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Luminous Voices invites you to a brilliant space where words illuminate the soul. Each episode delves into the heart of a remarkable individual, uncovering the singular, essential message they want to share with the world and with you.
From renowned theologians to everyday saints, these luminaries offer a beacon of hope, a spark of inspiration, and a glimpse of the divine. Join us on this journey as we explore the depths of the human spirit and the power of light filled words.
Tune in to Luminous Voices and hear a more light filled world.
Jason, start off by telling
us a little bit about what 1
million more is for churches.
So my name is Jason Williams.
I'm the executive pastor of
ministries here at Saddleback
church have been here for.
Eight and a half years ago.
Your audience, our audience is probably
hearing an accident that doesn't sound
like it's from California and it's not
because I grew up in Dallas, Texas.
And on staff at chase.
church, uh, on the north side
of Dallas there for eight years
before coming to Saddleback.
Well, I think 1 million more is
just about engaging 1 million more
people than we have right now in the
transforming word of God and letting
it do the work that it's always done.
Throughout redemptive history and
that's to change lives and open hearts
and really transformed churches like
you and I saw happen at Saddleback
when we did this a year ago.
, I think the difference in what
we're inviting people to do,
and really, it's not our idea.
It's, it's sort of from the beginning
and certainly our friends at, at Tyndale
and, uh, the Institute for Bible reading
and Bible project would all agree.
It's reading the Bible together.
Reading and experiencing and seeing the
word of God from different perspectives.
One of the things that I've said
many times around here, you've
probably heard me say it is.
We don't see God, the way that he is.
We see him the way that we are
and often to see him in all of his
multifaceted glory, it takes seeing
him through the eyes of someone.
Who is coming from a different
background who has experienced
different circumstances than we
have maybe in their faith journey.
There's something about that that enriches
our view of the word of God and the way
that we see God that that really does
open our eyes and transforms our hearts.
I certainly we've saw this being
preached from our pulpit on the weekends.
Uh, and that was sort of a preview, right?
We, we began the week with a message
that was anchored in the passages to
be read in the, in the following week.
Then our small groups all read
through those passages and then
they came together to discuss it.
And that could work just
as well in a family.
I mean, we were doing that as well.
Cause our kids are in high school
and they were reading through some
of the same stuff that we were.
So at dinner we had sort of impromptu
conversations around some of the things,
the stories, the parables, the teachings
that we were all reading at the same time.
So I think.
You you, you laid out three, the pulpit.
Uh, small group family.
I think it could lend itself to
a beautiful group conversation
in any of those contexts.
Quite frankly.
So how would a church go about doing this?
If I were a senior pastor
and I was interested in.
Going through 1 million more.
What does that mean?
Well, so we've tried to share every
resource that we created a year ago.
We're about to embark on a second journey
through, last year, we did Messiah.
And we took everything that
we made or created or sent
out or emailed or whatever.
And have put it on the
1 million more website.
Totally free.
All we want to do is help equip.
A church and a pastor to be
able to do this with success
in their church and feel.
I feel empowered to do so.
And one of the key pieces on that
website is the planning guide.
It literally is a step-by-step
check it off as you go.
Uh, guide to pulling this off in a
way that that really can electrify
and energize a church through just a
collective reading of the word of God.
So I think you can go to the website,
find that planning guide, start there
and just begin to check off the things
that you'll want to have in place,
or that you'll want to train or teach
or share and use all the resources.
Take them.
They don't need to know
where you got them from.
They're yours.
They're free.
And, uh, we would just
invite you to take that.
And if there are any questions
along the way, Ask us.
We, you and I team, we've got a
team of volunteers who would love
nothing more than to help people
be successful in this journey.
I do want to advocate churches.
I use these resources.
We even created Canva templates.
So that you can go and change
your branding, your colors.
So make it wholly yours and you don't
have to give us any credit for right.
There are social shares.
There are email drip templates.
I mean, they're literally, we tried to
think, what could we give so that all
you have to do is take tools out of the
toolkit and implement it with your church.
And have a really incredible experience
journeying through God's word.
Well, I think when you start talking
about, especially if it's Messiah.
Um, I don't know how many
times I heard leading up to it.
You know, I just don't
think people will read.
I don't think people
read that much anymore.
And it's an aggressive
reading plan and it's a.
And my answer to that was people
still in this day and age, they
prioritize their time around things
of value that hasn't changed.
It won't change.
And it all depends on the way
that it's proposed, right?
Like, I I've.
I've told people before, if you
stand up in front of your church
and apologize for calling them
to something fairly significant.
You're dead in the water.
But if you stand before your church
and say, guys, I feel a burden on my
heart that God is calling us to begin
this year or wherever you implement
it throughout the year, but to embark
on a Bible reading journey together.
And will it take some work?
Yes.
But what in life?
That significant, what does it require?
Something of us?
So.
This is like a semi heroic
bucket list type of moment.
And can you imagine what, what
might be different in our lives?
If we said yes to this challenge,
what would God do if we journeyed
with Jesus through his life?
And through his ministry,
what would God do?
What could he do in our church?
As we see the birth and
explosion of the early church.
What could God do in our relationships
and in our families and in our lives.
As we read through the letters of
Paul, as he writes to clean up this
beautiful mess, that is this early.
What, what difference could
that make in our lives?
You make that sound
aspirational and exciting.
People respond.
And I think once people kind of
got that and started seeing and
sensing some of the early response
from the people in their church.
They started to believe it.
And then their confidence, our confidence,
I think collectively as a staff and as a
church went up that I think this is going
to work, but I think that was probably
one of the biggest, uh, barriers to it.
And w.
Can I add one more?
Sorry.
I think the other thing I
would say is the format.
If you use a format like the
immerse Bible from Tyndale, it's a
different format, it's a different
format and it's a different layout.
And so there is a question
of, was this, is this okay?
Like, can I use this?
Can I.
This, this Bible doesn't have
verses and chapters and section
headings and all the things.
Is that okay?
Well, yeah, because those were
added over time and we just, they
just returned scripture to the way
that it was originally rendered.
And then I think they tried to reorganize
the books of the Bible from starting
with Luke and acts, and then ordering
the books from that point on, and that
creates more of a story like form, but
it feels a little bit jarring to have
something in your hands that is, does
it look like all the other Bibles that
we've ever used throughout our lives?
And I think overcoming some of that
and questions around that were, were a
little bit a part of the journey as well.
Oh, this is why part of the reason
that I think it's important.
To build a message series around
the journey, because as you are
going through it from week to week,
People feel brought back into the
conversation into the journey each week.
And I think that's a part of it.
But speaking practically,
like within a group or within
a family look, life happens.
Right.
And it is.
It's about 30 minutes a day, five
days a week with two makeup days on
the weekend, or whenever you choose
to try to go at it, but people, life
happens and people will fall behind.
So I think when you're, when you're
having your conversation and people
say, you asked the first question,
what stood out to you this week?
Oh, man, that moment with
Jesus and that woman at the,
well, that was, that was crazy.
That, that conversation.
Hey.
Yes, that's a great story.
What page number is that again?
And they'll go and
they've probably got it.
Dog-eared or holding their place because
they want to talk about this and you go
and you say, well, let's, let's read a
few paragraphs here for context, just to
remind ourselves into refresh ourselves.
And that's part of it.
But what you're really doing is that
person who showed up a little bit
sheepish, having not read all of
it, and maybe they haven't read that
section instead of in their mind,
just checking out there now have
the same context as everybody else.
And they can participate in the
conversation even if they didn't read.
The other thing that I would strongly
recommend is at the end of each week
or at the beginning of the week, both
from the, the, the, the platform, the
pulpit, if, if you're doing a message
series around it, but as a small group
host or a family leader, whatever.
I think you just encourage everybody.
Hey, you may not have finished
it all this week and that's okay.
But do this start with this fresh at
this point, moving forward for this week.
And then if you get all of it, read
this week, go back and pick up what
you, what you missed last week.
And that keeps people from
being perpetually behind.
So each week, They're up with everybody
else and they have the same ability
to read that next week's reading.
As opposed to constantly floundering
and feeling like they're behind
everyone and staying hopelessly behind.
We, at the end of our journey,
we had some on-campus.
Uh, groups that met, and that
was beautiful because you kind
of got a captive audience.
And we put cards on the tables and ask
them just to share a little bit about
what the journey had meant to them.
And it blew our minds.
I mean, it shouldn't right.
Like the Bible talks about itself
and makes clear that it never
returns void and it has the power
to change lives in dramatic fashion.
But so many comments about, I've
never read the Bible before.
This is my first time reading through
the entirety of the new Testament.
All the way to, I've read the Bible
through many times, but never like this.
And it opened my eyes and new
ways to the truth of God's word.
People got more specific than that.
Talking about.
Um, how it nudged them towards a
forgiveness of someone who had hurt them
in their lives or the reparation of, of
relationships and marriages and such.
It's just, it was it staggered
us the, the life change.
And, and again, I suppose that that
means that we just get callous to
the transforming power of his word,
but I think it will surprise pastors.
It will remind us in stoke
again, all over again.
Maybe.
The wonder of God's word to impact the
people in our church in a profound way.
Sure we can, we can
preach alongside it, but.
We don't always have to because
his word does extraordinary
things in people's lives.
And I think that's what
pastors can expect.
This will enhance your preaching from
this point forward, because instead of
just seeing a passage on a screen, your
entire church suddenly has context for
every message that you bring set in
that sec in, in the whatever volume
that you choose, And we, you know, look,
we, this was a year over a year ago.
I still have people coming
up to me a year later.
Telling me how much this meant to them.
And.
This time when we announced it to our
church last year, it was kind of like,
wait, what, what are we doing this year?
There were audible claps and
applause with excitement about
going on this journey again.
So it's going to be amazing..
You know, truth be told, uh, this
started with a conference that
I went to probably 13 years ago
and I was on staff at chase Oaks.
I was there at the conference and
I saw a free dinner and it looked
like it was being put on by.
The Institute for Bible
reading around a new Bible.
And I thought, yeah, I'll go, I'll
have the dinner and I'll bounce.
But that's where this concept
was first introduced to me.
And immediately there was something in
my soul, in my heart that said this.
This is significant, and this is something
that has the power to impact the church.
And so I went back and started talking
with the leadership at chase Oaks.
And it took me a minute, but they,
uh, over time bought the vision and
we rolled it out with our church.
And before that I had done it
with one of my small groups and.
Cause I wanted to be able to go to them
and say, look, this is, is transformative.
And it was, it was so
fascinating and so beautiful.
We did it as a church.
We had about 5,000 in attendance at
the time, but we distributed 7,000.
Of the new testaments, but because
people were so excited about it,
introducing it to their friends,
inviting neighbors and such.
And since then, I've probably gone
through with different groups, probably
about 10 groups that we've taken through
a different volume of the immerse.
Um, Bible and it's been.
Incredible.
And it's kind of like kids, every
group is a little bit different.
And our takeaways and the things
that we glean have been different
from, from group to group.
How, how has it impacted you personally?
Wow.
Um, it's, it's been profound.
Um, and you know, one of the things
that's impacted us the most is when
a someone who doesn't know Jesus
has said yes to our invitation.
And one of the reasons that I think
that's so important is those people
come into the group curious, And
willing to ask questions that maybe
those have been walking with Jesus
for a while have, but think that maybe
they're expected to have moved past.
They want to ask them, but the
person who doesn't know Jesus will.
And it's, it's prompted us to dig
into places that maybe it's been
a while since we've we've dug in.
And it's prompted us to see Jesus maybe
with the same wonder and that, that
first love euphoria, that all of us
who've been walking with Jesus for a
while, would do anything to recapture.
And I think it's given us that
taste again in multiple groups.
Uh, where we've seen people who don't
know Jesus step into them and enrich
that conversation in tremendous ways.
We learned something every time
we get to the end and people
think us for facilitating, we
think them for an enriching and
expanding our view of who God is.
And in many ways throughout the journey,
RODECaster Pro II Main Multitrack-3:
The Bible was written to be
read together in community.
So let's read it that way.
Let us know that you are interested
in reading with us at onemillionmore.
bible.
We have free resources for you and for
your church because together we can
be changed by the power of God's word.
Let's keep reading.