In this podcast we introduce how the show is an extension of our offline and online ministry of micro-church planting, activating the body of Christian believers into doers, caring for the orphaned and widowed, caring for the trafficked and neglected as well as getting involved with and supporting our local communities in whatever ways their respective needs may direct.
Episodic podcast discussing all things faith and Christianity related with an emphasis on being actively in ministry efforts to live out the purpose of the BODY of Christ (aka the Church) in tangible ways that point the communities around us back to God and Jesus. On this podcast you'll find a variety of special bonus programming with unique focuses, such as our workday morning devotional series, "...But God" and our lifestyle conversational series "Ark of Inclusion" or our series highlighting those who do well to live out their faith in "Latent Treasures".
Here we are! Episode ONE! I’m excited to get to put this show together as it will likely long be the “go-to” episode where people can learn what B the Church is really all about, why we came to be and ultimately how anyone interested in BEING the church can get involved themselves. There will be ideas galore throughout our shows and we can’t wait to see how God uses this medium to fulfill His will.
Fundamentally, B the Church is a ministry aiming to activate the body of Christ in a proactive and intentional manner. Theyways in which that can be done are absolutely infinite. We also want to give people who feel less than connected or who don’t feel impacted by a traditional church service a very different experience in their walk to know God and Jesus better. We look at the church experience in ACTS and ponder how we can more closely model that type of active faith community today. We know now how COVID has impacted so many people spiritually, how there are literally millions of people freshly wondering about their souls and spiritual futures. They have questions and need and desire INTERACTION with people in safe, respectful and non-judgmental settings. They don’t want to be preached at, at least not yet. COVID has also exposed the reality of how many people globally are in isolation from others…whether voluntarily, involuntarily or circumstantially… who really wish to connect around the topic of faith and need a medium to do so safely. Ultimately, we want to connect with everyone seeking a more meaningful, impactful and glory-filled experience than the traditional Sunday Church or once-per-week Christian experience provides.
Originally this began as simply or solely a home-based church community concept. We love this model and love seeing how deeply it can impact lives in such short periods of time and will continue to develop more and more home based communities. But we’ve also grown into an online-based faith community model as well as a ministry that reaches out to brick and mortar churches to encourage and welcome programs that get their members actively involved in walking their faith and being disciples throughout the whole week, rather than just attending a service as an audience member once a week (or less). As we do this, so many phenomenal ideas are being born by these people as they look to be the hands and feet of Christ to the world around them! The needs are everywhere and the huge hearts we see, pouring out to address those needs is nothing short of divine inspiration! What this causes is personal gift development in the regular members of these churches too. People realize they have gifting they never expected to have and grow greater willingness to stretch themselves in areas they feel led despite feeling unsure of how well they might execute their role. Their faith that God will show up THROUGH them grows so much, it’s awesome to see.
Specifically for both Melissa and I, we’ve always had a huge heart for children and specifically the vulnerable, lost and parentless. We’ve both been active in supporting the Foster Communities for years and we work and focus on this outreach need the most ourselves. This includes working to end Human Trafficking as there is sadly a tremendous connection and much too great a crossover between foster children and trafficked children/youth across the country. Foster children are actually the #1 source for trafficking victims and we hope to help bring an end to both problems.
That leads us to the obvious question for anyone listening, who’d like to engage with us in BEING the church, what are the ways they can get involved… Well there are likely many more ways than I’m going to think of right off the bat here today, but the first thing they can do is a means to be sure they are kept up to date on all things going on and new things as they come along and that is to go to our website… www.bthechurch.org and sign up for our mailing list. This will allow us to keep them up to date via an email newsletter which is currently done quarterly but will be no more frequent than monthly. We don’t want to overload anyone’s inbox.
You can also connect with us on our FACEBOOK PAGE with the same name “B the Church”. You can subscribe to this podcast and turn on notifications to be sure you get alerted for each new episode that comes out. This podcast should be available on any of your favorite streaming services, but if yours does NOT have us, please let us know and we’ll work on getting added to it for you. You can also find us on YouTube or email me at chad@bthechurch.org.
We are still forming our 501(c)3 and handling all of the formalities that go with that effort, and we welcome prayers for that process. It is a long process, that requires many hurdles be crossed, but we’ll get there.
We have many goals and dreams for where this ministry might grow into, but more than anything we are trusting God’s timing and lead in how that plays out. We see this as a global, all of mankind type of opportunity, though we're clearly most familiar with the opportunities in our immediate area, we’ve seen engagement and excitement coming from numerous international locations already as well. It’s such a perfect example of how it’s God’s power working through us, that is moving, not our own intention. It’s truly an amazing gift to even just be a vessel in all of this!
Other ways people can get involved actually include ways to help this show go on regularly. First off, we love having guests of all sorts on our shows and we welcome suggestions, self-nominations, referrals and introductions! Second, we want the shows to be interactive and we welcome all of our listeners to leave comments, leave reviews, give ratings, ask questions, mention topics they’d like us to discuss in future episodes, etc. Guests keep our show entertaining and we would love to welcome our listeners to participate! Based on our booking schedule there may be delays but we will always work to get anyone who wants to be on the show, a way and time to do so.
Thirdly, as we handle all production and editing and publishing ourselves, including bearing all the costs ourselves as a couple, we’d welcome any help in covering those production costs, which thankfully are quite small - roughly $45 per show! That obviously doesn’t include time/labor costs, but we happily volunteer those hours anyway so we don’t count those. Our philosophy is that we want to always keep operational costs down to a minimum. If we are ever blessed with people who want to support the mission of B the Church, we want over 95% of those funds to go to actual outreach and mission related costs, not operating costs. Listeners can make donations, or can sponsor any episode or series of episodes. For those wishing to sponsor an episode, we’re happy to include a short 30 second commercial for the sponsor as a thank you! That being said, we also must mention that any donations, including donations to overhead are NOT, at this time, tax-deductible because we are not yet qualified to offer that. However, when we get that qualification, we will certainly let you all know.
Now would be a good time to mention this show’s sponsor, ROYAL Real Estate Services!
ROYAL Real Estate Services provides financial services and consulting to much of the Real Estate industry. Their Reserves division, ROYAL Reserves, provides Reserve Studies and Capital Reserve Plans to both common interest developments AND both public and private organizations who have extensive long-term maintenance obligations for their facilities. These reports provide, HOA’s, business condo owners, worship facilities, resorts, educational campuses, municipalities and others a clear picture of their future financial obligations for long-term maintenance and provides a recommended funding strategy to allow the organization to be financially prepared to meet those demands. Their CFO Outsourcing Services division “ROYAL CFO Services” provides bookkeeping, accounting and financial planning and analysis services to businesses in the Real Estate industry, contractors, developers, rental owners, real estate investors, agriculture businesses and non-profit organizations. If you’d like to know more about their work, please visit their website at www.royalres.net that’s www.royal R E S dot net.
Actually, if you visit that site you’ll discover that I actually own that business. It’s true. It’s how I make a living. As I mentioned not long ago, my hopes have always been that our ministry efforts not be required to be my primary income source. In some ways this was inspired by the example of PAUL in the new testament. I feel God has blessed me with the ability to be a fruitful business owner, and as long as that remains to be true, I’ll remain committed to being just that. I’ll continue to prefer that virtually all resources that come into the ministry be used for outreach rather than operating expenses or my income needs.
Looking forward into future episodes of this podcast…we are super excited to re-air some of our previously aired episodes of “Latent Treasures” but in a slightly different format. Those episodes tended to be very long form episodes that many of our listeners mentioned they couldn’t get through in one sitting, so we’re re-editing the episodes into parts to make them more digestible! We hope this gives more people an opportunity to hear the amazing life stories we have been uncovering there and would love to hear how they impact you.
We are also planning to put together an audio only series which will cover the entire bible in one year. We are doing this for everyone, but especially to provide a means for those who cannot see, a way to access the bible daily and work through the entirety of the bible in just one year. I’m massively excited to take on that challenge as well as exceedingly nervous, but we hope it’s a blessing for those with any sight impairment. Similarly, we hope to host a LIVE session once per week, where we sit down and discuss the text that was covered the prior week. We’d love to see this be a very interactive session as well, so keep your eyes out for that!
We expect this to be a dynamic and interesting experience. We’re open to other plans, open to God asking us to pivot if and when needed, and are eager to meet so many of you future listeners.
This podcast is indeed one vehicle we can be using to B the Church, we pray that it inspires ideas in your own life to respond to Jesus’ request that ALL be disciples and to actively step into loving each other and meeting any of our brothers and sisters needs as we are able to find a means to meet them.
If I may close in prayer,.. Father in heaven, we thank you for birthing us in such a time as this, where we can find new and exciting ways to reach your creation for YOUR GLORY. Lord I pray that if this broadcast honors you and is within your will, that you bless it. Bless those who hear it. Strengthen the faith of those whose faith may be struggling. Comfort those in need of companionship and welcome them to engage with us, that they might know of your LOVE for them and remind them that they are not alone.
Lord we recognize the devastating nature of many of the events going on around the world, we pray for those who are hurting, for the survivors of those lost to violence, for the safety of those seeking safety, for light to shine in even the darkest of places Lord. We know you are a God who cares, who can and does perform miracles regularly to accomplish your will. Be with the sick and their care takers and bring healing, God. Strengthen the hearts of those in positions of leadership, that their first desire be to honor You, Lord, and secondly to make decisions that are best for their constituents and not their own desires or greed. Lord I ask that those seeking your face may find it. That those seeking your heart might feel it and KNOW that you love them more abundantly than any experience they have ever had on this earth could prepare them to fathom.
Bless your church, Lord. We thank you for our salvation in the work of Jesus and pray for strength to forge forward into the harvest field! Amen.