mission
- 39:45Se J.: work. What I've learned is...
- 39:48Se J.: I need help. I don't have this.
- 39:53Chase: You ain't got this.
- 39:54Se J.: I don't have this. I need other people in my life who's going to speak into me.
- 40:00Se J.: Otherwise, it'll be me trying to fit into a title or position that I have real
- 40:07Se J.: little knowledge of how to make this work.
- 40:10Se J.: And sometimes we try to get it done by just sheer effort. And this is when you
- 40:15Se J.: start realizing that your body is not going to take it.
- 40:18Se J.: You're going to be stressed and emotionally shot, and you're going to be snappy
- 40:22Se J.: at everybody around you. Why?
- 40:23Se J.: Because you're trying to fit a role or a title that, well, you have to grow
- 40:28Se J.: into it. But growing into it requires, again, prayer.
- 40:32Se J.: But the other part is you need people.
- 40:34Se J.: God has placed wonderful people around all of us, but we have to be humble enough
- 40:40Se J.: to ask. And so for me, before I started my church planning, I sort of realized
- 40:45Se J.: I don't know what that looks like.
- 40:47Se J.: So I've asked Pastor Kim, I'm just gonna remain in my Pastor Kim.
- 40:51Se J.: There's probably 400 Pastor Kims that might be listening.
- 40:55Se J.: But he's a dear mentor of mine. And I told him, I need two things from you.
- 40:59Se J.: I need one is this has to be an autonomous church.
- 41:02Se J.: And second, and I need you to be my mentor.
- 41:04Se J.: I need you to give me free access to you whenever I have questions or concerns.
- 41:09Se J.: Because I have many. And so he provided that for me. And so that was extremely helpful.
- 41:14Se J.: Two other people, Dr. Stewart, as I was coming into GCA, I sort of saw that as him being my mentor.
- 41:21Se J.: And he has for 14 years now, has taught me directly, indirectly,
- 41:26Se J.: sometimes painfully, many things.
- 41:29Se J.: I think a leader has to learn and to grow into the role that God assigns you.
- 41:35Se J.: And so that was, he was a huge part in my life. And Dr.
- 41:39Se J.: Jeff Orge, former president for Gateway, now the SPC president,
- 41:45Se J.: but he's also been my mentor.
- 41:47Se J.: He may know this, I may have said it to him, but how he thinks and how he leads
- 41:52Se J.: in certain things, at least when I was doing the doctor program with him,
- 41:56Se J.: he was instrumental in shaping and kind of putting guardrails and other things
- 42:01Se J.: in front of me to say, hey, these are the things you got to play with.
- 42:05Se J.: And this is how you got to see things.
- 42:07Se J.: And so those people, those men have been
- 42:12Se J.: champions. And there's many dead people that I read that help,
- 42:16Se J.: but these are the ones I think that are still alive.
- 42:19Chase: I think there's a lot of pastors out there just because of the nature of the position.
- 42:24Chase: And obviously a lot of Christians and deacons and church leaders as well.
- 42:28Chris: But a lot of pastors who
- 42:29Chase: Are lone rangers. There's been this teaching in the body of Christ for quite
- 42:35Chase: some time that pastors can't really be friends with people in their church,
- 42:39Chase: which I find really ridiculous. Mystique of pastors, right? Yeah, yeah.
- 42:43Chase: And so there's that. And then if you're in a place like California,
- 42:47Chase: you might not have a lot of pastor friends that live in your neighborhood.
- 42:51Chase: I just happen to move in right next door to a pastor, which has been fantastic
- 42:56Chase: for my family and kids. And shout out to Jason. Love the guy.
- 43:00Chase: But it's not like there's a ton of us around. And you're absolutely right that
- 43:04Chase: this togetherness and unity and having other people in your life will keep us
- 43:10Chase: from so many of these horror stories that you're talking about.
- 43:13Se J.: I would encourage anybody listening to really seek help and find people that
- 43:18Se J.: you could trust and learn from because others have done this role.
- 43:22Se J.: Others have done this mission work before us.
- 43:25Se J.: And they may be dead, so you could read some of them. But there may be people
- 43:28Se J.: who are alive who would love to spend time with you if you're saying,
- 43:32Se J.: hey, let me buy you coffee.
- 43:33Se J.: And this is how most pastors, well-seasoned leaders are already shaped.
- 43:39Se J.: And so I think we need to tap into that generation or that pool of people to speak into our lives.
- 43:48Chase: It's okay, and it's sometimes necessary to try to find them.
- 43:51Chase: Exactly like you said, an offer to buy them coffee.
- 43:54Chase: Sometimes we wait. I prayed for years for a mentor, and finally,
- 43:58Chase: me and a group of guys, we just went out and found some.
- 44:01Chase: And basically, like, hey, you're going to mentor us. And they did, and they did a great job.
- 44:05Chase: But sometimes you've got to take a few steps and strike out a couple of times.
- 44:09Chase: Otherwise, you really will be a Lone Ranger, and that's just so dangerous in ministry.
- 44:13Se J.: It is.
- 44:14Chris: Well, this is a great conversation that we've been having, and we have got to
- 44:19Chris: do this again, do this some more with CJ.
- 44:21Chris: We will be definitely bringing you back to talk about prayer,
- 44:25Chris: financial management within organizations.
- 44:27Chris: We've got to do some episodes about that, because you are absolutely correct
- 44:32Chris: that for churches to flourish, there has to be the management of the resources
- 44:36Chris: and the margin that we need to have for mission.
- 44:39Chris: We certainly know that within GCA, because we need partners to help us carry out our mission.
- 44:44Chris: We are not able to do this on our own, and we have many wonderful partners,
- 44:50Chris: churches across the United States that are helping us replant churches and plant
- 44:54Chris: churches, and we are so grateful for them.
- 44:57Chris: Well, Pastor CJ, we want to sort of wrap up this piece of our conversation by
- 45:01Chris: doing something we haven't yet done on this podcast, and that is we're going
- 45:05Chris: to give away a cruise. We're giving away cruise.
- 45:08Se J.: Thank you.
- 45:08Chase: A hypothetical cruise, right?
- 45:10Chris: But we're giving it away.
- 45:11Chase: It's free.
- 45:12Chris: It's free. So no lack of margin or ministry resources were spared for this mythological
- 45:21Chris: cruise that we're going to give you.
- 45:22Chris: Okay, so we're giving you this mythological cruise, and you get to go on this
- 45:28Chris: cruise. Now, the cruise line gives you a choice.
- 45:31Chris: You can choose on this cruise to go with just prominent pastors,
- 45:37Chris: famous pastors, which by the way, Pastor Chase, this would never be my choice
- 45:41Chris: to go on a cruise with a group of prominent pastors.
- 45:43Chase: Some of my best friends are pastors, but some of the most annoying people I
- 45:47Chase: know are also pastors. I'm totally with you.
- 45:50Chris: Or you can have prominent worship leaders, like the best of the best,
- 45:55Chris: like they can all be there.
- 45:57Chris: You've got Casting Crowns and Chris Tomlin and City of Light, and they're all on...
- 46:02Chase: And your favorite, whoever your favorites are.
- 46:03Chris: Yeah, and whoever your favorites are. The Gettys are there. Yeah,
- 46:06Chris: everybody's there, right?
- 46:08Chris: Or you can go on a cruise with just denominational leaders.
- 46:12Chris: Actually, I was wrong. I think that one would rank lower than the pastor one for me, just for me.
- 46:18Chris: Or prominent Christian authors or prominent Christian entertainers.
- 46:23Chris: Okay, so you get to pick, but you have to pick a theme group to go on the cruise
- 46:30Chris: with. You can be there for the whole cruise.
- 46:32Chris: All the expenses are paid because we here at Every Church Flourishing have now
- 46:36Chris: given you this cruise opportunity.
- 46:39Chris: So, which cruise are you choosing, and what are some of the names that you would
- 46:44Chris: like to be on that cruise?
- 46:46Se J.: My choice would be with worship, worship leaders.
- 46:50Chris: And why is that? Why would you choose the worship?
- 46:53Se J.: Well, there's several, I think, reasons for me. One is worship,
- 46:57Se J.: I think, is the missing element in many of our churches, and my life too.
- 47:02Se J.: I have a hard time worshiping in spirit and in truth. and so if we don't
- 47:08Se J.: And prioritize worship, which I believe is a precursor to prayer.
- 47:12Se J.: If we don't do that part well, we're all dry.
- 47:16Se J.: We're going to, you know, from shopping at Costco, we're entering into the presence
- 47:20Se J.: of God. We're going, I still have a shopping list in my head.
- 47:23Se J.: Something's off and you're not connecting at the right frequency.
- 47:27Se J.: I think worship is that for me and singing and playing the guitar and worshiping.
- 47:32Se J.: So I think worship is crucial for me because that's how I connect with God.
- 47:38Se J.: It's a way for me to just, without hindrance, just with guitar or with voice,
- 47:44Se J.: with band or whatever, we're able to just acknowledge God and focus on Him.
- 47:49Se J.: And again, prayer often becomes my issues. But when we sing and worship like
- 47:55Se J.: that, it becomes a center focus is Him.
- 47:58Se J.: And I think He needs that, not need, wrong word. I think He deserves that more.
- 48:03Se J.: Deserves, great word. Observes that center stage from all of us and me,
- 48:09Se J.: our pastors, GCA, everyone, more than what it is now.
- 48:13Se J.: And so if we could get the rock bands and people that love worship in the same
- 48:18Se J.: room and spend hours and hours and hours and hours just worshiping,
- 48:22Se J.: well, that alone, I think, will be a revival.
- 48:26Se J.: That alone will set our, you know,
- 48:29Se J.: aim right Because I think we will be entering into presence The throne room
- 48:34Se J.: of God When we worship Him And, you know,
- 48:38Se J.: Jesus taught us to pray that way Hallowed be your name was the first thing But
- 48:41Se J.: we usually start with I need you God With other things And so I think worship
- 48:47Se J.: is probably my pick And just to be there I'm not sure if I want to be in a
- 48:53Se J.: In a cruise, locked up in a boat with pastors or denominational leaders or any.
- 48:59Chase: I tend to agree with that. Yeah.
- 49:01Se J.: I think, yeah, that would be me.
- 49:03Chase: So you're driving home and you want to pop in some worship music or,
- 49:07Chase: you know, you want to facilitate a small Greek Bible study with some worship
- 49:11Chase: music. Who do you listen to?
- 49:12Se J.: Currently, I'm listening to Charity. Charity Gale, I think.
- 49:16Se J.: So she's the one that sang, Jesus, thank you for the blood.
- 49:21Se J.: And I Speak Jesus is another song like that. That had come recently to my attention.
- 49:27Se J.: I'm listening to that. Many classics too.
- 49:30Se J.: Radman, Chris Tomlin and many others.
- 49:34Se J.: City of Light, I think. They have done many that we sing here at the office.
- 49:40Se J.: And so there's a good collection that I listen to.
- 49:43Se J.: Same songs, but different date and different time with different issues.
- 49:47Se J.: And so it delivers a different kind of depth in worship. When I sing it again
- 49:53Se J.: tomorrow, it will be different because I'm different.
- 49:56Se J.: It's a different day, different time, different problem. Worship, I think, is key.
- 50:00Chase: Yeah. Amen. Well, this has been a fantastic conversation. It only went 17 minutes
- 50:04Chase: and 28 seconds longer than it was scheduled.
- 50:08Chase: So thank you, Pastor CJ, for your time because we kept you here.
- 50:13Chase: We kept peppering you with questions because, quite frankly, we liked your answers.
- 50:16Chase: So this was good. But this was deep, and I hope everybody out there listening
- 50:20Chase: has been edified by it. Chris, you got any parting shots?
- 50:23Chris: No, I just love what CJ had to share. John Piper in Let the Nations Be Glad
- 50:28Chris: famously opens with the idea that missions is temporal because someday the work
- 50:33Chris: of missions, evangelism, as great as it is, will be done because...
- 50:38Chris: Worship is the actual aim of missions. The grand picture at the end of Scripture
- 50:43Chris: is Revelation 5-9, Revelation 7-9.
- 50:46Chris: Every tribe, every tongue, every people gathered around the throne room of God.
- 50:50Chris: And I think that fits together with our vision for every church flourishing,
- 50:55Chris: every community transformed by the good news of Jesus Christ,
- 50:59Chris: that we might see everybody joining in that great heavenly worship.
- 51:03Chris: And so I just love that idea. I'm grateful for CJ being here.
- 51:06Chris: By the way, for those of you that haven't had a chance to meet our amazing Director
- 51:10Chris: of Mission Operations, I can just tell you he's a great friend and a wonderful man of God.
- 51:14Chase: Amen to that. Yes. Thank you, Dr. CJ. Okay, that was a deep interview,
- 51:20Chase: and it really challenged me.
- 51:22Chase: In fact, I took some of what Dr. CJ said in that interview, which we did this past Monday,
- 51:30Chase: and used it for our Wednesday night church prayer meeting, copying some of what
- 51:34Chase: Pastor CJ said word for word. Of course, I gave him credit, but that was good.
- 51:38Chase: That exhorted me to lead our church in a greater direction of abiding in prayer.
- 51:45Chase: And I hope it did for you as well.
- 51:47Chase: Check out our website, which is everychurchflourishing.com. And as always,
- 51:53Chase: stay tuned for us next week when episode number seven drops,
- 51:57Chase: which will feature an interview with Miss Lynette Lozano, the school superintendent
- 52:03Chase: with the Great Commission Association.
- 52:05Chase: And Pastor Christopher Cole himself. See you next time.