March 11, 2025 • 11 mins
Join us as we discuss the power of authentic community and how God imparts "Joy" into his church daily. Have you heard of the "Joy Jam"?
#faith#family#relationships
@puzzleisreal
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Puzzle is Real podcast where we
will be discussing faith,family, and Relationships
hosted by Matt and MelissaPisani . This is The Puzzle is
Real podcast when you know, youknow.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All right . Welcome back. We are the podcast
building.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
We are here y'all.
Yep , I said it y'all. And ,uh, it's been quite some time,
but we are back and excited andjust ready to jump into the
topic of the day and we hopethat you all will be blessed by
what we want to share , um,with you guys.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So we are really excited with what's going on in
, in God's family within thechurch, which in our, our mind
has been outside of thebuilding and, and physically
we've been outside thebuilding. We've been outside of
the building since the pandemicfive years ago. But we're still
accountable to the body ofChrist and the building, so
don't get it twisted. A lot oftimes we have people that are
(01:02):
separate from the body and um,that can be dangerous. So we've
been doing outreach, it'scalled the Joy Jam here in
Charleston. It's been powerful.
It's pretty prophetic on how itall came about and yeah, just
be encouraged about what you'reabout to hear.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
So when Matt and I first moved to South Carolina,
didn't really know anybody, butwe did move into a new
neighborhood where we were kindof all on the same playing
field. And so we said, Hey, whydon't we start a men's and
women's prayer group? Mattactually started first with the
men 'cause we had just hadMagnolia and I just wasn't
quite ready to diveinto that yet 'cause I was
(01:38):
still in the newborn phase. Butwe, I eventually had gotten
there, but we had started thisprayer group. Awesome. We have
had many different neighborsjoin and we had been meeting
for over a year and then one ofthe gentlemen who's part of
Matt's group said, Hey, I thinkI really feel led that we
should be reaching out to thecommunity. And you know, that
(02:02):
kind of sparked our interest'cause we're like, yeah, this
is something we've been prayingabout and this is kind of where
our wheelhouse is, is you know,when the pandemic hit in 2020,
we opened up our front lawn inNew York and said, we're just
gonna have church on the lawnand this is what we're gonna
do. And that we saw amazingthings happen during that time
just from our , our obedience.
And when we were like, yeah,let's do it here. That's really
(02:24):
how the Joy Jam was birthed,was from our prayer groups
being obedient with startingthat and then saying, yeah,
let's reach out to thecommunity. Let's reach out to
those who won't go to a prayermeeting, who won't go to a
church building, but they'llcome to an outside green space
where there's live worship andthere's a message, there's
activities for the kids andit's really non-threatening. So
(02:46):
it's like, even if you're not abeliever , um, you would come
and still feel the love of Godand you hopefully would hear
the love of, you know, wouldhear it from other people and
just see how believers areliving their lives together.
That this is not this fake ,um, manufactured relationship,
but this is authentic and wehave a heart for the one to go
(03:08):
after the one that's our heart.
And we've just seen so manyamazing things already and just
how even our local church here,Seaco has gotten behind us and
said, Hey, will you do a joyjam? We had just did , did one
the month prior and they said,why don't you do another Joy
jam and model to volunteers,how, how you guys are doing
this and then maybe that'llspark their interest to want to
(03:30):
do it in their communitybecause it's nothing. The
formula is very simple, youknow, you just get other
like-minded believers and reachout to your community in
whatever gifts and talents youhave and people will come. Oh
yeah . So I just think it'sjust a really powerful
testimony and um, encouragementto the church to say, Hey,
let's reach out to those whowon't go into the building and
(03:52):
we're called to love God and tomake him known. Right. And this
is our way of making him knownand going after the people who
wouldn't go into churchsettings.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah. It's been really amazing to see how many
people have found purpose inserving the community that we
live in and serving as thechurch people from different
churches, differentdenominations coming together
as one church to point peopleto Jesus and to point people to
the love of Jesus. So the versethat I wanted to share with you
(04:24):
quick, and if you have a momentand you're not driving or
you're not running and you'rejust sitting, you're actually
waiting with bated breath tohear this. It's uh , Galatians
five. And it's, it's really ,um, it's important to um,
really tie this in, but it'slife by the spirit is midway
through Galatians five, right?
(04:45):
If you look down to verses 13through 15, or actually 13 to
14, it's you, my brothers andsisters were called to be free.
But do not use your freedom toindulge the flesh, rather serve
one another humbly in love. Sothat's important right there
serving one another. Andrecently on our serve day with
our church, we were serving thecommunity and serving one
(05:06):
another in love. And as you goto verse 14 says, for the
entire law is fulfilled inkeeping this one command, love
your neighbor as yourself. Sothat's been our heart. How can
we love our neighbors asourself ? And that's not just
the people on our block, butthroughout the holy city of
Charleston and wherever we go,wherever we travel. And I think
(05:27):
that that's applicable to allof our lives to just keep
loving people. And it comesfrom not only intimacy with
God, but it's usually innatelyin us. And, and joy is
something that comes from Godas well where we are able to
impart that in other people andit's contagious. So we've seen
the movement of this, we'reexcited to share it and I think
(05:49):
that this was just thebeginning of us scratching the
surface of what God wants to dowith the revival over our
country.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah. And I just wanna give a quick , uh,
testimony of just how the joyjam and just us living the way
that we are living, how it'sministering to those who have
never experienced that before.
And so my brother had movedhere in October of last year
and he moved with my cousinMatt, who um, was an addict for
most of his life. And he wasfinally clean. He had been
(06:17):
clean for about a year and ahalf and he was living in a
sober house in Asheville. Andunfortunately because of that
insane hurricane, hurricaneHelene , he got displaced. So
now he wasn't there. He wentback home to North Carolina to
his parents and my brother nowis moving, okay, go ahead. So
(06:38):
he is moving to Charleston andmy cousin Matt decided to come
with him. And at first we werenot happy at all just because
of his history and just who hewas. And I just felt very angry
and you know, I didn't want, Ididn't want my brother to
relapse or to be surroundednear people, you know, who
(06:59):
could be a bad influence.
'cause I haven't seen my cousinin, you know, a long time and I
haven't, the last time I sawhim, I mean he's, he's not been
sober. So anyway, so he hadmoved here and I was very
hesitant to even see him. Andthen I remember we saw him for
the first time and there wasjust this urgency that Matt and
I both had, my husband Matt ,um, to minister to him and to
(07:22):
just share about Jesus. 'causehe had never truly heard the
gospel before. And after thefirst meeting I remember the
Lord just speaking to me andjust a soft still voice and
said, love him. Like I lovehim. And I just kind of broke
down 'cause I was very like, ah, I don't really want to. And
(07:42):
it's like, we're called to loveour neighbor. They're literally
living up the block from us andthey're truly our neighbors.
And now God's telling me tolove him as he loves him. And
so I remember just hearing thatsmall still voice and saying,
okay, we're just gonna love himand you know, we got to spend
Thanksgiving with him. And youknow, we took them sightseeing
and just really brought theminto our life. And I saw the
(08:06):
transformation that washappening right before my eyes
with my cousin and just how hewas open to the gospel. He had
a lot of questions. Um, he wasexcited about it and
unfortunately he went back homearound Christmas time and
relapsed and unfortunatelypassed away. And it was very
sudden it was horrific. Butbefore that, he got to
(08:29):
experience the Joy Jam and hecame to the Joy Jam and he
helped us set up. Him and mybrother Doug were just, you
know, amazing at doing all thebackground stuff. And I just
remember him saying like, wow,you guys are doing life with
your neighbors. You're openingthis up to other people. His
mind was literally blown and'cause he had never experienced
(08:50):
that. So I look at that, andthis is just one story that I
know of because it was, youknow, my family of just how us
living in community andreaching out to those impacts
people I think eternally. Andalthough he passed away and we
know we didn't know where hewas at spiritually, but we did
find a journal that he hadleft. And basically he had said
(09:14):
he surrendered his life to Godand that he finally has put his
faith in God. Um, I don't knowwhere he was at with Jesus, but
he , he did say God. And so Ibelieve that the Lord sent him
here for us to just minister tohim and to give him an
opportunity to be saved beforehe took him , um, before it was
(09:34):
his time, really. 'cause wehave free will. But that's just
one story. And I just hold ontothe promise of just who God is
and his character and what he'sdone for us personally and what
he can do for so many and forus to just be the vessels that
he wants to use to bring peopleto eternity with him. That's
the goal. It's like we'resaving souls. It's not just
(09:56):
this fellowship and yeah,that's great, but we want a
soul transformation. And forpeople to truly give their life
to, to Jesus and for us to bedisobedient to what God wants
to do, I think is just the mostimportant thing. And that's
what I wanna encourage you guysto do is how can you reach out
to those? And just as we havebeen really focusing on the
(10:18):
fruits of the spirit at ourchurch lately , um, you know,
unfortunately our head pastor,founding pastor, his brother
passed away suddenly at a veryyoung age and reminded him and
reminded us that we don't havea second, we're not promised,
we're not promised a second atat this life, right? So when we
(10:40):
go, where are we going? Andthose people that you love and
that are in your life, whereare they going? And I feel like
I, I know me personally, I'vehad this urgency to just share
with people and I don't care ifI'm rejected. I don't care if
they look at me like I'm crazy'cause I care so much about
them that I want them to beable to spend eternity with
Jesus. And that's myencouragement for you guys is
(11:01):
to who in your life, whether ita family, friend, coworker ,
stranger, neighbor, can youreach out to, to show the love
of Christ too. And you could doit in simple ways. And we've
done that in simple ways, and Ithink we've shared that in the
past of just, you know, makingcookies for neighbors or
inviting them to the playgroundor whatever that may look like.
(11:21):
But life is short. How are weimpacting our communities? How
are we loving our neighbor? Andwhat can you do in a tangible
way to reach out to the lost ?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Hey guys, thanks
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So much for listening to the Puzzle is
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Real podcast. Please subscribe today and share with
a friend. See you soon.
Welcome to the Puzzle is Real podcast where we
will be discussing faith,family, and Relationships
hosted by Matt and MelissaPisani . This is The Puzzle is
Real podcast when you know, youknow.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All right . Welcome back. We are the podcast
building.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
We are here y'all.
Yep , I said it y'all. And ,uh, it's been quite some time,
but we are back and excited andjust ready to jump into the
topic of the day and we hopethat you all will be blessed by
what we want to share , um,with you guys.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So we are really excited with what's going on in
, in God's family within thechurch, which in our, our mind
has been outside of thebuilding and, and physically
we've been outside thebuilding. We've been outside of
the building since the pandemicfive years ago. But we're still
accountable to the body ofChrist and the building, so
don't get it twisted. A lot oftimes we have people that are
(01:02):
separate from the body and um,that can be dangerous. So we've
been doing outreach, it'scalled the Joy Jam here in
Charleston. It's been powerful.
It's pretty prophetic on how itall came about and yeah, just
be encouraged about what you'reabout to hear.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
So when Matt and I first moved to South Carolina,
didn't really know anybody, butwe did move into a new
neighborhood where we were kindof all on the same playing
field. And so we said, Hey, whydon't we start a men's and
women's prayer group? Mattactually started first with the
men 'cause we had just hadMagnolia and I just wasn't
quite ready
(01:38):
still in the newborn phase. Butwe, I eventually had gotten
there, but we had started thisprayer group. Awesome. We have
had many different neighborsjoin and we had been meeting
for over a year and then one ofthe gentlemen who's part of
Matt's group said, Hey, I thinkI really feel led that we
should be reaching out to thecommunity. And you know, that
(02:02):
kind of sparked our interest'cause we're like, yeah, this
is something we've been prayingabout and this is kind of where
our wheelhouse is, is you know,when the pandemic hit in 2020,
we opened up our front lawn inNew York and said, we're just
gonna have church on the lawnand this is what we're gonna
do. And that we saw amazingthings happen during that time
just from our , our obedience.
And when we were like, yeah,let's do it here. That's really
(02:24):
how the Joy Jam was birthed,was from our prayer groups
being obedient with startingthat and then saying, yeah,
let's reach out to thecommunity. Let's reach out to
those who won't go to a prayermeeting, who won't go to a
church building, but they'llcome to an outside green space
where there's live worship andthere's a message, there's
activities for the kids andit's really non-threatening. So
(02:46):
it's like, even if you're not abeliever , um, you would come
and still feel the love of Godand you hopefully would hear
the love of, you know, wouldhear it from other people and
just see how believers areliving their lives together.
That this is not this fake ,um, manufactured relationship,
but this is authentic and wehave a heart for the one to go
(03:08):
after the one that's our heart.
And we've just seen so manyamazing things already and just
how even our local church here,Seaco has gotten behind us and
said, Hey, will you do a joyjam? We had just did , did one
the month prior and they said,why don't you do another Joy
jam and model to volunteers,how, how you guys are doing
this and then maybe that'llspark their interest to want to
(03:30):
do it in their communitybecause it's nothing. The
formula is very simple, youknow, you just get other
like-minded believers and reachout to your community in
whatever gifts and talents youhave and people will come. Oh
yeah . So I just think it'sjust a really powerful
testimony and um, encouragementto the church to say, Hey,
let's reach out to those whowon't go into the building and
(03:52):
we're called to love God and tomake him known. Right. And this
is our way of making him knownand going after the people who
wouldn't go into churchsettings.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah. It's been really amazing to see how many
people have found purpose inserving the community that we
live in and serving as thechurch people from different
churches, differentdenominations coming together
as one church to point peopleto Jesus and to point people to
the love of Jesus. So the versethat I wanted to share with you
(04:24):
quick, and if you have a momentand you're not driving or
you're not running and you'rejust sitting, you're actually
waiting with bated breath tohear this. It's uh , Galatians
five. And it's, it's really ,um, it's important to um,
really tie this in, but it'slife by the spirit is midway
through Galatians five, right?
(04:45):
If you look down to verses 13through 15, or actually 13 to
14, it's you, my brothers andsisters were called to be free.
But do not use your freedom toindulge the flesh, rather serve
one another humbly in love. Sothat's important right there
serving one another. Andrecently on our serve day with
our church, we were serving thecommunity and serving one
(05:06):
another in love. And as you goto verse 14 says, for the
entire law is fulfilled inkeeping this one command, love
your neighbor as yourself. Sothat's been our heart. How can
we love our neighbors asourself ? And that's not just
the people on our block, butthroughout the holy city of
Charleston and wherever we go,wherever we travel. And I think
(05:27):
that that's applicable to allof our lives to just keep
loving people. And it comesfrom not only intimacy with
God, but it's usually innatelyin us. And, and joy is
something that comes from Godas well where we are able to
impart that in other people andit's contagious. So we've seen
the movement of this, we'reexcited to share it and I think
(05:49):
that this was just thebeginning of us scratching the
surface of what God wants to dowith the revival over our
country.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah. And I just wanna give a quick , uh,
testimony of just how the joyjam and just us living the way
that we are living, how it'sministering to those who have
never experienced that before.
And so my brother had movedhere in October of last year
and he moved with my cousinMatt, who um, was an addict for
most of his life. And he wasfinally clean. He had been
(06:17):
clean for about a year and ahalf and he was living in a
sober house in Asheville. Andunfortunately because of that
insane hurricane, hurricaneHelene , he got displaced. So
now he wasn't there. He wentback home to North Carolina to
his parents and my brother nowis moving, okay, go ahead. So
(06:38):
he is moving to Charleston andmy cousin Matt decided to come
with him. And at first we werenot happy at all just because
of his history and just who hewas. And I just felt very angry
and you know, I didn't want, Ididn't want my brother to
relapse or to be surroundednear people, you know, who
(06:59):
could be a bad influence.
'cause I haven't seen my cousinin, you know, a long time and I
haven't, the last time I sawhim, I mean he's, he's not been
sober. So anyway, so he hadmoved here and I was very
hesitant to even see him. Andthen I remember we saw him for
the first time and there wasjust this urgency that Matt and
I both had, my husband Matt ,um, to minister to him and to
(07:22):
just share about Jesus. 'causehe had never truly heard the
gospel before. And after thefirst meeting I remember the
Lord just speaking to me andjust a soft still voice and
said, love him. Like I lovehim. And I just kind of broke
down 'cause I was very like, ah, I don't really want to. And
(07:42):
it's like, we're called to loveour neighbor. They're literally
living up the block from us andthey're truly our neighbors.
And now God's telling me tolove him as he loves him. And
so I remember just hearing thatsmall still voice and saying,
okay, we're just gonna love himand you know, we got to spend
Thanksgiving with him. And youknow, we took them sightseeing
and just really brought theminto our life. And I saw the
(08:06):
transformation that washappening right before my eyes
with my cousin and just how hewas open to the gospel. He had
a lot of questions. Um, he wasexcited about it and
unfortunately he went back homearound Christmas time and
relapsed and unfortunatelypassed away. And it was very
sudden it was horrific. Butbefore that, he got to
(08:29):
experience the Joy Jam and hecame to the Joy Jam and he
helped us set up. Him and mybrother Doug were just, you
know, amazing at doing all thebackground stuff. And I just
remember him saying like, wow,you guys are doing life with
your neighbors. You're openingthis up to other people. His
mind was literally blown and'cause he had never experienced
(08:50):
that. So I look at that, andthis is just one story that I
know of because it was, youknow, my family of just how us
living in community andreaching out to those impacts
people I think eternally. Andalthough he passed away and we
know we didn't know where hewas at spiritually, but we did
find a journal that he hadleft. And basically he had said
(09:14):
he surrendered his life to Godand that he finally has put his
faith in God. Um, I don't knowwhere he was at with Jesus, but
he , he did say God. And so Ibelieve that the Lord sent him
here for us to just minister tohim and to give him an
opportunity to be saved beforehe took him , um, before it was
(09:34):
his time, really. 'cause wehave free will. But that's just
one story. And I just hold ontothe promise of just who God is
and his character and what he'sdone for us personally and what
he can do for so many and forus to just be the vessels that
he wants to use to bring peopleto eternity with him. That's
the goal. It's like we'resaving souls. It's not just
(09:56):
this fellowship and yeah,that's great, but we want a
soul transformation. And forpeople to truly give their life
to, to Jesus and for us to bedisobedient to what God wants
to do, I think is just the mostimportant thing. And that's
what I wanna encourage you guysto do is how can you reach out
to those? And just as we havebeen really focusing on the
(10:18):
fruits of the spirit at ourchurch lately , um, you know,
unfortunately our head pastor,founding pastor, his brother
passed away suddenly at a veryyoung age and reminded him and
reminded us that we don't havea second, we're not promised,
we're not promised a second atat this life, right? So when we
(10:40):
go, where are we going? Andthose people that you love and
that are in your life, whereare they going? And I feel like
I, I know me personally, I'vehad this urgency to just share
with people and I don't care ifI'm rejected. I don't care if
they look at me like I'm crazy'cause I care so much about
them that I want them to beable to spend eternity with
Jesus. And that's myencouragement for you guys is
(11:01):
to who in your life, whether ita family, friend, coworker ,
stranger, neighbor, can youreach out to, to show the love
of Christ too. And you could doit in simple ways. And we've
done that in simple ways, and Ithink we've shared that in the
past of just, you know, makingcookies for neighbors or
inviting them to the playgroundor whatever that may look like.
(11:21):
But life is short. How are weimpacting our communities? How
are we loving our neighbor? Andwhat can you do in a tangible
way to reach out to the lost ?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Hey guys, thanks
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So much for listening to the Puzzle is
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Real podcast. Please subscribe today and share with
a friend. See you soon.
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