Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader Podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Hello and welcome to the Life Group Leader Podcast. My name is Kirby Wood, the group's pastor here at Mariners Church Irvine.
And today I have with me our incredible singles pastor, welcoming back Dallas Viva. Hello, glad to be back. So glad you're here, Dallas, how has your summer been? Summer's been great.
State local went on a few trips with the family. So sweet. Hiked, journaled, read books. Hung out with my kids.
I love that. Rested, excited for the fall, all of that. Oh yeah, I can totally sense it. You definitely feel super rested, but also super energized.
Did God speak anything specifically to you this summer? He did. I mean, I can take up the entire time. Talk about this.
I'm sure, I'm sure. But give us a little taste, Dallas. Yeah, I just took some time to slow down and I took the summer to recap the last 12 months. What have I done?
All the things that I've done, what did they matter, like what level of matter? Did they make a quick or matter? Yeah. How did they impact my ministry, myself, my family?
Cool. And what are the things that I want to do moving forward? There were a lot of things that I did that were cool, but they didn't mean anything. So kind of just realigned myself moving into the fall.
I love that. I so appreciate, Dallas, I think one of your strong guests is you are very reflective and you like to look back to help you inform what to do looking forward. I've witnessed that in several meetings with you as you think about what worked well and also how can I, how can that better improve our future? I really respect and admire that about you.
Thank you. That's tell the story. It's true. It's so true.
So we hope that you would actually take some time here at the end of the summer to reflect with your group. You're coming. This is the last part of this Holy Spirit series. So if you've been following along with us for this entire series, we hope that you will pause and reflect with your group and try to make informed decisions about how to best apply or how to best think through this next fall.
Hopefully you yourself have heard from God and been able to rest this summer. And we want you to know that us as your groups team are praying for you and are available to you to help resource and make informed decision about your future, future content. We have the new series coming up after this Labor Day weekend. We have big problems, bigger God.
And we hope that you are following along with us. Everyone will be receiving a physical copy of this material of the Life Group content. All people that are walking into church just like Galatians or hoping hopeless times once upon a time. And we would love for you guys to follow along with us.
They also follow along with the root of rhythm. So you'll get to exercise and make sure that your groups are staying rooted in God's word as well as in those incredible and essential spiritual rhythms that we know will continue to strengthen and grow the unique and personal face of each person in your group. So with that, we want to jump in to this week's discussion. Lastly, as we're talking about the Holy Spirit and how it works in us is this one, this week is called He Sends.
Now let's share with us a little bit about what you love, about this concept as the Holy Spirit in us sends us out. Sends us out, we live on mission. Yeah, it's good. Whether you work in a church or you work at a coffee shop, like we're all sent on mission, we're missionaries in our own cities, someone once told me something that was super profound.
I was like, I want all these people to work in the church. I want all my volunteers to work in the church. And she was like, actually, they might be more beneficial to the kingdom working in their nine to five job that sometimes the spirit sends you out to exactly where you're at right now. Amen, I love that.
That's so true. I feel like we actually do as ministry people. We do our job best when we are actually equipping you, you life group leaders to go and do the work of ministry. My job is not to be on the ground every single minute, every single day doing ministry, although I do do that in my daily life, encouraging and supporting my neighbors or caring for those I meet in parking lots and in different ways.
But my job is I hope that you as our life group leaders are doing the work that God has called you to her. And we want to help support you in that way. So that's, I mean, what was that value once upon a time? We believe every believer is a minister with their own ministry.
So beautiful, I love that. So as we kind of set this up, I mean, the overview is really helpful to look at, but we're trying to help you gain a better sense of where this conversation is going to go. But also allow you to step through the discussion piece by piece and ensure that's really hitting that full depth of each question and each opportunity for discussion. So we'll kind of move to Acts, as you can see, because Acts is such a crucial book of the Bible where we see the church begin, where we see the spirit go upon the disciples of Jesus after his death and they start to really grow the kingdom of God.
And I absolutely love that. So that's where our conversation is headed. Is there anything else that you would want to share with our leaders as we start to set the stage for the discussion? Read the scripture.
Yeah, it's so true. It's so true. It is awesome. I remember going through Acts with a group of mine when I was back home and it was really empowering us of like, oh my gosh, there's so much to do.
But it's a long, it's a long one. So hopefully this little meat today that we go through in the look down section will be able to kind of set you and your group up really well to think through this concept of the spirit sending us. So first and foremost, we like to start us off with an easy little question, of course, to just get people to start to sense where and how does a spirit play into this idea of he sends? And so the question is, if you had a job as a tour guide, where would it be and why?
Oh, good question. Such a great question. Yeah. I have like a dream that one day I'm retired and I'm like that old dude at Fenway Park who knows every nook and cranny of the ballpark.
Like, oh, I remember when so-and-and-so hit this home run and I'm not even a Red Sox fan. Yeah. It's Boston Red Sox, Red Sox, Red Park. I like to be that old tour guy at an old baseball park and having stories for days that just bring the experience to life.
I love to be that guy. Yeah. Well, you weren't with us last week, Dallas, but Tim got me in a sports conversation, which I know nothing about sports. So here we are again.
I knew when you sang Fenway Park, I was like, oh, I think that's sports. Sports? Sorry, I didn't say Georgia Bulldogs. Oh, yes.
Well, that's the one sport I do know about football, SAC. That's me. That's true. No, I love this question too, because I think it really helps us dream about the things that we really love and how they're, even if you're not a strong details person, which Dallas, I know you love a good detail.
I know you love a good detail. But when we really love something, we want to be well-versed. We want to know everything about it. And also what makes a great tour guide?
Someone who's very charismatic and passionate. And most all just really passionate about that thing. And so I know that even if you're not even super extroverted, you would still, they're introverted, but really savvy tour guides that love and adore the specific museum that they're a part of or different things like that. So hopefully this will draw out of people.
You'll really start to see their interests shine. And also, regardless of introvert skills or whatever, people do have passions, right? There are things that we're all really passionate about. And that's how we hope that you will start to arc this conversation into being passionate about God's kingdom, multiplication, and how we are sent to go out and be passionate about sharing God's word and God's truth with others.
So that's where that kind of goes. But you don't have to jump that question all the way to that point. But that's why we're kind of asking them. That's why we're saying the question here.
But moving on to look down and reading Acts, this question, who does the Holy Spirit enable us to become? How does he do it? What do you see here, Dallas? What's sticking out with you with this Ax first?
Yeah, it's this idea of pruning. Who does the Holy Spirit enable us to become? I hope it's every year, it's a better version of myself that looks more and more like Jesus. That it's never complete.
That there's something that needs to be pruned, that needs to be changed. I always think of weightlifting. And if you guys saw me, you'd be like, oh, he lifts all the time. That's sarcasm for those you've never seen me.
But it's this idea of my personal record. I got the bar up. And then next year, it's put some 25s on there. Start and small.
And it's just watching ourselves grow. You can continue to grow and grow and grow. But it's going to be painful. And I also love that so much.
And I think you really made a good point. It's not just being better for the sake of being better. It's being better to look more like Jesus, for his glory, for his purposes. That's so good.
But how we can be tempted to just level up on ourselves. That's so good. I absolutely love that. And I also think I love that the question almost kind of buries the lead, that this is the Holy Spirit enabling us.
This isn't me willing myself into a care. I mentioned the word charismatic before. And it kind of triggered me. It's like, not every single person is charismatic.
But the Holy Spirit enables us to share our faith when we might not have to ask that person the deeper question or what have you. And it just enables us to be on mission. And it's something I've been learning from the daily read is inviting the Holy Spirit in at the beginning of the day. Beautiful.
Holy Spirit, what are we going to accomplish today? Good. Holy Spirit, what is a conversation that you're going to put in my path today that I'm not prepared for, that I may not even feel like I'm ready to have. But I'm going to have to rely on your strength.
And it's a dangerous prayer to pray. But it's the work of the Holy Spirit. OK, you're allowing me in. You're allowing me to move in your life.
And I have growth on the other side of obedience. Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. That is a powerful invitation.
That I hope many of you would be even willing to start. You know, as a practice, maybe that's an encouragement that people can share with their groups, especially as we look towards the more look in conversation. How do we live that out? I think that might be a really great thing to pull in.
But as we move from look down, reading God's word, to look out, and we start to pay attention to where we see this in the world. We've got two questions here. They go hand in hand. What does it look like when you run at things in your own strength?
Never have I ever. Never have I ever, just kidding. And then when was the time you experienced the Holy Spirit's empowerment for something he has called you to? And so sometimes we say, you might want to ask this question, and then wait, and then ask the second question.
I think it might be, even though it's a little wordy here, it might be helpful to ask these questions together. Because you can say, this is what it does, and this is what it doesn't. This is what it looks like for the Holy Spirit to empower me. And then this is when I'm clearly doing it on my own strength.
What do you think about that, Dallas? I'm getting exhausted, thinking of all the times where I've created my own agenda. I mean, that's part of my story of wanting to do my own thing. So I just did it, didn't invite God into it at all, and just exhausted, frustrated, mad at God.
And God, you're not speaking. You're not moving in my life. And then it was provided another opportunity to do the exact same thing. And this time I was like, you know what?
I'm going to try something different. I'm going to pray. And it was experiencing God's peace like I've never experienced it before. God bless.
And I always tell people, here's how I can see God's peace is Vegas Boulevard, if you've ever been to Vegas. It's Friday night. There's Fight Night. There is every concert that you can imagine happening on the Strip.
It's busy. And imagine you're driving down Vegas Boulevard, and you see green lights as far as you can see. So in the midst of chaos, you're experiencing God's peace. And you know exactly where to go.
And that's what I felt when I invited God in. Ooh, that's good. Oh, that's such a good illustration. I can totally see it in every movie about Vegas I've ever experienced.
No, I've never been a Vegas, but I can imagine. But I can imagine that that straight sign, that straight away, where it's green, green, green, green, green. I love that that's what you experienced. That's so cool.
From God just giving you a green light. God giving you that piece of like, OK, all roads are clear. Yeah, it may look chaotic. It may look like it's not going to go this way.
But my piece is upon you. I'm guiding you. I'm leading you. And I only experienced that when I went to Amherst.
And so often, maybe people in your group will experience this. They'll say, people ask me, how could you be, it's so crazy. Or there's so much going on in your life. How do you know where to turn?
It's moments like that. I feel like when the Holy Spirit is really empowering you, I've been even challenged sometimes with groups. And I just think, no, this is clearly what God's. I have so much passion and faith for where God is taking, especially as we think about regroup.
And people opening up their groups. I mean, that's something I'm super passionate about right now. So just a little plug if you want to add some people to your group. Let me know.
But there's some people who have really been challenged by that feat for a long time. And I feel like God's given me a lot of passion and purpose for it. And it's like, it's even in a world where there might be a despite something or something, or despite that chaos you're mentioning. It's kind of like that peaceful hand of provision.
It's good. I love that. Yeah. That's really cool.
I hope that many people in your group will get to share a little bit as well. So then as we look in, it's where is God currently calling you to rely on the Holy Spirit's power? And I love this question because hopefully, hopefully when you've been looking at the look out, that it's been really obvious to people like, oh, it could be something new that they're being called to. Or it could be just a place that they've just, oh, I think I veered off a little bit.
And I was relying on myself. And I'm actually needing to course correct this back. Yeah, could you see that, Dawson? Yeah.
Yeah. Sometimes we're like, I need the Holy Spirit because it's, and you make up like a threshold. Right. Like, oh, when it hits this threshold, then I'll go.
Right. But really relying on the Holy Spirit is, how do you do it in the mundane or whole things in life, the simplicity of things, and learn to trust him in every situation? So beautiful. I'm trusting him even when I go to the gym, and there's a guy that I'm becoming friends with.
He doesn't go to church yet. Yeah. Yeah. Lord, help me have a conversation.
Let me not be a weirdo today. Right. Little things like that. Yeah.
I think that's even pulling back to what we talked about before. Like asking God into the little things. Or maybe at the start of the day, asking the Holy Spirit is what we're going to share, is love today. So I love that encouragement.
And maybe that's something that you and your group can challenge each other, too. I mean, sharing your story is such an important fundamental part of being a believer and knowing your story, too. So maybe many of you have shared most of your stories with one another, especially if this is a group that started from rooted. You guys hopefully know your stories.
But maybe spend some time reflecting on your story and how might you share it with someone in your life. So that's one of our incredible rhythms that keeps you on track and keeps you connected to the main intentions of a life group. So maybe this might be an opportunity to consider who and how might I share my story. Even if it's just for 30 seconds with someone in passing, it doesn't always have to be a sit-down coffee conversation that shares your story.
I know even in passing with some of my own friends or new friends when they ask questions about certain ways I love my life. Well, actually, I used to blank. And now that I'm a believer and now that I know the love of Christ, I've actually been really changed. And I don't want to pursue that anymore.
And boom, I just shared a part of my story right there. That's how simple it can be. And maybe providing that for your group and saying, stories that sharing can be simple. Sharing can be really simple.
And stories can be intimidating. So having a group and sharing your story and a safe place and getting encouragement, maybe that's exactly what the person in your group needs is a safe place to fumble on their words and be encouraged at the end of it, to give them the courage to go and share it with a friend at a cup of coffee. So good. So good.
Love that. Well, you guys, we're so grateful for you. Please continue to stay connected to your coaches and know that we are praying within for you. And as you look to the future, hopefully, you've already selected your next curriculum for your next season.
If you can, this Labor Day weekend, the week after next, I think, is actually going to be a good time to rest. Take a break. Maybe have a social adventure and our social adventure are fun. Connect with another life group if you're a singles group, right, Dallas?
Or if when he's 30s, feel free to connect with another life group. And then prepare to join us along for the new series, Big Problems Bigger God, where Eric is actually going to be on the podcast again with Jared Kirkwood, sharing a lot of his heart and hopes for this new series as we tackle some of the big problems in our world and how God continues to remain on the throne and utilize it or using those things that might feel challenging but can be used for his glory. So I hope you guys will listen in the next couple weeks. God bless and hope you have a great week.