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Heaven Earth Church emerges as a sanctuary for individuals who feel marginalized or disconnected from traditional religious settings. Founded by Ross Stackhouse, the church aims to cultivate an environment where diverse narratives are not only acknowledged but celebrated. The podcast delves into the stories of the congregation members, many of whom are considered misfits on their journeys of faith. These narratives reveal a profound truth: each person's experience is intertwined with a greater divine narrative. Through this lens, we explore how personal stories reflect God's overarching story, emphasizing the importance of community in nurturing faith and belonging. The heart of Heaven Earth Church lies in its commitment to meeting individuals at their respective points of need, fostering connections that transcend superficial judgments or societal hierarchies. As members share their testimonies, listeners are invited to witness the transformative power of grace and acceptance in the quest for spiritual fulfillment, thereby illuminating the church's mission to create a space where all can flourish. The essence of this podcast episode is encapsulated in the themes of restoration and belonging within the Christian faith. Pastor Ross Stackhouse articulates a vision of a faith community that prioritizes authenticity and vulnerability over perfectionism and judgment. Through engaging discussions, the episode unpacks the idea that faith is not merely a set of beliefs but a lived experience characterized by trust and reliance on God's grace. Listeners are encouraged to embrace their imperfections, recognizing that they, too, are vessels of God's love and mercy. This message resonates deeply with those who have felt excluded from conventional religious practices, offering hope and encouragement to rediscover their spiritual journeys. By inviting individuals to share their stories, the church dismantles the barriers that often keep people away from the faith, fostering a culture of openness and inclusivity. The podcast also addresses the societal constructs of hierarchy and competition that often infiltrate religious spaces. In a world where status and achievement are frequently prioritized, Pastor Ross challenges listeners to rethink these norms. He emphasizes that in the realm of faith, every individual has a place, and that true fulfillment comes from serving others rather than climbing a metaphorical ladder. This radical notion of equality within the body of Christ invites a radical reorientation of how we perceive ourselves and our roles in the church. By cultivating an atmosphere where each person is valued and empowered, Heaven Earth Church exemplifies a model for modern faith communities that seeks to reflect the love of Christ in a tangible way. Ultimately, this podcast serves as a clarion call for all individuals to engage with their faith authentically, find their unique place within the church, and contribute to the collective mission of love and service.

Takeaways:

• Heaven Earth Church aims to provide a welcoming environment for individuals who may feel disconnected from traditional church settings.
• The podcast emphasizes the importance of community, sharing stories, and recognizing the divine presence in each individual's journey.
• Pastor Ross Stackhouse articulates that every person possesses inherent value and a unique place within the Kingdom of God.
• The discussion highlights the significance of humility, grace, and the desire to uplift others rather than to engage in hierarchical competition.
• The message explores the transformative power of Jesus, emphasizing that discipleship leads to restoration and the realization of one's true self.
• Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their roles within the church and pursue their unique gifts for communal growth and unity.

Welcome to Heaven Earth Church.

My name is Ross Stackhouse.

I'm the founding pastor of Heaven Earth Church.

From the beginning, our heart was to be a church for people who don't fit neatly into church.

Our heart is to meet people where they are, to learn their stories, to honor their stories.

Because in every human story is God's story.

In this podcast, you'll hear more about the people who now call Heaven Earth Church home.

Their stories, in many cases of misfits who are discovering or rediscovering faith.

If you want to know more about us, you can go to heavenorthchurch.org Otherwise, we invite you now into the story.

Hello, good people.

Brad Miller here, the producer of the Heaven Earth Church podcast.

One of the main benefits of being a part of the Heaven Earth Church community is our Sunday morning conversations taught by founding pastor Ross Stackhouse.

You can watch and participate in the Sunday morning conversation this Sunday morning, 9:30am Eastern time at YouTube.com heavenorthchurch.

The audio version of the Sunday morning conversation is available here on the podcast, which you can find at Apple Podcasts, Spotify and on the website, which is heavenearthchurch.org Here is Heaven Earth Church Pastor Ross Stackhouse with the message, flourishing in your true self and strengths.

Lord, please shed your light on us.

Wake us up to the gift of your love, a lavish kind of love that maybe we haven't worked hard to earn, but you give it because you decided it's something that we can receive and be changed by and share with others.

So help us to do so.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

Can somebody grab me a bottle of water from the back?

Jamon's coming.

Look at this.

If you want to throw it, you can.

Either way.

Whatever you want, dude.

Yep, It's a good throw, man.

It's one of those things, like where that's 0 for 1 on your stat sheet, but really it's a drop.

So that's my bad, dude.

So they're going to release me.

It's okay.

So a lot of us think like, so this is us.

Remember the pot?

Anybody else remember this guy?

If you're new to church, you missed it one time.

I had this pot up front.

I'm really giving Heather a hard time today, but I smashed this pot.

She had a panic attack over it, but so I had this pot and I smashed it.

Because I talk about how, like, this is what the world does to us.

Like, we come into the world.

The Apostle Paul says, we are like jars of clay that hold treasure.

So it's Kind of like this.

But if you exist in the world for about five minutes, this world, that is not as it should be.

It beats the crap out of you.

I hope you're allowed to say crap in church.

I just said it twice.

So anyways.

And the goal of what Jesus comes to do is not to give you a golden ticket to some paradise with golden streets, if that's what you've heard Christianity is.

I'm sorry, that's not it.

It's.

And I'm not sorry because it's way, way, way better.

Jesus comes to restore you.

That's what discipleship with him is.

He comes to restore the entire creation.

He says in Revelation, behold, I'm making all things new.

So he comes to restore you this jar of clay so that you hold treasure.

And just like this, you actually don't want to be a nice perfect jar anymore.

You actually want the cracks so that.

Hold on a minute.

So that you do something like this, Rachel, wherever you are, I'll clean this up, I swear.

So that as the Spirit pours into you and as grace pours into you, it also pours out.

Grace pours into and through the cracks.

We don't want to be shiny, perfect, golden people.

We want to be broken and repaired, people who give out grace and gifts.

And the problem is, though, we also think maybe it works like this.

I'm not going to do the whole bottle, so everyone can, if you're worried about that.

But like, we think, all right, to go get a little grace today from Jesus, and then you pour it out and then your cup is empty.

That's not how it works, actually, from Jesus's angle, our angle, we may think it's like that, but I stole this from.

Her name is Kenda Creasy Dean.

I thought about bringing the Hose in today, but I thought that would be a bad idea for our neighbors downstairs and for the structure of the building, actually, there is a constant fount font.

I don't know, water's coming in all the time.

From Jesus's angle, the grace is non stop, nonstop.

It's whether we are aware of it, receiving it, being, being filled by it.

And that's what I want to talk to you about today.

I want to talk to you about this whole.

We're in this series called.

Can you throw that image up there, Hudson?

If you're on the image.

Bingo.

That one.

We're in a series called Everyone has a Place.

And we're talking about how in the kingdom of Jesus, it isn't like our world, our World is a world of hierarchy.

Yes.

Like, everybody's, like, at different rungs on the ladder, right.

Sometimes in the career world, everybody's hustling to get to a higher rung on the ladder.

Right.

And sometimes it gets competitive and it gets nasty, even in places where we're serving people.

Even gets competitive and nasty in places like schools, nonprofits, churches.

Did you know that there are egos in church politics?

These institutions that are meant to serve people just become another hierarchy.

Because our human nature is built for hierarchies.

If our nature is not restored, we sign up for the hierarchy.

And I'm going to read you a letter today in a minute to talk about this concept where it's a letter written by a guy named Paul, who, if we think we exist in a world of hierarchies, he was even more so in a hierarchy.

But before I do that, I want to ask you, in your ordinary life, in the places where you live, work, learn, and play, how do you experience that ladder I just talked about?

How do you relate to it?

You can answer that anyway.

How does it make you feel?

Do you find yourself tempted to participate in it?

How does that work for you?

I'd be interested to hear.

How do you experience.

How do you relate to the hierarchies of your life?

PT Go ahead.

People who make more money than I always need to consider themselves much better.

You.

You experience that.

People who make more money have a sense of, like, superiority sometimes.

So you're confirming there's a hierarchy even in the church others, what's it like in your world, this world of hierarchy you live in?

You make your own ladder.

Okay.

All right.

Some jobs you have to.

You're either climbing or you're falling.

You can't just chill if you're not climbing.

They're like, hey, sit down.

We need to have a conversation with you.

Others of you, how do you experience it in your world, in your organization where you live, work, learn, and play?

Does everyone have a place?

Even people who work in the.

The bleeding heart nonprofit people in the room?

Does everyone have a place?

It's everywhere, isn't it?

Everywhere.

And the reason is we'll talk about this at the end is like, there's part of our human nature again.

It's part of our culture that we are built 4.

Like climbing the ladder and trying to get to the top place, or we go to the other extreme because we don't get to the top place.

We feel that we aren't worthy, and so we just kind of feel like nothing at the bottom.

That's why I want to read this letter to you today.

I want to shed light on this concept of everyone has a place today.

I hope to build you up in the belief that you have a special place in Jesus Kingdom.

That's not just a cool idea.

He proved it in his ministry, the way he lived.

And he did it also with this Paul guy.

But first, I want to give you context, because context is important.

Reading the Bible a lot of times.

The Bible, we say this all the time.

The Bible is very weird.

Very weird library to hang out in.

Okay?

Context can help, but it's not going to cure the weirdness.

It's a beautiful weird, though.

Much like our church, we specialize in weird here at Heaven Earth.

So Paul is in pretty much a lot of his letters.

You can conclude this.

He is in jail while he's writing this letter.

He was a guy who was throwing people in jail for following Jesus.

Then he became a guy who was imprisoned because he became a follower of Jesus.

Is that climbing the ladder?

He jumped off the ladder and destroyed the ladder.

He says in Philippians 3, I climbed to the top of the ladder.

I consider all that stuff the top now.

Sewer trash compared to following Jesus.

Forget it.

And so he went around planting church communities, telling people like he did to the Corinthians in Corinth and Greece.

Like, he wrote them back and said, hey, because they guess what they did five minutes after they started a church.

What were they doing?

Our faction of Christianity is better than yours.

You guys are idiots.

You follow Paul.

We follow Apollos.

They follow Cephas.

You guys are idiots.

We're the right ones.

We're at the top of the ladder.

We.

I mean, like, man, just like that, they turned church into a ladder.

And so Paul says, hey, you guys, we are all part of one body.

We are all members of one body.

He says it again to the romans in chapter 12.

And then he'll say it again here to the Ephesians.

Ephesus was the town of the communities to whom he was writing.

He went around to these different cities bearing witness to pouring out the treasure that was in his broken pot.

He just poured out.

He lived into his giftedness as an apostle.

We're going to talk about that because every single one of you is an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, or teacher.

Did you know?

Every single one of you.

But I want to show you what he says first.

This is the letter to the Ephesians.

Listen to what he does think about that ladder that I'm telling you.

About and how he speaks to this concept of ladder.

The opposite of ladder for Paul is, wait for it.

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord.

Sometimes he means that metaphorically.

He feels happy to be, like, responsible and obligated to Jesus.

It's a joy that he's received.

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

Every single person in this room is called sometimes.

Like, maybe you grew up in church traditions where, like, it's only the preachers who are called to ministry.

That's a big fat stupid lie.

The division between clergy and laity is a lie that was formed out of the pits of hell.

I'm just a dude with you.

Following the Lord.

Together we are all called.

And he's saying to all of these people in Ephesians, I beg each of you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling.

With all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love.

Do you see how he's busting up the ladder here?

This is a new guy, Paul.

Paul had ascended to be like the CEO of his religion.

He was up in the executive suite getting like stock options and stuff.

I don't even know what a stock option is.

But guess what happened?

He met Jesus on the road.

And Jesus said, why are you persecuting me?

He had a vision of the risen Lord.

And Jesus said, why are you persecuting me?

I always tell people with that verse, how is Paul persecuting Jesus?

Because he was persecuting people.

When you persecute somebody vulnerable, you persecute Jesus.

Jesus says, when you have not done it to the least of these, when you've not helped them, you have not done it for me.

So when we neglect somebody who's vulnerable, we neglect Jesus.

Paul was doing just that.

He had a vision of Jesus.

Jesus said, why are you persecuting me?

Paul was blinded, couldn't eat, couldn't drink for three days.

And then he got filled up.

And he kept getting filled up and he kept pouring it out.

All of a sudden, ego driven Paul was.

Humility filled Paul, pouring it out, bearing fruits of the Spirit.

He says it in Galatians, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.

Man, he started bearing that fruit and he gave it to others to build them up, not to climb the ladder for himself.

Making every.

Here's the opposite of the ladder.

Making every effort to maintain the.

Can you read the next word?

Making every effort to maintain the Paul's going to do a wild thing in this chapter.

He's going to highlight this impossible diversity of God's creation and also bear witness to the improbable unity that we can have in the midst of this impossible diversity.

He's saying, let's explode the ladder.

Let's all be one.

Let's all be on the same plane with Jesus.

There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

There's one thing that we're all a part of, one thing through which we are all reborn, one thing for which we are built up, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Good Lord.

Amen.

You know what excites me about this?

These folks.

You know how many doctrines they had written out by this point?

Everybody hold up a big zero.

They had no doctrines figured out yet that they had.

Like, there was no scriptures yet.

Somebody wrote this down like they were writing this down live.

They are.

They have.

They're filled with the Spirit.

They're navigating this hard life.

I'm not trashing doctrines.

They're good guides, good structure to guide us in our.

In a rich faith.

But look at what he's able to do with the spirit.

The treasure filling his jar, and he just wants to pour it out.

This is it right here.

But a few special people are giving grace to the measure of Christ's gift.

A few extraordinary preachers get an extraordinary amount of grace.

What's that second word?

But do you think he's lying?

Think he's like, it's a good idea.

I'm gonna say something that's gonna sell books.

I'm gonna get this letter published.

I'm gonna make people feel good.

No, I know he believed it because he lived for it and he ultimately died for it.

He truly believed that every single person has a flickering flame like a pilot light.

He just wanted to fan that and ignite it, not for his sake, but for the sake of God's kingdom and the restoration of the world.

Every single person in here, all of you, that's your destiny.

Sorry, I just thought of Forrest Gump again.

What's my destiny, Mama?

I don't know.

But I know that.

That.

That it's.

It's to be ignited.

We're gonna have to skip these because I need a whole sermon on chat on verses 8, 9, and 10.

Cosmic stuff.

Go read it in your own time if you want to talk about it.

Basically, Paul's like, hey, Jesus is really awesome and he's gone everywhere to make a place for us and give his gifts to us.

Cosmic stuff.

We're gonna get here.

That's where we're ending.

It's going to be practical and I hope energizing at the end.

Okay, we're almost already there.

I am moving at warp speed today.

This is fabulous.

So that all this stuff I want to point to the so that.

Look at this.

He's saying like, hey, I'm calling you.

All this stuff in verse one through six.

I'm begging you to step into your calling and live in it with these kind of spiritual characteristics in unity that the Holy Spirit can provide like nothing else because we are all one in this thing.

He's calling them to this and he's saying, hey, each of you has something, wake up to it.

You're one of these things.

Apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or shepherd and teacher.

I'm going to teach you something we talked about before.

A pest.

Everyone say a pest today or this week at work.

You'd be like, hey, can I tell you about a pest?

They'll think you're weird and they'll be excited.

Here's the so that all this so that to equip the saints for.

For the work of ministry Are only a few people saints.

Not in this letter.

Guess what?

Sorry, I have to tell you something.

You might feel attacked in a minute.

Every single one of last, every single in the room is just a boring, ordinary, good old fashioned sinner.

Some of you are triggered right now because maybe you heard that language in the church.

All I mean by that, it's nothing shocking.

We're pretty good at selfishness, ego, false self.

Am I attacking you here?

Did anybody have a perfectly 100% no sin day yesterday?

Everybody had.

We were at the baseball field together.

He can bear witness.

It wasn't good for me.

It was a bad day.

We were up nine to 11 going in the fourth inning and we gave up 10 runs in the last inning and lost.

How did I do?

Not well, okay, I don't think anybody was 100% yesterday.

And yet this is the beauty.

Do you think that stops Jesus whatsoever from pouring out his extravagant treasures for you?

Was he like, all right, the human goodness meter has crossed over 50%.

I will now go down and give them my treasures.

No, Paul says it.

This thing is still true.

Don't let the bad church and bad Christianity, which hijacked the beauties of Jesus.

Don't let them steal this beautiful one while we were yet sinners.

Jesus said, God, I love them, God, they're my people, and I want to go be with them.

And I want to go pour out my blood to defeat the forces of death, evil and darkness, to make a new way while we were yet sinners.

Don't let the bad church that hijack Christianity steal that beautiful truth from you.

It's still true.

He did all this to equip the saints, you sinners and saints, to build you up for the work of ministry.

Everybody's in ministry tomorrow.

Melissa will be in ministry at Custer Baker, Ashley at Arrow Earth, or Heather at Franklin, Amanda at the Johnson County Housing Coalition, the director of residential programming, davita over at juvenile probation.

Sorry, I'll keep.

I could keep going.

All of you.

You're going to be in ministry somewhere, and he's saying these things to you to build you up.

He wants to build you up in your ministry, wherever you live, work, learn and play until all of us come to the unity of faith in the knowledge of the Son of God.

To maturity.

Guess what?

That word is right there.

To maturity.

It's the word that inspired this series.

Let's learn some Greek today.

What do you say?

Woo.

It's a word.

The word is teleos.

It's the word that says, like you're moving on to completion.

You ain't there yet, but you're going to be.

That's the goal of discipleship, is moving on to completion, to restoration.

Jesus comes to help you move back to restoration and completion to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

In other words, Jeremy, he wants you to be all of completely, Jeremy.

The fullness of you and also the fullness of Christ.

So you grow up into you, you, but also into Jesus.

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness and deceitful scheming.

Lots of big words there from Paul, but speaking the truth in love.

We must grow up in every way into Him.

Who is the head into Christ?

You.

You know who's at the top of the ladder?

No, there is no ladder.

The head is Christ.

But what did he do?

Philippians 2.

Paul says, Be of the mind of Christ, who humbled himself, though he shared in divinity, did not consider it something to be exploited, but humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, so that at the sound of his name, every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord.

Even the head of the church humbled himself to build you up.

So Don't.

Don't start doing a ladder.

Do what he did.

From whom?

The whole body.

There's that body again, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped.

As each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up.

In love, everything is ultimately to shower this earth, to restore this earth in the rich love of the Lord, of which you are a recipient and called to share.

All right, I'm going to stop.

And then we get to the practical session.

Bang.

What's this making you think, feel, wonder.

If you say nothing.

I just keep talking.

All right, you just want me to keep talk.

Go ahead, Ralph.

There we go.

Thank you, Ralph.

Yes.

There's the biblical spiritual perspective.

Even if we didn't have that, it seems to me that it's a whole lot more fun and less stressful that instead of trying to cut the ladder out for somebody else and also be worried about somebody cutting the ladder out underneath you, it's a whole lot more fun to try and build other people up.

Absolutely.

I love that point.

Ralph says, like, even if you didn't have the biblical and spiritual side of this, it's still better to do.

It's more fun.

I've said to people before, I believe if you practice the teachings of Jesus without believing in him yet, which makes it hard, believing in him makes it more possible to do the teachings because you need the grace and the Spirit to do so.

But if you practice his teachings, you'd be like, man, I have to admit, I'm freer.

I'm more peaceful.

I'm happier.

What else are you thinking?

Feeling about this.

Go ahead, PT.

There are days when you don't feel connected to God.

There are days when you don't feel the Spirit.

One of the important reasons is to be a part of the body is because from everybody else, you know, it's still very.

Though your is not spark very well.

You need that community to be with.

Absolutely.

Some days you don't feel it.

Sometimes like you.

You want to feel the fire, but you don't.

And that all the more reason why he's calling these people into community and into unity of the Spirit.

He says in Corinthians, like, sometimes there are weaker parts that need the stronger parts and vice versa.

Anybody else.

Recently, But I feel like we've seen a situation where someone.

Hierarchical.

Thank you.

Ladder was like shaking our ladder to try and make sure that in our lives we weren't like in any way accelerating.

And people that, like, love us that we have unity and community with that would, like, at the bottom, catch us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So there's an experience of, like, where someone tried to kind of maybe at the top, kind of shake you off because, like, they want the top by themselves.

Maybe out of insecurity, ego wounding, whatever.

But it was the community that you had around you at the bottom that lifted you up, Melissa.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We get scripted very early on in big fancy word here, meritocracy, like, you are what you are based on what you can earn.

You are what you are based on your ability to secure a promotion and get to the next level.

When I reflect back on the fact that in elementary school, there are a group of kids, while other kids watched, who went away to a gifted and talented group.

The other kids knew.

Those are the gifted and talented people.

That makes, like, my soul hurt, man.

It's.

It's very early on.

Yeah.

What else?

Anybody else?

Debbie, Go ahead.

Yeah.

Separating your worth from your accomplishments.

That's what I'm talking about.

Exploding the ladder, Setting the ladder on fire if it's wooden.

And that's the whole gospel of the narrative.

The narrative of the gospel is that you are like what you are from God right now.

You can't increase that or diminish it.

You can only realize it.

You can only wake up to it.

Jesus comes to wake you up.

All right, we better move along.

You guys are causing us to get back behind.

Yeah.

All right, so what do you do with this?

I had a few slip points on that.

I'm going to skip those and just go to one.

Okay.

That faith is a series of yeses and no's.

Like PT said, some days we.

We're like, no, not doing it today.

Yesterday, the Lord was like, ross, stop thinking about baseball and come and pray for a little while.

I didn't do it.

I have a sickness.

I do.

I'm competitive.

It's a problem.

The Lord knows it still loves me.

Today was the opportunity to say the next yes, to be here with you, to accept the grace that God so desperately wants to give me, to accept the gift of Jesus that is here for me always and to grow in my faith.

Like, just say the next yes.

Which means that there's something else we probably have to say no to.

Good old fashioned churchy word repent is simply saying no to one thing so you can turn and say yes to something else.

How many people in the room struggle to say no?

Come on.

That's going to play up here in a minute.

All right, here we go.

Let's end with some fun.

I hope this energizes you.

And then Emily's going to tell us the Enneagram test that we recommend, Right?

Okay.

Thanks, Emily.

All right, each one of you is an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, teacher.

You have a lead in one of those two areas, maybe a couple.

I don't want to overplay this, but this is the original personality test.

So let's see what you think you are.

Okay, you ready?

Let's have some fun with this.

All right, let's start with the apostle.

That font is too small.

Who did that?

I'll read it, though.

So the apostle, that's a word that means the sent one.

These people tend to be mission driven people, like, almost obsessive about mission stuff.

They're entrepreneur types, visionary types.

They feel sent to people.

They get discouraged and frustrated when the organization is off mission.

They start new things to reach new people or quote, unquote, lost people.

They feel very driven to carry on the mission, to lead with the values of the mission.

They.

They appreciate most, perhaps the stories where Jesus places himself along people who are on the outside looking in.

So Emily makes jokes.

Sometimes we're fun with each other.

I sometimes make fun of her because she's an enneagram one.

And I will say, Emily, just enneagram1me.

But she will poke fun at me because guess which one of these I am.

That one.

Yeah.

What's that?

Yeah, I know.

I'm mixing tests.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Yeah, sorry.

I. I'm.

Follow the structure.

See, she just enneagram won me.

See, it's good.

That's good, Emily.

Good job, prophet.

Lots of people these days think of themselves as prophets.

They get on the Facebooks.

That don't make you a prophet.

A lot of people.

Prophets have one thing that most of the prophets in our time lack.

Humility.

Their witness comes from a humble posture towards God and a desire for a heart to be aligned with God.

Apostles are out.

Prophets are up people who feel compelled to call out wrongs, especially wrongs that hurt neighbors.

They get bothered, even angry, when the church or people aren't taking care of the downtrodden.

They say and do concrete things to advocate for justice.

They humbly pursue the heart of the matter, especially God's heart, and call people back to God's heart.

They appreciate perhaps most the stories where Jesus confronts and corrupt leaders or crooked systems that harm people.

So, like, they're justice driven investigative journalists, protesters.

It doesn't mean that they're out there with a sign necessarily.

Their protest Might be they just go have a conversation with their boss.

That's hard.

Okay, next.

Are you good so far?

Everybody with me?

Still, isn't the sun through the stained glass awesome?

The evangelist.

Joanna's an evangelist.

These are gatherers, sharers, inviters, relators.

Joanna will host a 40th birthday party for, like, 50th birthday.

If you want a party host, you don't have to ask her.

She's already thinking of it.

Because she's planning it.

She's planning it while you're not even thinking about it.

They're people, Right, Joanna?

Yes.

People who build connections easily and invite people authentically.

They have an earnest desire to bring good experience and news to people.

They don't treat people as means to an end.

Again, there's a lot of people who thought of themselves as evangelists on the street corner saying, repent, or you're going to hell when you die today.

Those aren't evangelists.

Those are idiots.

Who are desperately loved by God.

Okay, that's not evangelism.

That there's.

That has nothing to do with evangelism.

Evangelism starts with relationship, connection and a love for the good things of God and the good news of Jesus.

So they don't treat people as means to an end, but they genuinely, deeply love people.

And they love Jesus, man.

They love God in the story of Jesus, they cherish it deeply.

They hold it sacredly as a gift.

They appreciate perhaps most the story where Jesus shares good news with people that really needed to hear it.

Are we still good?

Are you with me?

We're almost done.

Okay.

The shepherds.

I know a shepherd.

I know a few shepherds in the room.

These are caregivers, healers, listeners, comforters.

They're people who carry compassion in their bones and extend it to others.

They naturally come alongside others to bring them comfort.

They don't see people's ailments as inconvenience.

They love God and God's people with an empathetic heart.

They appreciate most, perhaps, the stories where Jesus comforts and heals.

I've told what I am.

I'll tell you what I'm not.

I am not naturally that one.

I do it out of skill and out of mission.

When I took the strengthsfinders test.

Sorry, another mix here.

You might be shocked to know this.

Don't hold it against me, all right?

Empathy was, like, at the bottom.

And some of you are like, what?

I met you, Ross.

You don't seem to be a jerk.

I mean, maybe you Do.

I don't know.

I do it because I know it's the right thing to do and I believe in it.

But am I naturally gifted at it?

Not so much.

The teachers.

My top two are apostle and teacher.

Every time I've taken it, there's an assessment you can take.

These are the sages, the communicators.

They're the students, too.

They're people who cherish the mysteries of God and want to share them.

They enjoy searching the scriptures and world for God's deep wisdom.

They love lighting people's path with knowledge of God.

They appreciate most the teachings of Jesus.

All right.

Apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd.

Teacher.

Here's your homework.

I just got a bad look like you can't give people homework at home practices.

Yep, yep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I will.

I will send these out to you.

Or you can take pictures like davita did.

Smart.

Ask three to five people who know you well this week which one they think you are.

You can ask me.

I don't care If I get 60 texts this week.

Now, some people know it might take a while before I get back.

Sometimes you might three days later be like, ross, hi.

I'm not good at texts.

I get a lot of them.

So keep.

Please do keep that in mind.

See.

My family.

Hey, if you think you got it bad, ask my family.

It's not good.

Not good.

Sorry.

I am not that one.

Okay.

Ask three to five people in your life.

Which one do you think I am?

I will put them out.

How about we put them on the church center homepage and we'll put them out on social media?

Okay.

If you need.

If you're like, I don't do either of those things, then just call me or something.

No, don't do that.

That'll be too many calls.

Figure something out.

Email me.

Email me.

Yeah, there you go.

That's number one, homework.

Number two, homework.

What is the Enneagram that we recommend, Emily?

Well, there's a free one at Truity.

There's a site called truity.com.

So I think it's T, R, U, I, T, Y, something like that.

They have actually a bunch of different assessments, but they're all.

You can do them all free.

And they'll give you, like, an initial, just base assessment.

So, like, there's the Enneagram, there's a disc profile.

There's.

There's a couple others on there.

But the Enneagram is.

It's fun.

And then there's something called the Enneagram Institute that actually will give a little more Information, So you can do it that way, too.

So you take the test over here where it's free, and you can find more information over here where it's also free.

I like free.

So there you go.

Thank you, Emily.

Sure.

We'll put that on the socials, too.

Emily and I are.

I'm going to give Emily and I some props for a minute.

So you're just going to have to endure this.

Emily and I work really well together.

Our personalities are not the same.

Emily's a one on the Enneagram.

I'm a three.

I'm an apostle.

She's a teacher.

But we work extremely well together.

Extremely well.

Because we pursue unity all the time.

If we have, like, a conversation, we need to talk, we keep coming back to unity.

That's church, too.

That's church.

We come back.

If someone hurts your feelings, you say, hey, that hurt my feelings.

If you saw it differently, it's probably because you had a personality clash.

Right.

Maybe you saw it from the lens of an apostle.

They saw it from the lens of a shepherd.

Right.

Or an Enneagram one.

Or an Enneagram three.

So that's your homework.

Ask three to five people which one they think you are.

You can say yourself, too.

Take the Enneagram, send them to us.

We're going to put it into your church center profile so we can fit you into a nice little box.

No, so that, like, when we have things to do.

Well, no, like, oh, Ralph Hill.

That's not a good ask of Ralph, because Ralph is.

This Ralph would be better perhaps, at this.

So does that make sense?

All right, let's.

Let's have some fun.

How many people in the room would say, like, I think I might.

My leading one might be apostle.

We have, like, three of those.

I'm going to tell you, that's a latent gift in the church.

It's one that we've not fanned the flame of.

Well, so we had like two or three of those.

Mission driven.

They get up.

They're like, get nervous when we're not on mission.

How many prophets in the room?

Don't be shy.

We're.

Everybody's something.

They're all beautiful.

How many prophets in the room?

Yeah, come on, raise your hand.

Heather, good Lord.

Didn't you literally teach journalism somewhere?

Yeah, come on.

How many evangelists in the room?

Raise your hand?

Joanna.

Yeah, dude.

Jason, you are an evangelist.

Dude, straight up.

You are an evangelist.

How many shepherds in the room?

See this?

Watch.

Look around the room.

The church has fanned the flame of that one, not the apostle one so much.

Alan Hirsch says the church needs to wait for it.

I need to make sure I says correctly.

Ape out.

We need to fan the flame more of apostle, prophet, evangelist.

What's the most prominent gift in United Methodist Church that gets we raise up shepherds and teachers.

We need to fan the flame of the people who are not those things.

All right, how many people?

Uh huh.

Yep.

How many people are teachers?

Some of you.

I feel like I know what you are, but all right, send them to us this week and we'll have some fun with this.

The good news is everyone has a place.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you that that's true.

Help us to experience that truth and to grow in it.

Guide us so that we find our place with you and that we take our place in your inheritance and that we share the riches that you so desperately want to give to the world with others.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Thank you for participating in the conversation happening at Heaven Earth Church.

Your next opportunity to do so live is this Sunday morning, 9:30am Eastern Time, either at the main campus at 309 East Main in Whiteland, Indiana or online at YouTube Live Live.

That's@YouTube.com heavenerth church.

The audio podcast is always available at Apple Podcast and on Spotify.

You can help others find out about the Heaven Earth Church podcast by going to Apple Podcast and or Spotify and leaving a five star rating and your review.

Instructions on how to do just that and links are in the show notes.

You can always find out more by going to the church website heavenearthchurch.org we.

Want to thank you for spending time with us today.

My name is Ross Stackhouse, the pastor to Heaven Earth Church and you may think out there that your story is over, but in fact your faith story may just be beginning.

If you want more information about our church or you're interested in the next step, you can go to heavenorthchurch.org otherwise we look forward to being with you next time at the Heaven Earth Church Podcast.