Latest / Every Church Flourishing by the Great Commission Association / Episode 41: How Church Turnaround Works from the Inside...Small churches are in danger! Soda Review: I Want Grandma's Banana Cream Pie, Not Her Socks.

Transcript

Episode 41: How Church Turnaround Works from the Inside...Small churches are in danger! Soda Review: I Want Grandma's Banana Cream Pie, Not Her Socks. · Every Church Flourishing by the Great Commission Association

• 0:00
  Speaker0: The statistics on church growth in the United States of America are sobering.
• 0:06
  Speaker0: 80% of churches are plateaued or declining, and small churches are particularly vulnerable.
• 0:16
  Speaker0: Today, we take another look inside the local church from a member's perspective
• 0:21
  Speaker0: of how churches that are in decline can turn around.
• 0:26
  Speaker0: One key to that, according to Pastor Christopher Cole.
• 0:29
  Speaker1: Is thousands of churches will not become healthy simply by continuing to do
• 0:35
  Speaker1: tomorrow what they did yesterday.
• 0:59
  Speaker3: Fellowship, and the broader kingdom of God. Join hosts, Pastor Chris Cole and
• 1:03
  Speaker3: Dr. Chase Thompson from the Great Commission Association, led by Dr.
• 1:07
  Speaker3: Mike Stewart, as they explore the frontiers of ministry and aim for the goal
• 1:11
  Speaker3: of making every church flourish.
• 1:13
  Speaker0: Hello, everybody, and welcome in to episode number 41 of the Every Church Flourishing podcast.
• 1:20
  Speaker0: We are continuing this week our discussion of church renewal and church revitalization
• 1:28
  Speaker0: from the pews, from the inside, from church members.
• 1:32
  Speaker0: And we again have members from Red Oaks Church and Foothill Church.
• 1:37
  Speaker0: And you might be asking, why are you guys focusing so much on church renewal
• 1:43
  Speaker0: and church revitalization?
• 1:45
  Speaker0: Isn't church planting the thing? And I'll say, absolutely, church planting is critically important.
• 1:51
  Speaker0: But over the last 20 years or so, the strategic leaders of the church in America
• 1:57
  Speaker0: have realized, in addition to church
• 1:59
  Speaker0: planting, how important church revitalization and renewal really is.
• 2:04
  Speaker0: America has churches that are biblical and bearing a lot of fruit, but,
• 2:10
  Speaker0: In the last just 20 years, and I'm not talking about the last few years since
• 2:14
  Speaker0: COVID, I'm talking about in the 21st century, the share of the population who
• 2:20
  Speaker0: identifies as Christian has dropped from 78%.
• 2:26
  Speaker0: In roughly 2002, I'm sorry, 2007 to 62%.
• 2:32
  Speaker0: And we've gone to a place now where about 30% of Americans claim zero religious affiliation.
• 2:41
  Speaker0: And that number would have been
• 2:43
  Speaker0: easily in the single digits when I was a younger guy in the 80s and 90s.
• 2:47
  Speaker0: So things are just rapidly changing in the church landscape in the United States
• 2:55
  Speaker0: of America. The typical congregation is roughly half the size it was at the turn of the century.
• 3:02
  Speaker0: And churches that are small are, in particular, very vulnerable.
• 3:10
  Speaker0: They're shrinking, they're struggling. And so church revitalization and church renewal has become,
• 3:18
  Speaker0: critical strategy for making disciples and maintaining church help in this current era that we're in.
• 3:28
  Speaker0: So, Pastor Christopher, why don't you introduce our guests personally and tell
• 3:33
  Speaker0: us where we're going tonight?
• 3:34
  Speaker1: You know, I'm so excited to welcome these two guests because they are courageous,
• 3:40
  Speaker1: they are wise, they are loving, they are prayerful, and they are enduring.
• 3:47
  Speaker1: And we have these amazing guests on our show today, Lee Sanhuber from Foothill
• 3:52
  Speaker1: Baptist Church in Los Altos, California, and Jerry Watson from Red Oaks Baptist Church in Santa Maria.
• 4:00
  Speaker1: And I just want you guys to know, I just love this brother and this sister in Christ.
• 4:06
  Speaker1: Over the past few years, our GCA Renew strategy has gotten to come alongside
• 4:12
  Speaker1: these two churches and work with them through an intentional process of renewal.
• 4:18
  Speaker1: And our guests today are at different stages. Their churches are at different
• 4:22
  Speaker1: stages of the renew process.
• 4:24
  Speaker1: But we're so excited to share with you their experience.
• 4:28
  Speaker1: We wanted to have an honest, real conversation as we talk about how churches
• 4:34
  Speaker1: move from a place of stagnation or decline or atrophy to a place of health and flourishing.
• 4:43
  Speaker1: And that doesn't happen accidentally. Thousands of churches will not become
• 4:49
  Speaker1: healthy simply by continuing to do tomorrow what they did yesterday.
• 4:54
  Speaker1: And these two churches have made the courageous choice to go through a difficult
• 4:59
  Speaker1: process of renewal and strategic change.
• 5:03
  Speaker1: And so we're excited to share with you their stories, their experiences.
• 5:07
  Speaker1: I'll tell you just a little bit of something about each of our guests today.
• 5:12
  Speaker1: Lisanne Huber has been a part of Foothill Baptist Church her entire life.
• 5:17
  Speaker1: There's a church member there that has very clear memory of Lisanne being led
• 5:24
  Speaker1: to the front of the sanctuary to play the piano for the first time when she was four years old.
• 5:32
  Speaker1: And she still continues to play the piano whenever she's there at Foothill Baptist
• 5:38
  Speaker1: Church and plays beautifully.
• 5:40
  Speaker1: So, Lee Sam, we're so glad you're here to share the Foothill story.
• 5:44
  Speaker1: And Jerry Watson is a longtime coach in the Santa Maria area.
• 5:50
  Speaker1: He's renowned throughout the community for his coaching ability, for his friendships.
• 5:55
  Speaker1: There's not anyone in the Santa Maria area that I have even come close to connected
• 5:59
  Speaker1: to where Jerry doesn't say something like, oh yeah, I know his uncle or I know
• 6:04
  Speaker1: His brother or her friend or something like that.
• 6:08
  Speaker1: He knows everybody. He's deeply connected. He's deeply passionate about the
• 6:12
  Speaker1: Red Oaks Church. And by the way,
• 6:15
  Speaker1: this guy is literally the best church drummer I think I've ever heard.
• 6:20
  Speaker1: And he will deny it all day long. But I remember the first time I heard him
• 6:24
  Speaker1: playing, I was like, dude, you are ridiculously talented.
• 6:29
  Speaker1: And I'm so there, there are a lot of fun. We're going to have a good time here in this conversation.
• 6:34
  Speaker0: So when we talk about church renewal and church revitalization,
• 6:38
  Speaker0: one of the things we're kind of implicitly saying is that something's wrong
• 6:43
  Speaker0: and it needs to be repaired.
• 6:46
  Speaker0: That's a hard conversation and it almost sounds negative rather than positive.
• 6:51
  Speaker0: But if you think about it, if you go to the doctor and every time you go to
• 6:54
  Speaker0: the doctor, all he does or she does is give you good news and kind of buries
• 7:00
  Speaker0: the things that really need work.
• 7:02
  Speaker0: Or if you're a player on a team and your coach never corrects the negative things,
• 7:10
  Speaker0: you're probably not going to become a great player.
• 7:13
  Speaker0: You're probably not going to have great health if your doctor doesn't kind of
• 7:18
  Speaker0: identify the things that are going on.
• 7:20
  Speaker0: So in the midst of revitalization, it's this kind of grueling sometimes process
• 7:27
  Speaker0: where you have to confront things that are negative.
• 7:31
  Speaker0: But before we get to that, let's open up with some encouragement.
• 7:35
  Speaker0: So Jerry, I'll go to you first.
• 7:37
  Speaker0: What are some things about your church that you love and you cherish?
• 7:45
  Speaker3: Well, we have a small congregation, obviously. We're going through this process
• 7:49
  Speaker3: for many reasons, but we've gone through a lot. We've had a church that's gone
• 7:53
  Speaker3: in different directions.
• 7:55
  Speaker3: We've had division in our church, all these things, but we've remained together
• 7:59
  Speaker3: through all of this, and we've rebuilt the church because of that.
• 8:02
  Speaker3: Physically, it's been rebuilt. We want to fill the pews, but really,
• 8:06
  Speaker3: my love for my church is just my congregation. It's the people that we've gone
• 8:10
  Speaker3: through together. We've prayed together. We continue to pray together.
• 8:12
  Speaker3: It's just, it's our faith.
• 8:15
  Speaker3: It's everything that we, it's basically our faith is our foundation.
• 8:18
  Speaker3: It's a place where at one time we weren't sure where we could meet to worship.
• 8:22
  Speaker3: And this was, this is our sanctuary. It's there for us.
• 8:26
  Speaker0: Fantastic. Well, Zalysanne, you have been at foothills your whole life.
• 8:31
  Speaker0: And there has to be some things that have kept you there beyond mere perseverance
• 8:39
  Speaker0: and faithfulness. So what are some things you love about your congregation?
• 8:44
  Speaker2: Well, Foothill has been in the Los Altos community since the 50s.
• 8:50
  Speaker2: So Foothill's been around for a really long time. We're going on over 70 years right now.
• 8:56
  Speaker2: And as we discussed, yes, I've been at Foothill since I was literally in the nursery.
• 9:02
  Speaker2: So in some ways, I don't know anything any different than being at Foothill.
• 9:08
  Speaker2: But like Jerry, we are now a small church, and we have had a
• 9:14
  Speaker2: history of very faithful members that have worshiped and cared for one another
• 9:21
  Speaker2: over the years, and they really are my church family.
• 9:26
  Speaker2: So that's what keeps me there.
• 9:29
  Speaker1: And that's been, I think, the experience of so many people that have gone into
• 9:33
  Speaker1: both your churches. They're loving congregations. You love each other. You care.
• 9:38
  Speaker1: For one another deeply. And your churches share something else in common.
• 9:43
  Speaker1: You guys have a desire to not only return to a place of health,
• 9:49
  Speaker1: but to a place of flourishing, a place where you're impacting your community.
• 9:55
  Speaker1: And both of your churches started with that story, with the desire to reach
• 10:01
  Speaker1: the communities that God had placed them in.
• 10:04
  Speaker1: Now, somewhere along in that journey, though,
• 10:08
  Speaker1: something began to maybe not be so healthy.
• 10:13
  Speaker1: Things began to change. Dynamics began to shift.
• 10:17
  Speaker1: And from your perspective as church members,
• 10:21
  Speaker1: at what point did you personally begin to realize, not anybody else, but you personally
• 10:28
  Speaker1: just came to, it was a moment of revelation or realization or something that
• 10:35
  Speaker1: you slowly came to realize something about our church's future has to change
• 10:40
  Speaker1: or we're not going to make it.
• 10:43
  Speaker1: So, Lisanne, did that come to you in a moment of epiphany?
• 10:47
  Speaker1: Did it come to you as something slowly that you began to recognize over a season? How did that come about?
• 10:54
  Speaker2: No, this was not just one moment. This has been realization probably for many, many years.
• 11:03
  Speaker2: As you know, and what the listeners might not know, though, is that Foothill
• 11:08
  Speaker2: has been in this state of decline.
• 11:10
  Speaker2: You know, we had over 400 members in the 60s. And then in the 80s,
• 11:15
  Speaker2: it dwindled down to, I think, 82.
• 11:19
  Speaker2: And then in the 2000s, it dwindled down to 2030.
• 11:22
  Speaker2: And with my history in the church, you know, I've been a part of the church
• 11:27
  Speaker2: when it was what seemed alive and active and growing and thriving.
• 11:33
  Speaker2: And I've now also seen it decline to, you know, the numbers that we've had over
• 11:39
  Speaker2: the last couple of years.
• 11:40
  Speaker2: But within the last five to 10 years, we lost our pastor from cancer, and then we had COVID.
• 11:49
  Speaker2: So Pastor Jim passed away during COVID, and then the church closed for COVID, and we...
• 11:57
  Speaker2: Lost a lot of members during that time because we weren't having services.
• 12:01
  Speaker2: And we also lost a lot of active members of our congregation during that time
• 12:06
  Speaker2: from death, my father included.
• 12:09
  Speaker2: And when you're already running numbers of like 10 to 15 on a Sunday,
• 12:16
  Speaker2: and you lose your pastor,
• 12:19
  Speaker2: and then three deacons, and then you have two members that move away just because
• 12:24
  Speaker2: of aging, that's basically like half of your congregation.
• 12:29
  Speaker2: This wasn't just something that happened overnight. This was a series of events
• 12:34
  Speaker2: that happened in the life of our church that has kind of brought us to where we are now.
• 12:41
  Speaker1: Foothill Baptist Church, by the way, for our listeners, they have such a great
• 12:45
  Speaker1: story, and they were part of the Southern Baptist Million More in 54 church planning strategy.
• 12:54
  Speaker1: In 1954, Southern Baptists decided they were going to enroll 1 million people
• 13:00
  Speaker1: into Sunday school in a single year, and they didn't quite get there, but you know what?
• 13:06
  Speaker1: They enrolled hundreds of thousands, and they planted dozens and dozens of churches,
• 13:10
  Speaker1: and Foothill Baptist Church was one of those churches, and in 10 years' time,
• 13:14
  Speaker1: they were running right at 500 people.
• 13:18
  Speaker1: And then began a process of decline and a series of challenges.
• 13:23
  Speaker1: And then the more recent things that Lisanne shared.
• 13:27
  Speaker1: Jerry, how about you guys over at Red Oaks? At what point did you begin to realize,
• 13:31
  Speaker1: hey, something about our church's future has to change or we're just not going to make it?
• 13:38
  Speaker3: Well, like Lisanne, we have a church that's, I want to say, it's built in the early 60s.
• 13:43
  Speaker3: And when it was built, I have a member in the church who actually attended that
• 13:46
  Speaker3: church. Her father was the original pastor of this church. It was full.
• 13:51
  Speaker3: And over time, you know, we've had the need for pastors before.
• 13:56
  Speaker3: That came up. We had a pastor that was relocating for family reasons.
• 14:01
  Speaker3: But not only that, when you walk into a church with such a big congregation
• 14:06
  Speaker3: that you don't notice if somebody's there or not, it's different when you walk
• 14:10
  Speaker3: into a church our size and you know us immediately.
• 14:12
  Speaker3: It's something difficult to deal with in some sorts. And we've lost them through,
• 14:16
  Speaker3: yeah, moving, through death, through multiple reasons, as Lisanne said. Same for us.
• 14:22
  Speaker3: It's been real hard to deal with that. I think when we needed a pastor this
• 14:26
  Speaker3: last time and he had moved, I really knew then, if I didn't know before,
• 14:30
  Speaker3: that we needed to do something. We needed to make a change.
• 14:33
  Speaker3: We had tried many things in our church to build a church, and we simply needed
• 14:37
  Speaker3: another direction, and we needed help.
• 14:40
  Speaker0: Going through that process of recognizing you need help and seeing the church
• 14:47
  Speaker0: go from a place of thriving to a place of real struggle is kind of hard.
• 14:51
  Speaker0: And I'm wondering, Lisanne, you first, when your church.
• 14:56
  Speaker3: Kind of first
• 14:57
  Speaker0: Got the understanding that they were going to go through the GCA renew process,
• 15:01
  Speaker0: you first learned you were going to go through this whole revitalization thing.
• 15:06
  Speaker0: And maybe you started to realize it's not going to be a quick fix.
• 15:09
  Speaker0: It's going to take some time.
• 15:11
  Speaker0: What was your immediate reaction? Positive, negative, kind of a mix? How did that get you?
• 15:17
  Speaker2: I would definitely say it was a wide range of emotions, not just one.
• 15:24
  Speaker2: I think there was, on one hand, a little bit of hope that maybe somebody was
• 15:28
  Speaker2: finally able to offer us some help.
• 15:34
  Speaker2: I would say that up until that point, we were just merely surviving.
• 15:39
  Speaker2: We were basically just...
• 15:42
  Speaker2: Because we had limited people left in the church that could do such things like
• 15:46
  Speaker2: run the sound system for a service.
• 15:49
  Speaker2: And so we were just doing the bare minimum, if you would say, to keep the doors open.
• 15:55
  Speaker2: And so it was on some way there was,
• 16:00
  Speaker2: I had some hope like, okay, there's actually someone, something out there that
• 16:06
  Speaker2: is going to be able to help us to get us in a better place than what we are
• 16:11
  Speaker2: now. But there was definitely fear.
• 16:14
  Speaker2: Definitely fear and uncertainty. What's this going to look like having to obviously
• 16:20
  Speaker2: release some control over what
• 16:22
  Speaker2: happens and who makes the decisions at the church? That part was scary.
• 16:27
  Speaker2: And just the overall not knowing.
• 16:29
  Speaker0: Yeah. Kind of a follow-up on something you said in your last question really
• 16:33
  Speaker0: struck me. You said your pastor died during COVID and you lost some of the deacons
• 16:40
  Speaker0: and you guys completely shut down.
• 16:43
  Speaker0: The doors closed. So how long did that last?
• 16:47
  Speaker0: It's almost like hearing a story of a person whose heart stopped for 15 minutes
• 16:52
  Speaker0: or so and somehow resuscitated and they're okay.
• 16:54
  Speaker0: How long did that closure last and what happened to reverse it?
• 17:00
  Speaker0: How did you guys essentially come back from the dead?
• 17:04
  Speaker2: Well, that was definitely not an easy process. Part of being closed was because
• 17:08
  Speaker2: we felt that obviously the state mandated, right, for us to not have contact.
• 17:14
  Speaker2: And that coupled with the fact that we just didn't have the means.
• 17:19
  Speaker2: We didn't have anybody to do a sermon for us.
• 17:22
  Speaker2: We didn't have anybody or anything to lead music.
• 17:26
  Speaker2: So, Chris might be able to say exactly how long that period was that we were closed, but
• 17:34
  Speaker2: it was substantial in which not only did we lose a lot of people during that
• 17:40
  Speaker2: time that we were closed, but we lost the people that just never came back after we reopened.
• 17:46
  Speaker1: Yeah, I'm not sure that I know the exact number of months. I believe it was
• 17:51
  Speaker1: just over a year of hard closure, which is a long time.
• 17:57
  Speaker1: It was a long time for sure.
• 17:59
  Speaker0: Yeah, well, look, I think it's fantastic. And I think it's a great testimony.
• 18:04
  Speaker0: There's pastors out there that'll be listening or they'll know churches that
• 18:08
  Speaker0: are going through this kind of everything appears lost. You know,
• 18:12
  Speaker0: if you're in the middle of COVID, some of your deacons die, your pastor dies,
• 18:16
  Speaker0: the doors literally close and the church isn't meeting.
• 18:19
  Speaker0: That just seems like it's time to throw in the towel and give up.
• 18:23
  Speaker0: And I think you guys are giving us this testimony that even that doesn't necessarily mean the end.
• 18:31
  Speaker0: And I recognize there's sometimes that it's helpful and healthy for a church
• 18:36
  Speaker0: to close in some ways and be reborn. But this is really an encouraging story to me.
• 18:44
  Speaker0: I'm glad to hear that part of it. Jerry, for you, what was it like when you
• 18:48
  Speaker0: first heard your church was going to be going through this renewal process?
• 18:52
  Speaker0: How did you react to that?
• 18:54
  Speaker3: Honestly, at first, I didn't know what the renewal process was.
• 18:57
  Speaker3: It had been mentioned several times, and it was really just through being educated
• 19:03
  Speaker3: From Chris Smith, our mission strategist, and Chris Cole that we were starting to learn about this.
• 19:08
  Speaker3: We didn't know there was a direction we could go. We didn't know,
• 19:10
  Speaker3: we weren't sure if there was a direction, what direction that would be.
• 19:14
  Speaker3: There was times where I thought that our church would close simply because of
• 19:18
  Speaker3: what we were going through.
• 19:19
  Speaker3: Not necessarily COVID. That was, I thought that might have been the end.
• 19:22
  Speaker3: I think I'm listening to what Lisanne went through and we definitely had to deal with all that.
• 19:27
  Speaker3: It was through discussion. And at that point, our members are older.
• 19:31
  Speaker3: We had to have a lot of discussion about this. About as you,
• 19:34
  Speaker3: there's things you give up. There's control you give up. There's things you want to discuss.
• 19:40
  Speaker3: But deep down inside, I think we all knew when we looked at each other that
• 19:43
  Speaker3: we needed to do this. This is what God wanted us to do.
• 19:47
  Speaker3: There was a lot of prayer in this. I mean, it continued prayer to this moment
• 19:51
  Speaker3: to make this happily. I was uncertain at times. I was skeptical.
• 19:55
  Speaker3: I knew that we needed something. Getting to know Chris Cole as well as I did
• 19:59
  Speaker3: in Chris Smith, those were our blessings.
• 20:01
  Speaker3: Those were our questions were asked all the time. We would look at each other
• 20:05
  Speaker3: as a congregation, and we'd sit around like we had another question.
• 20:08
  Speaker3: And every time the question, it was answered. And we knew at some point this
• 20:14
  Speaker3: was a direction we needed to
• 20:15
  Speaker3: be going in. And we didn't need to plant a church. Our church was there.
• 20:19
  Speaker3: We needed this process. We needed to renew our church. We needed to fill these
• 20:23
  Speaker3: pews. We needed worshipers.
• 20:25
  Speaker0: Fantastic.
• 20:27
  Speaker1: One of the things that many of our listeners, especially if they're not from
• 20:32
  Speaker1: within GCA, but even a large number of our
• 20:35
  Speaker1: listeners within GCA sometimes have a hard time realizing is exactly how big
• 20:43
  Speaker1: our association is geographically
• 20:46
  Speaker1: and how diverse it is
• 20:50
  Speaker1: socioeconomically and in areas like education.
• 20:54
  Speaker1: So just for our listeners to get a quick insight snapshot,
• 20:59
  Speaker1: Red Oaks Church is 230 miles from Foothill Baptist Church in Los Altos,
• 21:07
  Speaker1: 230 miles in distance, which is a long way, right?
• 21:12
  Speaker1: It's over four hours of just pretty consistent driving.
• 21:16
  Speaker1: Red Oaks is on the edge of Santa Maria in a largely agrarian section of a highly
• 21:24
  Speaker1: Hispanic dominant culture city.
• 21:28
  Speaker1: Historically, Santa Maria was the large community adjacent to the north end
• 21:34
  Speaker1: of Vandenberg Space Force Base.
• 21:37
  Speaker1: And the Tanglewood community, where Red Oaks facility is currently located,
• 21:43
  Speaker1: was a bedroom community while Vandenberg was thriving and then has undergone tremendous
• 21:50
  Speaker1: Socioeconomic shifting and is a 98% Hispanic community where their facility is.
• 21:59
  Speaker1: You contrast that with Los Altos, which is one of the most expensive communities
• 22:05
  Speaker1: in the very heartbeat of Silicon Valley.
• 22:09
  Speaker1: Foothill Baptist Church is about 15 minutes or so from Stanford,
• 22:13
  Speaker1: 10 minutes or less to Google and NVIDIA, less than 10 minutes to Apple's headquarters.
• 22:20
  Speaker1: So it is a dominantly high tech, high education,
• 22:26
  Speaker1: bedroom community, very nimby, very much don't build it in my backyard,
• 22:31
  Speaker1: but I want my carbon fiber bicycle and my Tesla in the driveway.
• 22:36
  Speaker1: And so these are radically different communities, and that means that every
• 22:41
  Speaker1: church that enters into our Renew process is on a very different Renew journey.
• 22:48
  Speaker1: When we built Renew, we didn't want it to be a one-size-fits-all solution.
• 22:53
  Speaker1: We wanted it to have enough consistency and set of tools, but we recognized
• 22:58
  Speaker1: that we had to take each church on their own unique Renew journey.
• 23:03
  Speaker1: So, Lisanne, catch us up just a little bit.
• 23:07
  Speaker1: What has the Renew journey been like for you guys? Because you guys were pretty
• 23:11
  Speaker1: early in our Renew strategy.
• 23:15
  Speaker1: So what were some of the steps that you took and where are you at?
• 23:19
  Speaker1: Right now?
• 23:20
  Speaker2: Sure. What I do want to mention really quick, as I was a little bit remiss in
• 23:24
  Speaker2: not mentioning this in my last
• 23:26
  Speaker2: question, but one of the first steps that did help us to get out of the
• 23:31
  Speaker2: stage we were in when we closed for COVID is Pastor CJ Wan had reached out to
• 23:38
  Speaker2: us and said, hey, you know, we'd like to help you with providing pulpit supply.
• 23:42
  Speaker2: So that is how we kind of started easing back into having services again.
• 23:50
  Speaker2: And I'm going to try not to look like I'm jumping all over the place to answer
• 23:55
  Speaker2: your question. Praise God, we do
• 23:57
  Speaker2: have a pastor right now, Pastor Jeff Wilson-Hum, who we called last year.
• 24:03
  Speaker2: And so he has been in place, And it's going really well, but it was not an easy
• 24:11
  Speaker2: process to get to that point.
• 24:14
  Speaker2: So after we started having services again, GCA, Mike Stewart,
• 24:20
  Speaker2: and Pastor Chris Cole had approached us.
• 24:24
  Speaker2: And like Jerry said, we were in that position where they basically said,
• 24:29
  Speaker2: these are your options to either
• 24:30
  Speaker2: close the doors of Foothill or to enter into this renew process. and
• 24:41
  Speaker2: We were simply just not ready to let the doors close on Foothill.
• 24:47
  Speaker2: We still had a core group of people that have been there for decades.
• 24:51
  Speaker2: As small as we were, we still believed that God had a plan for us there.
• 24:58
  Speaker2: And there was a little bit of this, okay, we'll try this one last thing,
• 25:02
  Speaker2: you know, and yes, we do realize that still could happen if this doesn't work,
• 25:06
  Speaker2: but we still wanted to try.
• 25:10
  Speaker2: And that's when we entered into that process. And we were told that,
• 25:14
  Speaker2: you know, they were, the GCA was going to look for a foster church for us.
• 25:20
  Speaker2: And we entered into the relationship with Santa Cruz Baptist Church.
• 25:25
  Speaker2: And that has been just, I think I would say life-changing, not just for me personally.
• 25:35
  Speaker2: Sorry, and I knew that was gonna happen today, but also life-changing for the church.
• 25:43
  Speaker2: We entered that relationship with Santa Cruz who decided to take us on.
• 25:48
  Speaker2: And for a church that it's a 45-minute drive over the hill to come to us,
• 25:54
  Speaker2: in our first couple Sundays that they started coming to Foothill,
• 25:59
  Speaker2: I had members of their church that would come up to me and say,
• 26:02
  Speaker2: are you the one whose father just passed away, Vern? And I said, yes.
• 26:07
  Speaker2: And they would say, I've been praying for you.
• 26:11
  Speaker2: And to have a complete stranger come up to you and tell you that repeatedly,
• 26:17
  Speaker2: it just, it meant so much to me.
• 26:20
  Speaker2: And so what we gained from Santa Cruz, not just, you know, yes,
• 26:25
  Speaker2: they obviously helped us financially in this time.
• 26:28
  Speaker2: They helped by providing people to lead music, to do sermons for us.
• 26:35
  Speaker2: But we gained another church family in that process.
• 26:39
  Speaker2: And I'm so deeply grateful to Pastor Drew and the Bradberries and everybody
• 26:44
  Speaker2: else from their church that came Sunday after Sunday and just offered their
• 26:48
  Speaker2: love and their support and just said, hey, we're praying for you.
• 26:53
  Speaker2: And that has been, I think, a really important part of this renew process is
• 26:59
  Speaker2: having Santa Cruz that came together.
• 27:02
  Speaker2: You know, alongside us and supported us in this process.
• 27:06
  Speaker1: We love to connect in the Renew process where it's possible.
• 27:11
  Speaker1: We love to connect churches to other churches that can help walk the church
• 27:16
  Speaker1: renewal journey for them.
• 27:17
  Speaker1: And we call it fostering because they're not doing a takeover.
• 27:21
  Speaker1: They're not trying to manage your church, but they are coming alongside as a
• 27:27
  Speaker1: sister congregation to help your church reach a place of thriving.
• 27:32
  Speaker1: And it creates that interim stopgap of being able to help provide pulpit supply,
• 27:36
  Speaker1: musicians, and strategic input on your board, and all of these other things.
• 27:44
  Speaker1: We create these renewed boards that have foster churches on them as well to
• 27:48
  Speaker1: help provide oversight and strategy.
• 27:51
  Speaker1: And those boards help provide the pastor search. In the case of Foothill,
• 27:55
  Speaker1: the NAMM-approved replanter pastor that we did call, Pastor Jeff, so excited he's there.
• 28:02
  Speaker1: It took us over three years to get there.
• 28:07
  Speaker1: That was a really challenging process and included some disappointments in that journey.
• 28:12
  Speaker1: But God has been faithful, and the church has been faithful,
• 28:17
  Speaker1: and we're seeing God do some amazing things there so far.
• 28:20
  Speaker1: Now, Jerry, just like at Foothill, you guys are very different community,
• 28:26
  Speaker1: but you guys also have a foster church.
• 28:30
  Speaker1: We did a discovery process with you early on, and then we got you connected to a foster church.
• 28:38
  Speaker1: Tell us what that process has been like for you from the Pew's perspective.
• 28:43
  Speaker3: Well, through GCA, we didn't have a pastor.
• 28:47
  Speaker3: So we first reached out to get help in that direction.
• 28:51
  Speaker3: So we were provided and had, interesting enough, when you have multiple pastors,
• 28:57
  Speaker3: you have different sermons, you have different deliveries. You know,
• 29:01
  Speaker3: when you go through that, it's not one person that you might have been used to your whole life.
• 29:05
  Speaker3: And through that, we were Glenn Myers, Pastor Glenn Myers, who retired from
• 29:09
  Speaker3: Shoreline and Morro Bay had pastored multiple times wonderful man,
• 29:14
  Speaker3: a great guy great sermons
• 29:17
  Speaker3: He was one guy that kind of went back to his church and said,
• 29:19
  Speaker3: hey, we got this church down there. And I think they were aware of us that they didn't need our help.
• 29:24
  Speaker3: And through public supply, through pastors, it's a multiple members of that
• 29:29
  Speaker3: church have come down and done sermons with us.
• 29:32
  Speaker3: That's been our blessing. And, you know, I think when you think you're alone
• 29:36
  Speaker3: in this thing, you're not.
• 29:37
  Speaker3: What you do learn and what I've learned through all this is just how many brothers
• 29:41
  Speaker3: and sisters we do have out there.
• 29:43
  Speaker3: And I wouldn't have said before I would have thought that. But going through
• 29:47
  Speaker3: this, we have, and we've been blessed to have other churches reach out to us.
• 29:53
  Speaker3: And you wouldn't know that they know your plight or what you're going through,
• 29:56
  Speaker3: but they do know and they do understand.
• 29:59
  Speaker3: So having this church adopt us and be along with us, and it's beyond anything
• 30:04
  Speaker3: our expectations or what we knew, and it's helped us out so much,
• 30:08
  Speaker3: and it's eased our pain at times.
• 30:11
  Speaker3: We're going through this process now, and the last four or five months,
• 30:13
  Speaker3: we actually we're now, we're interviewing pastors.
• 30:15
  Speaker3: So we've gone to, to the point where we're, our hope is extremely high.
• 30:22
  Speaker3: We, at times when we thought we were sure what direction we were going,
• 30:25
  Speaker3: and as I said earlier, maybe even our doors closed, we're at the point where
• 30:28
  Speaker3: we have people that are, are reaching out to us from out of state.
• 30:31
  Speaker3: And, and, and Chris is, well, where this is of what we've been going through
• 30:35
  Speaker3: and, and doing all this. But I know when you, when you go through this,
• 30:39
  Speaker3: you just realize there are people there to help you.
• 30:42
  Speaker3: And, and you go through a lot of stuff to go through this process.
• 30:45
  Speaker3: You have to review a lot of stuff you may not always look at in your church,
• 30:50
  Speaker3: things that have to be revised, things that have to be adopted.
• 30:54
  Speaker3: I had not at any point going through this process that I feel that we weren't
• 30:57
  Speaker3: loved through this process, that we weren't listened to, that our needs weren't
• 31:02
  Speaker3: met, weren't paid attention to. They all were.
• 31:05
  Speaker3: It's a beautiful thing going through this. I think when we were down in our
• 31:08
  Speaker3: lowest point, we got lifted up to our highest point. I want to share with anybody
• 31:11
  Speaker3: that's going to listen to this, that if you're in need of this,
• 31:15
  Speaker3: this is what you need to do. This is the direction you need to go.
• 31:18
  Speaker3: Talk to your congregation and reach out to them. Don't be afraid to take this step.
• 31:24
  Speaker1: Wow. And thank you for that encouragement because we loved it.
• 31:27
  Speaker1: I just want to give a big shout out to two of the foster churches that we've
• 31:32
  Speaker1: been talking about, because Lisanne mentioned this, Santa Cruz Baptist Church,
• 31:36
  Speaker1: which is in Aptos, California, they
• 31:39
  Speaker1: are fostering a church that is about 38 miles away,
• 31:44
  Speaker1: an hour's drive, because you have to go over the mountain.
• 31:47
  Speaker1: And then Calvary Shoreline, Shoreline Calvary, I should say,
• 31:51
  Speaker1: in Morro Bay, is it's over 50 miles to get to Red Oaks. And they send people every Sunday.
• 32:02
  Speaker1: Yes. They send their own people. They lose that capacity at their own church
• 32:08
  Speaker1: in order to give that capacity to someone else.
• 32:12
  Speaker1: And I think it's one of the most beautiful expressions of the
• 32:17
  Speaker1: active love of the body of Christ when churches come alongside churches and
• 32:22
  Speaker1: say, we don't have an agenda for your future except your health,
• 32:26
  Speaker1: and we love you, and we're going to pray for you, and we're going to sacrifice,
• 32:29
  Speaker1: we're going to give, we're going to
• 32:31
  Speaker1: go, we're going to come alongside you, we'll weep with you, and we'll rejoice
• 32:35
  Speaker1: with you, and we will fight for your health and your survival.
• 32:40
  Speaker1: And so big, big shout out to Pastor Drew Cunningham, Pastor Ed Compion,
• 32:47
  Speaker1: and Pastor Glenn Myers at Shoreline Calvary. We are so grateful for them.
• 32:53
  Speaker0: Yeah, and to explicitly connect that to the podcast, you guys should know that
• 32:57
  Speaker0: we had Pastor Jeff of Foothill on episode 29 and 30, along with Pastor Michael Denton.
• 33:05
  Speaker0: And the very next two pair of episodes, we had Pastor Ed Compion from Morro Bay Calvary Chapel.
• 33:12
  Speaker0: I just think it's fantastic. And if you have not heard
• 33:15
  Speaker0: those episodes, probably worth going back and listening to because they were
• 33:20
  Speaker0: solid and great insights
• 33:22
  Speaker0: from the other side of the aisle, from the pastoral side of the aisle and from
• 33:26
  Speaker0: the foster pastoral side of the aisle, looking into the whole thing of church
• 33:30
  Speaker0: renewal and revitalization.
• 33:31
  Speaker0: So I think it's a good time now to take a break. We'll hit the rest of the interview next week.
• 33:38
  Speaker0: Let's have a soda review.
• 33:40
  Speaker0: Well, Pastor Christopher, I've got the shakes a little bit, a little bit of,
• 33:47
  Speaker0: PTSD from last week's soda, which,
• 33:52
  Speaker0: I'm not going to lie, is a little bit of a traumatic experience for me.
• 33:57
  Speaker0: But I'm a little more excited, I think, about today's soda, but I'm going to
• 34:03
  Speaker0: let you try it first because I'm not sure I can.
• 34:07
  Speaker1: Well, sir, if you and I are honest, you might recall that
• 34:12
  Speaker1: last week you actually failed to drink the soda and pretended to drink the soda
• 34:20
  Speaker1: while making me consume my grandmother's dirty socks.
• 34:25
  Speaker0: I would say it's faced with a choice of do I drink the equivalent of grandma's dirty socks or not.
• 34:33
  Speaker0: I made the right choice and I stand by it.
• 34:37
  Speaker1: You stand by your decision to betray me and to let me suffer.
• 34:42
  Speaker1: I see how this particular thing works.
• 34:46
  Speaker1: Well, Pastor Chase, you are often saying how envious you are that
• 34:52
  Speaker1: I did not get to drive the General Lee and jump it over rivers and eat watermelon
• 34:58
  Speaker1: and fried chicken and all the deliciousness that is in Alabama,
• 35:03
  Speaker1: part of your boyhood experiences there.
• 35:06
  Speaker1: But what would happen if you were
• 35:11
  Speaker1: a person who grew up as a child in Japan, but years later came to California
• 35:18
  Speaker1: and you had a deep nostalgia for Meiji Ole Banana Milk?
• 35:24
  Speaker0: That's a question I ask myself all the time. What would it be like if instead
• 35:28
  Speaker0: of growing up in Alabama, I grew up in Japan and moved to California?
• 35:32
  Speaker0: And I got to say, if that were the case, the very first thing I would do is
• 35:38
  Speaker0: find or invent a banana flavored beverage.
• 35:42
  Speaker1: What? Prior to what? That's exactly what Ryan Hashimoto did.
• 35:46
  Speaker0: That is incredible. And by the way, I grew up watching anime and stuff like that.
• 35:51
  Speaker0: Ryota, Ryan Hashimoto, that sounds like the perfect name of somebody who flew
• 35:57
  Speaker0: around, you know, giant space robots that fought giant space monsters attacking
• 36:02
  Speaker0: the world. I love that. Absolutely. Ryota Hashimoto.
• 36:05
  Speaker0: Yeah. Surely a ninja or a shogun or something.
• 36:07
  Speaker1: So today's soda is from the shonen, which means in Japanese, I understand.
• 36:15
  Speaker1: I don't read or speak Japanese, but I understand is means boy or youth.
• 36:21
  Speaker1: And this is their banana cream soda.
• 36:25
  Speaker1: Now, our last fruit soda, based on the king of fruits, did not go well.
• 36:31
  Speaker0: Oh, don't talk about it.
• 36:33
  Speaker1: It did not go well.
• 36:35
  Speaker1: I've heard this particular soda tastes like banana taffy.
• 36:40
  Speaker0: That sounds fantastic.
• 36:42
  Speaker1: I'm excited about this one, Pastor Jake. I am. Are you excited about it too?
• 36:45
  Speaker0: I'm trying. Look, we talked a long time about Lester's Ranch soda and how gross it was.
• 36:53
  Speaker0: But for all that fun we had with that soda, the durian soda was traumatic.
• 37:02
  Speaker0: It was horrifying.
• 37:06
  Speaker0: I was epiplectic after drinking it.
• 37:09
  Speaker0: It caused a kind of reversion of my DNA to something more primitive and bad. It's really...
• 37:21
  Speaker0: So I hope this washes that taste out of our mouth and out of my memory because that was disgusting.
• 37:27
  Speaker1: Well, what do you think banana milk was that I mean, what what inspired Ryan here?
• 37:35
  Speaker1: I don't I don't even know what banana milk is, but I know that that there was
• 37:40
  Speaker1: a product that that Ryan Hashimoto enjoyed called Meiji Olay banana.
• 37:48
  Speaker1: I apologize to all our Japanese speakers and listeners.
• 37:52
  Speaker1: And he apparently, as a little boy, loved this drink, which was supposed to
• 37:59
  Speaker1: have like a banana flavor.
• 38:00
  Speaker1: And that's the inspiration for this cream soda.
• 38:04
  Speaker0: Okay. It says that it's supposed to be like a banana taffy flavor.
• 38:09
  Speaker0: When I was a kid, man, I loved Laffy Taffy banana flavor, which tastes nothing like a banana.
• 38:17
  Speaker0: Right? It's funny, banana flavor and bananas are two wildly different things
• 38:22
  Speaker0: in terms of flavor, but I love banana flavor.
• 38:25
  Speaker0: I grew up on quick, Nestle quick, strawberry milk, and I know they make banana
• 38:31
  Speaker0: milk and I've had it a little bit. It's really good.
• 38:34
  Speaker1: Oh, so you know banana milk.
• 38:36
  Speaker0: Yeah, it's good. It's really tasty.
• 38:39
  Speaker1: I've never had banana milk. I love quick. I loved quick when I was a kid.
• 38:44
  Speaker1: So I am sort of excited. it. I like bananas and one of my favorite desserts.
• 38:50
  Speaker1: And if any of our listeners out there are accomplished chefs, I like banana cream pie.
• 38:56
  Speaker0: Oh, I do too.
• 38:57
  Speaker1: Banana cream pie. It's so good, right?
• 38:59
  Speaker0: Yes. So good.
• 39:00
  Speaker1: Phenomenal. So if this has any of that banana cream pie flavor,
• 39:05
  Speaker1: I'm going to be very excited about this.
• 39:07
  Speaker0: Me too. Me too. Look, if this tastes better than And methamphetamines and rotten
• 39:13
  Speaker0: bodies in grandma's disgusting socks, I'll be fine with that.
• 39:18
  Speaker0: I have a low, low bar right now.
• 39:20
  Speaker1: Right. Well, as some of our listeners may know, we tend to record these soda reviews in clumps.
• 39:26
  Speaker1: And I just want to say that we're recording this one not too long after we did
• 39:31
  Speaker1: the durian soda, and my office still has a distinct odor to it.
• 39:38
  Speaker1: It's going to take some airing out to address from that service.
• 39:42
  Speaker0: At least you have air conditioning in your office. I'm in my home office,
• 39:46
  Speaker0: and you don't need air conditioning in Salinas 99 out of 100 days.
• 39:51
  Speaker0: But the last two days are that one in 100 day.
• 39:55
  Speaker0: It's hot, and durian molecules are clinging to me. And I'm very sad about that.
• 40:02
  Speaker1: Your current temperature is a mere 75 degrees, Pastor Chase.
• 40:07
  Speaker0: In my office, it's probably more like 88. You can probably tell looking at me, I'm sticky, sweaty.
• 40:13
  Speaker0: My hair, which is normally pristine and perfectly placed, is all wacky.
• 40:21
  Speaker1: Well, we've had days of 95 plus temperatures here in Morgan Hill.
• 40:27
  Speaker0: Yeah, it was 95 yesterday in Salinas.
• 40:29
  Speaker1: Yeah, you guys are like at a relatively chilly 77. It is 90 degrees here in
• 40:35
  Speaker1: Morgan Hill. So I'm glad we do have AC, but I say we get right to this Shonen cream soda.
• 40:43
  Speaker1: Now, are you going to actually drink this one?
• 40:45
  Speaker0: Oh, you bet I am. I'm no coward.
• 40:47
  Speaker1: Hmm.
• 40:48
  Speaker0: I don't smell the banana. It's clear.
• 40:51
  Speaker1: It's a clear soda.
• 40:52
  Speaker0: You smell banana? Maybe all my smell buds are blasted from the durian.
• 40:57
  Speaker1: I'm getting banana. I'm getting kind of a banana cream.
• 41:00
  Speaker0: Yeah. I just have brain damage then.
• 41:02
  Speaker1: Yeah. It's a very pleasant It's a very full beverage They did not leave any
• 41:08
  Speaker1: room on the top I mean, it's
• 41:11
  Speaker0: It is mostly clear, a little cloudy.
• 41:14
  Speaker1: Yeah, a little bit of a substance. This smells like banana pudding.
• 41:18
  Speaker0: Oh, I smell it better now that I started up. Yeah, it does smell a little like banana pudding.
• 41:22
  Speaker1: It smells like banana pudding.
• 41:24
  Speaker0: I love banana pudding and banana cream pie, as you say.
• 41:28
  Speaker1: Oh, my.
• 41:31
  Speaker0: Yeah, buddy. That is yummy.
• 41:34
  Speaker1: Wow.
• 41:35
  Speaker0: Yeah. Only 170 calories per can. which explains some of that good taste.
• 41:42
  Speaker1: Yes, it does. And it is high fructose corn syrup. So we know that's good for you.
• 41:48
  Speaker0: It's good for your life. Oh, yeah. Really healthy.
• 41:51
  Speaker1: The high quality stuff here, folks. But quick early review. I want to take a few more drinks.
• 41:57
  Speaker1: This is a spot on soda for banana pudding or a banana cream pie.
• 42:06
  Speaker1: If you if you said i want grandma's not her socks but her cream pie bananas
• 42:13
  Speaker1: banana cream pie i want to put that into a soda this very well could be it that's what i'm saying
• 42:19
  Speaker0: I want grandma's banana cream pie not her socks is a pretty good title for this episode.
• 42:25
  Speaker1: Absolutely i think that is the title for this episode.
• 42:31
  Speaker1: You know, it does. The more I drink it, it makes me feel youthful.
• 42:35
  Speaker0: Yeah, I get that. You know what the best thing about this drink is?
• 42:39
  Speaker0: It has no weird aftertaste.
• 42:41
  Speaker1: It does not. It's clean. It's clean.
• 42:44
  Speaker0: Yeah.
• 42:45
  Speaker1: Unlike your grandma's dirty socks. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man.
• 42:52
  Speaker1: I don't know much about the Shonen Soda Company. We haven't tried any of their other products.
• 42:59
  Speaker0: We have not.
• 43:00
  Speaker1: Pastor Chase, I'm curious, though, now. Bring them on. Yeah.
• 43:06
  Speaker1: Some of our listeners out there, if you want to send us a Shonen Soda flavor,
• 43:12
  Speaker1: Even though it is a California-based company, I'm not even really sure how we
• 43:17
  Speaker1: got this particular one.
• 43:18
  Speaker1: I know they have a orange cream and a
• 43:24
  Speaker1: pineapple cream soda as well, which is very interesting to me.
• 43:30
  Speaker1: I think both of those would be fascinating for us to try on a future.
• 43:34
  Speaker0: And hey, total sugar, 43 grams. So it's a lot of grams of sugar.
• 43:41
  Speaker1: Yeah, it is not for those of you who would like a diet flavor. No.
• 43:48
  Speaker1: But if you want something, if you're walking down the street and you are nostalgic for your grandma's
• 43:57
  Speaker1: banana cream pie or your auntie's banana pudding, this is a spot on substitute for it.
• 44:05
  Speaker1: It's hard to explain how much this tastes like that.
• 44:08
  Speaker0: I agree. It's a phenomenal beverage, and it has the sugar of three bananas.
• 44:18
  Speaker1: The sugar of three bananas.
• 44:20
  Speaker0: That would be a good slogan, huh?
• 44:23
  Speaker1: Did they fit three bananas in here? I don't know.
• 44:27
  Speaker0: Here's some interesting news, Pastor Christopher. Yes, please tell me something.
• 44:31
  Speaker0: A typical slice of banana cream pie contains between 12 and 30 grams of sugar.
• 44:38
  Speaker1: Nice. I love it. Love it.
• 44:41
  Speaker0: So this is almost pure sugar here.
• 44:45
  Speaker1: This is delicious. And there are reasons that it's delicious. Yep.
• 44:49
  Speaker0: And you know what? We don't review based on nutritive impact.
• 44:55
  Speaker0: We do not. We review based on smell and taste.
• 44:57
  Speaker1: Smell and taste. And color.
• 45:00
  Speaker0: Oh, color, yes.
• 45:01
  Speaker1: Presentation. And in can, presentation, all kinds of other factors go into our
• 45:07
  Speaker1: highly complex reviews of sodas. We're grateful for those listeners that have
• 45:13
  Speaker1: sent in sodas for us to try.
• 45:17
  Speaker1: And we're thankful for you guys sending us wonderfully good products for us to try.
• 45:22
  Speaker3: Yes, we are.
• 45:22
  Speaker1: But those of you that are looking for the next generation down of durian sodas,
• 45:29
  Speaker1: please, please do not send those to our studios.
• 45:32
  Speaker0: We're good.
• 45:33
  Speaker1: We're good there. We do not need that experience again. Exactly.
• 45:39
  Speaker0: Yeah. So I think I'm going to give this banana cream pie sugary delicious soda
• 45:46
  Speaker0: four and three quarter Spurgeons. It's got a great can, got a good smell. It's got a great taste.
• 45:53
  Speaker0: It is not good for you unless you're hypoglycemic, but it sure is tasty.
• 46:00
  Speaker1: I, too, really enjoy sort of the Japanese-style artwork, the presentation,
• 46:06
  Speaker1: the tall can, and the flavoring.
• 46:10
  Speaker1: And, yeah, absolutely. Not that we know anything about that.
• 46:14
  Speaker0: I just made it up on the spot.
• 46:15
  Speaker1: Right. And there's no artificial colors, by the way, as well.
• 46:19
  Speaker1: Well, that's something. We should point that out. They didn't make it yellow.
• 46:25
  Speaker1: They could have done that, but they did not.
• 46:27
  Speaker0: No, DNC yellow number five.
• 46:29
  Speaker1: Guess what, Pastor Chase? I'm going to go right up there with you.
• 46:32
  Speaker1: I'm going to go with a 4.5.
• 46:34
  Speaker1: A 4.5. Okay. Just because if I was lacking dessert at the end of the day,
• 46:42
  Speaker1: I've had a delicious meal at the end of the day, and I needed dessert,
• 46:46
  Speaker1: but I didn't have any cream pie around.
• 46:48
  Speaker1: And I saw this sitting in my fridge.
• 46:51
  Speaker1: I think I'd open it up. I'd enjoy that.
• 46:54
  Speaker0: Well, go bananas.
• 46:55
  Speaker1: Absolutely.
• 46:56
  Speaker0: The end of an era. Well, I hope you enjoyed that Soda review.
• 47:00
  Speaker0: As we close out, I want to point you to our website, gcasbc.org.
• 47:08
  Speaker0: And if you want to see what's going on in the Great Commission Association,
• 47:11
  Speaker0: you can go to gcasbc.org slash newsletter to read our current newsletter.
• 47:19
  Speaker0: And if you're interested in joining and partnering with us in becoming a GCA
• 47:24
  Speaker0: church, you can go to gcasbc.org slash membership.
• 47:30
  Speaker0: Thanks for listening. Back for more of our great interview next week.
• 47:34
  Speaker0: Good day to you and Godspeed.