 Well good morning church. It's great to be with you again today. I wasn't expecting to follow that. That was pretty extraordinary. Wendy and I joke we're both clergy spouses and so I feel like maybe I should have been singing up there but that would have created a whole new kind of melody and harmony that you wouldn't have wanted to hear. Yeah that's a confession about me. I can't sing. That was a bad joke that didn't land but that's what it is. I'm going to invite us as we prepare just to continue today. Would you join me just for a moment again as we turn our attention to God by going together to God in prayer. Would you pray with me? Gracious God that you'd be present filling this place. Bring forth your Holy Spirit. Flood the atmosphere. Help us to to be encouraged and strengthened and inspired. Fill us so that we might be measured and found to be always acceptable in thy sight. For you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Well I like to start by bringing forth scripture and today I have a couple of passages that I want to lead with and the first is a passage that comes from Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus and this is what Paul writes to his church encouraging them saying them remember don't ever forget this and he tells his church at Ephesus this to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than anything we can ask for or imagine. His church at Ephesus he needed to encourage, he needed to bolster, he needed to inspire them and so he told them to remember don't ever forget that that by the power of grace of God given us by the power of the Holy Spirit moving through us we are able to accomplish abundantly far more than anything we can ask for or imagine which means we can do all things is what he's pushing them to, to endure, to overcome, to transform this city in which we're sitting in. Paul encouraged his church that way. He encourages us the same way. Jesus he encourages his disciples in a similar kind of fashion. Paul is the one who was echoing Jesus actually as Jesus encouraged his disciples who were facing a future filled with fear not so much hope and so they were looking for somebody to lead the way. Jesus encourages them in John 14 as he's telling them about the way forward. He tells his disciples the same thing remember the one who believes in me will do the works that I do and in fact will do greater works than these. These two words of encouragement they're huge they're extraordinary they should fuel us inspire us get us excited to go forward and and the one thing I want to ask you this morning is do you believe those words? Do you believe that we're able to do those things? That we have the ability to do greater things or extraordinary things far surpassing anything we can imagine which means we don't even know exactly the extent of that kind of power but what Jesus encourages us and what Paul encourages us to do is to do those things no matter what is lying in front of us we're called to by the grace given us to accomplish extraordinary abundantly amazing life-giving kinds of things this is at the heart of our call these are words that push me but sometimes I need to remember them because I forget them I don't know if you ever forget them but sometimes I feel unworthy of words like that or a call like that when I think about like changing the world as Jesus pushes us to do I come up with excuses I don't have time for that I'm too busy for that I think about the location I'm sitting in you know Kansas City is in the middle of nowhere how can we change the world from Kansas City when I can't even change my neighborhood Kansas City is in the middle of nowhere and some of you are probably thinking no it's not I'm in the middle of nowhere right and we think how can we actually do these extraordinary things what can we do God are those promises really true the call doesn't change our propensity to remember it does if that's the case you're not alone if you struggle with this you're in good company this has been the case from the beginning of time you see this thread of reminding you know faithful people of this call to change the world all throughout scripture one of the things that we read in Joshua is this word of encouragement offered to the children of Israel seeking to live into the promises before them even though they have this tough road to face this is what Joshua cries out he says be strong and courageous and and don't be frightened it don't be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever it is that you go remember God is with you everywhere that you go so so keep going keep keep doing this is this word of encouragement of reminder don't forget God is with you Paul encouraged the church at Rome similar to Joshua saying remember I am convinced neither death nor life nor angels nor demons nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor right nothing can separate you from the love of God that's what he tells his church so press on don't forget God is with you nothing can separate him from you the disciples often forgot this I'm formed and fit by the experience of the last supper and in the last supper Jesus he invites everybody together together around them and as he's sitting at that table as they're breaking bread together as as he's foretelling and forecasting his death he takes bread he breaks it he takes wine he pours it and he tells them remember me my love that will not let you go don't ever forget I'm giving you all that I am and all that I have remember what happens 24 hours later the disciples are nowhere to be found after he's persecuted crucified dead buried the disciples it took but a day for them to forget entirely Jesus comes back despite their fear this is what we read in Matthew 28 he has words for them Jesus came to them in their fear and he said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me so so go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you my favorite part is how he finishes it and remember I'm always with you even to the end of the age and yet no matter how many times we hear it no matter how many times we live into it no matter how many times we we know that God is with us that God is powering us and equipping us enabling us to these extraordinary things we find ourselves forgetting this is the perpetual dilemma of our journey of faith of our walk of discipleship of our postures leaders we don't feel worthy of that kind of power of that kind of gift we don't deserve it we've done nothing to earn it and yet God longs to remind us time and time again remember don't forget I am with you so go so do so accomplish these things according to the gifts that I've given you and just keep running this race that is set before you this is the word that Jesus brings to us and and as I think about how this applies to me what I what I look for what I what I long for as a pastor is as I long for leadership advice I long for for for conferences where I can go and I can hear people give me seven highly effective traits of a great leader in the life of the church or a great pastor and and yet what I find is that there's no example of anybody who has ever figured out how to be great like Christ is great by taking seven easy steps I felt pressured yesterday to give you an acronym so that you could copy something down so you could leave with something practical like focus and and that was the best I could come up with because when I think about scriptural leadership when I think about what it means to be an effective disciple someone called to go and do the things that God does the only requirement as far as I can see it is that you have to be like the wrong person you you have to be like a misfit full of doubts you need to be full of questions and insecurities you need to have this kind of forgetful mind you need to have literally nothing that qualifies you for the job and this seems like a pretty simple kind of idea or understanding except when I think I read through scripture this is what comes out time and time again as a scriptural pathway toward leadership God calls these people like you well maybe not like you but he calls people like me who are totally ill equipped and this is the beginning of time the journey or the recipe that God has God calls Moses when Moses was a murderer on the run I don't think he was the right candidate the wrong choice for sure for the job God called Jeremiah who was just a boy he appeared before Mary this young unwin virgin she was poor lowly despised outcast Jacob was deceitful Paul spent his life persecuting Christians David was the runt of the litter who enjoyed playing the liar intending to sheep he wasn't this king of kings he was this small little guy that couldn't say anything he was the wrong choice and the disciples themselves were mediocre fishermen who really had no other options except this guy saw them struggling in the water and says hey why don't you come and follow me and they're like well that sounds good we didn't have to fill out a resume God calls the wrong people God calls misfits that's the only leadership characteristic if you think you have it put all together I think you're the wrong person for the job Jesus isn't somebody we would ever hire his resume came across our desk looking for someone to lead our our our life of discipleship within our church we'd see his resume and think he's a carpenter from Nazareth I don't think so he was the headliner on a on a big speaking engagement we wouldn't go hear him what would he have to offer Jesus was the unexpected wrong candidate for those who are longing for a Messiah a Lord they wanted someone to overthrow the powers governing them they wanted someone who could lead a revolution who could change the world they wanted somebody strong and powerful they didn't need this this holy infant even Jesus was the wrong choice the wrong candidate this is how God works he calls misfits people who forget and then he constantly shows up and reminds us I'm with you so keep going trust in me do the things that I do even if they're perceivably wrong because I'll make them right that's been my experience at resurrection downtown we're the wrong people we do the wrong things at the wrong time in the wrong places and somehow God makes them work when we set out as this group of nine people we thought about hosting our very first worship service we landed on a time six p.m. on Sunday nights that's the wrong time to launch a charge we chose to worship in a space that was free of charge they gave us access to our space seven hours a week and it was a space that wasn't equipped for the first time visitors it wasn't accessible to all people it didn't have functioning bathrooms it didn't have air conditioning it didn't have a proper heat it didn't have windows that opened or closed or any sort of cross ventilation and we thought well this is where we're going to host our first worship service at six p.m. on Sunday night I told you what happened when we made that wrong decision great things that started happening because we were just simply pressing on going and doing people started to show up as we met them and invited them they they joined us on this journey in the first four months leading up to Easter we had approached four hundred in our worship attendance at six p.m. on Sunday night Easter Sunday that when the disciples were already kind of cowering in fear we had four hundred people show up to celebrate the resurrection of life that was like a huge extraordinary kind of thing don't applaud yet because you don't know the rest of the story because that that that that day in Kansas City when we had our highest worship attendance ever at six p.m. on Sunday night that was the first time I ever from Michigan experienced my Kansas City summer it was over ninety degrees that Easter Sunday when there's no air conditioning windows that don't open no ability to cross ventilate and in a hundred year old infrastructure that wouldn't accommodate temporary cooling solutions for fear of turning the whole building off what we experienced was the first taste of a long arduous fiery furnace the average temperature for the next seven months in that sanctuary was over ninety degrees on the chancel in the stage where all the lights were burning bright it was over a hundred degrees during that seven month period of time we had four people pass out on the pews and what we got to see slowly but surely were four hundred people hemorrhaging or maybe the better illustration is sweating down to a hundred and thirty I want you to feel like the the weight of that the momentum we felt the life that we felt here's this band of misfits doing all the wrong things at the wrong times in the wrong places God is blessing us equipping us inspiring us yielding this fruit and we had experienced it in great kinds of ways and then slowly but surely it all was going away the people when we invited stopped coming the people we had been so excited to introduce to to the grace of Jesus Christ had a kind of lost interest and we found ourselves in this place wondering you know maybe maybe God didn't choose us maybe he didn't equip us you know maybe we should pack up and go home you know we started doubting and questioning and forgetting that God's promises during that period of time I got to meet this guy his name was Brian van I met Brian van low and behold at a Starbucks and surprise surprise and he hadn't been a part of the church ever and and and I invited him and he was excited he was a teacher in his early 30s and he was excited because we were going to go and serve at a at a neighboring elementary school and he wanted to come and join me and and so and so I met him in in service and we were serving together and as we started serving together I got to know him and I invited him to to then join us in worship in the middle of the Kansas City summer and and and so he showed up on one of those nights that it was particularly hot and he was present with that really really small congregation in this really really terrible you know place and and as he was present there he was worshiping and he was singing and and he was experiencing something that didn't seem to fit his expectation of church and and he found himself in that next morning singing in his classroom he was singing under his breath with his fourth graders as they were taking a test and Brian as he was singing under his breath didn't anticipate that he was singing loud enough for any of his students to hear but sure enough one of them did and that student got up and and walked up to Mr. Van and he said what are you singing Mr. Van and Brian looked at his student and said well I'm singing some of the songs and I was singing at church last night and this little boy said you go to church Mr. Van and he said well well yeah I I did last night and and and he goes well what was it like and and he goes well it was really hot and this fourth grader said well why is it really hot and he goes well there's no air conditioning in that that church and and he goes well that's not right it you should have air conditioning it's too hot outside for for for life without air conditioning and and then the little boy just went back to his seat and just sat there and then he came back up to Mr. Van just a few moments later and said hey Mr. Van can I can I build you a fan and Mr. Van said well I guess what do you need he goes well I just need some construction paper and and so he said well here here you go and he went back and he started cutting out this this this little hand fan and as he cut out this hand fan he drew on it and then he came back up to Mr. Van with this fan and he said Mr. Van do you have a popsicle stick and uh and Mr. Van said well yeah I have a popsicle stick I'm a fourth grade you know teacher gives him a popsicle stick and goes back and he puts the popsicle stick on it and then he comes back up after he finished that and he said can I have all of our class do the same thing the whole class assembled hand fans for Mr. Van I don't know if he ever would have come back but now that he had 25 hand fans he uh he came back the next Sunday it was really really hot again and he and he walked in with this baggie full of hand fans from his fourth grade class I got to present those fans to the to the whole church what was great is I got to tell the story as I told the story of those hand fans to that congregation as they were sweating through worship they realized that God is with us still he hadn't left us or forsaken us but he was going with us even to the end of the age he would lead us and because God is who God says he is he equips us and he breathes life into us and he gives us his spirit so that we can overcome extraordinary things and and press on and and and what that took for us to experience it was this little fourth grader that nobody had yet to meet except for Mr. Van what's greater is the next week they came back again only this time Mr. Van brought back Javan his friend and fourth grader and Javan carried with him an envelope to join us he put it in the offering plate it was two dimes and three pennies everything he had I can tell you that that kicked off our capital campaign that would allow us to move forward from that place I share this story with you largely because what we know is that that God sees possibilities even when we cannot and oftentimes those possibilities abounding around us are are found in these really small insignificant things in these people that we understand to be misfits people that we don't think have anything to offer that that are the wrong candidates the unlikely choice this is how God chooses to transform the world around us this is how God equips us and empowers us and pushes us out into the world so that we might simply have the courage to keep doing the things that God does to press on to go and make disciples trusting that God is with us remembering that he never leaves us God chooses the low and despised in this world he chooses the people who are not to reduce to nothing at the people that are I found that God isn't interested in the strong and incapable but when it comes to changing the world he's he's more interested in anointing infants than adorning superpowers he opts for slingshots instead of these these these superhuman kinds of people he summons infants not not infantries this God is a God of the wrong way and not infants he's grown to lead us on this misfit mission as I've understood it and the only requirement is that you believe that you with all of your imperfections with all of your excuses with all of your perceived inadequacies are the ones that he chooses to lead the way this is what we see every time we read through the gospels that Jesus he spends time with misfits with near to wells marginalized downtrodden the nobodies of society the misfits of this world my favorite example of this happens in John four Jesus he's he's on the run the Pharisees know that that he's he's baptizing more people than John at this point in time and and so they don't like this and so they're pursuing him and so Jesus is running away and as he's running away to go back home he has two ways to go you know this he he can either go the shortcut which takes him through enemy territory into this place of Samaritan living or he can go the long way or around to to take longer to get home but Jesus he goes the short way to enter into this land of of misfits and while he's there he decided to engage in this simple small conversation John four reads Jesus comes to the Samaritan city called Sy Sycar near a plot of ground that Jacob be given to his son Joseph Jacob's well was there and Jesus tired out by his journey was sitting by this well it was about noon and this woman comes to draw water and he says to her give me a drink he didn't have time he didn't have a reason to engage her she's the wrong person in fact she's the enemy she's the worst kind of wrong person in enemy because she was also there at noon she was there at noon because she was trying to avoid public disgrace because that's how people understood her as a disgrace and yet Jesus is there and he meets her and he engages her he asks her for a drink and then he goes past that small talk conversation and he begins to tell her everything about her that she's never told anybody else and as he tells her her secrets reveals to her all of her flaws he continues to engage her to be with her to release her to forgive her to redeem her to bind her up to to allow her to become the best version of the person that God created her to be that that he knew her to be and what's great about this small simple conversation is it is it propels this woman to realize there's a future filled with hope for her that continues as we read the woman left her water jar and she went back to the city she said to the people in the city that she came from come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done he can't be the Messiah can he upon hearing her witness upon hearing her testimony this crazy thing happened this entire city is kind of captured their imagination is is peaked and and they can't help but actually go and see the very same thing that she just testified to and so this entire city based on this small woman's testimony goes to see this man that she's talking about and they're transformed as well many Samaritans from that city believed in him but why did they believe in him because of this misfits testimony how she said he told me everything I had ever done you know witness it's not some big thing changing the world it isn't some big thing that should paralyze us it's something really really really small insignificant something as simple as a misfit conversation with the wrong person at the wrong time in the wrong place has the power by the grace given to us to transform an entire city do you believe this if it can happen to the woman at Sikar surely this could happen to you or I which is why Jesus reminds us time and time again remember don't forget I chose you first to do these things the weekend before resurrection downtown launched I had my last chance I think of this weekend fondly my last chance to worship at another church I don't know if you ever get out to spend time at other churches just to worship I rarely do anymore and so I had a moment to worship in a neighboring congregation and when I go to other churches typically I try to fly beneath the radar I don't like to be outed you know I don't know if that's your experience but I like to kind of just go and so I went and I tried to be inconspicuous nobody really knew me in Kansas City at that point so I felt like I had a pretty good chance of of just kind of you know getting getting by experiencing worship somewhere else and and so I did I had a great experience and I went after worship nudged by coffee to go to the coffee table and and I grabbed a cup of coffee and I thought maybe I just look around steal some material and and and get some ideas and and while I was grabbing coffee looking through their their their programming somebody engaged me and and and they asked me some questions about myself they said hey you know what's your name should have used a different name but I didn't I said Scott well where are you from I live downtown and they said oh you live downtown well I got somebody I need you to go and meet and and so then I lost sight of that person as they went to try and find somebody to to introduce me to meet and and that person left and that person left only for a little while to come back and I hadn't gotten out fast enough before they found me and and and they they captured me and and engaged me in more conversation this time there was a friend and that friend was probably like a 50 year old woman her name was Bobby Joe and this person then introduced me to Bobby Joe and said hey I got this woman that you need to meet her name is Bobby Joe she she lives right near you on the northeast side she's a prostitute and she's running a house you know just just beyond where where you live and you need to get to know her inside as as I was hearing him unpack this I'm thinking in my head why on earth does he think I need to meet this woman and so I'm panicking internally and then I look at Bobby Joe and then I just kind of push past and I say hi Bobby Joe I'm Scott it's it's good to meet you and Bobby Joe immediately uh corrects this man I used to be a prostitute I live in the northeast with a bunch of women who also used to be prostitutes and and I was interested at that point in her story and so I invited her uh to get another cup of coffee away from this man who introduced me to her and and we did and and that's when I I pressed into Bobby Joe's uh story Bobby Joe had a chance to share with me uh some of her story about how she had her first drink at the age of twelve she drank first because her dad was never home and her mom neglected her in favor of prescription pills she talked about how one day she accepted an invitation from a couple of older boys who took advantage of her who gave her pills of her own that pushed her to this place of dependency to the point of prostitution she said Scott in my book you can read that sometimes my introduction gets boiled down to a bunch of horrific facts like twenty-four broken bones sixteen rapes that I can remember not counting the times I spent as a prostitute or imprisoned as a sex slave two abortions one stint of homelessness sleeping on an asphalt parking lot under a semi trailer she described that that place of darkness and despair and then she talked about this point that she pushed her to this place of powerlessness her her father passed away without her knowing two months later her mom died of of horrible cancer complications of her life of prescription medicine and in that place of despair grieving this this opportunity lost faced with turning back to addiction she received this small inheritance which is an addict's nightmare as she received this gift that she didn't deserve or earn as inheritance she said something happened it's like God was speaking to me nudging me empowering me instilling with her this vision to buy a house and so she did she bought this old nursing home in the northeast part of town and she bought it with her own money and as she bought it she decided with her two hands to refurbish it to fix it up to work on it and so she spent day and night doing all of the repairs bringing it back up to snuff and and as she was doing that she she decided that that she needed to meet her neighbors to to get to know her neighbors and this was going to be her new life going forward and so she did she knocked on the door next door and and she began to get to know them and she began to learn about them and it was a house full of prostitutes and then she felt nudged to help them and so and she invited them to join her rent-free in the house that she was repairing and restoring pretty soon she ran out of room fast forward 14 years later she owns 12 houses she has 150 people living with her in Christian community in an institution called the healing house i want you to see a picture of bobby joe this is the woman who who i met in small talk conversation at a church that i didn't want to go to i want you to see a picture of the house that she restored with her own two hands in the northeast part of town i want you to see some of her people that refer to her as mama bobby joe and the people that she calls her family the next picture worship with us every weekend that's a picture of all of them at the kaufman center for the performing arts where we host our Easter worship services the premier performance venue in downtown kansas city that we open to everybody so that they can experience the resurrection of life without admittance she brings them every year to pose for this picture so they can see the world around them and how god is calling them to transform the world as misfits in mission transforming the world witness at meeting people where they are it doesn't inquire it requires giant things it requires these small simple opportunities to to see the world as christ sees it to live as christ longs for us to live the way that he lives for us first we need to see the way that jesus sees jesus didn't see death he saw opportunities for life he didn't see darkness he saw opportunities for for life he didn't see difference he saw one body fueled by the one spirit with a variety of unique gifts he didn't see pain and suffering he saw redemption and reconciliation this is what we should see as well possibilities surround they abound us all all before us if only we had the eyes to see it so that we would stop with great flexibility with great compassion to engage to meet people where they are whoever it is that they are because everybody has a story to tell everybody has something to offer everybody has been created in god's good image to reflect it in such a way that the world could be transformed by the light by the grace and by the spirit given to us what's your story i know some of us are lifelong methodists some of us are are newly minted i don't care what your experience is i don't care how qualified you are you weren't always that way we weren't born christians we were born babies and at some point in time when we were growing breathing maturing somebody talked to us met us inspired us called us pushed us to this place where our lives changed witnessed us in such a way that changed the way that we saw the world that's why we're here can you remember how god spoke to you who god moved into your life to meet you so that you could become the best version of the person god created you to be somebody capable of transforming the world by the grace given to you do you still feel the way you did when you changed when you profess christ as lord when he called you into service you should don't forget remember jesus says i am with you always even to the end of the age so go and make disciples i wanted to close with a couple of different stories but bishop i know we're pressed for time i'm gonna i'm gonna end with one more story and and it's a story that i wanted to end with largely because it's a story that's transformed my life somebody asked me yesterday did i ever feel like i was going to fail the answer is yes i felt like i was gonna fail i had a moment of pause and doubt when i started resurrection downtown what could a guy from detroit without family or without friends or without connections do in a new city and and i i didn't know what i was going to do and i pressed on and as i pressed on i just did the thing that i knew i needed to do which was to keep making contacts and to keep meeting people and to keep pushing and and then i i experienced some success and we grew and we purchased a building and and then we purchased a second building and and as all that was happening this guy came in uh to meet me he was a neighbor uh his name was brian uh he was the cfo of the kansas city star that lives right next door to our church and he said uh pastor i wanted to introduce myself to you and my name is brian i i'd love to just get to know you a little bit can you get to know me do you have time and i didn't but but i i did so i took the time and i met with him we shared some stories and he told me he was going through some stuff what i mind praying for him and i did i prayed with him for the next three years we met monthly uh brian and i as we met monthly what happened was was we engaged in conversation just like friends would we became close friends uh he didn't worship with us but but we became friends that were neighbors and and halfway through our relationship you know about a year and a half ago uh he asked the question are you guys looking for property and uh we'd been looking for property at that point for over 12 months i said well yeah what do you have in mind and he said well we're looking at at selling our big parking lot in downtown kansas city and uh we have some other offers but we'd really like to do a neighborhood deal and uh would you be interested i was telling jim osher that the other day and i said absolutely we're interested what do you what does the neighborhood deal look like i don't know what this looks like i'm not equipped for such things and and uh and so we started this process of working on a neighborhood deal for this big piece of property it was a really complicated deal it was really a structured deal but but but we pressed on through it because this relationship was forging away just this past september we finally inked the purchase and sale agreement on that piece of property after what was 18 months worth of negotiation that was confidential because this wasn't on the market if it made it to the market we would have never been able to afford it because this is a prime piece of real estate and so that meant we had 120 days to perform due diligence to share the news with our church members to put together a capital campaign to make sure that we'd have enough money to purchase this and to build what we needed to build on it and so we we we did 120 days we raised over 6.5 million dollars we moved through the entire city planning process they approved us in zoning in that 120 day period of time we were finally cleared just two weeks ago i put it on facebook i couldn't believe it it happened that that fast so now we're cleared to go ahead and begin working on design development and construction we're able to do something that hasn't happened in downtown kansas city in over 80 years i want you to see the piece of property because i'm so excited about it it's shaded in that green area our church is that little gray building with that little parking lot right beside it i want you to zoom out if you can so you can see where that piece of property is in relation to the rest of the city i want us to hold this picture here because when i look at that piece of property i think there should be anything there but the church there should be a hotel there should be mixed-use residential there should be any sort of commercial kind of building there shouldn't be a church there cities don't have real estate like that especially in the heart of the city and yet somehow god has made a way to do that god is is faithful god says what he means he means what he says when he promises us when he assures us and and when i look at this picture that's evidence of it what would have happened if i didn't make time for that conversation what would have happened if i gave in to my fear of failure what would have happened if three bishops from different conferences didn't figure out a way forward to do something new even as insignificant as it seemed what would happen if you forgot and never remembered god's love for you god's call for you at the heart of this misfit mission is flexibility and compassion to remember always to stop and to see the possibilities around you abounding before you to meet people who are filled with god-sized potential to invite them to become the best versions of the people god created them to be by presenting them the love of god who already loves them in a way that might change them and transform them and propel them into future that god has for them that god has for all of us a future filled with hope and so i'm thankful to be able to share resurrection downtown story i'm privileged i'm humbled i've done nothing to deserve it except that god chooses us he chose me just like he's choosing you so go and make disciples for the transformation in the world by sharing your story and by listening and attuning your ears to others as well would you pray with me god we thank you for the call and for the people and for the conversations as small and insignificant as they are that have pushed us that have changed us and transformed us god fill us with your spirit propel us into the future equip us with hearts and minds that believe that remember that never forget that we have the capacity to do the things that you do even greater things that by the grace you give us we can accomplish abundantly far more than anything we could ever think to ask for or imagine and god with that love that casts out all fear go with us as we transform the world around us one small insignificant conversation at a time in jesus name amen