home . We chase a position , or we chase a paycheck , or whatever it is . And for me , I literally told Henry one day on the phone when I was working at that coffee shop , “ I would work at this coffee shop for the rest of my life if I got to be a part of what God ’ s doing here .” And I know for me personally , I had to have that progression because I had become so caught up in the ministry thing of , “ Well , if I work here , maybe I can get a position , and maybe I could find a worship pastor position .” all those things .
And God knew that I needed to strip all of that out of me . He needed to strip all of that out of me . And so that was really my journey , and that ’ s why I ’ m still here . It ’ s not because of a position ; it ’ s not because of anything else other than that . This is my home , this is my community . All my friends are here , and our lives are here . We got married since we were a part of this church . We ’ ve had two kids since we ’ ve been a part of this church .
We did a little thing where we sent voice memos talking about the last 10 years the other day . And I literally said , “ I feel like I ’ ve grown up in this church in so many ways . I was 21 years old when I walked through those doors , and now I ’ m 31 .” And so it just feels like this is home , and I ’ m so thankful for it . And I ’ m here because it ’ s family and because God is obviously moving first and foremost .
[ WM ] That is amazing ; the community you find in your local church is so important . When COVID shut everything down in Washington State , where I live , I watched The Belonging Co as my church each Sunday that I could . I needed a church . But now that it ’ s over , it ’ s just so great to be back in community again . If I lived in Nashville , I ’ d be sitting in the pews cheering you guys on .
[ Andrew ] Come on , we ’ d love to have you .
[ Hope ] Yes , we would .
[ WM ] Another question for you ... When you ’ re leading , it seems like you guys are given a lot of freedom to say what you want in between the songs . Do you plan those things out , or are they more spontaneous ?
[ Hope ] Definitely spontaneous .
[ Andrew ] Definitely spontaneous . Not planned .
[ Hope ] I think that ’ s evidence of ... You said something , Andrew , that I was thinking about ... because so many people have said this last week , “ I ’ ve grown up in The Belonging Co .” That ’ s not an age thing because when I came to The Belonging Co , I was 33 , and I ’ m now 43 . And I can honestly tell you that I have actually grown up in Christ over the last 10 years . Prior to that , I was in church life , and I was doing a million things and serving God . But I would say that ( and I think with good intention — just it was what it was ) there was more focus on the discipleship and the mentor processing of , “ How do you become a great leader here in the
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