The Neighborhood Church, Bentonville, AR

"Unplugged Faith: Candid Chats About Trusting God in Chaos"

• theneighborhood.church • Season 2025 • Episode 35

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Join Pastor Joe Liles, Roseann Bowlin, and Tom Helmich in this warm, witty podcast exploring daily spiritual rhythms, the art of releasing control, and finding peace in God's presence. From hilarious tangents about Diet Coke preferences to deep reflections on trusting God through life's seasons, this episode offers genuine insights into maintaining a meaningful relationship with the divine.

Key Takeaways:

  • God keeps, guards, and preserves us, even when we struggle to let go
  • Morning and evening routines can be sacred moments of connection
  • Wisdom comes from trusting God's plan over our own anxieties

Memorable Quotes:

  • "God gives rest to those who give up control" - Pastor Joe Liles
  • "Do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow brings worries of its own." - Matthew 6:34
  • "If I keep God at the center of all I do, trust in God will build" - Roseann Bowlin

Upcoming: Next week's series "Dear Younger Me" - Get ready to explore wisdom, reflection, and spiritual growth!

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Pastor Joe Liles:

Right? It's great. Oh, welcome to the TNC podcast. We are recorded in studio, which I, you know, I just really want to stay live in studio, but we're not, we're definitely recorded in studio, even a studio. No, it's not a studio. It's the worship center. You know, don't, don't take me down. Don't take me down. Yet, we got to build this up,

Tom Helmich:

right? You know what I wonder, like, why do we get the worship center and not sanctuary? Like when we lose that

Pastor Joe Liles:

is Tom, I love your tradition. I love your traditional nature. I like when people like, so does Tom serve here for like, no Tom, you know, is it st, Luke every you know he's there's three Sundays out of the month, right? Comes here Wednesday. And I realize, like, Oh, Tom, Tom loves st, Luke. And I was like, Tom's nature is St. I was like, That feeds Tom's soul. And I make sure that's very clear to people. We could, we

Tom Helmich:

could do it here, but it would look way. It

Pastor Joe Liles:

would look the way it

Tom Helmich:

wouldn't write it like, yeah, that's not the that's not the TNC personality, the culture. You are 100%

Pastor Joe Liles:

and you know what's funny about that is that you say sanctuary for this building, we call it the worship center, right? Because we had to distinguish between the gather building, the Worship Center, little neighbors, preschool, great. But actually, like words like, sanctuary. I thought about for like, the barn redo. Like, if we ever do, like, a modern kind of traditional

Tom Helmich:

expression, right? You mean, like, if we tear down the thing, it's falling

Pastor Joe Liles:

down, where are you? How dare you? But if

Unknown:

you rebuilt it, we could people,

Pastor Joe Liles:

maybe some bells, right? So, yeah, way off. Yeah, we got, we have.

Roseann Bowlin:

Okay, let's don't call that the sanctuary,

Pastor Joe Liles:

the sanctuary, which would be really great. Make it look cool nonprofits. It's

Roseann Bowlin:

amazing, okay? And you have to have a narthex if you have a sanctuary.

Pastor Joe Liles:

What's in narthex? Rosa, I don't even, wow, I don't know the speak that you speak what? I'm sorry. The

Tom Helmich:

narthex was the area outside of the sanctuary. I 100%

Pastor Joe Liles:

know what it is, but I was just like, I love that you guys, you've been in. Look, I started ministry in the narthex like I was remember, don't forget, this in the narthex is where I became the lead lemonade cup pyramid builder, like I remember distinctly showing up on Sundays going the pyramid that I'm going to build today is going to rock. I used to stack, like, hundreds of cups in a pyramid, just to have fun with what the look was next to the lemonade stand. It was great. That trophy. You want to see it, they should have best lemonade. Instead, we should have lemonade Sunday. We're gonna have lemonade on Sunday, but it'd be

Tom Helmich:

beautiful if you do call it the that to the sanctuary, and we could call this the narthex, and we could make the gather building the refectory.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Oh, wow, factory, Tom, what's a refectory? It's where you eat. Feel like that's a traditional place where you go to the bathroom in the

Tom Helmich:

church. The bathroom in the church. What's the common area at Wartburg? Oh, yeah, it's a lunch room. Yeah, it's beautiful. I love

Pastor Joe Liles:

that. All right. Well, let's introduce our host. Now that you've heard us all talking to the podcast, let's figure out who we are. I myself, Joe Liles, a pastor at the neighborhood church, helping to host the podcast. We have two other hosts that join us regularly on the podcast. To my left is the wonderful director of operations, the one, the only Roseanne bowling. Roseanne bowling, she has a segment Tom, what's her segment called here, Roseanne notes. Roseanne notes, we got a Roseanne no singing your department. Yeah, I know it's either

Tom Helmich:

you know that in the title of director of operations or or just a High Priestess of the neighborhood church.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Yeah, she did call herself at one point the High Priestess. It's not you, did you? I was in the meeting, I was in the women's group meeting, when you called yourself the High Priestess. I can name, I can look at it right now. Where you're sitting, you're sitting in the back, back, facing those two doors, and you're like, I'm really the HPO, and it's high priestess of operations.

Roseann Bowlin:

I said the goddess of

Pastor Joe Liles:

operations. Oh, wow, that's pagan all day. We got to watch out for that too

Roseann Bowlin:

much. So, yeah, there was high

Pastor Joe Liles:

priestess. Okay, that's correct. Yeah, it's a thing now, yeah, unfortunately, yeah, it's stuck. You're in now. You're ready to go

Roseann Bowlin:

with your, with your it's a tall order to me. I have to do a lot of things to you. Do meet the standard.

Pastor Joe Liles:

That's why we keep on taking that other duties as a sign, adding more below that. Yeah, yeah. I think that's a discussion. Yeah, don't worry. I think that

Tom Helmich:

donut, a donut earring she's wearing, helps along.

Pastor Joe Liles:

That though you had donut earrings on today, that's fantastic. Sprinkles with sprinkles. Is it true? Yes. So yeah, we do have a recording of the podcast, right so you can actually, man, if we had someone behind the camera right now, we would zoom in on your earrings, just to get that. It's, yeah, we got some donut sprinkles. Yeah, it's beautiful. I love

Roseann Bowlin:

it serves as a warning. What's the donut earring warning? Donut mess with me. This

Pastor Joe Liles:

is great. I never would have known the kindness in the preschool that Roseanne, you walk by and, oh, she's got a donut earrings on today. Like, is that if you put those earrings on on special days and you're like, Don't come near me today. No, no, you don't. Okay, that's great. Approachable. You're always approachable. You know why? It's because you have suckers in your office for the kids. That's, that's cheap tricks. You know what you would you, and not just you and Andrew, I'm sitting over there trying to high five kids and create relationship, and they all run into your office, like, Can I have a sucker? And I'm like, Oh, it's just bribery. That's how you're loving these kids. It's just bribery, not just for the kids. It's not, yeah, that's right. Oh, did you have some suckers, too? Do you get some suckers? I know they're in there. You know they're I actually. Going to Andrew I read Andrews for pretty much every other day. I would say, every day, right? Her fridge, either a Diet Coke, which I love, Diet Coke. I had a glass of Diet Coke last night. I had three glasses of Diet Coke last night with ice, right? And I was delighted. I don't even want to lessen it, I was delighted. Like, I that hit my lips, and I was like, I am so happy, right? Cold Diet Coke with the glass of ice. I don't know what it is. It's got to come from the can. It's got to be poured over ice. You got to let all the bubbles kids out and they got it reported. Yeah, I

Tom Helmich:

can totally different. Oh, cancel, later. Bottle, the plastic bottle soda. No,

Pastor Joe Liles:

I watched a video the other day. Sorry for the tangent. Everybody that's listening right now. But this is important. This is what we do. I watched it. Do. I watched a video the other day, which is a lady that had a behind a blindfold, right? So blind taste test. They had the McDonald's diet coke, right? They had canned Diet Coke, they had bottled Diet Coke. They had Chick fil A Diet Coke, and then they had one other kind of Diet Coke, and I don't remember which kind of was, but, oh, the glass bottle Diet Coke, right? She nailed them all. Now I'm not that level of Diet Coke, like, I just get the can and I'm good to go. I don't know the different tastes and everything else like that, right? But she nailed every one of them. And I was like, dang, that person is committed to Diet Coke. Is a connoisseur. That is a connoisseur Diet Coke. I don't do

Tom Helmich:

Diet Coke with a regular sugared Coke, still, every once in a while, and McDonald's coke hits different

Pastor Joe Liles:

Oh, McDonald's Sprite. I will drink a McDonald's sprite all day. They call it electric Sprite from McDonald's. Yeah. Really, it has a different flavor profile, and it's supposed to be just like when it tingles on your tongue, like it's electric, right? And so, yeah, try to write

Tom Helmich:

carbonation that it's got a baby or something, chemicals in it.

Pastor Joe Liles:

No, no, that's, well, they're good. It's chemical. I love the chemicals. Yeah, yeah. I'll definitely do a sprite. I try to get all coke zeros now, Coke Zero sprite zeros, like, whatever we can, right? And make sure we're there. So all right, to my right, joining us on the podcast today as a regular host, the one the only pastor of care and education at the neighborhood church.

Tom Helmich:

It is Tom Tom, and I like when you throw out the Pastor Park, I did

Pastor Joe Liles:

give you that you are struggling with that. Can we pause for a moment? Roseanne, I know you renamed yourself immediately the High Priestess, and that was okay. I mean, I took that right, and it's great. You're the director of operations. It seemed that you assumed that title very well. Director of Operations. This is what I do. I'm ready to go. Pastor Tom, you're having a lot of struggle. We're four weeks in four weeks in we're four weeks in four weeks in the one month into your role here at the neighborhood church, and you're struggling with, Pastor

Tom Helmich:

Tom, I'm still, I'm still warming up to that. Okay, why? Kind of I put past, you know, pastors, like, on a pedestal. And I'm like, Oh, interesting. So there's, like, identity there. I mean, it's, it's, it's different. I got used to wearing the collar when I do the more formal stuff, the Yeah, I'm doing visitations, and I was comfortable with vicar,

Pastor Joe Liles:

okay, comfortable. I mean, here's your traditional all the way I

Tom Helmich:

did it for a year. Yeah? So, okay, so I'm like, I'm getting there. Okay, getting like, I've made the signature line. Oh, my email. It's Pastor Tom. Now, Pastor, not just Tom.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Do you put Pastor Tom? Karen, education, pastor of care in education, so people know what it Okay, that's great. And then with that, are, is it easier for you to do in a traditional setting, like St Luke to be called Pastor Tom? Yeah. Oh, so, okay, so it's, it's regarding the environment.

Tom Helmich:

No, I think part is there. I'm like, I'm the only pastoral presence there, yeah, sure. I've been here at the neighborhood for 10 years, yeah, correct, and I've been pastor here for four weeks,

Pastor Joe Liles:

yeah? But I love it. I think it's, I love that your time here, I love what we're engaging as we kind of continue to move through your new work, right? Stevens ministry here at the church, which is a care program, right, that people can get involved in and help go out and care for the people that are in hospitals and pastoral care areas. Great

Tom Helmich:

program. It's just expensive to get started, but it's a great program,

Pastor Joe Liles:

yeah, and it's something that we want to invest in in our fall campaign, so we're investing in that to help you lead that. And there's already people in the congregation

Tom Helmich:

that are Stevens ministers, yep, we just gotta get set up with them, because there's great continuing ed, and there's that's the nice thing is, you're not just throwing people at it and doing whatever's going to happen that's great a method to train them and to get the skills needed to do it, do it well without inadvertently, you know, being problematic was, yeah, pastoral care, because it's a sensitive topic to be able to do, you need to do it well.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Oh, absolutely. And everything starting with training is the best way, right? Some of the program differences we're going to make coming into the fall is that we're going to lean into the training aspect of things, so that way, when people come in, they're equipped for the work of the ministry, and they feel that they have a path to get into that. So I love that you're leading that area, in addition that you're helping out with life groups and that curriculum, right? I did announce slightly on Sunday, that there might be a toga party attached to the launch of a study in the life of Romans, right, you know? And so gotta have, why not have fun? Why not have fun? It's great. It's great. And so we're talking about the September 5, I think, is that date which is gonna be great. So Life Group launch is incredible. I just listened to a podcast this morning while I was running, and. It was someone who was talking about that 95% of their 7500 person church is involved in small groups. He said they have taken away everything else to focus on small groups. He said men's groups, women's groups, took them away to focus on small groups, right? And I was like, wow, that's really profound. But he said it's so important for people to create intimacy in these smaller the

Tom Helmich:

relational aspect, relational aspect, right? Hard part is just doing it well, where we we properly equip the people to be able to lead it? Yeah, you know, we're because, I mean, it's an area that some, a lot of people have questions and aren't always well, confident in leading. So being able to empower them to lead with good content, you know, I think is an area that we can, we can focus a lot on to be, to be helpful with folks. And I think it'd be great have a cover photo of you in a toga and, like, the Laurel thing, like on a side, leaning on a couch, and like, maybe Roseanne fanning you and me holding grapes over here.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Like, we can shoot that video all day long. This is gonna be fantastic,

Tom Helmich:

you know. And just put some of the kids stuff in the background. Just make it you know. We gotta make it fun.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Tell me. Tell me about how you're going to equip leaders, because I think you're exactly right. Like the leadership in that area, you don't I love it, so, like, one of the things I do is I work on the morning f3 and they said it's peer led in a rotating professional in a rotating fashion, not done by a professional. I love that language, because it means like, Hey, I might get a workout today, if it's not the best of workouts. But it's led by a peer, and it's led by someone who's passionate to lead in this group, right? And is going to share their context and their history and their experience, and they're going to walk us through a story, which is great, right? I think the same thing about life groups, right, that we have this. So can you tell me a little bit about your leadership style and just kind of an aside to the podcast, what are you looking at to equip your leaders so that they feel like they're ready to go?

Tom Helmich:

So getting all the content out as early as possible is kind of a main priority for me right now. And trying to meet, I'm going to be sending some emails out to try to meet with the different life group leaders, you know, have a two potential dates for it to to be able get the information to them, and then in a platform that's easy for them to present, but it's not like detail heavy in the content, like overview, because honestly, this the areas. I mean, I've done a lot of that before, but it was with other seminary students, other people's working on a Masters of divinity, and so putting the structure there, and then allowing them to lead it to where their group has questions. Because each, you know, each group has their own kind of personality. Because there are different, you know, I love that different seasons of life, you know, there's, there's groups that fit different, different seasons of life for people. And so each of their their groups is going to have a different area they're most interested in it. Mm, hmm.

Roseann Bowlin:

So having it life groups up with a skeleton, and then they put the meat, kind

Tom Helmich:

of, you'll have have the stuff, the meat there, but just, I thought that was more of a buffet, like, here's a bunch of the stuff, but you can kind of pick which route you want to go, where areas you want to look at, how deep you want to go into it, and then, because we kind of have to react to them and see what their questions are. So it'll, it'll have all the content built out, you know, outlines and stuff like that. But then each one will probably go a slightly different direction, which is why I think that having those times that we bring everybody together for one big group, one, you know, large group of IT help will help everybody keep on kind of the same track. Yeah, that's all. And I'm looking at trying to build in as much as it drives me nuts to say this, that I'm trying to actually build it out within a tech, a technology setup, you know, within the Bible app, because it works really well for those kinds of studies. You can build it out pretty, pretty heavy in there. So

Pastor Joe Liles:

that's great. I just want to say that I've never heard life groups disguised as described as a skeleton format that you're putting meat on, which then led me to this image of a skeleton then getting meat, and, you know, tissues and tendons and then skin. And I had this very kind of visceral image when you said that Roseanne, and then you said, No, it's more like a buffet, which then took me straight to cannibalism. And I was like, in my ADHD handle that

Tom Helmich:

garbage. Us, a human sky, yeah, or something, yeah? I mean, oh

Pastor Joe Liles:

my gosh, I was gone. It was like, what is happening?

Tom Helmich:

It's a just throw. It's a great but it's a great book. It's not one that you're gonna read to make you feel happy, but it's a good way of historical fashion. It's a study. It's historical, but it's a story format study. So it's allowing you to read and get into a little bit of the culture and the reality of life in that time, which hopefully will give everybody a better lens to in the spring, do a study of the book of Romans with a better understanding of the words on the page in the Bible.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Yeah, that's great. So that's great. So I love that. I mean equipping leaders is huge, right? And we have our life group leaders that walk alongside eight to 12 other members of the Church, right? As more people come in, right? It's a wonderful example of like, the identity of church, because you're having people come into life groups that don't necessarily know everyone. These life groups are embracing new people, right? And as they embrace new people, it's just like a church on a Sunday morning, right? Like new people are coming in. They want to learn. Their yearning for the word they desire to dig deep and, and we're providing these Life Group scenarios so that they can and

Tom Helmich:

do it comfortably. Because, I mean, we're getting big enough on Sundays, it's a little intimidating for some people.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Oh, absolutely right. They still love the intimacy of a smaller group and, and I think those conversations over years can form really well. I. There was a really neat model on this podcast about how they led into life groups. They did what they called discipleship sprints. And what they would do is they take the life group model, which is always running, and everyone's there, but then in mind you, this is a staff of many pastors, so let's just take that into account for a second. But what they would do is they would take a study, right? So they would do a legit study on something, a men's study or women's study, or a study through Romans or how to read the Bible. And they would do a discipleship moment of getting deeper in your relationship with God in this way. And it was a straight five week sprint. We have five weeks, five meetings ready to go. But every night they emphasize that this is a discipleship sprint. In order to get you into a life group, if you enjoy this, you should be getting into a live group. And they use this four times throughout the year to get people into life groups, right as they kind of lean in, and they use the tables where they're sitting, because they said, it's a 7500 person church, and they have 1000 people that attend this. But at the same time, they said, hey, if you've enjoyed these five weeks and you've enjoyed the six people around your table, that's the joy of a life group. You

Tom Helmich:

know, if they're a 7500 person church, and I get church, and they're getting 1000 people to attend, I think if you're looking at percentage wise, we're probably killing it. Yeah, percentage of involved,

Pastor Joe Liles:

right? Yeah, nice time. Way to bring it in. That was really good. That was really good. So, yeah. So a lot of great roles happening here as you come on the staff. And kind of met through that, and then and Roseanne to Director of Operations. I mean, as we come into the fall, all of our rentals are coming back in. Freedom seekers was here last week. Freedom seekers ministries was in the building on Sunday, which I was so excited for. We met one of their individuals last week came in as we were meeting with the band, and as we met with the band, they said they're looking for a person. And I said, Oh, you're probably with freedom and they were meeting over in our gather building. So I walk them over freedom. Freedom seekers ministry is an incredible ministry that serves who Roseanne, can you share just a little bit? Because you're the first people to meet them. Walk them through our site. Who are they?

Roseann Bowlin:

Right? Yeah. So they work with people who are in transition from jail, time, prison, addiction, any anything in society that kind of gets people down and out, yeah? And they help them step up. That's beautiful, and they hold them accountable, yeah? And so it's a wonderful ministry. The Holy Spirit is working in that ministry like crazy. Yeah. So I love seeing that. I love seeing them here to Oh, it's great with us. It's great. Really enjoyed it.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Oh, and if you walk over on a Sunday night to their worship, which is where I embrace them. We had a Sunday night band meeting, and so I walked over and, man, they're on the basketball court playing basketball. People are out front. They're sitting by our fire pit right and sitting on the Adirondack chairs right? And then inside they had worship music playing. They had food because he, unknown to me, he used to be a chef. He was a chef known a restaurant, yeah, for many years. And so he's like, cooking not a thing to me. He's like, I love to cook right and get it going. So he's setting up food. But he's like, Hey, we're making it work. Like we know food brings people in, like, we want to make sure they have a meal here as they come, and then they worship, and they pray over each other, right? Which is really incredible. And so we got done meeting, and I kind of broke through that wall a little bit, because I walked in full Pastor Joe, right? I had the neighbor church polo on, and I was walking, I was, I was just, I was just in a space where they're like, one of these is not like the other. And I was, I was, that was not like the other and so, but I was coming in, just meeting everyone's, hey, what's going on, right? And just walking through, and I finally said, Hey, I'm the pastor here, different things like that. Like, Oh, great. And then people started coming over talking, and finally, Pastor Ron comes over, and he's like, Man, this is great. He's like, I love this relationship. I love what's happening. I said, Yeah. I said, I'm gonna love to come on Thursday night, hang with you guys during prayer time. I said, I'd love to come over here on Sunday, you know, be with you. He goes, You know what? We're coming Sunday. And I was like, great, you know, it's awesome. I've had many people say they're coming Sunday, right? To be honest, many people have said they're coming Sunday. Many people have had other plans on Sunday, and that's okay, right? So I was like, I would love that if you want to bring a couple people over, awesome. I said, we'll make room for you. We'll celebrate you guys 40. They brought 40 people, which what I love even more at the same time they because our worship was the 1045 they came to second service. They all showed up at 10, right? So our worship didn't get out. So like 1020 1025 and which is normal, Tom, don't say anything. And so it's super normal, sir. Another one. But does boom, boom. So anyways, they were waiting the parking lot because they all showed up early. And Pastor Ron's, like, we can't walk in yet. Like, wait till the people start to leave, and then we'll come. So we started leaving, like, 1025 which is about 25 minutes to our next service, and 40 people walked in. And it was awesome. It was so good. I mean, they have a heart for God. They feel the Spirit on this property, the language they speak about our property in the presence of God here is beautiful, like the moment we came here. We knew it. And it reminded me, you know, seven years ago when we when I stepped onto this property, and I stood in the middle of all these buildings, and I stood next to a tire that had horses that would walk around, I was like, oh. This is where I remember that, oh yeah. This is where God's calling us. I remember that moment of like, oh yeah. I can see now, I didn't know what has become this, but I do remember God very clearly speaking, this is where the neighborhood needs to be. And it was a beautiful moment then, too. So freedom seekers, awesome. So you get the joy. We got the Tamil group coming back in right? That teaches the Tamil language. So they're coming back in early August. They teach like 100 kids, and 100 kids and taking over all of little neighbors. Hopefully, when they come back in, they're trying to get registrations right now. So, really awesome. So just a lot of good staff move. But we are missing one of our people today. So on Sunday, was our sending for table, not officially gone, but unofficially, kind of still here, because he's running Wednesday night youth last worship. This one is

Tom Helmich:

coming in as well. He's definitely got a heart for and he's like, Yeah, it'd be after it. I don't mind volunteering.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Yeah. He's like, I'm in, which is a beautiful heart, beautiful heart. And so, so table, if you're listening, we're praying for you, right? We love you. We miss you on this podcast, right? That presence has been a wonderful presence for the last two years on this podcast and three years here in the church. So we had a wonderful sending on Sunday, and I did think it was really wonderful. And Kaylee, my daughter, even commented, she goes, but she was, she was, man, I expected it to be this, like overly emotional kind of sending, and she goes, but then we played these videos from all of his time here with us, and it really became a celebration of his time here, not just an emotional sending, right? I

Tom Helmich:

wasn't here. I was in Fort Smith, right? Did you do the table Swift? 100% I was

Pastor Joe Liles:

hoping, when I presented table Swift, and it was so, so good. Yeah, it was awesome. And, and, yeah, I let that video play the longest. So that was like a two minute video that I let play, and I played the whole thing. He's

Tom Helmich:

never living that down. No, I'm gonna keep that picture forever so I can show hope. Yeah, we're

Pastor Joe Liles:

just gonna put it in the back. You know, they have pictures like band members who are here, right? We're gonna put Taylor Swift in the back room, in the band

Tom Helmich:

room, like the wall, like a collage of band Oh,

Pastor Joe Liles:

great. That was one of the ideas I had for the green room, is that we would actually do the whole wall is just like photo members of

Tom Helmich:

the conference room, the green conference room.

Pastor Joe Liles:

That's great. That's so good. Okay, so what we got going on is that we had wonderful sending right? It was also the last part of our series, and we're talking about daily rhythms with God, right? And I think one of the things I said in First service too, which was really important, is that as we talk through these daily rhythms with God, that there's also seasons with God. And you can talk about, you know, how you start your day, what Scripture calls your going ins and your coming outs. You can talk about how you go into the day now you come out of the day, how you start the day and how you end the day. I think that's true of seasons, too. And I thought it was really poignant message from Scripture about these seasons, especially in light of table, right? That, yeah, there are times when we go into a season, there's times when we come out. It doesn't mean our ministry is done. It doesn't mean tables ministry is done. He is a beautiful ministry ahead of him, right? And there will be many churches and many different ministries and organizations blessed by him and Kara and baby hope. And we have a lot of great relationships here, and those relationships aren't done, right? We hung out on Sunday night afterwards, right? And we all had the band over and everything. It was beautiful. And so the beauty is that God stays in the midst of those relationships. And that's what we're beginning to talk about in this message, right? The message was about, how do I go to sleep in peace? How do I find this daily rhythm with God? And so what we really started with was the identity of, like, what's your morning routine? How does it begin and ask, you know, asked a very divisive question right out of the gate. I said, Are you morning person or not a morning person? And so I just divided the church right away, right away. I thought that'd be a great start to the message. Just divide everyone into it. So I want to ask you guys, Tom, you weren't here, so you didn't know that, but Roseanne, are you a morning person? I am not a morning person. You're not. That's that tells me so much and helps me understand the last seven months of our working relationship together. So that's really good. What time? What time? Generally would you say that like you're approachable in the morning, after my first coffee, after your first coffee, when does that happen?

Roseann Bowlin:

Well, now, with my routine, I get up, get ready and have breakfast and my coffee, and my sister and I do a little devotional. And because of Sunday's message, I started going back and reading the section of the Bible that the the message came from, and and then we talk about it, and we do a little devotion. I can't remember the name of it, but, and it's always, it is always hits with us, like, Wow, holy spirit. Okay, got that point, that's great. So, yeah, that's our routine, and that's my favorite part of the day. I think,

Pastor Joe Liles:

Oh, wow. So you're not a morning person, but it's your favorite part of the

Roseann Bowlin:

day. Yes, that that is part that's my favorite part of the day. Is just that devotion and reading the Bible. And just kind of talking and usually end up laughing. I love that. So that's really good. Yeah, just that community. Yeah, absolutely okay. Tom

Pastor Joe Liles:

What about you? Are you a morning person? I am now. You are now. Didn't used to be okay

Tom Helmich:

as a teen, I was I didn't want anything before noon. Was like, wow. Why? Unless we're hunting or fishing, wow. Before noon, oh, man, I wanted to sleep all the time when I was young, and then I became a cop, and it was, it was, you know, and different because we rotated shifts. I didn't really know when was, you know, it was. It changed all time. And since I've retired after going through that rotating shifts, I have quite easily adapted to going to bed at like, nine o'clock at night and getting up at six or seven in the morning, okay? And get six or seven. My best is if I get to go to bed by about nine o'clock and get up at six, get a solid nine hours of sleep. Wow, it's just glorious. That's beautiful. And it's quiet. Of course. I used to appreciate the quiet when the kids were teens living at home, because it was only time in the house, things were quiet and peaceful, right? Yeah. Well, now we're basically empty nesters, you know, coming up to that couple weeks, Connor moves to Conway, yeah, you are. And so, like, there's more opportunity for that. But still, first thing in the morning, it's not hot outside. The day's fresh, you know, my mind's fresh. I can just kind of there all kinds of potential for the day to get started, and then it, you know, it derails from there, of course, you know what the hopes are, but ideal day for me. At, you know, get up in the morning. Amy and I have coffee together, sitting in our recliners, and I can, it's great. Oh, kind of in my mind, start my, you know, my prayers for the day, and then drink my coffee and get a plan. And, you know, get get a good start on on the day. Yeah, do

Pastor Joe Liles:

you and Amy typically do that together, like, when you're kind of thinking through your plan, and like thinking through Scripture. And like, what are your prayers are? Do you guys do that together?

Tom Helmich:

Sometimes, like, praying together usually happens in the evening, and when that, when that happens, sometimes the plan of like, Hey, what's going on today? Make sure that we're on track with stuff. Ideally, we don't, because that's like, add stress first thing in the morning. Oh, interesting. Say more, you know, like, what if we're talking about, all the stuff we got to do that day, then we're just kind of, like, starting to get ramped up about, yeah. So the the best is that peaceful just, kind of just sitting together drinking coffee and just, you know, just get to be there for a little bit and enjoy some peace before we start worrying about everything going on.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Yeah? Yeah. That's makes sense, the routine with loved ones in the morning, right? Sister here, right, wife over here, and empty nester that. I mean, that's changing too, right? As I wake up in the morning now. I mean, I preached on Sunday how important it is that not only it's the morning routine, but the evening routine, right? And I said, I struggle with sleep and I struggle with, you know, the identity of working towards exhaustion, to earn rest, or to find permission to rest and

Tom Helmich:

everything. Yeah, that's, that's your part of your personality. Oh, is 100%

Pastor Joe Liles:

all After Burner. Yeah, full confession, still fully in it, like Jess is gone right now, I don't sleep at all when Jess is gone. Like, really hard for me to sleep. I just, I'm just on the move and thinking about the next thing. And, you know, I got to get the kids here. So last night, my ice maker broke. Man, I tell you, there's a convenience line to ice. And I just, I got frustrated. I'm not gonna lie, I wanted to die coke with ice. I didn't have any ice. And went to buy ice at Walmart, and they I bought the large bag. Landon came back with a small bag. I sent him back. He came back with another small bag, which I thought we were having a miscommunication. I was like, Landon, get the large bag to which then the very nice lady at Walmart, Linda, and she goes, we are sold out of large bags. We don't have any. And I was like, Well, I just paid for a large bag. And I was like, I am done with the ice scenario, right? And I was like, this is over. And so I went and bought a fridge. Wow, just is gone. I just, I've bought it. Picked it up yesterday. Got it. It's a heavy fridge. Both of my biceps are bruised. I don't know if you can see this right to see the bruises on my biceps, because I had to pull in the fridge, and it was resting on my biceps on the dolly, and I installed it last night, and then I had to wait for it to cool down in order to get all the food out. But I had to unplug the one fridge and plug in the other one, and then I didn't have a long enough cable, so I had to run to Lowe's at 930 to Lowe's at 930 at night to get a long enough braided cable, and they get a new water filter, and do all those things. So 1045 kids go down, right? Because we they cleaned all the fridge, and then I put them to bed, and I'm waiting for the fridge to cool so I can get all the food in so it doesn't go bad. Midnight, 10, guess what? I'm moving food. I'm getting I'm like, I preached on this, literally yesterday,

Tom Helmich:

about leave the new fridge in the garage. I

Pastor Joe Liles:

was guilty as all and I just preached on rhythm. I just, I mean, I'm literally in myself, going, how dare you? How dare you preach these words and do this the next night. Old habits die hard. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. And it wasn't even like a permission to rest. It was just I was very proud of myself, though, because I tend to start projects, and once they start, like, awesome, it's up, right? And then I'm like, cool, and I don't need to finish like, that fridge will sit in the living room, the secondary fridge for weeks if I don't deal with it. Yeah. And and so I was like, You know what, I'm gonna stay on task. And part of my hyper focus was I was not going to sleep until I finished that task. And

Tom Helmich:

if Amy is on the podcast, she could tell you so many stories my pending project. Oh

Pastor Joe Liles:

yeah, yeah, I'm in it. And so I was like, I'm gonna finish it. And I literally, Jess is two hours behind. So it was like, 1230 was 1030 her time, right? And I sent her a picture of the finished fridge, and I said, boom, I am proud of myself, is what I put. I just put a beard. And she called me, right? And she's like, I am proud of you, too. Yeah. I was like, thank you so much. I appreciate that. But I mean the morning and evening routine, right? Is where this kind of started. And the note that I gave is that the first point of the message was that your relationship with God does not mean you have to rise early every day. It means that you have to honor God first

Tom Helmich:

every day. Yeah, first and last, first and last, right? First Book and yeah, right. I mean,

Pastor Joe Liles:

this is the important part about a relationship with God. What does it mean to honor God when you wake up? It's funny. I was preaching on this yesterday. Too. Nice. What did? Well, okay, well, take us through a little bit

Tom Helmich:

where you went yesterday. We were in Luke 11, the short version of the Lord's Prayer. Yeah, great. And so we're breaking down like the different petitions in the Lord's Prayer is like a format for prayer. Mm, hmm. And talked about the Luther Small Catechism, yeah, where his his guide in there for how to, how to pray. And it starts with a prayer first thing in the morning, yep, with the Lord's Prayer, right? And he gave a little sample format of like, another little prayer you could do. And then the last thing before you go to bed, yeah, as soon as you wake up and get out of bed. And the last thing you do before you go to bed, it's starting your day oriented towards God. That's great. And it's ending your day oriented towards God. And that doesn't count even all the other times that you try to intentionally turn to God throughout the day in prayer, yeah, but you start and end and bookmark your day with trying to turn, keep yourself turned to God.

Pastor Joe Liles:

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Well, let's, let's, let's talk through this. So I think one scripture can norm us in a real way. So let's read some scripture. I had three scriptures on Sunday that we're talking through kind of the beginning of the day, right? And talking through. Jesus went away when it was still early and very dark, and he went away to pray. And after that, which I didn't share in the message, the disciples hunted for him, right? This is kind of life coming back for us. Is

Tom Helmich:

that kind of like when you're trying to have a moment's peace to pray and your kids are coming looking for

Pastor Joe Liles:

you? Oh, man, anytime. And you know, in an adult I feel bad because I'm like, Stop touching me, stop talking to me. I need to do this real quick, you know, as I just let me have this moment, please. And they're like, I didn't know you do anything. I was like, I know. I like, I know I didn't communicate well, but I don't want you interacting with me, right? It's like, I just need a moment, right? And Landon keys on that he knows when I need a moment, because he gets more clingy and like, in my face, like, and he'll just rub his head across my body. And I'm like, dude, dude, I cannot concentrate. The other day when I was praying, he rubbed the back of my neck. I could not concentrate. It was in a group, and we were all praying together, and I was praying for everyone, and he's just up there fiddling with the back of my neck, and he's doing it compassionately. And as a son would if you've ever done tickling your neck while you pray, you can't concentrate. Like there's there's no good prayer coming through, like I was just finding words. I was like, what is happening right now? So let's take a moment and read through Psalm 121, this was the second scripture reading from Sunday verses one through eight. And we love we love scripture. I mean this, this norms us. So as you think about your relationship with God and what it means to step into the Word, you can take these moments to kind of center yourself and at a foundation so Roseanne, would you begin in Psalm 121,

Roseann Bowlin:

for us, I will start. I lift my eyes to the hills. From where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.

Pastor Joe Liles:

He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night.

Tom Helmich:

The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.

Pastor Joe Liles:

What did each of you hear from the scripture reading?

Roseann Bowlin:

What really popped out to me was he who keeps you will not slumber. And then so meaning that God is taking care of us. He's watching over us all the time. Mm, hmm. And then I want to know the difference. He who keeps Israel will neither some slumber nor sleep. So what's the difference between slumber and sleep? That's

Pastor Joe Liles:

a really good and that is actually a biblical question that I would ask also, but we have a seminarian with us, Tom, who should know that answer. So Tom

Tom Helmich:

looking it up right now in the Hebrew Okay, that's great.

Pastor Joe Liles:

So which one, which word are you looking up in Hebrew?

Tom Helmich:

Well it's gonna be verse three and four. So it says not he will allow to be moved your foot. Not will slumber. So the slumber, Noom slumber sank sleeping, slumbers to just sleep or slumber. So it may just be something where. And then the next verse, verse four, behold, neither shall slumber nor sleep.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Yeah, the sleep in long to sleep. The word origin comes from properly to be slack, or language, or language, by implication, it means to sleep, or it means to die, grow old, interesting.

Roseann Bowlin:

So he's always going to be with us, always, mm hmm, absolutely hmm. Yeah, I love that. That's so comforting, yeah, to know that God is with us even when we slumber and sleep, because we need that rest. But God is not sleeping. He won't die. He's with us. So yeah, that stuck yeah out to me and

Pastor Joe Liles:

Tom, what about you?

Tom Helmich:

You're right now the heat. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right

Pastor Joe Liles:

hand. Yeah, and he's thick right now. I get

Tom Helmich:

right now, yes. Heat index of 105 and it's not even noon yet, man that keep you from all evil, you know, they'll end of the Lord's Prayer, you know, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Yeah, you know, it's that. That's that source of our of our forgiveness, the source of our salvation, you know, the source of our protection, all everything that we really, really need to protect us from the outside.

Pastor Joe Liles:

So you said that word protection, which is where I got kind of intrigued about the scripture reading. Was this word keep? Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's over and over again. I mean, if you look at this right, where does my help come from? Right? It begins right in verse five, it says The Lord is your keeper, right? And then continues in verse seven, the Lord will keep you from all evil, and then again, he will keep your life. And then again, in eight the Lord will keep your going in and your coming out from this time on and forevermore. And so you have this reality of what does keep mean, right when we look at it from the Hebrew language, and it means to guard, to watch, to preserve and to protect. And it was really this identity that we spoke about on Sunday that if you're looking for a shepherd, that's the guard and the watch over, right? You have a shepherd that watches over you, that watches over the sheep, that calls them by name, that sends them out of the pen, but then keeps them also. And then from there, you have not only really this guard and watch, but you have this protect and you have this king that protects Israel, right? This king that steps in on your behalf, you know? This, this god that comes in and says, You are my people, and I will protect you, and the Preserve is the kingdom of God, right, which is where Jesus is at, right now. So this, this language of keep, is a really incredible space where, every single day, when we get into situations where we don't know who to rely on and where to go back to. If you begin your day with honoring God and you end your day with confessing to God and saying, Here's how the day went, and here's where I need you to be, then the middle of this is a beautiful space right, where you are kept, right? You are watched, and you're preserved. Right? The word God is is keeping you as you walk through life. And yet, constantly, we try to throw off these going ins and these comings out right? Like we don't need to have a foundation of God in every moment in our life. We don't need to have foundation God in every relationship in our life. We can just pray in the morning and then we're good instead of praying into every meeting, instead of asking those who are meeting with us to pray with us and see what that means also. So there's an incredible language in the Psalm that I think is really speaking to a lot of different people, a lot of different people, about what it means to have relationship with God. And so as we got through this, there was an important part about, what is this evening routine? What does it mean that we would have the space in the evening to go back to God? And so just question for you too, what is your evening routine? So we talked about morning routine, but what's your evening do?

Roseann Bowlin:

Evening my evening routine? After supper, we watch a little TV. Usually argue over what movie we're watching, then I try to go to bed around nine o'clock. It doesn't always work, but I usually, while I'm washing my face, I'm going, Well, God, I tried. Yeah, right, yeah, that's great, but tomorrow's a new day, and you're going to be with me. And I'll do better, and I

Pastor Joe Liles:

keep trying. So if you miss your nine o'clock, what time do you go to bed? Around 10? Okay, just an hour later,

Roseann Bowlin:

yeah, yes, but around 10 o'clock, my body I really starts telling me I'm done. Interesting.

Pastor Joe Liles:

Okay, yeah, yeah, no matter what, about 10? Yeah, okay,

Roseann Bowlin:

yeah. And I I can't stay up past Well, I mean, I have stayed up past 10, but that's when I start snacking. Oh yeah. I start doing all these unhealthy things because my body's like, if you're going to keep me awake, yeah, you are going to feed me. Uh huh, absolutely, I don't need that. Yeah, yeah, okay. Tom, what about you?

Tom Helmich:

Kind of the same thing in the morning. It's usually ones that we start sitting in those chairs and just kind of relaxing and unwinding. Yeah, yeah. Typically have great plans to, you know, end in prayer right before I go to bed. And sometimes I make it and sometimes I fall asleep before I get it done, we're human. We're human, but kind of the same thing of just that moment, kind of peace, unwind. We don't even really watch TV. I mean, sometimes we'll watch a movie, but usually one, I'm just gonna sit in our chairs talking and showing each other different funny cat videos on

Pastor Joe Liles:

YouTube. Oh my gosh. You guys are old soul couple. I love Oh my gosh. Old Soul,

Tom Helmich:

cat videos, bird videos, you know, old family photos will wind up looking at, like Facebook memories and stuff like that. And just kind of just unwinding and relax a little bit. Mm hmm, ideally go to bed about nine o'clock.

Pastor Joe Liles:

So interesting thing is that I have trouble sleeping, as we've talked about you guys are both in bed. But it's incredible. I would love that. That's amazing. My wife

Tom Helmich:

used to have difficulties, yeah, in here lately, she's been sleeping like a rock, which is a new great thing for her. Yeah, she used to tell me that snoring was bragging about falling asleep first. That's great, because we'd get into bed at the same time, and she'd lay there, and she'd have an idea and tell me something, and I wouldn't respond, and then she'd hear me snoring. Yeah. She's like, Oh, he's already

Pastor Joe Liles:

lost him. He lost him. So there's hope. Yeah, so one of the last points that I messaged on Sunday was that God gives rest to those who give up control, and that when we give God control of our whole lives, and not just part of our lives, like the doors here at the church or something like that, like the the hard thing that we think through is that we want to maintain that we have control of who God is bringing into the church through these doors. We have control of who comes into our life and the comings and the goings, and we don't right. What ends up happening is that we have the space where, if we can give over control to God, what we see is that we then release so that God can hold us and keep us. But what we constantly do is just give over control of things to God, not our lives to God. And so what do either of you need to release control of in order to let God keep you, guard you, watch you, protect you, preserve you. What is something that you need to release control of? I think

Tom Helmich:

I do better about that than that's one of the few things I can say. I think I do better can say. I think I do better about that than Amy does. Yeah, yeah, she worries more than I do. I don't. Sometimes I don't worry as much as I should. Yeah, like, that's, I don't know, you kind of call that a

Pastor Joe Liles:

superpower, yeah? Nice, you know, tied to procrastin Non, anxious

Tom Helmich:

procrastination. Yeah, a little bit, um, so, I mean, I'll, you know, because I get that comfort knowing that, okay, I can, well, I can worry about this again tomorrow morning. You know, it's a lot of stuff, stuff with the kids. I mean, right now, the phase of life we're in, it's kids, their choices, yeah, choices they will or won't make. You know, I was looking at at Connor's schedule for classes this morning, and I was like, you sucker, he doesn't have a he doesn't have a class before 10am that's great, you know, I'm like, deciding school based on schedule, yeah, talk about a freaking Kush, yeah. Where'd the 8am classes go? Yeah, I guess they gave up on that. So stuff like with the kids, like this, stuff like choices. I can't make form decisions. I can't make choices. I can't make, you know, that? I have to kind of release to God, yeah, I know there's been bumps in the, you know, between now and the end, but just trying to, you know, trust that God's got a plan for him, and we'll put ideally people in their lives that will influence them in ways that our kids won't let us influence them anymore. We can tell them something 10 times, and it doesn't matter if somebody else mentions it once, and all sudden, it's there. It's gospel there. Yeah, so hopefully that God will put those people in their in their lives to them and, yeah, that's wonderful. I

Pastor Joe Liles:

mean, I didn't think about family initially giving up control, but yeah, that's an important part, especially as an empty nester, right? You have to let them run their lives, right, even though it could be detrimental, right? You, knowing them, getting there and finding that independence with God is going to be important to that relationship. What about you? Roseanne, there's a final thoughts, right? What

Roseann Bowlin:

is the I think I need to release the things that I know I don't have control over, but I want to, I want to control what my sisters do and how they handle themselves, and how they budget. It and and I, I, I need to release that. And not, I try not to be a worrier. But yeah, I think it's just the the releasing things I know I don't have control

Pastor Joe Liles:

over, yep, to allow God's space to keep you Right, right, instead of just handing things back to God,

Tom Helmich:

yeah. Matthew 634 says, do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow, bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today. Yeah, absolutely. And how peaceful could life be? Just worry about today, and I get to that's tomorrow.

Pastor Joe Liles:

That's it. Yep, I think more of us need to do that. Worry is exhausting. Yes, really is. And then when you're worrying about the thing that hasn't happened yet, you're double worrying, because you're worried about it until it hits, and then you realize it's not that same direction, but now you're worrying about the new direction. I'm like, Yeah, you worried before. You needed to worry, like you can't do this, and so it

Roseann Bowlin:

didn't even happen the way you thought it would happen when you worried about it.

Pastor Joe Liles:

That's right, that's right, like we and that's an only God knows scenario, right? So I think the close part of this series was that you know, as we look at, you know, what is our daily rhythms of God, is that we know that God knows us. God has formed us right in the space that were they deep in that relationship is truly how they learn to grow with Christ in those moments. So that is a wonderful end of that series. Right as we got through Roseanne, you have some notes right from Roseanne notes?

Roseann Bowlin:

I do, but it's really stuff we've talked about already. Guard will. God will guard over me. He will protect me, preserve me for all eternity. If I keep God at the center of all I do trust your trust in God will build and begin each day with God, so that you can get into every day with trust in God.

Pastor Joe Liles:

That's beautiful. I love it. Yeah, trust in God. Was that last week's message? Right where we have to have the sacrificial, sacrificial relational identity to God, and that has to be important to what we do. And so I love it. So this next week, we're gonna get into new series. That new series is going to be dear younger me. It is a wisdom series. It's a series about what is the wisdom that we would give into our younger selves, and what do we learn about wisdom from Scripture? What do we learn about the wisdom from God? And how do we impart that undergoing ourselves? In fact, Tom, which I haven't talked about, but I told the church Sunday, I want to hand a letter to everyone where they can write to themselves, right wisdom that they just gotta figure out how to get it there. That's it. And then with that, we can read them in the following weeks about here's wisdom that's coming up, or show the wisdom to people and see what's going on. I think be really incredible to hear all that wisdom. So that's coming up this next week. As we get into fall, launch our youth programs, our life, your programs. You can find that all in the church center app too. So in August, people said, Amen, you.

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Pastor Joe Liles

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Pastor Tom Helmich

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Roseann Bowlin

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Tevo Christmann

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