 Welcome everybody to Unfilter with Pastor David Pastor. Thank you guys for tuning in. You know pastor I wanted to ask you a question or talk a little bit about This kind of this concept that I can hear in different circles You know the Lord has blessed this ministry and we have We have a couple of services and and there's a number of people that come that Really joy being part of this ministry, you know and they serve in a lot of ways But there are those who Desire a personal more personal relationship with you and Being that we are in a place with multiple services and a number of people coming How is it that you're able to be the shepherd of these people? But yet it's not going to be as personal as they would like How how do they how what first of all? What do you think about that when you may hear something like that? Well, I used to go to a smaller church and and I had a personal relationship with the pastor He'd come over my house and we'd eat dinner We're here. It would be almost impossible to do that with every single person So how would you how do you navigate through that? You know one of the ways that we had to approach that? Was and it's I think a very natural way John for me at least is I have never felt on a personal level that it was Something that I could even possibly do get to know every single person and and their stories and Family and things of that nature. I just have never had the the capacity of doing that In the in the beginning of our church that was much more possible because we had 25 maybe 30 adults and 15 children that that was not difficult at all, but I read Something and and I think it's true So I'll quote it that it's usually at the point of around 200 members that the pastor Begins to have difficulty remembering the details of so many lives and there's some truth to that because that happened to me between 300 or so people So I had to make adjustments And the adjustment was you know to be available to those who had any desire to to say hello visit or whatever And over the years I've continued doing that as you know in between first and second service I am habitually out there anybody who would really want to say hello visit or whatever I'm available for that and on occasion. I'm I'm able to be at different events in the church You know a men's thing here or whatever and I'm able to just to be amongst the people who would like to visit You know, I don't want to put it on myself as if I'm that important that they need to know me on the other hand I want them to know that it's possible for us to visit too So I try to make myself available in that way, but the way that I've tried also to handle the the amounts of people that we minister to and all has been to try to Impart the vision God gave to me Into the hearts of other men, you know like Paul said to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 2 That which he had received he is to give to faithful men who can you know Give that to others and so I've tried to to raise up men in our fellowship who are capable of Ministring to people and so we have a good-sized group of men as well as redid the same with with the ladies Who are able to if they can't get specifically to us me or her Well, there's always somebody there that we can say This person has been trained. He loves the church. He loves He loves the people of the fellowship and That person can be of help and that's what we've done over the years John, you know over the last 41 plus years that I've pastured this church I had to come to realize that I I cannot get to know Every single person on every single level. That's possible So because that would not have happened in any other work site any other place that I worked You know when you have you know the number of employees that we have here then you have the number of Individuals who attend and the different services When you start accumulating the numbers that that are potentially here very often are here You realize that it's just not really possible for me Marie or any single person to get to know Every person I have said in the past that I Would have loved to been able to do that because I do like to know the sheep and on occasion I'll be at a restaurant. You've been with me more than once where somebody will walk up and start talking to us and And I love that I enjoy speaking face-to-face and visiting with people and the best that I can do is pour my heart out in the word of God to the people and share with them and Encourage them because at the end of the day The greatest gift I can give anybody is a well-crafted Bible study that has Potential to be applied and to change a life Right and so that's what I have satisfied my my heart in doing is to prepare the very best meal I can for this family and When given opportunity to spend even a moment with somebody to take that moment and enjoy it with them so I train people up I give them the Bible studies as as I do and I pray for them often, you know as a cluster group if you will I pray for a fellowship. We all do and And I think that if people are coming to receive a Bible study and To get to know Jesus that that's possible here and the way and and we've talked about this off camera The way that you really demonstrate the love and shepherding the flock here is by giving them the word of God a life transforming message and and so It's amazing to see the men and the women that have been raised up that have been a representation of your heart and in a lot of senses to minister to the people and And you know, I know this first Oops, I know this first-hand pastor is that I see how much you love the church I you talk about it. I I see it and And and it's amazing to see the love and the and the dedication that you have for our church Well, you know what that's that's It's easy to love the people of this fellowship John But because by and large the the majority overwhelming majority of those whom I've gotten to know on any level Have been wonderful people people that that that you can't help but but love and and that's true So I do what I can you know, we have our mentoring class every other week I I meet with a group of men, you know, I I'm out as much as I can doing as much as I can and ministering to as many as I can and Yet I've multiplied my hands with men like you and others, you know Dave Bustamante and others who are you know our expressions of the the heart of our ministry and so if people come to church Such as ours to attend fellowship in a church such as ours I can guarantee there are quite a number of people that they can get to know and who will will prove to be Good brothers and or good sisters and I Learned a long time ago. Somebody pointed this out It's true that if you go to a church that has any number of people a good good good amount of people If you can see at least seven people in in your area that you can say by name and nod and appreciate Then you feel at home. You feel like you're in a community and I think that's true We if somebody takes some time to meet some and the way you do that It's how many different things do we have opportunities here besides the Bible studies? You know athletics ministry small groups that we do have the events that we have we have, you know A very busy fellowship, you know if you take some time To to meet one or two three or four people so that when you come to church You can see them recognize them and and greet them and maybe even have lunch afterwards with them I think that that that's the best I can do is to make it make something like that possible and so The ones that that move from place to place are usually the ones who have never rooted and They're not grounded in a place. They're not really committed not to say that some have left because They've been hurt and maybe a real hurt that that wasn't it wasn't really doubt with or whatever But majority of people that that I've seen over these many years of ministry who uproot themselves and moved on is a majority of them have not really been that involved not really made that many friends and So for them it wasn't difficult to get up and leave And that's really something that unfortunately many churches deal with we call it church hopping Where you move from place to place, but the Bible teaches us that we ought to have a community John that That we should know one another to the best of our ability so we could pray for one another and encourage one another Exort one another comfort one another Greet one another there's so many one another verses in scripture because Jesus didn't create some cold Climate he he wanted us to be the body of Christ and also my encouragement to those who may be discouraged in this Fellowship or another is to examine whether or not you're involved to examine how involved are you and if there's a real need of some Sort for for a healing because of a difficulty then Let us know and we'll do everything we can to to bring about the peace that you need Amen. Amen. Well pastor. Thank you so much for sharing on that and then the opportunity if you don't want him to get to know Who you are? More important know Jesus Christ has come to the services Just come to church and come to church and even as a covert restrictions have lifted What a great opportunity to come and be part of the church family church family I want to thank you guys for tuning in remind you that we do have our Sunday morning services at 8 30 and 10 45 Pastor you're taking us through the book of Mark Yes, I am and so a great opportunity inviting friends and family to come on out and then looking ahead just a little bit December 18th save the date the catinas will be coming out. We'll be showing a video a lot of people don't know who they are Never heard their music their Samoan brothers that that they could harmonize like I love these guys in every way They're their servants of the Lord their brothers to us and they they sing like a sanctified Temptations Great amazing guys, I love they'll be out for our services on December 18th Which is a Sunday morning at 8 30 and 10 45? Invite your friends and then even looking a little beyond that we have our Christmas Eve service Which will be Saturday this year at 6 p.m. I in the sanctuary and then we'll have our regular Sunday morning services Sunday Christmas morning 8 30 and 10 45 Again church family great way to invite your friends and family to come and out even invite your enemies But to come out for a blessed time and again pastor David Thank you so much for spending some time with our church family church family. Thank you for tuning in. God bless you We'll see you soon