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Tomorrow can be different from today.
Our lives often leave us feeling hopeless—like nothing will ever change. But perspective is everything. When you know where to look, hope can be found in the spaces and places you least expect.
Join Jason Gore (Lead Pastor of Hope Community Church) for a fresh perspective, practical steps, and weekly encouragement that hope really is possible… even in real life.
We understand and believe the gospel in our head
and our heart, but we experience the gospel in community.
Yeah, that's true. And there are so many moments.
That's good. Where we have an opportunity
to either accept the gospel in community
or share the gospel in community.
And what I mean by that, it's not, it's not the share the
gospel in the evangelistic way.
It's, it means grace upon grace. Right. Upon grace, yeah.
With the people that we're sitting next to.
Welcome to the Hope and Real Life podcast with Jason Gore.
Our team is passionate
and committed to bringing you more hope in the everyday
real areas of your life.
If this conversation and content is valuable for you,
please do us a favor, like, subscribe, and even share.
You never know how valuable it could be
to share a little bit of hope with someone else.
Let's get the conversation started.
Well, welcome to the Hope in Real Life podcast.
I'm here with a good friend,
Kristen McDonald. Kristen, how you doing?
I'm great. How are you Jason?
I'm doing great. Awesome. Doing fantastic.
This week we are talking about, uh, a topic that so many
of us really need to engage, uh,
and it's this idea of our need for community.
Yeah. And before we jump in, I'll just tell, uh,
our listeners a little bit about you.
I'm here with Kristen, who is, um, man among
so many other things, is a wife, is a mother,
is a working professional.
And so I just wanna start out by saying, really one
of the unsung heroes and rock stars of our community.
I know that because my wife carries all those boxes as well.
Why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself?
Yeah. Um, well, first of all, thanks for having me. Yeah.
This is fun. And the energy here is amazing
and I'm excited to be here. So, great
Team. I'm
Kristin. Uh, you probably don't know who I'm,
but I am here.
Um, I've been in Raleigh since, um, the summer
of 2018 when our job, my job moved us down here.
My husband Tommy, and my daughter Maggie.
Um, and yes, six years old.
Six years old, finishing up kindergarten.
That's her daughter, not Tommy. Yes. Tommy Golden.
Yes. Well, sometimes he's six years old sometimes.
Love you babe. Um, so yeah, we've been here for,
uh, since 2018.
We go to Hope Community Church here.
So we've been a part of the community for over six years.
Um, and there's, there's a lot to our,
our life and what we do.
But, um, you know, we are just so thankful
for the community, the people, um,
and the way God has used us
and moved through our family over the past few years
and excited for this conversation.
Yeah. Because it's important and,
um, I think people need this. Yeah.
And you know, and you mentioned the, one of the things
that the church has provided for you is community.
People can find that in any other places.
But anybody that has a conversation with you
for longer than a couple minutes, I can see the passion
and the drive that you have for helping others.
Not just finding it yourself, but helping others
find community in life.
Can you just talk to us for a minute?
Like what, was there an event that kinda led you to Yeah.
Realizing this is important to you?
Yeah, yeah. It's,
it was a journey, I would say, not an event.
Okay. Um, my family and I, Tommy, Maggie and I walked in
and out of Hope stores probably for four years
without really being intentionally connected.
Like, we did a very good job being here on Sundays.
We did a very good job serving in Kids City and, um,
Which many families appreciate.
Many families appreciate and it was awesome.
Um, but we, we didn't have
that broader community like within Hope
or even, um,
the broader bigger Sea church in the triangle area.
So doing life a little bit on our own,
but getting fed in a great way.
And I know a lot of people do. And, um,
like most married people can probably relate to,
we were in a really kind of hard season.
Tommy and I were, um, candidly and transparently
and we were literally on a, a trip, um,
and the outer banks, uh, over 4th of July that we had
to leave early to come home and reset
'cause it just was not going well.
And we looked at each other and
we're like, we gotta figure this out.
Or we're on a path that neither of us wanna go down.
And so we signed up
for this little program called re-engage at Hope.
Um, I'd heard about it in big service.
I had talked to a few people who had done it,
and it changed everything for us.
Um, for us as a couple.
It pointed us to God, what God says about marriage,
what he says about us in that marriage.
Um, but then individually, I think it just grew our faith
and, and our, our walk and our journey with God.
So all that happened, it was amazing.
Our small group that we went through for reengage, um,
actually still meets today. And,
And so what our listeners might not know, like if you go
to reengage, you actually get put kinda in a group
and there's, you know, some guardrails that are put in place
and some guidelines that are put in place,
but you actually walk through the stuff that you're working
through in your marriage Exactly.
With a group of people. Yep.
And so you're saying that group kind
of stuck together? Yes. And after.
Yes. Um, so shout out
to a Range Gage group 'cause they're amazing.
Um, and so we went through that
and I came out of that, that season
and that experience with Tommy, which was amazing.
We had this couples community, but I looked around me and,
and God was just putting something on my heart around like,
this community was so important, the people were
so important, but there were women around me
who aren't married and don't have kids.
And so I was like, how do they, how do they step into a,
a really meaningful experience?
Like I just went through and that was the dream that started
what I now call Fire and Friendship.
Um, my sisters and I kind of talked it out.
We dreamed together and we started this group that started
with 12 women in my backyard around literally my fireplace.
Yeah. And it's now grown to over 70 women who are part
of this, this group.
Um, so it's, it's amazing.
God has been moving like crazy
and, uh, I'm just so thankful to, to get to watch it.
So I I'd love to, uh, I'll make a note here
and hopefully we'll come back to it.
Yeah. And then, you know, much
of this is obviously unscripted,
but yes, I think it's worth recognizing you guys were having
a difficulty in your marriage Mm-Hmm.
But unplanned like community helped you through that
A hundred percent. And
so I think so many times it,
we don't realize like the, the loneliness
and the isolation that we somehow are prone to Yeah.
As individuals and even as families, um,
can actually create an environment
where we can't experience the life
that we're really created to have. I would
Argue a hundred percent I heard recently
that fruit grows in the valley and Yeah.
Like when you go through, walk through those seasons,
like you need that community to, to bear that fruit. So,
So we've, again, we've used the word
community now a number of times.
How, how would you, um, how would you define community
Man? Um,
I, I think for a really long time I
misunderstood community based off of what culture
and the world told me what community was.
And I think we could all, you know, being a part
of a community means being active
and having people around you
and, um, most likely, like culturally
and the world tells us like surface level relationships
are fine and they're okay.
Um, but what I learned as I kind
of stepped into the re-engage process and then visioning
and thinking about what fire and friendship is, is
what's more important is what God says about community.
And so when I think about, um, the essence of, of what
that is, God is community.
Right. In the Trinity. Yeah. Um, father, son Holy Spirit.
And so it really is this, this opportunity
and this amazing way for us to not only, um,
grow relationships, deep relationships with each other,
but experience life with each other
and experience a, a deeper closeness with God.
Um, you know, it,
it has never been the intention for us to be alone.
And I think we are in the most, we are in the,
the most highly connected time of our, our existence.
Right. Technology has enabled us
to just be constantly connected,
but we are so disconnected.
Right. Right. What would you say community is?
Yeah. So, you know,
and I know a lot of our, our listeners might not even be
Christians, followers of Jesus Yep.
Or even have a spiritual background. Yep.
But I think what you alluded to is so important.
Um, you know, my belief, I know your belief. Mm-Hmm.
You know, the Bible tells us
that we are created in the image of God.
Yep. And the image of God exists is the, the Father,
the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that
for all eternity past, have forever existed in this perfect
unified relationship.
Yep. And so if we're created, in fact, in that image,
it would make sense why things wouldn't feel right
when we're not connected with others around us in our lives.
And so, yeah. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head
as far as what that means.
And then man, as it relates to the connectivity. Yeah. Yeah.
There's such a difference between being connected digitally
to a group of people,
and we can be so misled into thinking we are connected when
we get the likes, when we get the comments,
when we get a new friend request.
Yep, yep, yep. Um, but,
but being connected digitally is
so different from actually having a true community.
Absolutely. And and you even mentioned, you know,
fruit grows in the Valley.
I, I noticed what you didn't say
when, when I said, what's community?
You didn't say, oh, it's this thing where you're together
with your friends and everything is always perfect
because the reality is like,
community actually can be messy.
Absolutely. And, uh, let me ask you this
before we kinda continue to unpack that.
Yeah. Tell us a little bit like, who is your community?
Who is your tribe? Like who,
what does that look like for you
In your life? Yeah.
I mean, um, I've got what I would call my people,
my, my three to four really close friends
who know everything there is to know about Kristen McDonald.
Um, they are my accountability group.
They're my, my people that I go to
when things get hard or when things are good.
Um, and so that,
that tribe includes my sisters and my family.
I'm very close with them. Um, it includes some
of my best girlfriends who actually live in the same
neighborhood that I live in.
Yeah. So I think something about community
that's so important is proximity.
Right? Where are you, where has God put you?
And, and who's around you.
Um, and then I've, I, you know, kind
of broaden out from that.
Um, there's, there's a broader group of a village
that you have to have around you.
Right. So for me, uh, specifically in my life,
I found community in my daughter's school with some
of the moms in the classroom, um, with her.
I, uh, belong to Burn Bootcamp in Northwest Raleigh.
And that has been a huge blessing in
friendships and community that we've
Built. I've heard so many people say
positive things
about Burn Bootcamp, and it's
Incredible. Yeah. It's incredible.
And they don't pay me to say that.
It's great.
You probably pay them to have the ability to, you,
You tried Burn Bootcamp, didn't you, Jason?
See, no, this was, this was brought up in pre production.
Um, miss, it was either Miss Hailey
or Miss Elena asked, wait,
you do burn bootcamp, don't you, Jason?
And No, for the record, I don't do Burn bootcamp.
And if you're a guy and you do, I applaud you. That's great.
My gym time is my alone time.
I'm around enough people, so, yeah.
Okay. Well, here's one challenge.
One time you're gonna come to Northwestern Bootcamp
and you'll experience the community
and the amazing experience that they provide.
It'll be messy. It'll be messy already. Oh,
Man. Yeah. So I, I, the
gym is a huge place for me.
And, and that's, that format
of working out has been a huge community builder.
Um, and then, you know, my, my, my husband is actually the,
the more social one in our relationship.
He, I tell everyone, he
6-year-old Tommy, yeah.
6-year-old Tommy could talk to a wall if I made him.
Um, but he just, he, he loves people.
He loves to be around people.
He is an extrovert in the sense
that he gets his energy by being around people.
And I am an introvert in the sense that I get my energy by
not being with people.
Yeah. It, it exhausts me to be with 'em.
So in our neighborhood, like we just, we,
God placed us in this, in this area that is just surrounded
by families and kids and retired families.
It's just, it's an amazing spot.
And, um, I think we've done a decent job kind
of planning roots and trying to love the people around us.
Yeah. I can say for, for our family, um, we have,
so we live, I mean, so this was on purpose Mm-Hmm.
For us. But we live in a neighborhood,
we live in the same neighborhood that my brother
and his wife live in, and they have two kids.
And in that neighborhood also is my wife's brother,
his wife and their two kids.
Um, and then also my mom lives
in that neighborhood Oh my gosh.
As well. And so that's on purpose.
And then, um, our, then right next to my house is a pond,
and then there's another home on the other side of the pond.
And that house live, uh, a family, the Sullivan,
the Sullivans, Sean and Heather Sullivan,
and then they have two kids.
And it just so happens that their two kids are essentially
right around the same age as my kids.
And, um, they've been there for about seven years now.
And like those four families, like when it's time
for birthdays, when it's time, uh, for holidays,
when it's time for, let's get together
and watch the Super Bowl or watch NC State
basketball, football, wrestling.
Yeah. Um, like that's just what we do. Yep. We get together.
And I, but it's not just for the good things.
I mean, what I, I can honestly tell you if it weren't for,
and, and again, you, you kind of expect out of your brother
and your wife's brother and those families,
but if it weren't for, uh, the Sullivan crew, I mean, they,
we've done enough life together now.
Mm-Hmm. Like if my mom gets sick, they're trying
to find a way to jump in and help.
And I mean, we're raising three kids.
We have twins that are 15. We've got another guy who's 12.
They are two kids. Between all the practices
and all the thi like, I have no idea.
My wife and I both work. Um, they both work.
I have no idea how we would meet the
demands of our schedule.
And and that even comes down to like, there's some nights
where it's like, Hey, we know you guys are slammed.
We're just going to make enough food for nine
and then so you guys don't have to worry about it.
And vice versa. It's
Amazing. And have no idea
how we would make it in,
in life if we just were to pick up and move somewhere else.
Yep. And then try to balance everything.
Just the math doesn't work. Yep.
Yep. What's incredible.
And as you're talking through that, I just think about
how God has worked in our life in the sense
that he did pick us up and move us to Raleigh.
Yeah. And I can't do the math. 2018, and
That's six years.
Thank You. Probably right around the time Maggie was
Born. I'm in sales and
can't do math very well. Um, she was one.
Yes. Good point. Um, so, and,
and like he put us in this neighborhood
that wasn't even finished being built yet.
And like,
and that's like one of the biggest things about community.
Like just a small act of, we'll call it obedience
to pick our heads up to
and see who's around us, to see
what intentionality God has already built into
who those people are that are walking
by your house every single day.
Yeah. And that, like, you don't even think about, you know,
starting a conversation or saying hi to them.
So the intentionality that you just described,
I don't, I think that's rare.
Like I, I, it's amazing. Yeah.
'cause I think people, they, they are, they can, we can be,
we are such an individualistic culture right now that
you can drive home, pull in your garage, close the garage,
and literally not talk to one person
in your day. Right. Um,
And I don't want to, I don't want to like jump back
to it too much, but you can do that
and then jump, pull your phone out Absolutely.
And jump on social media and feel like you're actually
connecting with people.
Yeah. Yeah. I read,
or I heard yesterday,
the average person in the US touches their phone.
I think it's 2,630 times a day. Wow.
Like what? Yeah. It was a wake up call to me.
'cause I'm guilty of it like we all are. Right.
Like, I mean, I have moments of bath time with my daughter
and I catch myself scrolling on my phone.
So there is just such a, um, numbness
that I think that's a good word.
Yeah. Like COVID catapulted all of that for all of us.
'cause we weren't allowed to be with people. Right.
And so, um, it's just put us in this space
where we feel okay being dis truly disconnected
in the way that we're made to be.
But a false sense of, of connectivity as you just described.
Yeah. Via technology, hope
In real life, family. I
want to take a moment
and let you know about a resource that we have for you
for your own personal development, spiritual enrichment,
and really a way for you
to find a bit more hope in real life.
We have a tool for you called the Hope in Real Life app.
It offers things like parenting tips, financial resources,
marriage insights, uh, if you're looking for it,
there's even Bible reading plans in there.
And there's a community
where you can even share prayer requests
and know that someone is praying for you for whatever it is
that you have going on in your life.
It's available right now in the Apple App
Store or in Google Play.
You can search hope in real life and both stores.
Or you can use the download link that is in the show notes.
Remember, tomorrow can be better than today
and hope is possible.
Even in real life. I talk to a lot of people in, in
what I do that are wrestling with hopelessness,
that are wrestling with challenging situations.
And I often find myself telling people like,
you're probably not gonna be able to get out
of this all on your own.
Yeah. But there is a side to you are going to have to, like,
if you ended up here, um, you are going to have to put
some effort of fight to get yourself out of that situation.
And as it relates to community,
like if there really are all these things
that are working against us, experiencing the community,
the community and the the belongingness
that we actually need in our lives
is something we're actually gonna have to fight for.
Oh yeah. And be intentional about. Yes.
And um, again, when it's so easy to not, um, I mean,
you can, you can go into a restaurant
and get food without talking to people.
Now you can place an order, you can pick it up. You can.
And so I think just recognizing that,
but what that's done in my opinion is it's led even more
people to a place of Yeah.
I don't really, I don't know that I need community.
I mean, you mentioned the Yeah. Introvert side
and I'm kind of this weird blend of extrovert,
but then I hit a wall and I'm done.
Like you don't, my kids joke around that like,
the person I am sitting with them at 6:00 AM
around the table talking through
what we're reading in our Bible is very different human than
the guy at nine o'clock when it's time for bed.
And they haven't gone to bed
and they still haven't gone to bed
and they still haven't gone to bed.
Yep. Yep. And so like
that guy is not the same once he's done.
So I should probably digress from that.
But, and I don't remember awareness is the first step.
I don't even know where I was going on that,
but what would you say to the person
that says, you know what?
I, um, for whatever reason,
and I've got a couple reasons I'll even ask you about,
but if they were to say, you know what?
I don't know that I need to have
that many other people in my life,
You need it even that much more.
Yeah. Um, you know, I haven't mentioned yet,
but a lot of what has sparked the dream in my heart
and um, why my sisters
and I decided to, to create fire friendship as a place
for women was really
after reading Jenny Allie's, fi, Jenny all, sorry, Jenny.
Jenny Allen's Find Your People, um, book,
which is an incredible resource for not just women,
both women and men.
Um, I heard her recently on a podcast talking about
community and she said, one of the guys asked like, well,
well this is for women, not for guys.
And she's like, no, guys actually need it more
because they don't think they need it.
So they need it 10 times more.
Um, and the first thing she calls out in
that book is kind of three points.
'cause I think the biggest detractor from community
is the time that we're spent, the time you have to spend
or invest or the effort which you just spoke about.
And I also think it's because people hurt.
People hurt people. Yeah. Right.
And I think we all have a story
or maybe 500 stories of communities that we were in that
didn't end well or rough experiences that we went through.
Yeah. Or we hurt people
and we haven't really dealt with that yet.
And so she calls out, I love this.
She says at the beginning, um,
these are three truths that will never go away.
Like, you will hurt people, people will hurt you,
God will never hurt you or leave you.
And it's, it's kind of this relief when you think about
taking that step into being in, in a community and,
and in relationship with people and,
and starting to figure out what that could look like for you
to know that like, man, we're gonna mess up.
It's gonna get messy. But that's part of the,
the blessing of it all.
And it's the, the what you were going to reap
from being with these people
and being with, with a community is far always any
of the risk of stepping into it.
Um, and I would just say like, it doesn't have to be
something really big.
You know, I think, I think we sometimes make
make it way too complicated.
Like it could be as simple as, um, you know,
you spend too much time by yourself
or you know, you don't have that group
and you, you kind of have a feeling like maybe I should
explore this or, or see what what could come of it.
And it could be as simple as like asking someone
to coffee that you don't know.
Yeah. Like getting to know someone that you see every day
and starting to make some connections
and threads throughout the different areas of your life that
essentially can,
can weave together in an intentional way. Yeah.
Uh, and I'm
by no means a a subject matter expert. Me neither,
You Know, not how this works.
But what I would say is what I have learned, and,
and I'll come back to this in a
minute 'cause I don't get this right.
'cause I can tell you I do have, uh, you know,
whatever buzzword you wanna use, a community, a tribe, sure.
I've got my people, but I'm, that comes at a challenge
for me that, that I'll get to in a minute.
Mm-Hmm. But what I've learned is the math
doesn't work, but it works out in your favor.
And what I mean by that is you could, you could think, well,
I don't have time for this, uh, community.
I don't have time for more people,
or I've been hurt enough, I don't want to be hurt anymore.
Or, um, you know, some of us carry
around stories that we shouldn't care.
I hurt people. Yep. And so therefore I'm not gonna do that.
Sure. And so, but what I've found is like,
when you actually get connected with people, you're right.
You are gonna hurt people and they are gonna hurt you.
But here's the deal. You're gonna be hurt no matter what.
Of course. But somehow when you have other people
around you in your life, the, the math doesn't work.
And it's, it actually is easier to walk
through it when you've got other people around you.
And the very thought,
and maybe we've got a listener that needs
to hear this right now, but like, your junk
that you're carrying around that you don't think, um,
needs to be dumped on anybody else might be the very purpose
that somebody else needs to find, to have an opportunity
to serve you and community.
And so there's someone sitting around looking
for more purpose in life that will never find that
unless they actually see the brokenness
that you have in your life and vice versa.
A hundred percent. And so again,
if we're created in the image of God
and we're called to live that out amongst each other,
like we'd have to admit things are
gonna feel a bit more broken.
Yeah. Unless we're involved with each
Other. A hundred percent.
Um,
and I'll add another layer on top of that,
Jenny's newest book is Untangle Your Emotions.
So she dives into like, what are emotions?
Why do we have them? 'cause that's what, what, that's
what comes out of all of this, right.
When we're in, when we get hurt and when we feel pain.
And sometimes we just don't wanna feel those things again.
And of course we don't wanna feel them again. It doesn't
Feel, I'm gonna come back to
that one in a minute when we talk
about guys, so you keep going.
She shared a story that has stuck in my brain ever since,
um, that ties directly to why we need people.
And she said at the end of the story, she basically shared,
we understand and believe the gospel in our head
and our heart, but we experience the gospel in community.
Yeah, that's true.
And there are so many moments That's good.
Where we have an opportunity
to either accept the gospel in community
or share the gospel in community.
And what I mean by that, it's not,
it's not the share the gospel in the evangelistic way.
It's, it means grace upon grace Right. Upon grace Yeah.
With the people that we're sitting next to.
And, um, I, that, that like rung in my ears when she said it
because I was like, man, God put this dream on my heart.
It's been amazing. We, you know,
our group meets every other Tuesday,
we have awesome meals like we did Chipotle this week.
It was great. Like we had great conversation
and it was great dialogue, but like, that's what it's about.
Right? Like, to your point, people carrying around the stuff
that they might have never said to someone else
or they, they think is, is too much for God and it's not.
And, and we are the vehicle that he uses
to show that to others. Yeah. It's amazing
Hope in real life family.
I wanna pause for a moment
and let you know about an opportunity
that I believe can help you find a bit more
hope in everyday life.
Listen, I know a lot of our viewers probably aren't a part
of a church or maybe you gave up on the church a long time
ago and, and believe me, uh, possibly for good reason.
I understand. Uh,
but I don't want you to miss out on the hope
that you can actually experience by journeying along side
of a group of people that really are seeking God's
best for their lives.
If you are the least bit curious, uh, we try to make this
as simple for you as we possibly can, wherever it is
that you digest digital content podcasts, you can go
to the podcast store, you can check it out on YouTube
and just search Hope Community Church.
You'll be able to find our messages
there and check those out.
Or if you actually want to tune in during a service time,
uh, you can go to get Hope TV at four 15
or 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time,
or you can tune in at nine 30
or 11:15 AM Eastern Standard Time.
Again, that's at Get Hope tv.
We hope that you'll take a chance with us
and experience what it is God has for you in your life.
You're gonna find practical messages
that will help you find hope in
the everyday moments of your life.
Hope you'll check it out. I want to go back
to your comment about, you know, when, when Jenny said,
you know, what she was talking about is,
you know, it's, it's for men too.
It's not just for women. Yeah.
I just wanna reckon that we probably got some listeners
that, that are guys I know we do.
Um, one of the reasons why community is hard for guys,
especially in certain mixed context, is
sometimes there is this expectation
to talk about things like, um, what's the word?
It begins with an an F the feelings.
Oh, is that, yeah. And, uh,
Things we go through on a day-to-day basis,
One of those bad words.
But, but the reality is like there's a,
and look, I'm by no means pitching, uh,
a martyr complex for guys.
Sure. 'cause at the end of the day, you can carry
around whatever martyr complex that you want
and it's, it's not gonna help you get better.
Mm-Hmm. But man, as men, it is, uh, it's
like we, a lot of us carry this responsibility to lead,
to serve, um, to care for others to, to,
to put food on the table, uh, all these things.
But, and then what happens is sometimes you,
if you don't feel appreciated
or heaven forbid, you're not able
to actually get those things done, man, the,
the vulnerability it takes to actually voice that and,
and what many of us are told in life, whether we know it
or not, is, um, hey, that, that's a feeling like,
but you, we don't have time to deal with those.
'cause at the end of the day, it's
something else has to be done.
And I know this is probably the same for women. Yeah.
It just so happens I have way more unique experiences with
as a man than I do as a woman. Um, good to know.
Good to know. But I will say this through, uh,
through counseling.
Yes. Um, I have learned that, um,
if we actually don't not only take time
to process our own feelings Mm-Hmm.
But actually, um, are willing to express those,
um, we, we don't really have an opportunity to figure out.
Okay. And, and in my world
and what I believe, we don't really have an opportunity
to see what, how those feelings would direct us to God Sure.
Or, or make it known to other people around us in community,
like actually what we need.
And the reality is we all need things. Yep. We have needs.
And our feelings are really just an expression of that need
that should hopefully drive us towards loving community
where we're gonna experience grace upon grace upon grace,
and then help us know what it is
that we need from a loving God. Yeah.
That's so good. And you think about it, you know, I think
another book, shout out I'll,
I'll call out John Mark Comers.
God Has a Name changed My Life in the last
12 months when I read that book.
And what I have started to, I think
accept might be the wrong word,
but just like understand about God is that
he is a God of emotion.
Like he gave us those feelings and emotion
and he felt right when, when Jesus was here
and he was in human form,
the shortest verse of the Bible, he wept.
Like Jesus cried. He, he knows what we're going through.
He understands how tough this world can be. Right.
And I think so many times, you know, even as much time as I,
I try to spend with God
or know God more, I can
so quickly put him in a box of like Yeah.
What he is and how he'll respond.
And he's a loving father. Right. You think about your
Kids, you look at him as maybe this standoffish thing
because he's all powerful and
because he is all knowing that there's no emotion,
that there's no feeling, there's no love. Yes.
And he loves, he he feels so much right. Yeah.
He, he has joy, he has excitement. Um, he, he has anger too.
Like there there's all this righteous anger.
Like there is so much that we experience
because we're made in his image that we don't take to him
because we don't think it's relatable,
which is the most ridiculous thing to think.
Yeah. But it's what has shaped
our minds for a really long time.
And that's been freeing for me to, to know that
God doesn't want just my prayer request.
He doesn't want just, um, my time of, of praise.
He wants it all.
And that is what we're able to experience when we go
to him in community
because, um, it it allows us to,
to experience that with each other.
Yeah.
Let's do this. Okay. You mentioned,
um, fire and Friendship.
Yes. I'd love for you just to take a moment and,
'cause I've had some of these conversations
with you, with you and your sisters.
I would love for you just take a moment,
just kinda cast a vision for what, what do you want
to see fire and Friendship become?
And maybe we've got a listener
that if there's some here in the triangle,
maybe there's an opportunity to jump in
or maybe they're listening from somewhere else.
Maybe it kind of sparks an idea for them to, uh,
jump out on a limb and and give something a shot themselves.
I love it. I love it. Yeah. So, um, fire
and Friendship essentially is, um, you could call it a,
a large small group,
but it is a gathering of women, um, who meet, uh, during
what we call sessions or sprints.
We just finished up our, uh,
spring session this past Tuesday.
Um, and we're gonna kick back another one in the,
or Kickstart another one in the
fall, which we're very excited about.
And the dream behind Fire
and Friendship was giving space for women to, uh,
build community with one another and seek God,
and seek Jesus as, as we have these conversations.
And so it's been incredible to watch
how God has moved this thing.
It's been about a year
and a half in terms of, you know, from dream in heart
to actually seeing women show up
to the growth that we've seen.
Uh, but, but today we have one large group meeting
for fire and Friendship.
Um, and it's getting pretty large.
Like I said, it's 70, 70 women are in the group
and it's amazing.
And if they all showed up, this is my,
you know, dreamer mentality.
Uh, my my older sister always jokes I'm the
balloon and she's the weight.
'cause she has to like, keep me from, you know,
just dreaming too big sometimes.
So if all 70 women showed up to a house one day, it would,
it would be interesting, but we'd make it work.
What we're really looking for right now, we're praying about
to God is like, Hey God, my dream
that you've put on my heart is
that there are multiple groups of fire
and friendship meeting around the triangle.
Um, gosh, I won't even limit it around the country. Right.
Going through, um, whatever the study is
that we're, we're working on together.
And there's opportunities to bring those groups together
throughout those sessions.
So right now, there's a couple ways to get plugged in.
We're looking for leaders. If you've got a group
and you are struggling for like content
or like structure, you know, it's,
it's, it feels burdensome.
Like I'd love to talk to you about either
how we can encourage you with that group, um,
or how we can equip you with in
with some of the stuff that we're doing.
And if you wanna just get plugged in
to learn more about the, the existing group
that it's already there, we would
love to to hear from you too.
So, um, yeah, there I've got a big dream for fire
and friendship, but it's
ultimately what God wants to do with it.
Yeah. So we'll see what doors he opens. Awesome.
Yeah. Well, hey, I, I know we're,
uh, we're running up on time.
Yeah. There's, um, I, I made a couple notes here
and then you can correct me.
Okay. But if I had to sum up what, what I've heard just,
just in our conversation here, when it comes to community,
uh, I wrote one, we were created for it.
Mm-Hmm. And so just recognizing without it in our lives,
we're not going to experience life the way that we could
and, and ultimately the way
that we are created to experience life.
Secondly, we've gotta be intentional
and we gotta fight for it.
And that could be as simple as going to burn bootcamp,
which I might be there one time,
but other than that I won't be.
Uh, it's gotta be, uh, it could be in your kid's school.
It, it could be as simple
as it is growing where you're planted.
Yep. You are in a neighborhood,
what are your neighbors up to?
Check in on 'em, reach out to 'em and see.
So we've gotta be intentional.
And then the last one, um, you didn't say it this way,
but I just said bring your mess.
Yeah. Like, don't go into community expecting to be perfect.
Certainly don't go into it expecting it to be perfect.
I've heard people say, if you're expecting
to find a perfect community, don't show up.
'cause you'll mess it up. Yep.
So, uh, so let's make sure re remember we're created for it.
We gotta be intentional, we've gotta fight for it.
The world's fighting against it
and we've gotta be willing to bring our mess
to it if we're really gonna
experience everything that it has.
Good job. Jason, that was a good summary. Okay. Good
Summary. Alright. Thank you so much.
I'm glad,
I'm glad we had this talk.
Uh, well, lemme ask you this as, as we wrap up,
what are you, uh, what are you hopeful for?
I mean, the podcast is called Hope in Real Life For you,
Chris McDot, this doesn't have to be about community fire
and friendship, the broad scheme of life right now.
What are you hopeful for, man in the next five years?
We started talking about this before we,
we started talking officially.
Uh, God is on the move.
Like I,
and I don't say that to like sound like someone who
over rotates, but like,
I just believe we are in such a unique time.
Um, and he is moving and I'm excited.
I wanna be a part of that journey. Yeah.
And he is hope, right?
And so if, if he is moving, sign me up
and let's figure out where he wants us to go.
Yeah. That's awesome. Hey,
thank you so much for your time. Thanks
For having me. Yeah. This was fun.
Absolutely. And then Your team is
amazing by the way. Shout out
To the team. Yeah. They, they 100%
are everything, uh,
that we heard about from Jenny Allen's book
to John Mark comer's book to Burn, bootcamp to Fire
and Friendship, how to contact You.
We'll put all that in the ship notes. Perfect.
And listen, if you as a listener know someone
who is living life in isolation right now,
let me encourage you, share this with them.
Um, you never know the the value that you can bring
to somebody else by just sharing
with them a simple conversation
that can maybe help them take a life giving step towards
hope that we all know that they need.
Kristen, thank you again. Thanks Jason being here with us.
Love you guys. Thanks for tuning in with us
and look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
Let's keep sharing hope. Thanks for tuning in
to this episode of The Hope in Real Life podcast.
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