People Get Ready: Humility, Service, And A Church On The Move

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What if deeper faith isn’t about feeling more, but serving longer? We open a hard teaching from Jesus—sevenfold forgiveness, servant language, and the humbling truth that growth takes time—and bring it home to a congregation navigating right-sizing, budgets, and hopeful momentum. Instead of lowering the bar, we picture what becomes possible when we live into it: forgiveness that becomes a habit, humility that reshapes our posture, and service that turns belief into a steady practice.

We also confront a surprising cultural shift. After years of institutional fatigue, many are tiptoeing back to church, hungry for meaning, belonging, and a story that makes sense of a polarized world. That raises a practical question: are we ready to welcome them? We explore how to offer God in ways people can receive today—simpler language, warmer hospitality, and forms that fit modern rhythms—without losing the core of the gospel. Readiness is more than a slogan; it’s the work of aligning our ministries with real needs while keeping our eyes on the One who leads.

Our stewardship theme, People Get Ready, becomes both song and summons. If faith is the ticket, then trust is our next step: trusting that God is moving, that growth can be faithful before it’s flashy, and that being a little less us and a little more God will reach hearts we cannot reach on our own. Join us as we lean into humility, practice forgiveness, and prepare to welcome with open hands and steady hope. If this resonates, subscribe, share with a friend who’s seeking a way back, and leave a review to help others find their place on the journey.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
All right, I'm going to jump straight in, probably
because it's communion Sundayand we always go long.
Jesus gives a pretty high bar,doesn't he, in this passage?
When you were hearing it, you'relike, oh.
Seemed a little rough there,there, Jesus.

(00:22):
You know, she's like, well, youshould stop thinking you're
anything more than a servant,you people who want deeper
faith.
It comes off a little bit rough.
Uh, you know, it becomes clearas you're reading through that
he's he's really just trying totell them they aren't quite

(00:42):
ready yet.
But the comparison to slaves,that starts feeling a little bit
harsh to us.
I'm guessing it felt less harshto them in those ancient times.
A slave wasn't the same thingthat we understand slave to be,
uh, having our history ofslavery uh mostly in the

(01:03):
American South.
The slavery of Scripture is morelike an indentured servitude.
Uh sometimes the economicsystems would mean that somebody
was there unfairly or for uh uhan extended period of time that
wasn't fair, but it wasn't likethe uh uh the kidnapping and
enslaving that we had done in inthis country.

(01:25):
So it's not quite as harsh as itmight feel to us, knowing that
history.
And I think the lesson seems tobe about putting the time in.
Putting the time in.
Jesus says to these disciples,you want deeper faith.
Well, put the time in.

(01:47):
Develop that deeper faith.
He also seems to uh have itconnected to the actions of
faith.
Live a little bit, live a littlebit of faith for a while, he
seems to be saying, at least tome.
Feel what it's like to serveanother.

(02:10):
Feel what it's like to get thatblessing, that blessing that
comes from that kind of service.
It might help, if we're tryingto understand more fully this
passage, to look at the passagethat comes before.
In the lectionary, theyeliminated this part.
I don't know if it came off alittle too harsh or what, but it

(02:32):
helps give some context for whyJesus is coming at them as he's
coming at them.
Because previous to our passage,he's talking about stumbling in
the faith.
Right?
Stumbling in the faith.
My guess is we kind of like thatphrase, right?
Stumbling in the faith.
Yeah, I'm not always perfect.

(02:53):
In fact, sometimes I trip overmy own two feet as a person of
faith, but and I stumble.
And Jesus was talking about thatstumbling, but he ends up with
this uh verse right before theverse we have today.
And if the same person sinsagainst you seven times a day

(03:15):
and turns back to you seventimes and says, I repent, you
must forgive.
Anybody ready for that sort ofhigh bar?
They sin against you seventimes, but they say they repent
seven times.
You must forgive.

(03:38):
Maybe it's fair to acknowledgethat we are just beginners in
faith, even those of us who havetraveled a long way.
So, where is the word of gracein this?
Where is the hope?

(03:59):
Where's the good news, you maybe asking?
I don't, you know, I think it'sburied in there.
It's buried in this idea of whatmight be possible for us were we
to be able to live all of thisout.
What's possible maybe one day inour lives, one day in the life
of our community, maybe eventhis church community.

(04:27):
Aren't we in some ways just likethat community in the passage?
The disciples in there saying,increase our faith, Jesus.
Give us deeper faith.
You know, in our church, most ofyou know the leadership knows we
aren't fully right-sized justyet as a church, as a church

(04:51):
with a budget and the realitiesaround money.
We're used to, those of you, uhthose of us who've been here a
while, we're used to this churchbeing a certain size, with a
certain amount of resources, acertain amount of staffing.
Believe me, I'm used to havingthe pastoral jacuzzi in my

(05:14):
office.
We all sacrifice to getourselves to that new place.
But yeah, UMC of WestlakeVillage, there was a time where
things are flowing.
Not that they aren't flowingnow, but these pews were more

(05:35):
full.
They were full maybe twice.
So that was that moment, and sothere's this mindset of okay,
that's the size we are, and weknow we're not quite there yet.
We haven't matched up the amountof people to the amount of
budget, and so we are hereasking God, you know, increase

(05:58):
our faith in this church, God.
Faith that we can be thatvibrant church that's living in
the black, as they say.
Tell us, God, that we are achurch that can move forward.

(06:20):
Tell us, God, that we are achurch that should move forward.
Many of us are feeling thespirit now, we're feeling the
energy, we're feeling the vibe,who's here we like and we see
the hope.
So we look to God and we say,increase that size, God.

(06:40):
It is a good thing.
Help us to know that you want ushere.
Aren't we like those disciples?
Increase our faith, God.
Increase our faith in all that'sgoing on here.
Now, some hope in that challengeseems to be coming from a source

(07:07):
that many of us had stoppedrelying on.
The culture.
Right?
As many people uh start kind of,they've been leaving the church?
Maybe because they aren't reallyenjoying formalized faith, they
don't like the institutionalizedway of engaging God, or maybe

(07:33):
they were concerned about theintegrity of the whole movement.
Were our actions matching ourfaith as a body?
But we'd lost faith that theculture was ever going to start
sending us people again.

(07:53):
We didn't think we were gonnaget any more, but what we're
hearing is that people arecoming back to church.
The culture is helping us.
Maybe it shouldn't surprise us.
Maybe we shouldn't be surprisedwith the tension and violence
and polarization we've chosen tolive in.

(08:16):
It would make sense that peoplewould come back to places of
worship.
We try to offer a meaningfulcontext for life.
It's a context that offers apeace in the sense of a story,
right?
A way to understand what ishappening around us.

(08:37):
So as we live in that tension,the church can speak into it
with an idea of what is goingon, a broader idea of the
meaning in that.
We don't know why people arefinding their way back.
But there is a question that weneed to ask in any case.

(09:00):
Are we ready to welcome them?
These people who are nowchoosing to slowly come back to
church, are we ready to welcomethem?
Are we ready to uh package God,to offer God in ways that is
meaningful to those people whoare looking?

(09:24):
Are we ready to make that kindof uh re uh redefining of what
might be meaningful for people?
We know what's worked for us.
Are we ready to do what worksfor them?
Who knows?
Maybe it won't be all thatdifferent.

(09:49):
Our theme for stewardship thisyear is People Get Ready.
People get ready.
I don't know, maybe some of youhave heard the song a song from
the I think 50s even, maybesixties, by Curtis Mayfield.
I see him with this group calledThe Impressions, but but most of

(10:10):
us we know the version from RodStewart, right?
People get right?
Anybody, you've heard the song?
All right.
There's a few of you.
Okay.
Who and who wants to who wantsto sing it right now, just so
people can.
It got quiet.

(10:32):
No?
Yeah, there we go.
Maybe I'll just no more worship.
Now it's karaoke.
But this people get ready.
It's a song of hope about beingready to take the journey with

(10:53):
God.
There's a lot of other layers tothe song, but that's a core
subtext to what's going onthere.
God's coming.
People get ready.
There's a train coming, pickingup passengers.
Right?
God is coming.
And you know the ticket to geton this train?

(11:13):
Faith.
That's all it takes to get onboard this train.
We just gotta believe that uhthat God is and that God is
coming.
That's a good question for thischurch.
Are we ready to believe that Godis coming, that God's ready to

(11:39):
take us somewhere?
In our passage today, Jesus saysto us, we are still young in
faith.
We need to humble ourselves,that we need to be servants in
order to walk that journey todeeper faith.

(11:59):
Are we ready to believe deeplyenough to be willing to do that?
Would we humble ourselves enoughto be the church that commits to
those connections to the peopleoutside of this body?
If we needed to do things alittle bit differently, to reach

(12:24):
those who are amongst us,needing to know God's love,
needing to know God's peace, arewe ready to shape that message
in a way that makes sense tothem, that brings meaning to
them, that brings love to theirhearts?

(12:45):
Church is always thispartnership between us and God.
I think the question is, can webe a little less us and a little
more God?
Because God's way is the onethat's reaching everyone.

(13:09):
And the blessing for us is toget to be the instrument, the
place, the locus of all of that.
So that is what we are talkingabout this month.
So people get ready.

(13:31):
Amen.