[ Mariah ] I feel like it comes down to when you ’ re using people as a utility , things get really murky . People are following a person as opposed to the mission of Jesus . And so I feel like a way that we ’ ve handled that is that we are constantly checking in on our team . We ’ re constantly talking to them about their personal relationship with Jesus . It can be really easy to get wrapped up in serving or get wrapped up in a look or get wrapped up in whatever ’ s happening around you as opposed to the reason why everything is happening around you . And we noticed that a lot during Covid when people left . Once church shut down , people are gone because they might have bought into doing as opposed to the relationship and the real connection , the deep connection with Jesus .
And that ’ s no slight on them or anyone . So I think by just constantly checking in with people , talking to them about their relationship with God , and not elevating people that aren ’ t having that real honest connection . It ’ s fine to struggle with it . We all struggle with it at times , but really being involved , I think people would be surprised how many people we have on our team and how truly involved we are in their lives . And we try not to grow too fast beyond what we can really hold people accountable to and be involved in because it matters so much to us to make sure that that real deep connection with Jesus .
[ WM ] That is so good . You know , speaking as an old man , it ’ s been my experience to work within or alongside lots of ministries . Oftentimes the ministry will value vision over people . And so people get hurt . But I don ’ t see y ’ all doing that . What you ’ re saying , Mariah is good stuff that ’ s healthy and that ’ s the right way to be .
[ Mariah ] I mean , we definitely mess up at times . We ’ re not perfect . And I feel like since Covid , it ’ s been such a good reminder that this is the number one thing . You can get caught up in doing it every week . And I think just always coming back to asking ourselves , “ Are we looking through the filter of caring the most about people ’ s hearts and people ’ s souls and not just completing a very important task ? People ’ s health is what ’ s going to make our foundation and our church strong .
[ Aaron ] A small thing , a practical thing , is that even with something like Easter ’ s coming up in a couple weeks and we did last year or the year before , I can ’ t remember when we began it , but it ’ s like all of our volunteers are working so hard . Our teams are working hard to create this space for thousands of people through Easter . But we took some time in the schedule to create on Saturday , in between Good Friday and Sunday , to do a volunteer gathering . We ’ ll scale it down as the staff . We ’ ll take on the burden , the responsibility to make it happen , and we just want to create this space for them to be able to receive too . And so it ’ s not even in context of different things like that
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