Order, Growth, and What God Is Building | Vision 2026

Pastor Cameron draws from Genesis 1 and Romans 12 to show that God's Spirit brings order and direction to growing things—including the local church. As Conduit enters a season of building systems and strengthening discipleship, this message lays a biblical foundation for why structure isn't the enemy of the Spirit, but one of its expressions.

Romans 12:1-2 | additional: Genesis 1:1-2

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Creators and Guests

Host

Cameron Lienhart

Cameron is the Senior Pastor of Conduit Ministries

What is Conduit Ministries?

We are all about helping people get closer to Jesus.
Sundays @ 9 AM & 11 AM - 120 Delaware Ave in Jamestown, NY

Come to be with us in each and every season and moment of life and today Lord I pray that you would be with us in this gathering or that you would minister to each of our hearts and that we might know your love. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Well good morning everyone. If you're here then you're one of the many, one of the brave souls who decided to weather the storm today. Congratulations, you all get a gold star. No, but thank you for taking the drive, taking the risk, shoveling yourself out and getting here. Not everybody has as short of a drive as I have, I recognize that. But just thankful that you're all here, thankful that we get to be together, that we get to encourage one another and I get to say welcome home. It is always our desire that this would be a place that you can call home, place where it can be okay to be here and to follow Jesus together. So we're all about helping people take that next step closer to Jesus. Now we've got one announcement for you today and that is that we have a women's breakfast that is starting up. So part of the women's ministries focus and desire for this coming year is women in the Word and so on alternating Saturdays we have a men's breakfast we just met yesterday at 8 a.m. Downstairs in the big room and so this coming Saturday we're gonna have our very first women's breakfast at 9 a.m.

And they're gonna be doing a study on how to read your Bible. Now if you're like I would love to be there but I'm like I can't be there every single time can I still come? The answer is yes and we would encourage you if you're like I want to be there I can be there some of the time then please sign up for it. There is a button on our church center app which is the app where we do everything through you just open that app on it there is a little women's ministry interest button and you can click that and it's an important button to click on if you're like well like I want to know what other things the women's ministry is going to be doing but I'm not necessarily going to be going to the women's breakfasts you should still click on that button because it's gonna ask you if you want to hear updates and get text information about upcoming events and things like that so would encourage you if that's something that you want to do you want to make sure you hear about the next women's dinner or

Next women's event or different studies would ensure you encourage you to click on that button and put in your information there so and other than that's kind of it Pastor Cameron is going to get up today and he's going to give us our last sermon in our series on vision and so let's go ahead and pray and just focus our hearts on listening to the Holy Spirit in his word today

Heavenly Father I ask that as we listen to this sermon this morning I pray that our hearts would be ministered to by your Holy Spirit Lord we as a church want to submit ourselves to your direction and to your leadership Lord God I pray that you would be with Pastor Cameron as he delivers the message that you have laid on his heart and that Lord we would each find you in this message in Jesus name we pray amen amen good morning everyone glad to see you all here glad thanks for braving the it's just like it's just another day right just in a regular day out there right it's pretty that's what we say the whole South is shut down it's pretty out here it's pretty yeah seriously though I know like sometimes it's a difficult decision to know when to come and when not to come as we posted last night on our social media continues to be our inclement weather policy we will always be open on Sunday mornings unless there is a travel ban or there's something significantly wrong with our facility

Like a loss of power or a loss of heat in the winter or maybe a loss of air conditioning in August I don't know like but just so you're you're aware going forward and we'll always try to communicate that as quickly across as many platforms as we can so that you're aware but it's good to see you all this morning I don't know how this morning finds you my body is tired today but my heart is encouraged I hope that even even in maybe the weariness or weary summoness of your bodies and life and schedule and the busy hectic nature of life that the Lord is still encouraging your heart and you're finding you're finding encouragement from him so over the last few weeks so far this calendar year we've talked a little bit about what our primary focus is the things that we continue to hold up and want to hold up and want to exalt as important maybe most maybe most important certainly is the supremacy of Jesus and his lordship over our lives and over all of the affairs and life of the church certainly from that first week the primacy of discipleship for the local

Church meaning the goal of our ministry is to make disciples of Jesus men women and children who live like Jesus love like Jesus and serve like Jesus being conformed into his image and likeness and how those things are generally come out of or are built out of four pillars which we talked about last week presence formation community and mission today I want to try to take an opportunity to maybe tie some things together that we've talked about in the last few weeks as well as give you I don't know what to call it and maybe you call it information or maybe you call it like like a look look ahead a future look ahead foreshadowing give you some information on what we've been discerning and discussing amongst the staff and leadership team and key ministry leaders beginning to tie in key ministry leaders into some of these conversations so a little bit of this is gonna sound like a report and a little bit of it sound or not sound but we're faithfully expecting some a word of the Lord in this is what I'm trying to say conduit is if you've come here for a long time or you've come

Here for a short time I see some people around the room who have been here from the very beginning I see I think maybe some people around the room maybe this is your first day and kind of everyone in between I've been here at conduit for 10 but going on my 11th year now and the conduit has changed a lot in those 11 years I think Ellen shared a picture a few weeks ago on social media of a view from up here looking out at the congregation and I took a moment to kind of like you know zoom in and like see who was here and so interesting to see some some familiar faces and to be reminded of some of some old faces of people who have gone to worship at other churches or so one person who has actually got called to ministry and was leading a church how like in the pews and just really interesting and fun history there but I would say right now conduit is we're in a really exciting season all the seasons are exciting sure but we're in it I think in an exceptionally exciting season now it

Doesn't look like it too much at the moment but we are we're growing and in most most weeks we are at full capacity in every aspect of our facility and our property and our ministry God God is providing in really really significant ways for us in leadership and financially Jesus is drawing people to himself here see people give themselves surrendering their hearts to the Lord desiring to walk in fellowship with the Spirit have their lives conformed and transformed both to and by the Word of God we see babies being born we see people being promoted to heaven we see the whole gamut of life and ministry that comes here it's a great time like our most of you like have the experience of having our parking lot be full maybe having to park on the road once in a while or the CK rooms the conduit kids rooms being being full of kids at at capacity the sanctuary is often very full like I said this morning and when you when you're a part of something like that and you can see what God is doing

And you're you're in it get fills your heart to like sanctuaries full rooms are full parking lots full heart is full and that's been my experience over the last over the last year year and a half or so where we've been seeing these things happen some have I think rightly said that these these are really well that's a really good problem to have like it's a really good problem to have to not have any parking spots right it's a really good problem to have people on folding chairs in the foyer right it's a really good problem to have to have all of the CK rooms full and we agree we agree but there's still problems they're still in the in the sense that they require some some eyes and some minds and some prayer and some discernment and some solutions in order to move forward in the faith that God like to move forward in faith that what we see or an experience as all of the really good things that are going on at conduit is not God saying all right we're done here now and us for to just be like okay well we have accomplished some goal because remember the goal it's

Not about filling the pews the goal is not about filling the parking lot the goal is not about filling the conduit kids room so the goal really is about filling heaven and plundering hell okay the goal the goal is about making disciples of Jesus Christ and about using the resources that God has given to us our our building as a resource our people as a resource our finances as a resource to meet those goals and meet those needs I think maybe even to put it to put it maybe a little bit more clearly or even more starkly we believe I believe that we are currently where we are we are currently at is really at or near the cap or capacity of our current systems our current building and our current like leadership style and makeup again that's not that's not I don't want you to hear that it's fatalistic right I want I want you to hear that as I want you to hear that as like things have been happening and moving and growing and now we're kind of bumping up against a ceiling of our own limitations as they

Exist now maybe even put even more starkly if we want to reach more people for Jesus than we currently are we need to do things that we aren't currently doing if we if we want to if we want to reach more people for Jesus then then we need to make some shifts and some transitions both in our mindset but also in our practice and in our heart and our motivations so that we can continue to like receive the mission that God has given to the church and to carry it faithfully in the city maybe ask it like this does anyone does anyone in here have someone that they are currently praying for in faith that they will come to know Jesus and join you in church someday okay so listen when God answers that prayer okay when God answers that prayer where are they gonna sit where they got a part what closet are we gonna teach their kids the gospel out of now I don't know about you but that's how I had this I was describing this kind of situation to a pastor another pastor and kind of like wrestling around with some

Solutions and he said well yeah I mean who are you praying comes to know Jesus who are you praying comes to accept the gospel who are you praying will come to church on Sunday with you and I listed off a few people it was like okay well what are you doing now to make sure you're ready as a person and as a church to receive that when the Lord accomplishes it and that for me was a question that I couldn't really couldn't really answer affirmatively at that point it's so it's kind of like those people and that idea that I want us to keep in mind as we look forward in faith to where God would have us where God would take us how we would respond to God's movement in our midst but it's not just other people beyond the unknown people the people that we're praying for that would come to Jesus it's also you it's also it's also us I want to have I don't I don't I don't want to I don't want to see young families having to walk literally a block away down the middle of a snowy road with three or four kids

In tow because there's no more parking for them here I want to be able to provide more and in a greater variety of both topic and times discipleship opportunities I want to I want to be able to as a as a pastor the pastor's heart and a like a shepherding gift I want greater care of your souls greater shepherding of your souls and of your families and at current capacity like I'm like the needle is in the red okay we want we want to be able to better communicate with you as the as our whole church family and our whole body we want there to be more awareness more leadership investment we still want to have a lot of vibes right and that's what people are telling me lately like well I had someone say like why do you like conduit so much and like I don't know it's just like I like the vibe okay that's not helpful that tells me nothing but in a way I mean in a way I kind of understand it and like I get it and I don't know if you kind of get it like maybe if you were to ask you like

What is it that you love about conduit you might have like a one or two things that you kind of like say yeah this is what I love this is what I love but in a lot from a lot of people it's just like I don't know I don't know it's just a vibe and I just like it's just like kind of where I want to be is my people you know that kind of language it's my style it's my speed it's my vibe listen we want I want all the vibes okay I want all the vibes but I also want to build efficiencies and systems and safety and structure and capacity so that there's more space for more people to know Jesus and his incredible love and his plan and purpose for their lives so I want to tell you like having said all that kind of it's like three main topics today and like I said this is kind of like a potpourri of you know potpourri is don't think the thing on the back of your grandma's toilet think more like the jeopardy category okay where it's like

Yeah you just kind of it's no category just throw random things in there this is kind of gonna be like a potpourri of a sermon sermon points all right vibes right it's just vibes so three things okay that I want us to keep our eyes focused on or that I intend as your pastor to kind of lead us in throughout this throughout this next year beyond the year even just kind of into the future as a necessity for us to meet the need and receive the harvest that the Lord is that the Lord is blessing with us and the number one number one in no particular order this is not an order of priority is better systems better systems stick with me for a minute okay better systems and when churches are relatively small systems can be very simple like communication system like how are like oh church is gonna be church is probably gonna be canceled on a Sunday how do we let everyone how do how do we let everyone know so like a like in a maybe in a small church small family church 25 30 40 people it's pretty easy

Actually to just send out a big group text okay if I sent out a 300 person group text on a Sunday morning to cancel church right it would break the phone right so like there are there are there are systems that work for small churches smaller churches that when you grow that don't have a whole whole lot of efficiency in them or aren't very scalable and they can that can kind of be semi easily overlooked when the church is smaller and kind of more personal in nature but listen as a church grows in efficiencies inconsistent communication poor or lackluster management those things get magnified as the congregation gross and the things that we're not really equipped to do and build and handle just kind of become more obvious as everything grows and it can create in some ways it can create a little bit of organizational chaos and be a bottleneck by a bottleneck for people I'm talking about building systems and efficiencies for systems and efficiencies sake talking about building systems and efficiencies so that we can know names and connect with people personally and understand where they are in their walk with Jesus and

Get them connected with the people who are gonna love them support them encourage them pray for them disciple them to be able to communicate clearly and effectively the opportunities the ministries the things that we believe or can move the needle in their life for relationship so we're not talking about systems for systems sake we're talking about systems for people's sake because people matter to God they matter to us now you could be probably sitting here and being like listen I came to hear the Word of God and not a TED talk on systems and I could not agree more I'm with you on it but allow me this point okay I think that we wrongly I think that we wrongly attribute and anything goes or a kind of just go with the flow approach to church and ministry with being the only spirit filled approach okay so when people say well I just want a church that's spirit filled I kind of just kind of like goes with the flow you know it's not overly choreographed or planned kind of just you know there's there's freedom to let the spirit do what the spirit wants to do listen I agree I 100% agree but I think it's wrong of us to think it's

Wrong for us to attribute the and anything goes or a go with the flow approach to being the only spirit filled approach now can you as a church or as leaders can we program essentially or systematize out freedom of the spirit absolutely we hunt me a hundred percent can and that is a danger that we must always be discerning of and aware of making too much of our structure to the detriment of the work of the spirit for sure week that can happen but listen is actively pursuing order organization and efficiency automatically anti-spiritual I'm gonna say no I don't think so as an example I want to go like all the way this is an easy reference to find because it's the first reference in everyone's Bible Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 the beginning of the created listen before anything was before anything was created right in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth now what was what was the what was the situation of or the status of the thing that the like you can say like the material that God was creating it the earth was what it was without form

It was void darkness was over the face of the deep some commentators and have translated this as being like they've really like taken it and they've associated one word with this verse here it was chaos chaos the earth was without form and void in the dark darkness was over the face of the earth and then what and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters now of course the rest of the Genesis account goes on to say and then God said let there be light and there was light and let there be a sky right and let there be firm earth right and let there be birds and let there be a Sun and moon and stars and so the whole of the creation account goes starts with this like it was chaos God's Spirit came into it and over it and brought what order he brought connection he brought like symbiosis this togetherness this work right where what was once chaotic and void and dark and formless now responded to the work of God's Spirit and order came from the chaos see I don't God doesn't just

Appreciate order he created it he doesn't just like look at something oh I appreciate how like organized and efficient or I like that system like yeah good I would prefer that they would be a little bit more chaotic and spirit-filled but look it's not it right like he didn't just appreciate order he looks at me and feels like yeah order is actually reflective of my nature there's no chaos in God right yeah we are chaotic God is not cause perfect see we see if you look at the whole of the scripture even that God had a comprehensive throughout the course of human history redemptive plan that was purposed in Jesus and that Jesus himself was unwilling to what jump ahead of the plan of the father until the appointed time established by the father we see that in like for instance John chapter 7 the father had a plan to bring redemption to the whole of creation through the life death and resurrection of his son Jesus and Jesus refused to kind of like go outside of that redemptive plan there was an order or a plan to the father's will of redemption we see the Apostle Paul while talking literally talking about the charismatic

Gifts of the spirit like speaking in tongues and prophecy that even those things that were explicitly the work of the Holy Spirit were to be done in a manner of order so even Paul here was to say that the very work and gifts of the spirit and the pursuit of order are not antithetical to one another but rather go hand-in-hand to bring honor to God in the church that the work of the spirit and the discernment of order were not antithetical to one another but instead were the same side or were two different sides of the same coin that the Holy Spirit moves in power giving people the gift to be able to speak in tongues and prophesy but Paul says but even this we must we must recognize that those things without godly structure and boundary can bring chaos into the worship environment we don't want that so when we talk about systems as a church what what we're kind of talking about here is bringing increased order to the things that we do as a community so that we can so that we can try and build efficiency and take

Out a lot of like the take out a lot of the inefficient work so that we may be freed to focus like our mind energy on the discipleship of people right the preaching of the gospel prayer the ministry to kids and to those outside of our community systems like how we communicate how we how we do volunteer scheduling and training and systems how we do financial planning and management how we how we work with this the resource of this building and this property and this facility and create plans and policies to kind of like make a big catch basin of people who are being drawn to Jesus is what we want to do now this I'm gonna tell you this is a personal stretch for me okay this is a growth this is a growth area for me personally hey I'm a vibe guy if we're gonna use the same language like that's kind of mice that's kind of like it's it's natural for me it's it's easy for me building building systems and thinking inefficiencies for ministry and think about how we make this like how we make this work more systematically and efficiently for me takes a lot a lot of

Mental energy for me to like I mean I gotta like really focus and I'm and I'm not that good at it okay but I'm asking the Lord to help me be better at it so that I can be the leader that conduit needs in this next season recognizing the limitation that the limitations that I have not wanting my own personal leadership gaps to create boundaries for God's work here I don't want to get in the way because I don't know how and I'm afraid to let it happen or can't learn right and so I'm so I'm saying all that to say like I am I am being stretched I am learning I am seeking to implement these things for the sake of God's glory in the building of God's Church and I'm asking you as conduits to join and to help and to participate especially when you see things that you might not have seen or experienced before but maybe are one of the ways that we're just trying to up our organizational game we believe that these pursuits will honor God and display that we are intent on building systems and environments that are that

That are prepared for the people that he wants to draw to Jesus through the ministry of conduit so systems said the other thing that we've talked we've talked a lot about this in the last year we've talked a lot about discipleship in the past few weeks and if I were to tell you that we were to have any like spiritual theme for the year of 2026 look we did last year with seeking the face of God through prayer and Sabbath I would tell you that this year our spiritual theme would be diving deep in pursuit of discipleship now like I said not last week talking about discipleship as a as a focus for a church is a little bit silly in my mind because it's not at least in my mind a thing that a church really gets to decide that there oh this year we're gonna focus on discipleship but last year and next year we're not going to like decide discipleship is not kind of like an optional focus that we pick up and decide whether or not it's gonna be an important part of our ministry like discipleship is core to the work that Jesus himself has asked the church to do in Matthew chapter 28 all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me

Therefore right go into all the world making disciples of all people so it we don't get to really like decide whether or not this is gonna be a focus then I want to say it like we're focusing on it you know what I'm saying what I'm saying is that like there is some there is some added emphasis that we want to bring to the work of discipleship this year because we sense we're sensing discerning praying that as we grow as we grow wide as a church maybe high as a church as we grow in those ways which are the kind of like the dynamics that everyone wants to see okay we must we must be we must be ensuring that we are intentional intentional about growing deep about growing in our capacity to love not just our capacity to draw people from the community not just our capacity to fill a room not just our capacity to fit more more cars in our in our lot right our capacity are we growing in our capacity to love are we growing in our capacity to love God more to love our neighbors more to love

Others more are we growing in our capacity to like love his word develop in prayer grow in mission like are we going are we intentionally saying we're going to go deep and we'll leave the wide and the high to God that really is the heart here okay you say I had a pastor asked me just a few weeks ago what are you got like I drive by your church on my way to church what are you guys doing like it's always full and I'm like it's a vibe I don't know like have you tried adding adding some vibes to your church like I like the point the point here is that like we're not we have never we have never focused on me how do we just get like 300 people here never have been a part of our conversation never will honestly like I could care less okay what I do care about is the depth in your capacity to love God more and to love others right that's what that's what my that's art that's my focus as your pastor that's what I want for you that's what I want for us and I believe that's what God wants for us and so what I think the reason is that God sees the

Heart and is honoring it by drawing more people to it okay but so when we talk about discipleship as a folk I come completely went off my notes well I'm gonna remind you of like we talked about this kind of definition what is a disciple a disciple is a person who by God's grace is apprenticing their whole life to Jesus Christ being formed by the Spirit of God within the community of the church for the participation in God's mission in the world okay so we're apprenticing our whole lives to Jesus formation listen formation of our lives your whole life not just my intellect I'm not trying to just get more information or knowledge about Jesus I'm actually trying to live like Jesus lived to love people like Jesus loved people to serve like Jesus served to recognize and to understand the formation machine that we live in this culture where everything is purpose-built to grab your attention and to hold it and to fight back against that with a consecrating act of full devotion to God and to his word say for far too long I recognize the forming influences of the world that has shaped

My mind my heart my words my thoughts my relationships and I reject it now and fully devote and consecrate my life to God's word having my full attention and to be formed by it before all else walking into a season where we as a church are making concrete intentional full-life decisions to make God's word the forming influence of our lives the forming influence of our lives I asked maybe about 30 guys at men's breakfast yesterday and I asked that's just a quick question I'm gonna ask a similar question here how many of you would say that you get the majority of your news information or opinions about the world from social media okay a lot of you are like bravely raising your hand right like there there is a there we have we have seceded ground to a worldly force that is forming our thoughts our opinions our views and our relationships without much intentional thought to who it is making us become and the point here is in this being a focus is taking intent making an intentional decision to say I will no longer allow the for the meat grinder of the

World to form what I think what I believe what I say and what is in my heart I give that back I consecrate my life I consecrate my focus I consecrate my attention to God's Word now listen here what I've recognized is that almost almost all of us have really good intentions to do this like yeah oh yeah I mean I intend I intend to do that I'm gonna get there I'm gonna start tomorrow right I intend to do listen we need to we need to disperse with the good intentions and start making decisions okay the road to hell is paved in good intentions okay of things well yes good idea I should do that someday when it's convenient and doesn't interrupt my life as I want to live it we are we're looking for decisions over intentions decisions that neutralize the forming factor of the world and counter form us into the image of Jesus our kind of orienting verse here this year around these decisions as Romans chapter 12 verses 1 & 2 it says therefore I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters by

The mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed any longer to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect okay the Apostle Paul says this in one of his letters to Corinthians he said he said listen we and I like the I personally like the language here the ESV uses a couple different words the I've always memorized and studied the NIV so that's the version that I've kind of memorized the ESV says we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and we take every thought captive to obey Christ right that is the that like that is the verse of consecration to the Lord right that I will not allow the world and its influences to form me but I will the NIV says we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to

Christ like that is the fight that I want to get involved in this year is demolishing every argument and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God in my life and to take every single thought that I have every single affection that I have every single relationship that I have and take a captive and give it to Christ making it obedient to him now listen in gentleness and with grace in a heart and posture of love calling you the conduit community to a tangible pursuit of depth through the realignment of your personal and family priorities schedules and activities to give yourself to the rhythms and opportunity of communal life where you can be formed by God's Word and in doing so demolish the arguments and pretensions of the world that set themselves up against the knowledge of God in your life finally here our last one I want to talk to you briefly although the change is significant I want to talk to you about the change briefly significant thing is gonna be brief in lieu of more significant conversations as it unfolds throughout

The year here as we grow as we desire to pursue depth in tangible ways to have more people discipled that requires more disciplers so pretty significant change to our church leadership leadership structure here in the new year is that we will be introducing the kind of the office and leadership the leadership office of elder as a specific leadership or a specific leadership position here in the church now a couple months ago back in August I think it was we preached through the section of first Timothy Paul's letter to his first letter to Timothy and we spoke about the ministry of elders there they're calling they're gifting their character what they do what they don't do what their role is would encourage you to go back on our YouTube or in the podcast listen to that message as like to kind of reaffirm and reestablish at least our position on this but elders elders as being shepherds as being pastors as being overseers of what Paul uses to say of the flock to which they have been entrusted or which has been entrusted to them to oversee and to guide and discern

Discern elders or pastors or shepherds are called by God to both shepherd the people to teach the people to pray for the people and to guard the people in a communal sense from false teaching and things that would seek to do them spiritual damage Paul and all of the New Testament describes elders as men of character who are above reproach who are temperate and self-controlled who are hospitable who have good reputations who are not given to drunkenness and who are not quarrelsome they are not lovers of money or power or wish to have authority so that they can lord it over people that they serve now in order to disciple more people to lead more or watchful eyes over matters that we talked about last week to have more watchful eyes over matters of presence and formation and mission and community we need to as a church actively raise up call equip and commission more men with pastoral hearts and gifts to lead the church and lead the community as we have right now conduit has functioned with a with a leadership team with pastor Luke and I functioning as the elders of the

Church this our our leadership team our leadership team has been given is given authority over areas really of all over all areas of the church there the there the group there the group amongst us that has the authority and permission to hire me to fire me to hold me accountable also has oversight over all of really the ministry functions of the church every administrative and executive function of the church our human resources our finance our facilities legal all of our insurances all of our leadership development they are that group so we will start when I want you to hear that even with the introduction of elders we will still have some form of leadership team like we have now which will which will provide a helpful balance of the many necessary leadership environments that we must look after here in the administrative and financial the legal and human resources the spiritual and the theological all of these things are things that leadership must continue to keep our focus on and we will have elders to look over what it is that they have been charged with in Scripture and we will and we will build continue to build a leadership team that can look over administrative executive

Financial facility and executive team so to speak to help make sure that those things are being managed faithfully and with integrity and with a God honoring heart and spirit men and women of great character of God giftedness of passion and calling who want to use both their lives and their gifts in service of building God's kingdom and the Church of Jesus Christ so what you will hear and see over the next probably the next well really over the next year is the process that we hope to go through to both raise up equip commission a handful probably of elders here in the church over the next year you as a church will have an opportunity to affirm their leadership bring concerns about their character or their calling or their giftedness and a confidential manner to myself and to pastor Luke as we together discern who these men would be that would help to lead us pastorally and from a shepherding perspective in this next year and beyond so we ask you to even begin praying now about who some of those people would be when Paul writes this to Timothy about elders he

Said those who desire the office of elder desire a noble thing that it is not something that like it's it's it's actually something that can be desired it is a calling that can sit deep in the heart of someone yes I know that I have been called to shepherd people I know that I have been called to teach and to lead I know that I have been called to guard and direct the faith for the sake of the church and so please I am asking that you would join us in praying for those men as we as we faithfully also discern who they would be and then discern together their fit for that calling that ministry so like I said at the beginning this hopefully was there this is was an attempt to kind of tie together several things that we've been talking about over the last few weeks who are we where are we going what is our main focus for the year and if you don't already I'm asking that you would that you would add daily prayers for your church yeah please pray for the ministry of conduit please pray for the

Leaders please pray for those who are coming that they would they would joyfully and in and in true repentance come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior that they would be they would find a home here in the community that they would that as we grow in our capacity to love God and to love others that we would remain focused on the main things being the main things please pray for me please pray for pastor Luke please pray for your small group leaders please pray for the kid the people who are serving your kids in conduit kids who are pouring your coffee who are shovel port poor Craig shoveled the sidewalk three times this morning and there's still three inches on it please pray we're asking that you would pray for your leaders pray for your church let's do that now as the worship team comes forward Lord we ask and pray this morning in faith Lord that you hear us that you know our hearts Lord and then our hearts is not are not prideful Lord but that we stand in a place of earnest

Humility Lord saying one thank you father for the fruit of the gospel that we see daily here at conduit in Lord that you would continue to establish us in faithfulness that we would never stray Lord from what it is that you have called us to and who you have called us not just what you've called us to but who you've called us to be and father's ask that you would give us wisdom and discernment that you would strengthen us in our leadership you would give us increasing hunger and desire for your word Lord and that the decisions of our lives this year would display consecrated hearts that are eager and ready to be formed by your word rather than the world in Jesus name amen

You you you you

You you you you

You you you Tim who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy to the only God our Savior be glory majesty power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all ages now and forevermore amen Kondo you are loved see you next week

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