Video Transcript: The Church God Wants

Thank you. You pray with me God, just even hearing that story just tells us of your  sovereignty, like you are in control of everything you knew when we would be born, you knew  we would be in this room tonight, God, this isn't an accident. This isn't just another meeting  another gathering. It's something you designed when you created us, Lord. And that's just  brilliant. We can't even imagine that. And so God, we want to make the most of these few  minutes we have together to honor you and just figure out how to how to be your ministers  how to be your ambassadors, and, and so thank you, for these men and women in this room,  my brothers and sisters, God help me to say things that will matter. 100 years from now, God  that we can look back on in this little room, when we're in your presence and say, Gosh,  something happened there. And make it that real. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Man. That's  hilarious about that story. But Dan's gone just so you guys, so I can get him back. I mean, he,  you know, I taught a preaching class at this college that we started in Simi Valley. And, you  know, every year it, you know, like, I'd get a new crop of students, you know, 20, 30 students  in this room and, and, you know, you start to get to know their personalities and, and they  would take turns preaching, and when it was, Daniel's turn to preach, I'm, I'm just being  honest, I was kind of dreading it, because he seems so shy and like, mousy, and like, alright,  you know, let me get some coffee. And, you know, let me get ready. And I just remember, the  moment he got up there, our whole class was like, What in the world? Like, it just, no one was  expecting that sermon, like, You got to be kidding me. And it was, it was, it was pretty  awesome. And so lately, we've been having conversations and we've just kept close, you  know, as as close as we can, with the distance and everything and just always appreciated his heart and his faith and how he stretched me in some areas. And, and I love I even steal things from his sermon. Since people don't know him, they think I came up with it. You know, lately,  we've just been having a lot of conversations about church and and just as God's been  blessing and seeing things that are happening in the church gatherings, you guys have been  a part of this. Okay, moving forward. Now, what do we need to do? Because, man, you did  some things. And then you got to a point where you just felt like you hit a wall, and I don't  want to hit that wall. And so how do we change some of the things in the beginning, when it's  still fresh, because you know, once you get stuck in a pattern for a few years, then it's a lot  harder to change. And so what are some of those things, and a lot of it is stuff like this, where  it's no different from what, you know, Jethro told Moses, like, you can't do it this way. You can't just have everyone come and listen to you, and you make all the decisions. You've got to get  other people involved. You've got to split this thing up. Each of you, you know, you need to be multiplying yourselves. You need to have people that are under your care. You know, this, like, like Paul said, it was like, gosh, you should be teachers by now. And you still need someone to  feed you. I mean, that was the frustrating thing. For me. It was like 16 years in one church.  And I mean, I had people that were in there 10, 15 years, and, and you're trying to please  everyone 1000s of people, and they're still coming up complaining, like, you didn't feed me  enough. And it's like, really, man, you should be feeding other people. And you're coming up.  And I mean, one time I got so frustrated, and I blew it, I shouldn't have used this illustration.  But I, I got a couple of like, these little toy plastic balls, and I stuffed it in my shirt. And I said,  this is why I feel every Sunday. Come on up here. Let me feed you, you know, and I said,  Doesn't this look ridiculous? You know, and everyone's laughing. I go, but this is what I feel  like, like, why am I still feeding you? You know, this is ridiculous. You should be feeding other  people. And how do we get you out there using your gifts ministering to other people? And  one of the things I've been looking at now as a church is I look at the people My congregation  and I see them as my children. And yet with my children, I don't tell my kids, hey, just live at  home until I die. I tell them, No, I'm going to train you up. And by time you turn 18, I want you to leave, you know, and I want you to get your own jobs, I want you to learn how to live on  your own, I want you to start your own families. Because if you think you're going to live  under my roof for the rest of your life, it's going to make you weak. And I will not be doing my  job unless I teach you how to stand on your own two feet, because Dad's not going to be here forever. And we haven't run church that way, like the family, where we teach people and  disciple them to where they can stand on their own two feet. I mean, for most people who  attended church, attend churches all across America, I'm talking about more than 99%. If you 

take out the senior pastor, they wouldn't know what to do. They have no idea. And just like, I  want to raise kids that if I were to die, they're fine. I taught them how to stand on their own.  They know how to work a job, they're good. In the same way, I started looking at my  congregation that way. And going look, I want to know that if you know, what's your name,  Trisha, you know, was the only believer here in, what city are we in? Where Lomita. Okay, so  Trisha was the only believer in Lomita, she'd be fine, she would know how to walk with the  Lord and grow in the scriptures on her own. In fact, she would know how to go out and share  her faith with other people. And she would know how to disciple them, baptize them, you  know, gather a group together, you know, figure out how to pray together with other people  and live as the church with other people. That's the goal now. And so a lot of what we see in  church where everyone's dependent on some mega church speaker, and those days have just got to die. And we've got to start discipling our people to where they can stand on their own  two feet and go out and make disciples, because that's what's in us anyways. Like, you have  it in you. I know, if you are a believer, then you feel sick to your stomach, that you have not  talked to your next door neighbor about Jesus. Because in, it's in your DNA, once the spirit  changed your heart, you became a slave to the things of God. And you started having the  mind of Christ, and you hate being a coward. Right? And even though in the flesh, you fight it, but that's why Paul's like pray for me, you guys pray and he says to the church, you know,  pray for me. So I could speak the word boldly, like I should, because I know that's in me. And  Timothy, you've got to step it up. That that spirit of fear, you know, that's not from God. And  then Peter and John would gather the believers to pray for their courage, because it's in us.  And we're not doing people favors by saying, yeah, just sit and listen to me, for the rest of  your life. But instead, if we follow the biblical pattern of discipleship, and saying, No, you need to have your own children, your own spiritual children. And so what we've been doing in San  Francisco now is, we're breaking people up and saying, Look, I those are your sheep. Those  are your sheep. And there's something about having that responsibility, that ownership. I  mean, when you have five or six, I remember I was 18 when I was first given a group of guys,  by my youth pastor, I was a senior in high school. And he gave me the freshmen guys and  said, those your disciples now, man, are you serious? You know, like, I'm 18. I've only been a  Christian for a couple of years. And you're entrusting, this group of guys to me, and man, I  just took ownership like, Okay, I'm their leader. I'll figure it out. I mean, it was crazy. I didn't  know what I was doing there. I remember one guy started drinking, and this was in Stockton,  California. And I remember just driving him, you know, downtown to where all the drunks  were, you know, I mean, I'm 18 I take this 14 year old kid, and we just walk the streets and  people are talking themselves throwing bottles. I'm like, This is what you want to be. I mean, I just I don't know, right? I'm just trying stuff. I don't know. And I remember another you know,  another kid, her mom. His mom called me and just had some questions about parenting.  What do I do with my, I mean, I'm 18 I'm going Let me ask my mom. I don't know, but it's, it's  the same thing. Those of you who were parents, what did you do when you brought that baby  home? You got scared, right? You didn't know what to do. No one really told you, but you  figured it out. Why? Because you knew I've got There's no choice I'm it. I'm it. I've got to  figure this out, I will figure this out, because I love this child, and doesn't mean you don't get  help. When the baby's sick, you take them to the hospital, you still have other views, still take them to school to learn, you know, and whatever else, but you have that responsibility. And in the church, we've been trying to figure out ways to just make people responsible, and go look, those eight people, you're the shepherd, you're their spiritual parent, you're not their small  group leader. It's not just the facilitator, I want you to own them, like your spiritual kids. You  know, it's like they're your own kids. So everything rises and falls with you. And that doesn't  mean that you need to know the answers to every one of their counseling questions. We have resources, we have elders, you can bring them to us. Well, you know, because in the same  way, I take my kids to doctors, I'll take my kid to, you know, for a basketball coach or  whatever. But I, it's my child, and you give people ownership and what we've done. Just so  you get some background is I just didn't want a church that was built around me this time. I, I  pastor, you know, started that church in Simi Valley out of my house, it grew to like 4 or 5000  people, we planted a bunch of churches from it, we started a college sent missionaries out. 

But there was a we just got stuck after a while. Because there was no room to grow. You  know, if you have four services, and they're all packed out. What else do you do? And, and I  found people that were there that had been there forever, that were taking those steps of  faith and, and to me, it was just, to me, some of it was just logic. Like, I go, okay. We have the  Holy Spirit in us. He says, you'll receive power to be my witnesses. That's why you have the  Holy Spirit in you is to be his witness. And that's why it drives you nuts when you know, you're chickening out. I've felt it, you felt it. It's like, Oh, I know the way I'm supposed to be I hear  about people, you know, who actually live out what the Spirit tells them to do. But I struggled  when I looked at a church of 4000. Why? Because when we had 40 people, and we grew to  400. I thought that's awesome. That's a great thing. That means those 40 people reached out  if they're salesmen, and they each made 10 sales. Like, this is pretty good. You know, is this is good. Look at look what we did our 40 people grew to 400. But then when I had 400 people,  and we grew to 4000. I go, okay, that's now that's awesome. Now you Lord, You entrusted me  with 400 people, 400 salesmen, and we grew to four and they each made 10 sales. But now I  have 4000 sales people. And that's a huge cost for those who, well, you don't have to run a  business to figure that out. 4000 staff, and we make maybe 100 sales. That's failure, isn't it?  You know how much it costs to run a church of 4000 4000 salespeople how many sales are  being made? And I'm going whoa, I mean, you would fire someone with an army that big. That is producing that little result. But people don't think about that they will bring those 100  people on stage and 100 people came to the Lord, but it took 4000 of you. That's when we  overlook that. And it costs how many millions of dollars. So 4000 people plus $6 million equals 100 converts? Like like we're just just mad, I'm sorry, Asian, I think this way, like I just go not  good deal. You know, this isn't working. You know, that doesn't make sense. That's a failure  yet at the point of failure, that's when everyone wants to interview me and and ask, Oh, how  do you get that mega church going? How did you? And I'm going, why are you interviewing  me now? This is not success. And it is not success when I know that if I'm not preaching, at  least a third of them won't show up. That's ridiculous. And I remember my my mentor who's a pastor in India, you know, was driving me to this event I was speaking at and there were  camels and horses, you know, one of those big old things with lights and crazy music and and he just laughed he goes, You Americans are so funny. because no one will show up unless you  have a great band or a great speaker. Yeah. What's your point? He says, Man in India, we love  just to get together to pray. When we hear that believers are gathering to pray, like, we get  excited when we know they're going to just break bread as a family, we get excited. And I just thought the Lord looking down. And what does he want to see? Like like these people, like  they just love the fact that there's going to be prayer, because they believe when they get  together that that God is going to answer and so they're flocking to this place. Meanwhile, in  America, oh, Hillsong is going to be there and you know, what attracts us what gets us there  is that this speaker, this man try to think of it from God's perspective of what he wants, and  we're like, wow, look at these people, they're flocking, just to break bread to remember my  son, versus these people only flock, if they're entertained by this person, or this person or this band, like that whole attractional thing. I mean, I get the I get the intention. But it's causing  us to fall in love with people. And not in love with the Lord and not in love with prayer. And  believing in the supernatural. It's just, there seems very little that's biblical about it. So all  these things got me to question, you know, when I started realizing I'm accountable as the  shepherd of these 1000s of people, that's a tremendous resource. And I don't have anything  for them to do, the way the system is set up. I can't even tell them everyone bring a friend,  we won't fit. The it's set up to where I'm telling them basically, I don't believe you could all  lead one person to the Lord this year. It's the system itself is set up that way. Now, it was  great when we were small, and we had room to grow. But it always hits that point where you  can only go so far. And then just the over dependence on a person. So I, I sought out to say  let's just do it differently, this time. And, you know, it's kind of funny, because right after I got  married 21 years ago, was just with my wife going, you know, let's just figure something out,  let's just start in our living room, and then grew to this monstrous church, and it's just funny.  20 years later to go, let's just start in our living room again. And let's do it different this time,  let's make sure that it doesn't get centered around me. Let's make sure that the people are 

actually using their spiritual gifts. Because everyone has not just a tiny gift. We're talking  about a manifestation of the Holy Spirit himself for the common good. So if you've got 4000  People that have this insane power from God, and they're not using it for each other, that's  terrible leadership. Yeah, I gotta stand before God on that one, I just let him keep coming. And be dependent on me. And I just fed him every week. I can't let that happen. I can't let them  waste this resource they've been given by God. And so let's figure this out this time. And so  we, we started with a group of like, 20 people in my house. And I say, Look, you guys, I will  not be your pastor. Six months to a year from now, six months to a year from now. You're  going to hate me for this. Because we're going to live like a family, like the Bible says,  because the Bible says the world's must be attracted by our love. You know, Jesus says, When you become one, like the father and I are one, that's when the world's gonna believe that I'm  the Messiah. And say, This is what was supposed to cause people to believe, not a great  speaker, not some scholar that comes in with his apologetic facts. Those are all good things.  Not against that. I mean, that's my life, you know, pursuing speaking and this and that. I'm  just saying, that's not the system that God said. God says, When you become one, God, like  the father and I are one than the world's going to believe that you're loved by God, and that  Jesus was sent by God. And Paul says, when you have one mind, one spirit marching side by  side for the sake of the Gospel, then the world is going to believe in their destruction and your salvation. That's a crazy statement. He's saying, Look, when you guys can become these  bodies that are just one united like family and fearless. The world's going to believe in their  own destruction. which is crazy to me because I'm going, no one believes in their own  destruction right now. No one believes in a second coming. No one believes in judgment. Even in the church. They're questioning whether God judges anymore. Which is crazy to me,  because I'm just going read it. Get to page two and he kills everyone, you know, like, this is a  loving God, they're like, Well, how could a loving God punish read, you know, read how He  says I'll kill the firstborn of everyone in Egypt and read about the weeping and the wailing,  read Exodus, you know, 32, 33 and telling that the Levites just run back and forth and just  slaughter your brothers, you know, says God. And we're going to Well, that's Old Testament.  Yeah, cuz he really mellows out in Revelation. You know, we live in a time where I'm going,  this is ridiculous, you guys, this is our no one believes in that. And, and so you think, Well,  maybe if I walked through, yes, walk through scripture, yes, do all those things. But you got to understand what the Bible says is when we are united, striving side by side, for the sake of  the gospel, when we live like that early church, that's when we're gonna see the fire come  down, you know, and people will believe in their destruction, which isn't like the most logical  of equations. Because in our own human mind, if we lean our on our own wisdom and  understanding, we think, oh, have some celebrities, and athletes become Christians, bring  them up on stage, then bring some scholars and some scientists to prove that the world was  actually created. And to prove evolution false. Bring some archaeology, you know,  archaeologists, you know, to explain that the veracity of Scripture and its authenticity, talk  about prophecy, this will get people to believe that's our logic, bring in a good band, bring in a good speaker, you know, have these programs. That's our logic. And Jesus said, no, become  one, get the church to be so united that they've never seen love like this before. And then  they're going to believe. And the thing you got to understand is, I know your logic doesn't go  there. But would your logic have come up with march around the city seven times the walls  will collapse? Would your logic be? Just hold Moses' arms up? That always works? You know, it. That's this book is about a book of faith, who is not that arrogant person who thinks I've got  the plan, I've got the system, I've got the strategy. And who just goes, Oh, he says this will  work. Okay, that when we become one, like the father and son are one that people are going  to believe and doesn't make sense to me, but let's go for it. That's, that's the way I think, and  go, Okay, let's create this family, then I tell this group, you know, in my house, we've got to  become family, because that's what you see in this. I mean, love one another. This is how  they're going to know you're my disciples is by the love, where someone walks in and goes,  I've never seen people love like this before. You see that in, in Acts chapter two, right? When  it started, it's like, no one had any need. It's like, man, they're giving each other the shirt off  their back. And what happens? People, the Lord was adding to their number daily. Those were 

being saved. Why it was the fulfillment of Scripture. It was when they were united, you know  that, you know, the fire came down, and things were happening. So they believe they trusted. That was the fulfillment of what Jesus prayed. And I'm just going, it's no different today. But  when's the last time you walked in a Christian gathering? That if an unbeliever had walked in,  he or she would have thought? I've never seen unity like this? I've never seen love like this.  Can you think of any time in your life? When you've seen that, in a Christian gathering? See,  this stuff wasn't even on the radar, believe it or not, when I planted my first church. I didn't  think about loving. All I thought about is getting a bunch of people in the room to hear me  share the Word of God so they could have these walks with the Lord. There's nothing wrong  with that. That's good stuff. I thought I'm going to preach this book and I'm not going to back  down Praise God for guys like Daniel that go, man. This isn't a cutesy message, but it is what  the Bible says, Oh, here we go. That's great. Those are good things. That's what I started the  church on. But I never once thought, love one another. I just thought, Okay, I need a worship  leader. I want a band. I remember saying, specifically, I would love to have a band on our first  official Sunday. And I, you know, here's what I want with someone take care of the kids, we  got to have childcare was someone figure out a sound system with someone try to figure out  where we're going to actually meet? These were the things how are we gonna take an  offering? These were the things that were the absolutes, to me that I think about the biblical  priority. The biblical priority was love. But I seriously, I didn't care if the people love them not  be nice. I don't want to hate each other. But the whole thought was just get them in a room,  have them enjoy the service, get something, maybe get convicted, maybe get encouraged,  and go home and have a great walk with the Lord. That's all I thought about. Wasn't till years  later, as I'm looking at scripture, and going, Wow, what does God want? You know, and I talk  about this if I were stuck on an island, and I just read this book, over and over and over, never and never attended a church service. But I just read this book. Like, what would be my natural conclusion? I just I just pictured myself, Okay, I'm on an island. I'm reading everything I know  of Scripture. What would I think of all those Old Testament stories? Jesus died on the cross the Holy Spirit's coming and following him on the, you know, in the early church, now the early  church gets kind of crazy, it gets a little messed up. And now here's revelation, here's the way it's going to end. What would I think, Okay, now, a ship's coming, he's going to rescue me,  okay, what what's going on in my mind, for me, based upon a simple reading of Scripture,  over and over, I would think, God, I need this Holy Spirit, I need the Spirit I read about or on  dust like, this is the miracle, this is everything. I need Holy Spirit, come, enter me, fill me I  want to hear from you. I want to move with you. I want to be empowered by you. I trust I  believe Jesus, he, I want to be found in him not any righteousness of my own, I want to be  found in him filled with that spirit. And now let me find other believers. And let me find him  and be one with them. And we'll go out as his army and start reaching people. And, and if I  heard coming off of that boat, that, hey, there's a church down the street. And after just  reading the scriptures over and over, and I walk over there, what would I expect to see? Think about it. What do you expect like, here's a group of those people I hear I read about all these  years, and they're gathering together, I'm probably gonna walk in and they're just gonna love  on me. You know, they're just gonna give the shirt off their back and go, Man, you've been on  an island, man, come on over, let me take care of you, whatever. And we're on a mission.  Here's how we're trying to reach our city. Here's people were set. That's not what I would get  though. I'd walk in the back. see a few people may be talking to each other, then shut set up.  Let's sit down. It's time for service to sing some songs. Maybe good, maybe bad. I don't know  what the singing is like. Someone speaks for 40 minutes. Then, where's everyone going?  They're heading home. See you next Sunday. That's like, really? Like, how did we get there?  And we don't have to do things like that, just because that's what's laid out before us. All  through Scripture. You see someone that reads the word tears his cloak. We can't do this  anymore. This, this is not what he asked for. Right? I mean, that people stood up and said, No, I'm not doing it like this anymore. Because I see what this says, and I'm going after it. I'm  going after it. And I believe that's what God's doing here. That some of you are just going. You resonate with what I'm saying because you've read this book, and you go, I've always known  there was more. And so we've pursued that type of unity. And I've told the people look within 

six months to a year, we're going to split into two churches, and I won't be leading either one  of them. I'll be training people and and then you're going to go and split into two churches.  And and then you'll do the same thing all over again. As you guys go reach out to people and  you're raising up leaders, and you're living like a family, you know, have people blown away  by your love and make communion central make the Bible central make prayer Central, like  they did in the early church, the words of Scripture, you can just read it, there's power in  them. You don't need someone just upfront explaining everything to you. Yes, there's teachers or whatever else, but let's do it, you know. And so, nine months later, we split into two  churches. And then nine months later, those two churches split into two churches, now we've  got four churches, and now we're getting ready to split again. And it's, and I'm not the  shepherd of any of them. They're shepherding their own people, they're shepherding their  own families. I mean, that's, I believe what the future can be. If you in this room, take  responsibility. And say, You know what, that's scary, you know, but not as scary as taking a  kid home from the hospital, and you figured it out. And in the same way, you'll figure it out.  And that's what makes you stronger is that responsibility, when you start, because how many  people are in church their whole lives in America, and have never said to someone, follow my  example as I follow the example of Christ. You know, we don't take that leadership stance,  and we never become spiritual parents ourselves, we don't actually make disciples, we just  sit. And then we just switched churches, when there's a better speaker down the road, you  know, or we get in a fight with someone. And then we split because we start fighting with  each other. And I was telling Daniel and, and the elders of the church, you know, I love my  church so much, you know, I love them is they're out on the streets throughout the week, and in the workplace is sharing the gospel. And I'm just like, man, right on, you know, getting  rejected, and this and that. And, as a pastor, you just, you love people like that, you know,  we're people that I wouldn't normally get along with, you know, and just in the flesh, it's like,  in the spirit, I'm crazy about them, because they're actually doing something, and sacrificing  and stepping out in faith. You know, tell them how, you know, hearing from different, I always  sit by different people on airplanes, and a lot of them are in the military. And they just tell me  about the fighting that goes on, within the, within the army itself, and people committing  suicide, and they just don't get along, until they get into battle. And that's why they can't just  be at these camps for too long. They got to be released into battle, or they'll fight with each  other. But once they get into battle, man, then it's a band of brothers, then it's like, I love you  guys. Come on. Yeah, you you're excited for everyone on your team, when you're on the  battlefield when you're in the mission field. But when you're just in a gathering, it's really you  just gonna annoy each other to death. I mean, that's what we do. It's all good. But when, but  when you know, other people are fighting and facing the same rejection that you faced. It's  like, I love these people. And so it's been really fun for me just seeing this, this group of  people grow in love with each other. But I just couldn't be more proud of them as they're out  sharing the gospel on their own initiative. And just these groups every day of the week, I  guarantee you, there's someone from one of our gatherings that's leading a group out,  evangelizing, sharing the gospel. And I was so blessed one Sunday, just to sit in on one of the  gatherings. They only had like 15 people that week. But they just went around sharing about  their week. And every one of them as I heard, every one of them shared the gospel that week, with an unbeliever. And I thought, they don't even realize I'm sitting there just going this is  beautiful. Because in an average church of 1000, how many people you think verbalize the  gospel to an unbeliever? You think 15 Maybe, and we're okay with that. Like, that's crazy.  That's the extra. That's how far this thing has drifted. And it's like, man, as the Lord looks  down, I just come in. He loves this little army right here. It's like and, and as a pastor, I'm  thrilled to be the pastor of that army right there. And to think that I'm an elder of that group.  Right on. I'll take that. That's an army. I'm proud of that I go okay, Lord, you asked me to  present a church to take this one. Look at this one. These guys we're not ashamed of you this  week. They're out I buy and they love each other. They care for each other's needs, they know each other. They're praying together on a weekly basis, gathering together trusting that  you're going to answer their prayers. I mean, that's what we have to understand. It's not just,  I think this will work. It's more, I think this is what God asked for. He says, He wanted that 

type of love that type of unity. And so if it's not happening in this structure, or in this  gathering, we need to repent and figure out a way to make it happen. Because we can't just  have these gatherings where people don't love each other deeply. See, when I was younger, I  used to just be thrilled that I would see a sign that said, Bible Church. But you start reading  scripture, and you realize God's not excited just because there's a gathering. How many times in this book does He say, Oh, stop it with the noise of your songs. Stop praying. I'm not even  listening to you guys. Oh, that someone would shut the door. So that temple that you might  not uselessly kindle fire on my altar? Oh, you don't repent? I'm just gonna remove that lamp  stand from its place. Ah. I mean, he wants something. There's always been an offering that's  acceptable, and an offering that's rejected. And what does he say he wants of the church. He  wants this loving community, this family, this body says where it's like, man, every part is so  important. The fingers, toes, and you're striving side by side. There's this unity. So that's what I want to bring to God. Rather than saying, God, I got 5000 people show up. I didn't ask for  that. What did I ask for? Oh, yeah. Oneness. You wanted your body to look like no other  gathering on this earth. And so that's what I'm after. And I pray that the Lord puts that on  your heart to say, You know what? Yeah, give me some people go out, find some people. But I  want the real thing. And that's kind of was my mindset going and moving to San Francisco is  like, I just want to start over. Let me find some believers or unbelievers. Have them hear the  Word of God? And if they want to live as one as a family, then join me. Let's go. But I don't  care. Yeah, right now, there's only like, 100 120 of us right now. That's cool. But the truth is,  we could, we can double overnight. And we can keep doubling overnight. Because we're  meeting in homes now. It costs zero, doesn't cost us a dime that no one gets paid. Everyone  does it as a lay person, and we all have jobs. doesn't cost a dime, which I love. You know, it's  just because so many churches are shutting down because of money and whatever else and,  and all of our money goes to the mission goes overseas, or to people who are in need. And it's like, this is great. Because we all know, like, a church of 10, 20 people can meet in a home,  right? And you don't need to work full time to take care of 10 or 20 people, his disciple, a  couple of them disciple, a couple of people, you're done. You know, and you can live as a  family and everything else. It's just once we get to like 100 people, you know, well, now you  need a full time leader, you need a full time secretary, you need to find a building yet. So it's  like, okay, this costs $100,000. And a church of 20 is free. Why not do five free churches?  That's the way the Chinese think, okay, you know, this is free, you know, it's just, that's just  the way I go, man. And this can multiply, it can mobilize. But what you have to do is you have  to pray to the Lord of harvest and say, we have more workers than we need more disciple  makers. This is working, this can happen. But Lord, you have to constantly bring us more  leaders. Under the old system. All I needed was myself. I don't mean that in an arrogant way.  I'm just saying, that's how crazy that system is, is as long as I got in the pulpit, and preached  a message that would draw a crowd. Good. And so all I have to do is make sure I don't commit adultery, I keep walking with the Lord. And I preach biblically, I can fill a room. Like is that  really what the way it was supposed to work? But I liked it because I'm that type of person  that doesn't like to depend on other people. You know, I want to be able to carry it. One of my  friends, Dave Gibbons, who's a pastor in this area He was at my house one time, and he just  randomly out of the blue goes, Hey Francis, you play basketball? I go, yeah. Because when  you play basketball, you don't like to pass Do you? Like, what kind of question is that? That's  such a lame question. Like, why would you even say that he goes, just answer the question.  No, I don't like to pass. I like to shoot, because I knew it. How can you know you never, but he, I can just tell, you know, my personality is just let me do it. I'll just take care of it. I'll work it all out. I don't want to depend on anyone. I don't want to have to pass the ball. And so I kind of  built church that way. And now it's like, no, that's not what God asked for. It was a body and  everyone's got gifts. And I have to depend on other people. And other people even lead my  kids. And, and it's been awesome, though. So I, I left like, seven minutes for questions. And  then I got to hit to the airport. Sorry, I talked too long. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. She's asking  like how, you know, like new believers starting a church? How do you know that they're not  going to go off on some tangent or whatever, a couple of things. First of all, everyone in our  church, we encourage them to read through the Bible in a year. So we're all on the same 

reading plan, which is huge, because the greatest safeguard against heresy is when all the  people are reading the Scripture, the worst thing you can have is one guy being the spiritual  authority that everyone listens to. Because once he goes off, or once sin enters his life, or  once his theology gets a little crazy, so goes 1000 people, but when everyone's reading the  Word, they're all listening, you know. And in the smaller gatherings, it's not so much about,  you know, one guy preaching to everyone. But the leaders, the pastors there, whom we  disciple, and the elders train them up. So it's not just anyone starting a small group, you  know, so you've got that training, kind of like you have here. It's like this ongoing training. For one, number two is everyone's reading the Word of God. And then number three is, we have  some blessings nowadays with the internet, where as the elders of the larger movement, we  can just put some doctrinal statements that again, everyone, lay person brand new believer  reads, and uses their own mind and goes, Hey, wait a second, our leaders kind of getting  screwy here. And they can just tell us, we'll kick them out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. You  know, what do we do with it? Do we ever gather together so they, they just all meet in their  own homes. But once a month, we gather all together, like this Sunday, we gathered at a  park. And so again, we don't spend a dime, you know, here I am at the park. And, you know,  we had like, you know, little over 100 people over there, because it's just fun to see the old  crowd again. And, you know, you've split off into these four churches, and then when you  gather back, love you, you know, it's just like family reunion. But it's also a joy, because you  know, what they've been doing the other three weeks, like, you guys are doing it, you guys  are doing it. And so there is a gathering, it's, it's kind of like dessert for us. You know, we don't depend on it. But it's, it's nice. And if the day comes when we can't have these giant  gatherings, and they limit what we can say, in those types of public arenas, we're good. We  don't we don't need it. See, that's, that's my concern is, man when things get difficult in the  future, and certain things we say are labeled hate crime. If you say in a public arena like that,  then what do we do? And you know, even today, you know certain things if you have a belief  system, that Jesus really is the only way to heaven. And to say that now, I don't believe  Muhammad will get you there. Or if you say that you believe that homosexuality and practice  of that homosexual sex is a sin, then can you say that from a public setting? And how long will you be able to say things like that? And then let's face it with the dangers of radical Islam,  and, you know, all it's going to take is one guy who decides I'm going to walk into a church  this Sunday, and this will be my act of worship to Allah to blow everyone up. What is that  going to do to every other church in America? And these large public gatherings, we have to  start thinking like, that wouldn't take very much to overthrow this whole system. But if we  start training all of our people, to where I don't care if I'm the only believer in the city, I know  what to do. That's what happened in China. See, in, in, in Russia, when communism came in,  they just took out a few of the leaders and the whole thing died, because it was built very  much like the American system. But in China, because of some of the discipleship that had  taken place. When communism came, they couldn't they couldn't kill Christianity. They had  leaders that knew how to make disciples. And it flourished to over 100 million believers under  communism. Why? Because of what we're talking about here. People were trained, they  weren't dependent on these five speakers to do everything for them. Yeah. Oh, tithes? Yeah,  this will be a last question. And I gotta catch a flight. But tithing is what we do. Yeah, people  give. And each individual church like right now we have someone who volunteers as a, as a  part time accounting person, that, that just tracks the giving from all four churches, you know, into one account doesn't take that much time if you know what you're doing. And, and so  each of those churches independently decide where that money goes. But it's always, you  know, if it's under $500, we say, man, just make a decision as the pastor's of that church. And as a church to where it goes, if it's a larger gift, then it runs by the elders, just to us just to  make sure nothing weirds going on. And so And then sometimes, we can all gather together  and the elders can say, Hey, you guys, there's this need for a well in Africa. And this one  region and a missionary will cost about five grand, can we just, we're going to use some of  the collective resources and give to that. So everything that comes in goes out, but each  church has its say, in where it goes. So the leaders start feeling the burden of those leaders  who hey, look for things globally. There's needs out there, and it just gives people ownership. 

Like you know, if you're the leader of the church, and you hear something in Cambodia, isn't it awesome to think, man, I can tell my 10 people, we can do something there. Like it's just, it's  it's just so much more exciting to people to realize I can be a part of this. So, man, this is  really I wish I had another hour with you guys. But yeah, thank you so much. Thank you