The Neighborhood Church, Bentonville, AR
The Neighborhood Church, Bentonville, AR
Breaking the Piggy Bank - A Journey of Faith, Generosity, and Transformation
Join Pastor Joe Liles, Tom Helmich, and Roseanne as they dive deep into the meaning of true treasure, exploring how faith, generosity, and personal growth intersect. Through a powerful message, watermelon-smashing illustration, and candid conversations about life, leadership, and calling, this podcast reveals how we can break open our spiritual piggy banks and share God's abundance with the world.
Here are some quotes from the podcast...
- "We're not called to pour ourselves out completely like Jesus, but to share the abundance of what we have." - Tom Helmich
- "You don't come to church just to fill your cup. You come to church to fill your clay pot so you can go pour it out into other people around you." - Tom Helmich
- "If I ever make a choice to do something for the church over something for my family, I have chosen the wrong treasure." - Pastor Joe Liles
- "The clay pot doesn't create the treasure that's in it. The treasure has to be put there." - Tom Helmich
- "When we're thankful, we have an attitude of gratitude that helps break down the selfish barriers that keep us from really living in faith." - Tom Helmich
Connect with The Neighborhood Church:
• New Here: https://tnclife.info/newneighbor
• Bible App: https://tnclife.info/bible-app
• Church App: https://tnclife.info/church-app
• Events: https://tnclife.info/events
• Give: https://tnclife.info/give
Pinky and air and everything. Welcome to the TNC podcast. We are recorded in studio, also known as the Worship Center, and today I'm joined by my two guest hosts,
Tom Helmich:Todd tell you short before you get a chance
Pastor Joe Liles:to know like, like, we build the whole start of the podcast in this incredible way to reveal who the guest hosts are, in a surprise for our audience. How many times have we done it? This is true, but next week we're gonna have a new surprise guest host. It'll work next week. So to my left, who you've already heard right over the top of me, it is Tom helmets, the past intern here at the neighborhood church, former past kid city leader in the neighborhood church, current youth leader in the or youth director, I would say, maybe I don't know you lead the youth. And then he's here rocking finishing up seminary, which is beautiful, getting ordained on May 21 on the youth night, which is going to be beautiful. And to my right, the wonderful Director of Operations here at the neighborhood church, it is the one, the only the High Priestess of operations, the HPO
Unknown:Roseanne. That's
Pastor Joe Liles:great. So to begin our podcast, we know that we all love the jingle. Next week, can I just share a little heads up of who our guest host is going to be next week? So Tom, you're out next week, right? And so we're filling your spot, and it is going to be the one, the only Tyra Dennis, our new worship leader in residence, and I'm excited, because I feel like I have to take up the mantle of singing the jingle now that table is not here, definitely, and and I sing it, and I feel very alone. Tyra, come here next week. I'm not going to feel alone, which is going to be great. So I expect you guys to come strong on church. Tom, you've always just said church. Roseanne, you try and sing church. I'm gonna ask you to step up today Tom and sing church. I
Unknown:try and sing church. I sing girl, you
Pastor Joe Liles:sang, you know, I'm talking about you say, it's gonna be fun podcast today. I hope you're gonna enjoy it. It's gonna be great. Okay, so we're gonna sing the jingle. You guys ready for this? I want a 2479367, oh, 479-367-2285, neighborhood church, yeah, Tom, you still said it Okay, here we go. I like it. Should we get a note from Tom? I feel like we need a note from Tom. We need, can you just give us a church like a handwritten note? No, no. I want you to sing a note. Tom, give us the Tom, give us a little bit of your voice. Hey, that's a win. I went done for 20 years. Tom, I'm high fiving you. You guys can't see it right now unless you watch the video podcast. I am high fiving you right now because I appreciate that you. You stepped up. That's the first time in all the years of the podcast you have sang a note on the podcast. Church has a tendency to
Tom Helmich:draw people into places they're uncomfortable. You know, we're gonna talk about that. Know, we're going to talk
Pastor Joe Liles:about that because I've had multiple comments about the people that you drew out and worship, and some of them are core team members, and they had some conversation with me after worship, because I met with them on Sunday night, which you don't know, and they're like, let's talk about the message, which we're going to get into today, who you're talking about. Oh, yeah, yeah, you brought up a person that does have no problem saying how she feels. Oh, this worked last on the last service, you know? And it worked. Oh, wow, it was there. She did amazing. We're gonna talk about her in a second. So, a couple things going on in life at the church. One, one, not one, but two. We've gone to two worship services, nine and 1045, and just kind of opening up. Tom, I know you've been at one, but this is kind of your first one, leading a one, leading a message at one, seeing the whole thing kind of through what were the thoughts and takeaways.
Tom Helmich:So I did it one other time, yeah, before COVID. Okay.
Pastor Joe Liles:Oh, wow, you're going back like five years. Yeah,
Tom Helmich:yeah. And that was so bad. I'm glad we were not live streaming yet so it could just be forgotten. You
Pastor Joe Liles:know, we talked in the core team about how far you come in your preaching, and in a delight like we all shared that, like watching you grow in your preaching and your and honestly, your comfortableness on stage right, your ability to narrate the message, the help with your son to draw in the message a little bit tighter to not 17 verses, but three would be great and so, but like to watch this kind of leadership develop and grow over all these years. We are just delighted. So I just want to say, as pastor, you know, talking to another future pastor, you know, I serve right next to you, and I am also humbled by your leadership in the church I now, and I've always been but now love to sit back and like, really dwell in Your word, right? Because I know where you've come from, and we've always talked about the word that's in your heart, right? And I know that, and where you're preaching like now is, it's such a beautiful movement, and so I just want to honor like, the work that you've put in on honing in your own preaching style. All of us on the core team have witnessed. We've all talked about it, right? I think you're really coming into your own preaching style, which is really incredible. Even so much so that I don't know if you don't, but when I sent you, like, Hey, Tom, this is the series, and this is where we're in the series, you sent back to me. Thanks, Joe. I'm not doing that. Here's what I'm going to do. And I was like, Whoa, you know. And I was like, I I'm okay with this.
Tom Helmich:I did it first. I'm like, I. Uh, so you get pushed back against this? Yeah, right, yeah. It was good. It was good. I'm like, Ah, well, he told me, I got it. Okay, we'll just, we'll see. So
Pastor Joe Liles:that's the deal. I said, You gotta, you gotta own how you preach, right? And you came back and said, Hey, I got this idea, and I want to do this illustration. I'm gonna move it forward. And this is, and I said, Great, I need these three things, no matter what, in your message, right? So we can carry the series. And you're like, Great, let's do it wonderful, like that. Interaction is incredible. And then I got to sit back and go, all right, Tom's like, owning his own preaching style. And I was like, I really, really love that. And so, and preaching was wonderful, right? We're gonna get it. So, two services, so you were there previous COVID, two services, so
Tom Helmich:bad. So this time I feel this one, um, you know, one, my palms were not dripping sweat this time. It's great. Yeah, that's great. And it used to be, like, a couple of years ago, like, I didn't sleep the night before at all, and I still wake up thinking about the message every night before I preach, and my hands would be ice cold. So I'd hate shaking beforehand, because my hands would be ice cold, and I'd always pass out of sleep, like, as soon as I get home, yeah, it's so exhausted, done over, and it's still exhausting because it's, it's like a there's a weight about, oh yeah, you know that I think needs to be there. But felt a lot more, a lot more comfortable. I still hate listening to my voice and recording. My wife listens to podcasts. I just I hate listening to my voice or watching myself on video. But it was fun. It was a fun one. It's one of those ones where I realized, like, the message, you can't force it, yeah, you got to look at what inspiration God's giving you and and make sure that it's faithful, and it's not you're twisting something in your head, but and go with where you're where you're led. That's great. And having the mentorship to kind of help craft something was been helpful. Huge help, you know, being with you all these years to kind of get that mentorship about. Here's how you do this, and this is what, what works, and these things, and my wife's honesty of, why are you pacing like a penguin, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, that's great. Plus that reassurance of, hey, I want to bring a pumpkin up. Yeah, pumpkin. I said pumpkin, watermelon up. And you're like,
Pastor Joe Liles:okay, yeah, let's do
Tom Helmich:it. I'm like, Alright, this is gonna be okay, yeah? So, having, having that reassurance and that that help with it, because I'm not good at that. I can't manufacture energy, yeah, yeah, just not something I'm good at. But having you help to kind of set the feel of it, yeah, really stepped it up a notch above what it would have been without that well.
Pastor Joe Liles:And that was great, because I loved coming up, because one like, you could see the message building at this point, and we knew the illustration at the end was kind of everything home and and then coming up, you and I were able to go back and forth, right? And I love it, because we embrace each other on that friendship level, right? And I think that's witnessed in the congregation, right? It's witnessed that we're up there and just having fun, like when you handed me the terracotta pot, right? When we had honestly, like you said, I'm gonna bring up this hand me these things in this order. And I was like, Great, this, this, we talked for maybe five minutes before, and I was not even, we didn't talk about what we're gonna say to each other or anything. I was like, Hey, we're just gonna go live and we're gonna
Tom Helmich:keep working in five minutes. It's like, two minutes beforehand, I'm like, Okay, here's the props we've got. Like, okay, what are you trying to do? Like, this is what I'm thinking. Then you're like, Okay, let's just, let's just do it, yeah, just, we just did it. And it was great. It worked. It's and I think it would been harder if we didn't know each other well and didn't have that correct being able to read each other, yeah, absolutely you have to have that. Kind of that relationship, to be able to play through those things, yep. And so
Pastor Joe Liles:no, absolutely wonderful. Love it. And the nice thing too is that this was the first Sunday in two services where I've just been able to take in right a Sunday, right, and sit and enjoy it, right? And I sat back in the chair, right, and I just listened to the message, and it was great. But what I love about where we're at now is that there's so much space for fellowship and relationship that I found myself kind of wandering the room and talking with people and going and I was like, oh, like, there was so much joy on Sunday for me just to be around with the people and different things like that, and so, so it was great. Really appreciate the bit. We're gonna break that down in a second. Roseanne, how has your experience been in two services now that we've gone into services? Well, I
Unknown:was accidentally here for both services. Okay, why do you say accidentally? Yeah? Because I was scheduled as a communion assistant. I agree, yeah, for the second serve. Yeah, that's great. I showed up at the first service.
Pastor Joe Liles:Now, wait, hold on. We call that sit one serve one. I don't know if you know this, yeah, so that's actually a model in churches. Yes, no. So okay, hold on. You. Did sit one, sir, one. I break this down for a second, accidentally. Did sit one, now. And, like I said, accidentally, how was it, though, like, because we would hope that people would like, Hey, if you're serving in 1045 come in now. Our serving is not so so involved that you couldn't also sit during the service, right? You know, like, we're really kind of moving throughout. How was someone serve one? I
Unknown:very much enjoyed it. The object lesson was incredible, but, and you are an incredible pastor, and you really are high energy. Everybody loves it. Tom came in as a breath of fresh air. Really,
Pastor Joe Liles:Roseanne, and she's like, but Tom,
Unknown:sledge hammer. If you don't do this, we're using this on you. Yeah. So I really like,
Pastor Joe Liles:this is great. This is great people. If people have not seen the message yet, they're like, did you say Sledgehammer watermelon? It's like, object lesson. Like, Tom's the breath of fresh
Tom Helmich:fingers, the snuffer fingers create. I mean, variety is, is nice. Sometimes. Yeah, no, and, and I don't, like, I didn't have an appreciation before, the energy, mental energy it took to do that, to come up on Sunday morning and lead a service, and be honest, I didn't even lead the service. I just did the message, which is probably why I wasn't as exhausted trying to lead. Yeah, I
Pastor Joe Liles:thought about that right before service, and I was like, I should have had Tom do more. I was like, why isn't he
Tom Helmich:leading communion beforehand? I'm like, I feel like, I feel like, oh yeah, because Joe's leading the service, I'm just stepping into doing the message, yeah, right, yeah, you know. So it takes a different element off. But like, until I did it, I had no i didn't have an appreciation, right? The the exhaustion that comes with that, especially the level of energy you bring out, which I can't, if I did halfway through, like, between the two services, I'd probably be like,
Pastor Joe Liles:yeah, yeah. Well, it's interesting, because the first it's interesting, you talk about, like, the breath of fresh air, because I 100% breath of fresh air, because I 100% agree with you, right? I don't, and I've told Tom this many times, and he can affirm it on the podcast. I don't want Tom to preach like me. I don't want him to try to emulate my style of preaching. My style of preaching is unique to my gift that God has given me right to use in the church. And I believe that Tom was gifted with preaching and the word of God, but that he preaches in his own way, and that people receive that, and different people need to hear Tom's message, right than they need to hear my message. And I would say, for the first five to seven years of the church, I protected the pulpit, right? And it's the thing that some pastors do where they're like, oh, I have to be the voice in the church, and people have to understand my voice, and they have to hear what I have to say, and I have the most important word. And I would say, is I kind of church planted, like, that's expected, you become the voice of the church. And then I started, started bringing in other voices. And I started realizing, like, oh my gosh, this is this is beautiful. Like I get to sit back and hear a word in our own church, and you start to discover, like, oh my gosh, I love being here at the church and attending the church as much as serving the church. And I'm like, Oh, this is great. And one of the words of advice that I heard from a mentor of mine, he said, you know, if you look at what age you're going to retire, so let's say it's 65 let's just go, you know, and I'm 42 years old, right? Later than those Yeah, so that's 23 years, right? 23 years until I retire, right? And we're just taking numbers here. And they said, Yeah, each year that you retire, you should take off or each year leading up to retirement, you should take off one or two Sundays and give that word to someone else if you're planning the longevity of being in a place, right? So that would mean by the time you're 65 you're not preaching like you are that gradual. It is. It's very much of like so when you come in Tom and you're going to be in every four to six weeks preaching, right? And then some, even more often than that, Brandon Cox is coming and preaching. We have drew Tucker coming in next Sunday for next step Sunday, right? And he's going to be preaching. All of these are moments right, where we get to hear different voices that bring a different word, but also, like for the leaders in our church, we get to sit back and hear a word, like, in a really incredible way. And so, yeah, it was absolutely wonderful. I think it's great. I love that you had an accidental sit, one serve
Unknown:one, which is great. It makes you know less the shepherd. Yeah, I agree that just that the sheep now hear other voices to stay in this flock, yeah, and not be that one that runs off. That's great.
Pastor Joe Liles:And the sheep have no problem telling me when the other voices are better than me. Also, I don't know if you knew that good. They're like, dang. Tom says it was great. Like, yours. Wasn't that good last week? That's like, what? I wouldn't go that far. Yeah, good. That's great. That's great. Let's not
Tom Helmich:make it a competition, because
Unknown:it's not a competition. You know,
Pastor Joe Liles:the times, there are times to ask you plainly is like, you're like, a pastor preaching, right? There are times when you walk out for a message and you're like, Nope, that did not, I feel my bones. It did not land. Like, nothing hit. And it's always funny, because I will walk away just broken from a message right where I'm like, Yeah, nothing came out. Like I wanted, you know, like all the prep didn't, it didn't hit in the points that I wanted. Or, Hey, I was really kind of guiding people here, and I landed it, and no one was there. Like, you can just look out, and people are like, wow.
Tom Helmich:Like, I got we seem stuck now. Yeah,
Pastor Joe Liles:exactly, yeah. So I'm just sitting down there and and then there'll always be that one person that comes up. They're like, did you know what happened in my life? Is that? Why you preach that message? Like, is this? And I'm like, oh, God's doing so much. So we put too much emphasis, yeah, we're doing and on ourselves in our own control of something in the Word. So that's great. It's absolutely wonderful. There's a couple other things. Tyra Dennis, first Sunday. Awesome, awesome, awesome leadership. So like, table actually ended up coming out early, right? Because baby hope came early, which was beautiful, and baby hope is at home now, which is wonderful, and they're growing baby hope at home, right? And the family's surrounding them, which is beautiful. So we are continuing to pray for table and Kara and baby hope and their family as they continue to go and so and so that's so April 20. And so really, table was supposed to be here on March 2, and on Thursday practice and on was like, and so all these things are supposed to happen together. So Tyro, keep the field. But hey, table had the baby early, so now we're moving. And so
Unknown:more proof that when you plan, God laughs, Oh, God. God's like, oh, I
Tom Helmich:have a different schedule for that every time. So it's still worth planning. I'll just put that out.
Unknown:You know, it was supposed to be a little bit smoother transition,
Pastor Joe Liles:yeah, but I'm so that's kind of one of my honors surprise. Everyone stepped up, yes, like. I just want to kind of name out there, like, thank you to the TNC house band. Like, they surrounded Tyra on Thursday night. They were so supportive. I mean, specifically Holly and Mercedes, like, came in early to meet with Tyra, to help her out, to make sure things were good, to talk to her about who's coming in the Friday night. Fellowship with the whole band, awesome, right? They all came out to Friday night to talk with her, so she could put some faces to names, those kind of things. And then Sunday, like, Tyra is a natural leader, right? And so she has that ability to go but like, you could see this joy from the band. There was no hesitation. It floated. And just beautiful, just absolutely beautiful. So yeah, she'll be here for the next eight weeks, all the way through Eastern which is going to be great. And so that being said, Ash Wednesday is coming up. So the day the podcast is released, we're recording this on a Tuesday. It gets released on a Wednesday, but that day will be Ash Wednesday, and that's tomorrow. And so we have soup supper, traditional Ash Wednesday soup supper. And we got chef Troy cooking a couple extra soups for us. So that's going to come from our own mission kitchen. We have like 12 to 15 soups now, which is really incredible. And then, and that feeds like 100 people, which is awesome. And we do expect 100 people to show up for soup supper, and then as many or more
at the service also. So 5:30pm soup supper, and then we have
6:30pm Ash Wednesday, which will receive ashes. And then that'll go 630 to 715 so 715 we all head out right, and then we begin Lent, right. And Lent is the 40 day journey of Jesus to the cross, right. And so we'll talk about that more on Ash Wednesday. Um, but lastly, I just want to give you one more update of life happening in the church before we get to the message. Um, guess what started happening yesterday? We started building the playground. Oh, yeah. Now you're going to say where I don't see it. It's because we're building it to make sure it can be certified. And you're gonna say, Well, does that mean you have to take it down and rebuild it? And the answer is, everyone together, 123, yes, we do. So there's couple reasons we're doing that. One, we're building it. It's an incredible playground. Lewis, who is our contractor that built the signs out front our protocol out back. He's also the same person that built the Frank Lloyd Wright house Crystal Bridges Museum, just to know the quality of what's happening with our player. He is reconstructing it in a Tetra style, because we have all the pieces individually. And there's like six different sets of commercial playground that are out there, and six different of one set of commercial playgrounds. So it's really incredible. Awesome. Came from the University of Alabama and the early childhood care center. Really cool. So he's building that we have storms the next two days. So that's a bummer, but we're building that to get it certified by a national certification company, so that way safe to play on yet. No, we're gonna put some sound. You are very Yeah, you told me three times yesterday you need to get a sign that says, not safe to play on. And you're telling me that publicly. So publicly, she looked at me too. It didn't just come with the words, did you see the look that she had when
Tom Helmich:there was a mom look there? I heard her eyes say, Joseph.
Pastor Joe Liles:She really did. Tom I agree with that wholeheartedly. That's good. I'm proud of her. What did I tell you yesterday when you said, we need a sign that says, you know, no, it's not safe to play on. Or you, you agreed. I agreed. And I said, Let's get one. And then you told me again today, I feel like yelled at me again. I already agreed with you. I don't know. Okay, so this is why we need this is why we need wisdom. Alright? So it's really exciting. It's gonna be built over next week we're gonna get it certified. It's a dual process, right? Because if we want to move to just a brand new playground, we can also make sure that we can sell this one and someone can see it up.
Tom Helmich:They said Tetra style, well, because they go back to, like, the 80s, 90s video games, oh,
Pastor Joe Liles:because it's exactly what it is. Basically, when they took it down, they numbered every part as, like, a, b, c, d, g or f with a different color, and then 1234, for what it connects to. And they have one piece of paper, and they just put it on the piece of paper. So basically, they're not constructing everything from hundreds of people, Yep, exactly. Yeah. It's a work. It's an absolute work. And so, but now that it once it's up, awesome. So they already got the first set up that's done. They got three more to build, and it's going up real fast, which is cool, cool. So let's break it down. Tom this is where I'm going to kick it over to you. So I want to kick it over and hear kind of the intro to your message. Let's read some scripture, and then from there, would love to just kind of break down what were your major points you brought in the message, and maybe some background of what, how you got to that object.
Tom Helmich:Illustration, yeah. So we're going to do the a small piece of the reading first. That was the part that really kind of came home to me that when I when I read this, and it's in the in the Lutheran Study Bible. It's titled treasure in clay jars. And for some reason, I immediately saw, like an old school piggy bank. And I'm like, Okay, nice. This one was like, wonder, like, yeah, why am I thinking that? And then later, it made sense. So we're going to read Second Corinthians, chapter four, verses five, six and seven. So I'll do chapter five, Pastor Joe six, and then Roseanne, you'll read verse seven. That's
Pastor Joe Liles:great. And I always like to ask people to pause for a second, yep, because, man, we've had fun on the podcast. We always talk about the life of the church. And you could be driving right now. You could be not mowing because it's raining outside, but you could be doing something outdoors. You could be walking right this could be something that you listen. Two in the morning in the house. But as we dwell in the Scripture, it's important that we take time to read scripture on the podcast, because we should be in Scripture every day. And so I invite you to pause right now. This is a short reading three verses. Pause. Listen to this reading. You know, taking a moment with God as we begin reading,
Tom Helmich:beginning in verse five, for we do not proclaim ourselves. We proclaim proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as Your slaves. For Jesus sake.
Pastor Joe Liles:Verse six, for it is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, number
Unknown:seven. But we have this treasure in clay jars so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
Tom Helmich:Awesome. Here ends the reading, yeah, that's great. So there I kind of pulled immediately saw two meanings in this idea of clay jars. And the one I used on Sunday was, what's the purpose of a jar? You know, something you store something in temporarily so that you can get it back out. The other meaning of a clay jar is, a clay jar is something that's very humble. We're not talking about a golden cup or goblet, a chalice, something like that. I kind of go back like that Indiana Jones scene or holy grail.
Pastor Joe Liles:Know what? You didn't say it yesterday. But I'm like, everyone thinks when they think of like, a goblet or a chalice, yeah? Like, everyone goes back to that,
Tom Helmich:yes, that one. And you're like, all these fancy, ornate ones. And then just that, you love 80s references. Well, I mean, I was born the 70s, and then it was a good decade. Great music, great music. Yeah, not so much. Hairstyles, but anyway, but yeah, the idea, it's a humble container. It's made of the earth, of the same stuff we are we're made of. It's fragile, you know, it is prone to cracking and crumbling, and it's, just, it's a humble, basic thing, right? And
Pastor Joe Liles:I say yesterday, when you were talking about that moment in the message, and you related it to the earth, to Earth, Ashes, ashes, dust and dust, kind of that. And it was an ash, Ash Wednesday reference, Lenten reference, right? That you put in your message. It was very small moment. But then you talked about, I want you to think about this dust that you know, that God brought life to right? And then I think of this clay pot that is of the earth. And I was like, my mind was exploding, right? And I was like, because I'd never seen the text that way. And I was like, oh, that's, it was an incredible reference. It was, it was a small
Tom Helmich:moment. There's a whole other page of bullet points. I'm like, Oh, this is going to
Pastor Joe Liles:go for an hour, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. It was a great reference, great reference. But, yeah, I mean,
Tom Helmich:that's the idea, is that, you know, where the where the clay we're the, we're the clay pot. You know, we're, we're made of the Earth. We're made of humble substance. And there's no glory due here. You know, the clay pot doesn't create the treasure that's in it. The treasure has to be put there. Yeah, right. And the same thing for us, of our treasures, the blessings were given, the primarily, the most treasured thing is, should be this, this glory of God given to us in faith, yeah, is beyond us. It's just poured into us that we can pour it out into other people. And it's just not, you know, the clay pot doesn't create the treasure that's in it, yeah? That's right, that's right. But the pouring in and pouring out the storage of it, I was like, Oh, this leads into the piggy bank. That's great, yeah. So a few questions to think about. Okay? And the first one is, I don't kind of reverse it the order from what we talked about before the podcast, but what is, what do we have that we treat as treasure? Yeah, you know, and what's really the value of it? And I'll tell you a story confession, really, I have a tendency to hoard certain things that I just love for no really good reason, precious, right? Like ink pens. I went ink pen snob. And the other thing
Pastor Joe Liles:is, wait, when you say you have a tendency, he says, hoarding pins. I have the show hoarders in my head and room full of No, not like there's a drawer in his house. No, not
Tom Helmich:like that. But when I buy your pens, I'll buy, like, the 16 or 20 pack,
Pastor Joe Liles:okay, a nice ink pen. So you're not hoarding nice thing. No,
Tom Helmich:it's a specific it's in my back. I got like, six of them in my backpack because it's one particular pin. I like the way it feels, yeah, I like the way it writes. And like, I have to go sign something, so you want to hand me another pin? Is it the g2 No, I used to, I moved on from the g2 but yeah, I just like, I'm like, I want to use setting pin. Yeah, no, and it makes no sense. It's completely irrational. It just makes me happy. Yeah, has no real value of itself. But I just enjoy that. Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing is, because you see me try to do things that require coordination, right? Yeah, I work gloves, yeah. And I think I've got this my dad a little bit, right? So I will constantly use work gloves that have holes in them, okay, and wind up with dirty hands and splinters and cuts, yeah, and I have a drawer full of brand new cut resistant work gloves in my shop, okay, but I don't use them, because then they will no longer be brand new and clean, yeah, they will get dirty and worn out. And I don't want to get them dirty and worn out, which completely negates our Yeah, it does. Yeah. So now those gloves are completely. Completely worthless. Yep, because I won't let them serve their purpose, they do nothing. It's just like I don't even have them at all. Yeah, and my wife just throw those away and go get the other ones. Yeah, because I wind up with a with a cut. So
Pastor Joe Liles:I too love great work. Loves so I'm not a hoarder of great work looks, but I love the one great work. Love that I use, yes, and that's it. And I go. But work clothes are expensive, like you go to 21 again, 40 bucks. And so I work out with a group called f3 in the mornings. It's a group of guys that work out. It's fitness, fellowship and faith and really awesome, but it's just all normal guys working out, right? But we constantly work out on the asphalt or the concrete, right? So everyone has gloves, right? And gloves become like a thing, like, you're like, Alright, these gloves. I got these gloves. We have extra gloves for everybody. But I have to tell you one thing that I've never experienced, because usually they're work gloves, and I'll wear they're work gloves, and I'll wear them once, and then I'll come back to the garden and do them again, or whatever else, when you work out in a player gloves for like, six months, Oh, me, like it's that smell, and this might be too much for the podcast, and I apologize, but that smell my gloves and my hands afterwards, like I can't even get it off, like it's Just wow, it is in the leather, like it's like, like, we have sweat together, and that leather is like, look, just smell me. So it's so bad that I commented on almost every time I put them on now, but I don't want to go buy new ones, because they're such good gloves. That's great. So is that what you treasure then? Like, so you're asking this question, like, what do you treasure most? And then you say it depends, and there's so many things
Tom Helmich:that I treasure that make no sense. I've got so much stuff that I hold so dear that my children care nothing about, that will end up in a dumpster when I die, like, what? Or donated like, I love old books. Okay, yeah, I don't know why. I just love old Yeah, books. You know, I've got an old handwritten hymnal from the Methodist Episcopal church that was beautiful 1836 Yeah? And I just love it. I gotta keep it out of the light, because it's about to turn into turn into powder. Yeah, right, yeah. But just old books like that, you know, stuff like that that just doesn't serve any, any real purpose. A
Pastor Joe Liles:hymnal that you keep out of the light because it's about to go back to dust. Yes, interesting, yeah.
Tom Helmich:Like, if you just want to think about that, yeah, it's almost 200 years old. That's great, wow. But I think about, like, you have a china cabinet in your house, what is that? Okay, perfect. So just kidding, because you're 40 you said 42
Pastor Joe Liles:Well, yeah, 42 Yeah. Stop saying it out loud, 49
Tom Helmich:next week, right? Whoo. And so when we got married, like one of the expected things on your register? Yes? Register, yes, I agree, yeah, was China
Pastor Joe Liles:I one of my the gifts my dad bought from my mom that I deeply remember we had to go to a furniture store in, like, the Phoenix Valley, like, out, like, 45 minutes away from us so he could pick up a china cabinet for your mom. Yeah. Like, that was the thing. Like, I don't remember what anniversary was, but that was
Tom Helmich:my parents gifted us this beautiful oak china cabinets, glass shelves and a light that shines in, oh, yeah, all the plates and cups that you never use, horribly fragile. Yes, you can't put in the dish
Pastor Joe Liles:horribly well, and they should glass in those china cabinets. Yes, horribly fragile. Like, if you touched it would break.
Tom Helmich:And if you don't, like, you gotta, like, dust it and it just like a turn, don't turn on the light, because you'll see how dusty early isn't, yeah, but we've used it twice just to so we could say we've used it, yeah? Because what's the point of something you can't put in the dishwasher? This is true, right? I mean, just, we just use it. So they call it fine. And there are times Amy and I sit there and like, why do we have this? Yeah, but you still have Why did we register for it? What we think we're going to do with it, that was just the expectation. Why do we still have it? We should get rid of this and put something in here. We'd use but we just haven't done it yet. Yep, and that's something that is kind of generationally, generationally, kind of, kind of going away. Nobody wants that anymore. We shouldn't have wanted to begin with. We didn't know what to do with it, yep. And we will never
Pastor Joe Liles:use it. So now I have ink pens, work gloves and china cabinets. Yeah, right. What is so Roseanne, what do you treasure? And we're thinking a little more materialistic is kind of how you got right? Because we're going to get into, like, treasures, theological, real treasure, yeah, the real treasure that, yeah. So what do you treasure? Materialistically, like, let's just break down, like, some confession. Like, I said, it's almost a confession. It's a confession, right?
Unknown:Books? Oh, okay, yes, I have, I feel
Pastor Joe Liles:like we said confession. And then she was like, I treasure knowledge, which is not the book thing, too,
Unknown:first edition, I think it's Pinocchio. Oh, wow. Yeah, seriously, yes, that's really incredible. But, I mean, and it's in horrible condition, but I love that. Yeah, books, um, I'm probably I shouldn't be but, but clothes, I like to look good. Okay, shoes, Oh, wow. Your shoe person. I have a lot I did. I am a shoe person. I don't have a lot of shoes because I refrain, yeah, but, and I'm like, Tom, I like pins. But my mom did too, and so I've still got some of the pins my mom, oh, wow, that's impressive, yes. But every beginning of school I go down the aisle and look at all the colored pins and everything, I don't buy them. Yeah? It's great because I still have my mom's, yeah. So, um. I can't think of anything else, clothes, shoes, books and
Pastor Joe Liles:paints. And if I'm thinking about like, things that I treasure, that are materialistic, Jess will tell you, and have a wall of them. But I've been on this hat kick for like, like, five years now, and I feel like I missed a flat Bill stage of hats, and I'm going back to it. So I've just been on this great, like hat, and now they're all portrayed right on the wall, so I just pick them off the wall when I'm ready to go. And so yeah, I do love that. And then, yeah, and then I also, I'm a technology person, right? So I love the new tech, right? And I'm always looking for something land are building a PC right now. So I'm always looking for tech and, like these things that are treasure but, and I'm going to kind of kick into the theological part of this. It's very interesting, because out of all the work, right, of being a pastor, right? And I say work and kind of multiple realities, right? There is a work of, like an administrative side of being a pastor. There's a work of like the mission and vision of being a pastor. There's a relationship side, which is not work, that's relationship side. There's a theological side and a Sunday morning side. I constantly go back to that what I treasure most in life, right? Is one that I always have to go back to my relationship with God. And I say that because I should be the thing I treasure most, but it's not the first thing that I treasure often. And so when I'm preaching on a Sunday, I'm like, You need to put God first. I'm not preaching out and at I'm preaching together, right? Because I need to hear that language too in my life, that the treasure in my life needs to be God first. In everything that I do and every decision that I make, I need to come to God first and treasure that relationship. But it leads me to the relationship that usually is the treasure in my life first, and it's my family. And I realized that if I ever make a choice to do something, even for the church, which is faithful over and against something for my family, that I have chosen the wrong treasure, right and and it's a constant battle for me, but I've chosen the wrong treasure, and that one thing alone and I and here's a very ancient part that happened When I first had children, and I realized, and it so imagine that I'm year one in the church, and everything I do is, you know, 1416, hours a day, straight through, no breaks, no days off. Everything just going, going, going, going. But when I was on for Dad, nothing else mattered, like you could not pull me to anything. When I was, you know, asked me home, or, Hey, had this going on, or I had to take a like that. All changed, right? And that's been the result of my fatherhood, is that the kids and Jess always should have priority in my life as the treasure, and they should never look at the church's competing treasure in their life right now. Should they see me living out my faith, and do I live that through the church? Ah, that's the really hard part as a pastor. Those things are interchangeable. And slash, not interchangeable, and slash infused together and not infused together. And yes, we do service projects, and I want the family there, but I'm working, but I'm not working, but I'm also serving them by faith. It's a whole deal, but I want the kids to see me live out my faith, but never live out my faith outside of their father, going to
Tom Helmich:sacrifice. That's the hard part of work life balance with this job, you know. But what was your first calling to be a pastor, to be a parent, you know? Yeah, what's the what's the primary one? What's the one you're going to do for your entire life, beyond your retirement date? Yeah, right. This is something we pick up that we'll put down. Oh, absolutely. And men aren't good with work life balance, which is another critique that I got from from Connor. It's one of those gut check moments. Oh, oh, really, he's got checked you on that well. And he was talking to to for a friend of mine and and at the gathering, yeah, and like going, he's like, yeah, it's going good. You know, he works a lot. And he's like, yeah, if I was going to rate my dad at work life balance, I'd give him, like, a seven. Oh, wow. And I'm like, oh, but then again,
Pastor Joe Liles:as he as, you're there with him as, like, as dad, yeah, but when? But when he was little, yeah, you know, he's talking about cop work life balance, yeah?
Tom Helmich:Because, I mean, I had a job, was on call all the time, and we'd be getting regular camping, and then I'd get a call, I have to leave. And, you know, so there's, like, one of the, you know, I'm glad I had that career was an epic failure as a dad because of priorities of what should be the real, true treasure. And oftentimes we make the treasure the thing that benefits us, rather than making the treasure something that benefits somebody
Pastor Joe Liles:else. Yeah. And it's interesting, you share that story with me when we talked about your work life balance being a pastor and intern, Oh, yeah. And you're like, hey, this happened before my life. Never going back there. I had to embrace the word, yeah. Like, you're like, hard boundary. And you know, hard boundaries are hard for me because I have very unhealthy, loose boundaries. And that's just, it's not, that's not the best part of my leadership. I'm like, Oh, you need me. Okay, great, I'm there, right, and I'm just go, right? You've
Tom Helmich:had a level of responsibility that did not tend well to having those boundaries, no.
Pastor Joe Liles:And I have to. And here's do, I'm 42 telling you is, like, lead pastor, that I need to do better with boundaries and but I need to set healthy boundaries right, which is great. And setting healthy boundaries means that I'm able to care for the people in the church in all the ways, and raise up other leaders in the church. And so when you set that heart boundary, I was like, what? And then I was like, oh, it's really good. He's like, he learned, and he's like, setting healthy boundaries for his wife and his family and his kids. And I'm like. Maybe I'm frustrated with myself, and I'm like, Guess we'll talk about that in therapy. But I mean, it's really important, right, to see other people set healthy boundaries. And you and I being friends, I look to you as a mentor also, and so when you set those healthy boundaries, I'm learning from you, right? I'm hearing about your past. I'm looking at you as a father who's ahead of me by three years, right, with kids going to college and get a senior, right, and everything else like that, going, Oh, I got a 15 year old right behind. I'm going. Tom, what are you doing? And he's like, work life balance. He's like, I'm going to be empty nester with my wife. So you get me for half time. And I was like, thank you. Tom I see that? And I was like, Okay. And I was like, I see how you're working this. So there's important language about managing that. So, Roseanne, what is your true treasure.
Unknown:Time with my family, yeah, my daughter and her sons and beautiful her family. I just adore her husband. Yeah, I just time with them. I have time with my sister too, and we have a lot of fun, but she's always there, yeah, so I have to take a step back and not take that for granted. But yeah, definitely time with my family. That's beautiful.
Pastor Joe Liles:That's beautiful now that we've heard about our treasures, right and how important those are. Tom, can you? Can you share the illustration of talking about treasure in the church? This as Roseanne called which is perfect and object lesson that you lesson that you shared, what happened in church?
Tom Helmich:Yeah. So I started thinking about piggy banks and and I was like, Well, you know the point of a piggy bank? You put it in, you never get it out. You can't share it, yeah? I was like, oh, I need to crush a piggy bank. Okay, I'm telling Amy. We're sitting on our client. I was like, I always bounce everything off her, like, when I know if I'm too far off, yeah, she reels me back in, Yep, yeah. And then she's like, You should get a
Pastor Joe Liles:watermelon. Oh, yes.
Tom Helmich:And then the thought of the Gallagher videos popped up. I watched like, half an hour of Gallagher video. This was research. It was research, obviously, you know, like, I can't really do like, the actual sledger Matic. There's no way I can actually smash one because of the concrete gets slippery, yeah, kids, I don't like it to fall, but I can make them think I'm going to Yeah, and I'm like, Oh, we can do we can do this. And so we went to Walmart and got the terra cotta, yep, to look as a jar, yep. And then we went and got two of the little like that, you'd paint your own piggy bank. So the cheapest ones I had, because I know I was going to destroy them. And then we went and bought a watermelon. Nice. And this strangest looking checkout cart, yeah. I'm like, This is awesome. And then I had the the $1 coins left over from, oh, beautiful Easter years ago, yeah? And I'm like, Oh, this is gonna, this is gonna work. This is gonna be fun, but we gotta, we gotta play it up. And I'm not good at playing stuff up, right? You know, that's just not my skill set. But now I called you. And you're like, oh, yeah, okay, yeah. I'm like, Okay, this is going to work. So chicken, right? She's like, I should not have mentioned the water. What are you going to do? And then she sees the cutting board in the garage that that hunk of wood that I need to just burn, it's too porous to use the cutting board. And she's like, what's that for? I said, I want to tear up the table, the bistro table, the church. And she's like,
Pastor Joe Liles:No, she knows how far you're going
Tom Helmich:to be fine. And I had a little hammer, little ball peen hammer, and I'm looking, I'm like, I can do better than that. And so that hammer that I brought had been sitting on top of my dresser. Yeah, my buddy done. So I'm like, I'm bringing this. And she's just like, I could see a weird turn, wheels turning, like, oh no. And I was like, we still, she's like, I think she even brought the idea of, like, well, you need the, you know, the emergency ponchos, little ponchos, and we happen to have leftover from something. And so I'm like, this, okay, this is going to work, right? And so the idea of, of having to break down barriers, to sharing, yeah, to breaking down barriers of generosity, yeah, and being able, it'd been better if I could find a way to score a line and, like, turn the piggy bank into a jar. Oh, because I don't like the idea after that's like, Yeah, we don't need to destroy ourselves and stuff, but we do need to have a transformation, yeah. And to transform ourselves from one thing to another, there has to be some kind of destruction. You know? You have to die to be reborn.
Pastor Joe Liles:Well, if you think, I mean, if you take the piggy bank illustration just a tad further, right, I loved it, you said, Yeah, most piggy banks had the plug in them now, where you can pull the plug. I didn't know that, yeah, the hole in the bottom, that's great, but the old piggy banks didn't. And you had the little slot in the top, which was really important. And that slot in the top was really this. There's a moment when you can shake the piggy bank and still get, yeah, the coins out right. So it wasn't this that you had to break it right, like you could spend time trying to take this treasure that you've stored and slowly, with much effort, try to get a coin out right, yeah, but and hope and hope and hope that the chance comes about where that coin lines up with the hole that you put it in, and it comes out. And we know that it does, because we've all done that before to a piggy bank. But the fact is that once it's in there, it's not as easy to get it out as you put it in, because you're storing it yourself. You want that. You're only wanting it for yourself, right? And it's only, it's like break in emergency, you know? It's like the big fire extinguisher glass break only in case of emergency, right? And that's what you've stored up. And it. You take that to the gifts of God like you portrayed it, right? The gifts of God, the talents you have, the money that you have, and if you store it up and break only in case of emergency, right? God's saying, Hold on a second. I didn't design you for emergency and chaos and crisis like that's not how you were created to be. You were created good. You were created for the sake of the world, for the sake of the kingdom, to bring these things forward. And now I don't want you to break this for the sake of emergency, I want you to have it open from the start, which I love, that kind of difference where you're like, No, you're it's supposed to be open. So you can give of this abundance, right? And keep on giving them. And you made the potential point not to give of all of it, right? You know, like, yes, there are still points when we're going back, hey, there could be something happening in life where we do that, but there is an abundance in there that we all know, if we look, we're like, oh, that's, that's an abundance, like, and we know we have an abundance. And what does that mean to give and and I loved it, because you built the illustration perfectly. Like to have the ponchos and then get the whole front row and ponchos. And it was so good. I
Tom Helmich:watched, like, move people, moving their kids. Oh, my God. I think I'm actually gonna,
Pastor Joe Liles:oh, it was great. But they hadn't seen the pumpkin yet, watermelon. They hadn't seen the watermelon or yet, and so when they got it on, it was a splash zone, and we were just talking back and forth, like, do you think it'll go this far? And you're like, yeah, they're gonna go that far. They're like, I see the
Tom Helmich:wheels turning, and you start covering up tech, yeah? Like, oh, now we're really, actually getting Yeah. And I love it, because I think at that
Pastor Joe Liles:point people kind of figured out. Because I was like, oh, we need to cover up the pedal board, right? And I would throw, like, a little piece of plastic on it. If people were like, What? What are
Tom Helmich:we gonna do? That's so good, and they had bigger watermelons, like, I wanted to get the bigger one, yeah, but those little ones taste better. And I knew we weren't gonna crush it. I was actually gonna take it home and eat it. It's
Pastor Joe Liles:so funny. So he was storing up his treasures for later, yeah? So you didn't use them for now. I used it for later. Yeah. Oh, interesting. That illustration breaks down horribly when that happens. Unbelievable, but,
Tom Helmich:but then I realized, you know, the piggy bank, the idea of an adult version of a piggy bank is like a savings account, yeah, which earns no interest. Oh, yeah. And so you're losing money putting it, you've got to invest it, yeah? You know, like an investment account. And same thing with with our treasures, you know, other treasures, you make an investment. But you said making an investment for yourself. You're making an investment for yourself, you're making an investment for all of our neighbors, Yes, correct? So that that can grow, yeah, absolutely. That grace can grow by being shared to all these people, and so that that everyone can give thanks for these, all these different gifts. Yep,
Pastor Joe Liles:that's beautiful. And I think the illustration was great, right? Because you brought up people, right? And you brought up them to smash the watermelon. You didn't smash the watermelon, and then you said, Hey, hold on, but we are going to smash, you know, the thing that we store, right? And you allowed them to smash it, and they fantastically smashed it right, which I think you smashed in the first service. No,
Tom Helmich:we had Troy. Was it
Pastor Joe Liles:chef Troy, or was it Josh?
Tom Helmich:Was Troy or John? I was Josh, okay,
Pastor Joe Liles:yeah. And then, and then you did something unexpected, which we didn't even talk about. And I was like, oh, bold move, because you went, you went in on it. You said, hey, you know, we have all these treasures to give and all these places to give in our life. And he said, One place is a place to give his prayer. And and then I was like, Oh, it's a nice transition to kind of the end of the message and everything else like that. And then, and then you said, Oh, but I want and you had two people, yes, yeah, two people. That was just a spur the moment. I know, I knew it was because you didn't say anything to me about it. I was like, He's going up.
Tom Helmich:And I should have thought that out before the second service, because I had people that, you know, there's varying levels of comfort, oh, and especially in prayer, yeah, and there's an idea and public prayer, right? Yeah, which I was not good at. I mean, my wife and I were married for years before I ever played, yeah, but part of the role of a pastor, you know, you get a pastoral leadership position, everybody expects, oh, this is your job. You do the praying. Yeah, great. No, my job is to get you to pray. Yeah, you know, you get other people to pray and but it's kind of a terrifying thing to do publicly, yeah, which it shouldn't be. We need to break down that, you know that. So you
Pastor Joe Liles:thought, during a message after an illustration in a poncho, was the time to break down.
Tom Helmich:They're already, you know, they're protected, you know, they're already up there, and it's already getting kind of crazy. And I thought, well, let's see what happens. And
Pastor Joe Liles:so this is good. You've talked about like pastors praying right now we have someone who's not a pastor that's sitting with us. I'm intrigued just to hear like Roseanne, like, how do you how do you do with public prayer?
Unknown:I do okay, but I see myself as a prayer warrior, and have for years, yeah, so it's I think the fear for me is channeling God. And you know what? What do you do with that power when you're praying? And sometimes I don't even remember what I say when I pray publicly or as a prayer partner, yeah? And, and people will tell all that was fantastic. Okay? It came from God. Yeah,
Pastor Joe Liles:yeah, that those words are from God, right? Was there a time before that? Have you always considered yourself a prayer warrior? Or was there a time before when prayer was more difficult and like, well,
Unknown:yes, it was prayer when I was growing up. Was very, very private. It okay? So I was an adult in the Pentecostal church.
Pastor Joe Liles:Oh, wow. Oh, my goodness, that should have came up in your resume when you're interviewing.
Unknown:Yeah. No, it didn't Okay. Too bad. I think
Tom Helmich:there's this reality though, of what we're talking about, the true treasure, right? Because what's the real treasure? What's the real, yeah, invaluable thing that we can we'll never lose, value that can never rust or be destroyed, never be taken away from us, is this, this gift of faith, this gift of being able to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And this, this promise we have in that. And this is something that is not just dumped into us for ourselves, but for those around us. We're supposed to share with those around us, exactly, and that's kind of scary to do, and people want to just hire the pastor and be like, Okay, check box. Checked. He'll do that, or she will do that for everybody around me not to do anymore. But we have this idea of the priesthood of all believers, right? So we have the office. We do all this work, but it's to empower other people. You don't come to church just to fill your cup. You come to church to fill your clay pot so you can go pour it out into other people around you. And it starts sometimes, learning to do that, to to be the vessel for that to be poured out into other people. You have to be willing to share your faith, to share your testimony and to share what you've experienced these blessings. And that starts with prayer. Yeah, it starts with praying around other people. It's probably helpful if you don't do it too far too fast, yeah? Because you only become a barrier. We are scared, yeah? But really, if we're going to share this grace that we've been given, we've gotta be willing to witness to that, to testify to it, to tell the story and learning to pray in front of other people and talk about our faith in other people. Is, A, I mean, it's necessary for that. Yeah, that
Unknown:was my favorite moment in your object lesson, was when you took the treasure that was stored up in the piggy bank and put it in the clay jar and said, Now Go share it. And it's like, wow. Yeah, you know that that's what, what we're supposed to do. You know the interesting
Pastor Joe Liles:I love what you just said there, because it brought up a new part of your message. And think about it today, we took it from stored, but we still put it in the vessel. Like, yeah, if you are storing up your own gifts and your own treasures, right, and it's in your piggy bank, right, and you break that, it's not to give it out, then, because you're still doing it on your own, right, you have to put it in the vessel that God intends. It's right. You have to put it back into the place where God intended, exactly right. And that means that, like even if you were to break your treasure stored up in heaven, the next thing is not to just send them out. The next thing is to go back to God and say, God, these are now open again, right? These are now open again. I'm your vessel. Where are these intended? Because I've just released, there's almost like a confession. Moment of, I've kept this to myself. I've controlled this myself. Now it's open again, but I cannot do anything with it until I go back to you, right? And there's a moment that sits in that that's very important, you
Tom Helmich:know. And the the the Scripture with Jesus on the cross, it says he, he poured himself out, yes, you know, even, even until death. Like we're not called to the point we have to, we can't be Jesus. Yeah, right, right. That's not what we're called to do. Like, I'm not expected to pour all of myself out. There are people that get pretty close to that. But we're just supposed to, like to share the abundance of of of what we have, and that encouragement of where the thanks goes. Yeah, right. It's like when, when I share that, don't thank me, thank God that gave it to me and inspired me to share it all my thanks be to God, because that's the idea. Is this glory of God, and the thanks to God can be expanded to all those around us, because that, in that thankfulness, when we're thankful, we have an attitude of gratitude. Yep, there's such a huge help to break down these, these selfish barriers that keep us from really living in dark faith.
Pastor Joe Liles:Absolutely, absolutely well. This has been beautiful. I love breaking down your message. I was excited to hear you preach last week. We have Ash Wednesday coming up tonight, if this was going on Wednesday, so that'll be 530 again for soup supper. We got 6:30pm for Ash Wednesday service. It is a family service, right? We have nursery open for all kind of our infants that are out there also. And then this Sunday, next step Sunday. We have close to 200 people registered for next step Sunday already. Nice, um, which is awesome. And that is our big next step in giving. It's this generosity. It's, it's breaking the piggy bank, right? And saying, hey, out of our abundance, how do we give to support the future of this church? Which, Tom, you're part of the future of the church. Part of the one things we put out is we're hiring staff coming up in May. You're one of the staff that we are hiring coming to May we are stepping into that faithfully. And so we're hiring a youth director, youth pastor coming in right there are beautiful things happening in the life of the church, but we need the whole church to step up that is taking the next step on next step Sunday, which is coming. And we got breakfast tacos, waffles on sticks. We got lunch tacos, walking tacos. Gonna be hungry. It's gonna be so good. It's gonna be so it's gonna be so good, it's gonna be great, gonna be fun. So that's coming up this Sunday, and so that's the podcast today for TNC and all guys. People said, Amen. You.
