Ever felt like you're drifting through life, searching for something more? You're not alone. In a world that's more connected than ever, it's easy to feel isolated, misunderstood, or just plain lost. But what if we told you there's a tribe waiting for you—a community where you're not just another face in the crowd?

Join us as we uncover the untapped power of community and the Holy Spirit in your life.

Welcome to this week's Crowd Church service.

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And now, the moment you've been waiting for is here, our

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right now.

What's the point of church?

There's probably a whole talk series in itself, but this week's instalment

of Acts has some interesting insights.

Another question behind this might be, what's the point

in me being part of a church?

Perhaps you've never considered being part of a church, perhaps you see faith

as essentially an individual practice.

A short answer to what's the point of church might be

mission, but whose mission?

It's very natural to view the world from our perspective, perhaps with

us in the centre, but the Book of Acts is definitely a narrative

with the Holy Spirit at the centre.

How would our individual journey look different with

the Holy Spirit at the centre?

Before we dive into today's reading, a quote I love about the church and mission.

And this is from Chris Wright, a theologian and writer, and he says,

It's not so much the case that God has a mission for his church

in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the world.

Mission was not made for the church, the church was made for God's mission.

So today's talk is about the church, the mission, and the Holy Spirit.

And our passage is Acts 13, verses 1 12, which I will now read.

Now in the church of Antioch, there were prophets and teachers.

Barnabas, Simeon, called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought

up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set

apart for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands

on them, and sent them off.

The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia,

and sailed from there to Cyprus.

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the Word of

God in the Jewish synagogues.

John was with them as their helper.

They travelled through the whole island until they came to Paphos.

There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar

Jesus, who was an attendant of the pro consul Sergius Paulus.

The pro consul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because

he wanted to hear the Word of God.

But Elymas the sorcerer, for that is what his name means, opposed them and tried

to turn the pro consul from the faith.

Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit,

looked straight at Elymas and said, You are a child of the devil and an

enemy of everything that is right.

You're full of all kinds of deceit and trickery.

Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?

Now the hand of the Lord is against you.

You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.

Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about seeking

someone to lead him by the hand.

When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was

amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

Now the early part of this chapter gives a tantalisingly brief snapshot of a

community of believers in Antioch, which is a town right at the southern tip of

Turkey, close to its border with Syria.

And this community was the first one to be called Christians, as you

may remember from earlier chapters.

Perhaps also the first to be recognised as a distinct church.

So thinking about our question, what's the point of church?

Let's look at some of the characteristics of this church that

go beyond our individual experience.

What are the strengths of following Jesus as part of a

church and not just as individuals?

There are three things I noticed in this passage.

The first is diverse perspective.

As I said, it's entirely normal to view the world from our singular perspective.

We all do it.

But the diversity of cultural backgrounds in this early church is striking.

Of the few that are named, there is someone from Cyrene, which is modern day

Libya, could have been Arabic or a Berber.

Simeon, called Niger, which is the Greek for black, who likely

has origins in sub Saharan Africa.

Barnabas, who is a Cypriot Jew.

And Saul, originally from Turkey, but more or less raised in Jerusalem.

But it's not just cultural diversity, there's a guy who was a childhood friend

of the king, Barnabas again, who was a landowner from a family of priests,

and presumably a whole cross section of society in between, including Saul, who

became the Apostle Paul, um, who was a very learned, uh, trained by a rabbi.

So what's the big deal with diverse perspective?

It's clearly something important to God as we see the growth of the church.

Throughout the known world, through the narrative of Acts, there's all sorts of

people involved in this whole narrative.

And here, in this first church, where they're first called Christians, the

ones they named are immediately diverse.

God doesn't want us to stay in an isolated village, with the same views

as our neighbour, rarely exposed to any different way of thinking.

The church was supposed to be diverse, from the beginning.

And if we're isolated outside of community, we just don't get that

breadth of experience and perspective.

As an aside, it's really interesting that for all its blowing open of access

to diverse views, the internet and the increasing use of algorithms to help

you search for content, seems to be risking rapidly returning us to that pre

globalised state of a village community.

Because we effectively hang out with those holding the same views, we're

shown the same views on social media.

But being part of the church is an excellent opportunity to get exposure to

different perspectives and that may not be immediately obvious, but it's harder than

just living according to our own opinion.

I'm sure this early church had plenty of spats, but there's something about doing

things with and living alongside and loving those with different views that

grows not just our character but also the richness of whatever we are doing.

And I'm sure most of us can think of times when we've had to work with people

who have completely different ideas, and yet, as we explore those, we end

up coming up with something far better.

The second strength of the church is increased ability.

And these diverse individuals were gathered, which implies

their each contributing something.

They're described here as meeting together and worshipping, and there's no sense that

this was a one off or occasional scenario.

The whole was greater than the parts.

A range of gifts or abilities are mentioned, teachers and prophets here, but

much more extensive lists in other parts of the New Testament and in the letters

that Paul wrote to the new churches.

Personally, I thank God for complete finishers.

For visionaries, for musicians, and for tech gurus.

But my personal favourite, uh, gift called out in the Bible is that of hospitality,

because that just seems fun to me, but to think it's actually also a gift that can

be used for others benefit is pretty cool.

You notice in these verses that Saul and Barnabas idea to go on their

mission journey, it wasn't their idea.

They had profits.

And wise companions helping them understand what their

part in God's mission might be.

They were surrounded by others all focused on worshipping God and

listening for God's word and call.

That's something you don't get when you're walking a solitary journey.

As well as different gifts, the sheer volume of people involved makes some

things possible that seem really daunting as an individual here it describes

the church sending Saul and Barnabas

out.

That must mean contributing to their needs.

They travelled across the sea to Cyprus in the middle of the Med.

This would have taken some resource.

Finance and food is a minimum.

There might have been people in the church who knew a guy with a boat, or who could

have arranged introductions at their destination, or maybe just contributed

a bit of money or a bit of know how.

The final thing I noticed about the church was encouragement.

The church laid hands on them and sent them out.

They weren't going solo.

It wasn't a case of well, yeah, this is your mission, good luck, see you later.

No, it was a wider group standing with them.

They were really owning the mission, committed to whatever it might

involve, even if they weren't physically joining Saul and Barnabas.

Laying hands on someone was a sign of conferring authority on them.

It's like the church was sending them out as ambassadors.

You are part of us, you are representing us, we are with you, we're not just waving

you off to your self determined fate.

But more than all the practical help and knowledge, there was a crowd of

people back home rooting for them and praying for them, ready to welcome

them back, maybe to look out for family members while they were gone, must

have been a huge relief and benefit.

So embarking on anything as part of a community is so much more encouraging and

reassuring than striking out on our own.

It's the difference between being waved off by a group of family

and friends or just quietly going unnoticed through departures as

just about just another anyone.

So there are good reasons to be part of a church as we

personally journey in our faith.

God values relationship and likes to involve us in doing

things together with others.

At heart I don't think we're most of us wired to do things solo, even

if that feels easier sometimes.

So the first challenge of this week's scripture is where is your tribe?

Where is your community?

How are you investing in them?

Because God has more for you in community than you would experience without it.

Before we look at the ways the Holy Spirit works, let's look at the mission.

It really doesn't seem much of a plan.

There's no timeline, no apparent budget.

No success criteria laid down.

The church, it says, fasted and prayed, placed their hands

on them, and sent them off.

All a bit speculative on the face of it.

Did anyone have any idea of what they were being set apart for?

Well, the very next verse is the crucial one.

The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia.

Now, you know how high tech crowd is, but I've drawn a little map.

This is their journey, I don't know where they'll come out with a few mirror images,

but look, here's the Mediterranean, we've got Turkey, we've got Syria,

we've got Israel, we've got Egypt down here, and this is Lebanon squeezed in.

This is where Antioch is, and they came down to the port to Seleucia,

they sailed across to Cyprus.

I can't draw the line!

To there, which is, I can't remember the name of the town, where was it, Salamis?

And then they basically travel over the whole island until the final bit of

scripture which is here in Paphos, which was like the main city of the island.

I mean that takes about a day now on a boat, so, you know, significant journey.

Anyway, re reading this reminded me of a very similar journey I went on

with a very similar vague mandate.

So, a little story.

A group of us from Frontline Church were taking part in something

called the Reconciliation Walk, and this was in the late 90s, and it

coincided with the 900th anniversary of the Crusades, and specifically

the Crusades retaking Jerusalem.

This is Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, if you know any of that history, etc.

Robin Hood as well, Kevin Costner got involved, apparently.

Now, much about the Crusades was pretty awful.

It was basically, and I'm summarising, a bunch of land hungry mercenaries

who were tramping across Europe and Turkey, sent by what you could really

call as religious despots to retake Jerusalem by force from the infidel.

And with this came the promise of instant salvation if you died on the way.

It was hardly Christ like.

The whole Crusades were associated with abundant atrocities and a

massive source of hurt and hatred of Christians by Jews and Muslims

down the centuries, even today.

So our mission was to re walk the route of the Crusaders apologising for all that was

done in Christ's name and praying blessing on the land 900 years after the event.

And our bit of the route was from Iskenderun, which is a Turkish city

on the coast of the Mediterranean, um, and involved, you may have seen on the

news in the recent Turkish earthquake.

Walking down to Antioch, which is now Antakya, um, again, southern Turkey.

And it was an amazing time, and we were blown away by how current the need was

for some humility from Christians, and how much the Mullahs, particularly, that

we met, valued the apology that we made.

But after we'd done our section, we still had three days left before our flight.

So...

We worshipped and prayed together, um, and two of us independently

felt that we should go to Cyprus, the Turkish side, that's, that's

where we were based in Turkey.

So off we went, no plan, no contacts, you could say sent by the Holy Spirit.

We literally got off the boat and started talking to whoever we met,

but within two days we'd had meetings with the Speaker of the Parliament.

and the President, Ralph Denktash.

The local press were there taking our photo, and we then had half

an hour privately with him, and an opportunity to pray for him.

It was quite an experience for me, seeing how day by day, following

where the Holy Spirit was leading, could open up opportunities I could

never even begun to have engineered.

None of us could.

And we see the same happening here with Saul and Barnabas, getting

off the boat and speaking about Jesus across the island, a mission

on God's heart that he just needed some willing volunteers to execute.

They too end up talking with the highest authority in the land.

But my final points are really about the Holy Spirit and how he works.

As you read through Acts, you see so many different ways the Holy Spirit operates.

This all points to Holy Spirit being a person, one of the three

characters of God and not a force.

A force tends to operate in a single, predictable manner, cause and effect.

But what we see in Acts is a whole range of different responses in different

settings with different people.

Holy Spirit adapts, it's unpredictable.

We see elsewhere in Acts people misunderstanding this, seeing power and

trying to buy it off the disciples like the Spirit was some kind of magic spell.

Or using God's name as an incantation with no real underlying

relationship or understanding.

One instance of this is in Acts 19 in Ephesus, where the result is that

those using God's name like this get beaten up by the demon possessed

man they're trying to heal, who says, I know Jesus, but who are you?

The Holy Spirit is God, and a person you can relate to, pray to, worship

in the same way as you would Jesus.

And in these few verses we see two extremes of how he works.

Gentle guidance on the one hand, and dramatic power.

The first point to note is that if you want to hear from God, or be directed by

the Holy Spirit, get in the right place.

The church was gathered, worshipping, praying.

It was out of that ongoing dwelling in God's presence that the Holy

Spirit directed them to send Saul and Barnabas to Cyprus in the first place.

All the way along their journey, the Holy Spirit led them.

The text is careful to note they were sent and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

This was clearly then their experience as narrated to Luke,

who was writing the Acts narrative.

Generally the Holy Spirit's leading is a gentle nudge, in my experience,

an impression given in prayer, a set of circumstances arising when

we're in a place of knowing God and seeking to listen to his counsel.

This seems to be the way Saul and Barnabas are led.

But then at the other extreme we have the dramatic and rather troubling story

of Bar Jesus, also known as Elymas.

He had come across Saul and Barnabas on their travels.

He was a Jew, he had understood their teaching about Messiah, perhaps witnessed

the power of the Holy Spirit in healings.

Decided there might be a way he could increase his influence with

the political power, Sergius Paulus.

But, it didn't go according to plan.

Perhaps, as Saul and Barnabas explained the gospel to Sergius, freedom and

salvation through Jesus alone, Elymas could see his influence there might

be threatened, might be slipping away as Sergius began to listen to what

Saul and Barnabas were talking about.

So he turned against the apostles and he began to backtrack Sergius

until Saul calls him out and basically strikes him blind.

This To me, all feels a bit uncomfortable.

Holy Spirit who saves, frees, heals, directs, encourages striking a man blind.

A couple of final reflections on that.

This story challenges me to never under estimate God's power.

It's not mine to control, or to instruct.

This passage is clear to state that Saul did not strike Elymas blind out

of his own frustration or spite, but that this was from the Holy Spirit.

There's a story in the Gospels where some of Jesus disciples ask Jesus,

do you want us to call down fire from heaven on this town that had basically

insulted Jesus, and Jesus just looks at them and says, you just don't get it.

That sort of spite and revenge has no place in God's kingdom.

So we also notice then that God is gracious here.

Elymas blindness was temporary, it says you'll be struck blind for a time.

It was a warning to him, but it wasn't a final sentence.

It wasn't out of any kind of revenge of the fact that he

was opposing Saul and Barnabas.

And finally, God has a purpose.

What was the plan here?

We don't know what happened to Elymas, but I'm pretty sure that just like Saul, after

he was temporarily struck blind by his encounter with the Holy Spirit, that he

would now have taken a load more notice of what Saul and Barnabas had been teaching.

The thing I really notice is Sergius.

The proconsul was clearly already drawn to the supernatural.

Romans generally were quite superstitious, and he already had an

association with Elimas, the sorcerer.

Perhaps God knew that such a demonstration of supernatural power was going to be the

key that would unlock faith in his heart.

The reading finishes with he was amazed by what he heard and saw.

In the end, the Holy Spirit will use whatever means.

To bring people to freedom and faith, even temporary blindness or the

witness of a supernatural occurrence.

But most usually the Holy Spirit will be prompting and nudging our steps as we set

ourselves on a path to know God better.

So the church, the mission, and the Holy Spirit, it's a powerful

combination and adventure for sure.

So I hope this encourages you to get involved, however and wherever you can.

Coming up, we have Conversation Street.

But before we get into that, here's a clip from our podcast, What's the Story?

Which you can subscribe to on all your favourite

podcast apps.

I think grief is, it's such a tricky thing to process, isn't it, and it

takes time and it can make you feel so emotional and can really change your

perspective.

Grief is not like, okay, my mum passed away, I grieved and now it's all fine.

Grief is not like that.

Is the time counts.

Yeah.

Which suddenly you want to cry and then just cry.

Yeah.

It's fine.

Just allow yourself as well as emotions.

Yeah.

As long as you don't stuck in days.

God give us emotions for a reason.

I always say so and I think that's okay to feel whatever you feel.

Yeah.

'cause this is what the way to heal.

so welcome back, welcome back to Conversation Street.

Oh yeah, so we're gonna get into Dr.

Will's talk, we're gonna be chatting about that, so do get writing your questions,

your comments, uh, in the comments below the video, uh, wherever you're watching,

if you're watching on YouTube, I think we might even be on Facebook again, I'm

not entirely sure, because I'm not sure how the tech was set up, uh, I should

probably check that really, um, but yes, great that you're here, great that

you're with us, and, uh, well, first, Anna, uh, that was obviously you doing

that interview, There, uh, about grief.

Quick recap on that podcast.

'cause that's out now on the, what's the story?

Uh, podcast channel

Yeah, I mean, I recorded that right at the start of summer so it's hard

to remember, but it was an amazing conversation with this lady, Katy, who

I met online and she talked a little bit about losing a parent and she also

talked about her experiences of being in a really serious road traffic accident.

Oh wow.

And like the trauma after it and having to deal with that and its impact on her

life, which is kind of ongoing, but she's an amazing woman with an amazing story.

So, yeah, definitely recommend people watch that one and also tune in for other

episodes as well, because there's a lot of awesome stories on What's The Story.

It's unbelievable.

It's, it is, it's, it is, I say it's unbelievable.

It's, it's a wrong thing to say 'cause it's obviously not unbelievable because

it's believable as in this happened.

Uh, but some of the stories and stuff that have come out on what's the

story have been insanely good and.

genuinely loved it.

Um, and it's, you know, you host some of the episodes.

I host some of the episodes.

Sadaf is going to start hosting some of the episodes as well.

So I know she's been busy recording some stories.

Um, and so, yeah, it's great.

And actually the podcast, um, if you're not familiar with it, what's the story,

just head to whatsthestorypodcast.

com.

I'll tell you all about it.

It's a podcast we do where we just interview people and talk to them about

their story, their walk with God and what, what kind of impact that's had.

Um, and in hopefully quite a chilled out way, uh, hopefully it's quite

enjoyable, um, but we have this gathering a lot of traction that podcast now,

so we're now getting lots and lots of people saying can we come on to the

podcast, uh, we've got a great story to tell, which is great, um, and so,

yeah, do, do connect with that, do, uh, do download that, do subscribe to it.

Yeah, it's actually one of the things I most enjoy doing.

It's like just holding space for people to just literally come on and

share a little bit about who they are, about their journey of faith.

It's just, I don't know about you Matt, but it's just so interesting to hear

and have a bit more time and space to

yeah, it is.

Just really hear different people's experiences and some of the things

they've been through and what's formed them and what's formed their faith.

And I just find every conversation I have with someone just so inspiring.

So yeah, I recommend everyone checks it out.

Yeah, totally.

I'm like, every conversation is great.

So yeah, do check it out.

WhatsTheStoryPodcast.

com Okay, I should probably get a little thing to put on the screen

that says WhatsTheStoryPodcast.

com whenever we talk a bit, it just flashes up.

Uh, let's get into Will's talk, Miss Anna.

Uh, let's chat about that.

Um, Will is just, he's just one of the coolest people that I know.

And he just sits there and he's just like so chilled out, so laid back.

I'm just going to ask a question.

What's the point of church?

And then he just unpicks it for the next 20 minutes, which

is just really fascinating.

Some of the insight that he brought, wasn't it?

Yeah, he's, um, he's such a smart guy, Will, isn't he?

Like people that don't know him, he works for Public Health England, or

he has done, and he's a scientist, and he's a very smart guy.

But yeah, he also knows a lot about the Bible too, and um, no, I just, I

find it, I find it fascinating, um, even though we're skitting his art

skills there in the comments, like...

But you know what, we can't be good at everything, so yeah, but he just had a

lot of good points to make, didn't he?

And it's almost like, where do you begin?

But I, I love so much of what you said about how church is about community

and, you know, it's about, um, being alongside other people who can encourage

you in your faith and that kind of thing.

And yeah, for me, that's just one of the most.

About being part of church and you know, we talk about it all

the time here on Crowd Church.

It's not, church isn't a building and ob obviously we don't

believe it's just a building.

'cause we're doing church online right now, um, for our own homes.

So, you know, church is about people.

It's about connecting with other people of God really, um, and supporting

each other as we grow together.

And that's, that's the core of it really.

And I think that's kind of what he said, um, and his final point.

And yeah, I just, that really sticks with me and I think, yeah,

for me more than anything else.

That's the point of church,

Hmm.

that's why I keep going, that's why I've, you know, I started going to

church as a kid, you know, I didn't get a choice when I was little, um,

the reason I've continued to pursue it as an adult is, you know, for that

sense of community and needing other people around me to encourage me in my

faith more than anything else probably.

Yeah, so true, and in fact, uh, Paula wrote that in the comments.

Let me see if I can, look at this, let me see if I can make that, oh no, I just,

sorry Paula, it's a new computer, I'm just going to edit this on the fly and

try and make that text bigger, he says.

How do I do that?

To start with.

Yeah, oh here we go, let me, it's on the wrong screen, so, let's look at this,

see if I can There we go, there we go.

So church is most definitely the people and not a building.

Last weekend I attended the CF23, uh, which was a Christian conference.

Cool.

Uh, I've not heard of that one, but I hope it was good.

Uh, I haven't been to one in 10 years.

I've missed so much the gathering of.

The Church.

Uh, and yes, it's that kind of thing, isn't it?

I, I, I think we all agree that church is not the building, but

it is the community aspect of it.

Coupled with the mission aspect of it, which I know, um, we'll also talk about.

Let me, uh, there we go.

Well, let's talk about the community aspect of it first, then we'll

jump into the mission aspect of it.

Um, and, uh, the building and encouraging of others, but seeing God at work

in us and others, Paul says here.

Uh, yes, I know it's all about Jesus, but it's about others too.

Uh, it says Miriam, let me add that to the little, there we go, I'm getting

used to this add to the broadcast thing, oh yes, I am a technical genius, uh,

I'm not, I really shouldn't say that.

Because that's just going to come back and haunt me.

Yeah, that's,

I know how to push a button on the screen, but Miriam you're right, it

is about the community aspect of it.

And in fact we were talking about this in church this morning, in our in person

gathering, and John Harding was talking about this, wasn't he, how, as things,

Paul has put in the comments, well done Matt, thank you, yes, big cheers,

hang on, hang on Paul, let's do this, yes, well done for pushing the button.

Oh, bless me.

So yeah, I mean, it's interesting.

Uh, John was talking about, uh, deconstructing your faith, um, which

is, is a topic in its own right.

And I, I think John should definitely share that talk with us here on crowd.

Um, but he talks about one of the hallmarks of people who deconstruct their

faith is one of the first things they do is remove themselves from a community

that can help them process and deal with.

The questions and doubts that they have, um, and, and answer those questions.

And there's something about staying connected and not

isolating yourself, isn't there, which is super, super important.

yeah, that's right.

I, I think, um, yeah, I mean, I, I think it's really interesting because you

talked a lot about how quite often, you know, like having questions and doubts

is a normal part of the Christian walk.

Yeah.

which I think it is.

Like we all have times, seasons, hard things happen in our lives

and he's, you know, it's normal and it's healthy to say, where's God?

This, you know, Why isn't God answering my prayers in the way I expect?

All those questions are normal and healthy to ask and, um, it's

unhealthy not to ask them really.

But I think if it's hard to process then unless you've got other people to bounce

those ideas off, who can kind of...

Give you perspective.

And I know I've needed that in times when I've been through hard things.

It's like, you need other friends to say, you know, that's how you

feel, Anna, but like, this is pointing you back to the truth.

And actually it needs, sometimes there's definite periods of life where you're

like, I need other people to stand with me and pray with me and encourage me.

And then there's other times where I've been able to do that for other people.

And on both sides of that fence, it's, it's such a blessing.

And I think, yeah, you're right.

Isolating yourself is.

It tends to be when people get stuck.

Because it's the outside of your own perspective and it sort of needs other

people to come around you and say, Ah, but have you thought about it like this?

Or have you looked at it from this perspective?

Or, you know, like, I think we can be so glinkered and narrow in our own view um,

and that's why we do need other people.

And I don't think that's just true of church.

I think it's true of lots of things in life.

You know, I, you know, you and I both work in marketing fields.

And it's the same thing, isn't it?

Sometimes you can't think your way out of a solution and someone else

goes, Oh, I've got this creative idea.

And you're like, Oh, I've never thought of that before.

Yeah, that's brilliant.

Let's do that.

And so you see a lots of walks of life that we need, we're

built to not do life alone.

And I think Will actually said that didn't he in the talk, that most of us need

other people around us, um, to really kind of push us and challenge us and

help us to see things in different ways.

Yeah.

I totally agree.

Here's a question for you listening to you talk.

Uh, and I, cause, um.

I, I don't know if we've ever had this conversation, but maybe we did in the

What's the Story podcast, but have you ever been tempted to isolate yourself,

to withdraw from the church community?

Um, I think there's been seasons of life where I find it hard to go to

church, or even seasons, you know, where I haven't gone every single

week, and I think that's okay.

Um, but I never totally withdraw myself from being in

relationship with other Christians.

talking to them and meeting up with them one to one and in

small group sort of settings.

I know, like, I, you know, I've talked about this before on Crowd Church, but

myself and my husband went through a whole season of multiple miscarriages,

um, and it was really hard to go to church every week afterwards because

church can be quite high energy, or certainly our church anyway, it's quite

high energy, it's quite Um, celebratory when you, when you're in the worship and

praise sort of, sort of section of it.

And, you know, when you're not feeling in that space, I think it'd be really hard

to be around a lot of like happy, positive Christians, you're like, actually,

I'm just not feeling this right now.

And so it's okay to have seasons where you, you know, need space from

that kind of expression of church.

And I think I have taken short breaks from it at different times.

But yeah, I've never taken breaks from being in friendship and

relationship with other Believers.

Um, and that's, that's really important, I think.

Yeah, totally.

I, I agree.

It's um, it is temp I, I remember years ago, I was, I, I've mentioned

this before on Crowd that I, I felt Quite annoyed with church.

Um, and I think, I, I think we've all, if you've been around church for

a while, there are times when you're going to feel really annoyed with it.

Um, and I, I can't remember what

It's made up of like, people like you and I, just ordinary people, right?

So it's always going to let you down.

Yeah, exactly.

It's all imperfect people.

Mm hmm.

Um, and so it's an interesting one, isn't it, because I was angry at something.

I, I, I genuinely cannot remember why I was annoyed.

Um, that's the, that's the irony of all of this, you know, um,

and I was, I, I, do I leave?

Do I stay?

What do I do?

And I, I, I remember praying about it and saying, God, that I just wasn't happy.

And then God reminded me really Clearly, and actually the

verse was put in the comments.

Let me add it to, where's my mouse gone?

Let me add this to the broadcast.

Uh, so this was put in the comments.

Do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging

one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

This was fascinating to me because I'm, we're starting to swell over a little

bit into the mission of the church.

Um, but.

It's very clear in this passage that for me, one of the key purposes of

church is to encourage one another.

So yes, it's for me to get encouraged, yes it's for me to connect with God in

worship, it's for me to grow through the teaching, it's for me to grow through the

connections in the community, and these are all great things and wonderful things.

But churches...

This is predominantly about me going with the purpose to encourage those

who are in that church building.

Does that make sense?

And it's um, it's a really interesting thing that I was missing.

And I think when people struggle with church, when people struggle with the

community, If we're honest with ourselves, we're not going and encouraging other

people, um, we have become discouraged and therefore we are not encouraging.

Um, and I would, uh, it's one of the things I love about the comments and,

and Conversation Street, you know, people can just encourage the socks

off one another, uh, in the comments.

And, um, and I love that, you know, I, I love the fact that community

is about encouraging one another.

Encouraging just means to help people feel courage, courageous, courageous

to do life, courageous to do, um, you know, work, parenting, Sarah's in the

comments, I met their little baby today, cutest, cutest thing, yes, and um,

but it's about, isn't it, it's about bringing that encouragement to other

people, it's not just about what you get.

Community is never about just take, take, take.

Community is about often what you give and that encouragement

to other people around you.

Um, and that's one of the reasons I love going to church.

I saw Al, Al's been on the church livestream before, Al Marshall,

absolute legend, probably one of the most encouraging people I know.

Do you he's always high fiving you, hugging you and just telling you you're

awesome and he's just great like that.

So, uh, that's my challenge, go to church and encourage people.

It's an awesome thing to do.

Right, let's look in the comments.

What's people been talking about in the comments?

Matt says he can't go to in person church due to health reasons.

That's another reason why we love online church.

We know not everybody can get to an in person church and you're

more than welcome here at Crowd.

Great to see you obviously.

I told the people in Billings to stop saying that they're not

special because they are to me.

They push me away but not thinking that they're, by not thinking they're

amazing so I'm glad it's sorted.

Miriam, me too.

Um, uh, Paul has put here a new gift I found was prophecy.

Okay, so we're talking in the context of church.

I shared, uh, in a small number only to be said by another in a

bigger context, not knowing what God spoke to me, which is cool.

Um, Yeah, people need to be about others, not just God, God, God, all the time.

That's a really interesting comment, I'm going to put that on the screen, Miriam.

I know what you mean when you say that, um, uh, but Anna, do you want to, what's

your impression, what's your thoughts

I actually thought John explained this really well, and I think I know what

Miriam's getting at, but I think John Harding spoke about it this morning when

we were at Frontline, and he was talking about kind of how we, some people like

tend to have quite a consumeristic outlook on faith, you know, like we go to church

for what we can get, like, I, you know, I go to church to get, like, stuff out, some

input from God for my week to strengthen me, to help me, to, you know, give me the

encouragement I need to get on with my week and do what I need to do in my life.

And there's nothing wrong with that, but that's just not the whole picture, is it?

That's not, as you say, part of church is also about mission.

And so it, you know, it's a very self centered You know, like, and because

that, that's, if your, if your faith is all about, I go to church, or I meet

with other believers just for what I can get out of it, or because it helps

me and my faith, or me and my life, what happens when your life's not easy?

You know what I mean?

It's like, oh, well, God's not helping me, so therefore it's not working, or

it, it becomes very simplistic if it's just a, like, very transactional bit.

I go to church, it's like, it's like praying just to receive

stuff from God, isn't it?

But actually the purpose of prayer is to connect with God and to

build relationships with God.

Not to always get what you want from God.

It's not like a transactional thing.

And I think we can easily approach any area of faith in a very

transactional way because we live in a very consumer focused, kind

of transactional sort of world.

Like we are used to being consumers and approaching life in that way.

And I think, yeah, for me, like the, the whole thing of like, um,

you know, it's not just about God.

So it's not about just like, Faith isn't just about a line up between

you and God and it's a two way thing, it's also about affecting the world

around you and you know, it doesn't, it doesn't work unless it's about both,

it's like up to God and out to others.

Mm.

I think it's a bit lopsided.

I mean, Jesus said, didn't he, um, like when he was asked,

what's the most important command?

And he said, love God and love others.

And it wasn't what, like, one or the other.

It was like the two together.

It's like these important commands.

It's like, if you could sum up all the law of the Old Testament in one, Jesus

says in the New Testament, love God and love people around you and love the world.

So it's, yeah, to me, it's like never been one or the other.

It has to be both together.

yeah, yeah.

No, totally.

Very good point.

Good point, Miriam, and well explained, Anna.

Let's talk, uh, in the last few minutes, uh, just touching back on

something that Will talked about, about the mission of the church.

So we, we are part of a church.

It's better to be in the church rather than isolated.

It's better to be with a community of people, and church isn't

just a church building, and we understand that, but to be plugged

into the community of believers.

Let's talk about the mission of the church.

Um, uh, and I love how, how we'll use that quote at the start, how the

church isn't given, uh, what was it?

There's something about it.

The church isn't given a mission from God, that the mission of the church is

the mission of God or something like that.

I'm just butchered Will's quote.

Sorry, Will.

Um, but it's, how would you summarize the mission of the church?

Oh, it's a hard, it's a hard, um, it's a hard question.

I suppose in essence it's about, um, it's about reflecting God and

his message to the world, isn't it?

It's about being, you know, um, it's about being God's representatives here

on earth, sort of like reflecting who God is to those that don't know him.

In essence, I think that's crooks.

How would you explain that, Matt?

I can't hear.

I'll back at you.

I totally, I think what you said there, Anna, was right.

You know, in a lot of sense, I think the mission of the church, if I was

going to use Christian terminology, would be to build and establish

the kingdom of God here on earth.

Um, but I appreciate that's very action orientated language.

And if you don't know church, that's very bizarre Christian speech.

Um, Um, but I think the purpose, I think the mission of church is to reflect

the nature and character of God and Christ and the gospel of Christ, the

good news, you know, that he came, that he died, that he rose from the dead.

To the communities and the world around us, and I think, uh, I think we're a

safe haven, I think we're a community, I think there's a whole, there's a whole

raft of things that I can throw under the title of the mission of the church,

but yes, I think, uh, Andy summarised it here, you know, Christians are

ambassadors of God's love, uh, which is very true actually, and the church

should be that, not love as in Hollywood.

It's a version of love, but actually as in the love of God, uh, to people here

on earth and I think very, very true.

What fascinated me though, in Will's talk when he was talking about this,

was he referenced that part in Acts 13, where, um, what was the chap's name,

I wrote it uh, Elymas, was blinded.

Like, this is not something, right, that, you know, it's not, I don't know,

but I've never used this as a sort of a, how do I share the gospel kind of thing.

Well, you know, um, God might make you blind.

I don't know.

Um, now, granted he was opposing Paul and he was sort of, you know, trying to

convince somebody else that the gospel was not real and God got a little bit.

You know, involved in that situation, but it's not your standard protocol for

demonstrating the love of God, um, to, to people, but somehow it worked, right?

Yeah,

Have you got any thoughts on this?

That's my, that's my silence.

yeah, I mean, I, I kind of feel like it's context, isn't it?

Hmm.

obviously in that scenario and that situation with that person, it, it did

work, you know, I wouldn't advocate that kind of prayer, like wholesale

for people, you know what I mean?

But it's God knew that person's heart in that situation.

So I think he worked in a way.

You know, like he, he, he, he did challenge people and get in their face

sometimes, didn't he, like, like, I always think of that one way he says to a rich

man, you know, go and sell all your, you know, how, who, who asked him, how

do I, how do I find the kingdom of God?

And he said, go away, sell all your riches and then come

back and talk to me about it.

I'm paraphrasing, but, you know, that wouldn't be what you'd tell everyone to

do, but clearly God knew his heart and

Yeah.

that he needed to deal with the hold that money had on his life before he

could really understand who God was.

And.

So yeah, I think it's, it's a lot to do with like individuals and yeah,

kind of the message they need from God.

But yeah, I, I think one of the interesting things about being, um, being,

you know, we're talking about the The whole idea of being God's representatives

on earth and kind of showing people what God is like, I think that's what

the church does when it's at its best.

So you know, when the church is at its best, it's doing mission, like

it's feeding people with food banks, or it's, you know, kind of helping

the homeless, or it's reaching out to refugees and asylum seekers.

There's a whole number of things that the church does really well.

But I also think when the church is unhealthy, or individuals in the church

aren't healthy, it can do the opposite.

And that's where, that's where it can be hard, isn't it?

People have bad experiences of church or Christians in some, some instances,

because they're not really representing God's love in that situation.

And I suppose, yeah, we just want to say in Crowd Church, if that's ever been your

experience, then we're sorry, because that's not what we want to be about.

It's 100 percent about loving people.

Yeah, totally.

Which is why it was super powerful what Will was sharing about the

Crusades and several hundred years later just walking through those

lands and apologising to those people.

It sounds a bit odd.

I suppose that what Will called the Reconciliation Walks could

sound a bit odd, um, but it opened some remarkable doors, didn't it?

I mean, he met the President of Cyprus, was it, and was talking to

him about it, um, and the ability of the church to own up to the

church's mistakes and go, actually, I'm, that's wrong and we are sorry.

The Church, I think in a lot of ways, should be the first

organisation in the world to do that.

Um, but historically it's hidden behind its power and its closed

doors and its secrecy which is never always that helpful.

Um, so like you say, I'm super sorry if that's been your experience

but, um, that's what happens when broken people, uh, you know, run

for something like the Church.

Um, so, what have we got in the comments here?

Okay, so, Paula says, seeing Jesus, oh hang on, I can do this, it's a new talent,

I may as well use it, uh, seeing Jesus in us, uh, is a witness and they get to

know God through how we reflect Jesus in our lives, yes, that's totally true,

um, so as Christians, uh, I'm going to use that word and use ambassador, we

are ambassadors, we do demonstrate and reflect Christ to people around us, um,

and We're not always great at it, uh, but we are always doing it, and that's

what is one of those things, isn't it?

We just need to be aware of, uh, I think, and it's part of our mission.

Listen, I'm aware of time, and I feel like we should probably draw this conversation

to a close, so thank you ladies and gentlemen for your comments, uh, and

stories, and just general conversation, uh, about church or place in church,

uh, and my encouragement to all of us.

is to see yourself as part of a tribe, a community, uh, and a church, whether

it's like Crowd Online, you're always welcome here, um, or whether it's an

in person church, wherever that may be, do become part of that community.

It is life changing and, uh, an extraordinary thing.

And it's just part of the goodness of God, uh, for us.

So get involved and contribute and go to encourage people would be my advice.

Right.

Matt Crew is in the comments.

I'm going to add this to the the ball because this is the kind of comment

that Matt sends me all the time.

Promote the Zoom.

What's happening next week?

Anna, I would ask you but I know

for a fact you don't know.

I don't know because you haven't told me, Matt, because we're about

That's one of those things we didn't talk about.

Yes, next week we have the legendary Pete Farrington, I'm just pulling up

his details here, who is carrying on the conversation, Acts 13, 13 through

52, Pete is going to be sharing and if you're a regular of Crowd.

Uh, Pete will be a familiar face to you.

The man is an absolute legend.

Um, and so looking forward to what Pete has to say.

Had a great meal with him and his wife Albiola just before we went away at

the start of summer, which was awesome.

What a legend that man is.

Um, so great to see Pete.

Do come join us for that.

Uh, on the live stream.

If you haven't done so already, head over to the website, uh,

which is on your screens, www.

crowd.

church, if you're listening to the audio.

Or you can head over to social media, at Crowd Church, you can find out

more information about us there.

Um, but sign up to the email, if you haven't done so already, and we just email

you and let you know when we're going live and all of that sort of good stuff.

Yes, that's what's coming up next week, uh, promote the Zoom, sorry

Matt, yeah, I still need to do that.

So every, every week, uh, well it's not August, uh, every week, uh, we

get together on a Wednesday night on Zoom calls, uh, 8pm here in the UK,

that's 3pm eastern time here in the States, um, but if you would like to

join in the community where we just Catch up, pray for one another, talk

to one another, ask lots of questions.

You're more than welcome, whether you're a regular church, or whether you're new

to the Christian faith, or whether you're not even sure you're Christian at all, you

are more than welcome to come and join us.

We would love to see you.

There, that's going to be on Wednesday.

If you'd like to know more information about that, again,

head over to the websites, www.

crowd.

church, uh, for more information.

Reach out to us and we will, of course, send you the Zoom link.

Now, one of the things, Anna, we have talked about doing, which we'll

probably start doing in the next few weeks, ladies and gentlemen, is...

You will notice we didn't do worship tonight, and there's a reason we didn't

do worship tonight, we did chat a little bit longer than we normally would do,

uh, is, we are going to start doing a Zoom call after Church Service.

So, we normally start at 6, finish at 7, so we're going to start to try and finish

at about 7, 10, 7, somewhere around there.

We are going to then head over to Zoom for those of you who

join us on the live stream that want to come and just catch up.

A bit like you do at church, you know, with, we haven't got the tea or the

biscuits, so that's the only thing.

You might have to bring your own tea and biscuits, uh, and

just catch up with people.

No agenda, just come and say how's it, come meet people, it's always nice to

put names to faces and stuff like that.

So we're going to start doing that.

In the next few weeks, stay tuned for more information.

About that.

Anna, anything else from you in closing?

no, just have a great week everyone, be blessed, stay connected, and

yeah, we'll see you again soon.

Indeed we shall.

We shall see you next week.

Anna, thank you so much for joining me.

Uh, thanks for taking time out from your parents and your water fight.

Uh, are you going to go back to water fighting

No, that is very definitely over now, I told them to shut up, so,

otherwise you would all be hearing screaming kids, and we're like going

in, like, all Crowd Church, you know, nobody needs that, so yeah,

Yeah, nobody needs that.

Absolutely.

So, here we go.

Let me add this to We are immersing ourselves in Pete's talk next week.

Oh no, that was the one I meant to put on.

Sorry, Matt.

Thanks for joining us tonight, everyone.

Thanks for being part of the Crowd Church family, echoed by all of us.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church.

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So if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out our website www.

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church where you can learn more about us as a church, more about

the Christian faith, and also how to connect into our church community.

It has been Awesome to connect with you and you are awesome.

It's just a burden you have to bear and hopefully we'll see you next time.

That's it from us.

God bless you.

Bye for now.