 The people that I have been engaged with That's what's made it all worthwhile. That was the point of it to be in community with them sharing Their lives and my families in with their families That's the part that you remember those wonderful stories of your your times together good and bad and that has been I Think the gift of the gospel and that we Experience sharing the love of Christ together in that community whichever church we were in and To enjoy the love that that engenders and in good times and in bad What I think of most is that when I entered the conference there were just a handful of women and When I look over my years of service I Note how extraordinary the influence of those women have been on me starting with Joe bigger staff and Farmers branch Victoria Davidson and East Alice Linda Brown in my North Haven years Catherine Lyle Georgine Blanton My last three pastors Marty so per Amy spar and Martha Valencia and then My current colleagues at TMF Lisa Greenwood Carol Montgomery and Blair Thompson. Why did I just say thank God? for the change in the annual conference for This extraordinary set of pastors and for their influence on me when I've Had the opportunity to really engage with the community and know the community and have them to know the church That has been a great joy When I was in war and one time we had the car wash there really wasn't a car wash drug dealers and stuff I would go over there and you know do ministry and let him know about the church There's one homeless guy was there. He said oh we know you you are our pastor You said we can come anytime these socks that I have on I was hungry You didn't have money, but you gave me these socks and so connecting to the community and connecting the church to the community Has been one of my greatest joys Talk about my wife and her name was Denise Johnson. So long She just passed me about five and a half years ago, and she was not only my car sweetheart But she has been with through every every step of ministry. So it's not ahead. It has not been my ministry It's been our ministry to They she died she was faithful to the church. She Used to be the president of the North Texas Conference United Methodist women, and she was as Faithful to me as a wife as a friend and as a part of the ministry I think the most important thing is to reverse the question So for example when we think about those who may be visiting our congregations I'm afraid that sometimes our default question is to those visitors What can you do for us? How soon can you get on a committee? How soon are you going to start writing checks to help us pay the bills? And we saw simply have to reverse the question to what can we do to help you grow in Christ? the best way that I know to do that is for the church to do an assessment to Learn where they're strong and where they're weak and we did that with the black church initiative It's hard work, but each member of the church would take an assessment to see What they really like what they want to do with the community and with the church and Areas where they're strong matching that up with the community. I would encourage Churches to do that assessment and then a tax and get to know who actually lives in the community That is their mission field and bring those two together these churches tend to be so large we make a church is really and We don't even have a lot of small churches But small churches are just as relevant as large churches and I think that now We need to reverse the trend and thinking that every church has to be a better church We need to go back to small church ministry and that's very important because everyone needs a church and a passage that relate to Be creative be bold be experimental risk failure. If you're going to fail fail gloriously in the in the effort Don't be hindered and don't be encumbered by the idea of a programming per se Let people have that voice that says hey, what would happen if we did this and Experiment and try yes think some things will go awry things will go wrong But the really fun part is I believe that there's a dynamic of the Holy Spirit that when people do that and they're open to that prompting amazing Wonderful things, but the issue it for a lot of folks is it's it can border on chaos You've got to be willing to trust the Holy Spirit for that There will be great failures, but there will be successes like you couldn't imagine Know the Lord know God's word and love the Lord with your heart mind soul strength and as you really know the Lord and Love the Lord with all that you have you are more concerned about making disciples Because you will love the community where you are Know his community and I would say once you love the Lord with all your heart mind and strength The worries that you have about will your salary make ends meet for your family Will you be able to pay your student loans? That's not a concern anymore because God always provides Love the Lord with your heart mind soul and strength put the Lord first in everything that you do Your ministry will be successful The first one is Don't confuse the institution with the church I have loved the church all my ministry not always love the institution the institution itself can be Fraught with faults and failures like anything else, but the church that which that which Christ called I have always loved that and I've always thought that that should have the priority It's looking at the church that redemptive fellowship as Wesley called it the second piece Of advice is simply this and I'm going to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer here. Forgive me It's a the theologian thing Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the first and greatest service that we Afford others in our community is to listen To listen He goes on to say that that God first gave us the word that we might listen to God and then God responds By lending an ear and that we show God's love to the others first by listening to them And I think it that's that's one of the things I would encourage us all to do But I think particularly for those who are fairly new in the ministry Be thankful Remember where you come from to go through the people you know connect with to your ministry and all things Continue to praise God for everything you have experienced in your ministry I spent far too much of my ministry being inattentive to my health and well-being It was that lie that said I have to give all of myself away and I just don't have time for self-care and so My word is you are worth it and so eating well and regular exercise and don't be ashamed to see a therapist and and Rely on a spiritual guide or director maybe a coach And I have to say one more thing is when I went over this with my wife She said yeah and learn to say no Oh What counts is how you ride the train and this trade