4.5.20 - SavedAF Podcast "COVIDAF"

Well, hey, everyone. I'm Justin.

And I'm Courtney.

We want to welcome you to Saved Ave.

This is Saved Ave.

This is our podcast seeking to empower, to encourage, to push you in relationships.

Saved AF stands for saved and faithful.

Oh, saved and faithful. There was a joke I saw on Twitter this dad put up, and he said, I told my child during the quarantine that. That I had black ass one. What?

You had black what?

Black AF one. Do you know what those are? No. Black Air Force ones. Right? And so the daughter. The daughter goes, what did she say? Oh, my God. I was on Twitter. He said, yeah, my friends think we are too. Right? Like. And he said, I really can't believe that my child is that young. They don't know what black apps are.

They need to listen to Nelly. Keeping Step into my Air Force One.

I think that's a great intro song right there. All right, welcome, you guys, to Saved app once again, Justin. And this is Courtney. Today we're talking about this quarantine. We're in the midst of Corona time and Corona everything. And I've gotten. As a pastor, I've gotten so many questions about, is this the end time? Is Jesus coming back? All of that Bible says, come back by fire. Fire. If he comes back like this, then he lied. And so I'm gonna get him when I get to heaven. But I doubt that God did that. So I believe this is a wonderful. This is a terrible moment for those who are sick. And our prayers and our Are not just thoughts and prayers, but our actual prayers. And those who have been gifted with the gift of healing, really praying that God heals and eradicates from this. From this world. On another level, those of us who are quarantined or intentionally socially distant, yeah, that's what we want to talk about and kind of our own journey in the midst of this quarantine in Rona time 2019. Before we jump into that, here's a book I want to suggest you read. It's called All About Love by Bill Hooks. I've been kind of just trying to grab a hold of my library. The books I haven't finished. This particular book is a book our church read. I'm in the season of my life where I'm reading only black Women this year. And this particular book is a book I read in February to go along with Love Month. But in terms of a solid love ethic, what it means to be morally and spiritually and personally grounded in a love ethic, I believe this book. If you want to Read something that'll hopefully ground you. This book will. And it's a simple read. Bell Hooks is amazing. Amazing writer. I think this will help you. So that's my two cents. Cora, what do you want to talk about?

So we're quarantined.

AF Quarantine. And faithful.

And faithful. And so there's so many.

Fill the womb 2020.

Oh, my God. Yeah. So there's. There. I mean, there's so much to talk about. How. How are you doing, Jess? Like, how are you honestly doing in the quarantine of being home? I know this. I'm.

Okay.

I'm gonna let you answer.

I'm so. I'm a busy person by nature, right? So I. I. Not just on the mood. I try to block my schedule out and organize my week. And so it's been an adjustment. I think that's been the main thing. And so I've adjusted. But it's not like, I'm not. I'm an introvert. I'm also an extra. I think I'm partially extroverted. So I'm like a vi. Whatever. I don't know. Whatever language you can put there. So it's been an adjustment. Just like, calendars and schedules. And the one thing that happened. So, because my background is in, like, tech, like, when the quarantine happened and, like, orders to shut down happened, I got, like, all these phone calls from all these preachers and pastors. This one, I got phone calls from pastors who literally thought I was an idiot for caring about, like, Facebook back in 2012, right? It was like, you'll get your head out of Facebook. Get it in this book, right?

Faith book.

Faith book and all that crap, right? And then all of a sudden, they all had my phone number and they all had my email, and it was. I got really overwhelmed the first week of this quarantine because it was like, all it was doing was phone calls and emails and zoom calls and Skype calls and free comedy. Folk were getting paid money to do the stuff I was doing for free. And, yeah, that was a lot. There was a lot of, like, that. And then, like, my own church preparing and then being present with my child, having to adjust completely from being in school to being home and not being able to really go out unless you really have to go out and all of that. And I have a really, really small staff at the church, and so there's a lot of things that go into Sunday morning with a few people, and now we're all distant and all of that. So it's it's been an adjustment, and I think I'm finally getting into a groove of reading and writing and being present with myself. But what about you?

Yeah. Like, I think introversion and extroversion is a spectrum.

Right.

I don't think sometimes we are, like, wholly, absolutely one or the other. Right. So I used to work from home for five years earlier in my career, which I absolutely loved. But it gets hard. So it gets lonely. It gets hard. You want to, after the day is over, get out, have fun, do things like that. And so I was craving an office job because I was always in home. Now that I'm out in the world and I go and I leave the house for a job now every day, it's hard for me. I was like, ooh, yeah, quarantine time. Like, yes, home time. I spend time at home. I get to clean my house. I get to do this, I get to do that. And then after a certain while, you kind of slide back to that spectrum and be like, I need to see people again. I need to go out. And so it's in this constant, like, tatering and tottering for me. Like, I don't have any kind of thoughts right now about, like, how I feel. Some days I'm just like, oh, yes, I love this quarantine. I love. Sometimes I'm a mother bird of such, like, everything in my nest and everybody's safe. Don't go out there. Let's just be in. And then other times, I'm just like, forget the system. We're going out. We're gonna try to find some stuff. Let's go. You know, God, direct my path away from Corona. We're going out, like, you know, So I think it's just, like, varying things of just different feelings about it. But I think that this is the best solution for us as a people to just kind of socially isolate or physically isolate. And that's one thing I do want to say and just plug. I've been saying this a lot of places that I go is that there's a difference between physical death, physical distancing, and social isolation. We are called to be physically distant, right? So not being close or within six feet of another person to stop the spread of the germ, which is very important, and I completely believe in that.

But.

But we are not called to be socially isolated, right? So if you are quarantining by yourself, if you are even with your own spouse or your own family, I really urge you to find some type of community outside your home through virtual means, whether That's Facebook, Instagram, community, social media, engaging in things like that. Zoom has uptaked a lot because people are using those means, finding great things, finding a dance class that people are doing live, doing something with other people, because God said at the end, it still holds true. It is not good for man to be alone. And it still holds true. But we can safely find community by not being isolated.

You know what's hurt me in this, And I think I was saying with you last week, what hurt me in this is. So, as I said earlier, one of the things that I've. So we're in Rhode Island. We moved here from. By way of Tennessee, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was in Brookfield, but in the suburbs.

I was in the hood, y'.

All. Yeah, whatever. And so moving to Providence, I don't have a lot of colleague friends, right? Especially people my age. I'm the. I'm on a board, and I'm the youngest by, like, 25 years, you know, and it's fun to be on the board at 31. It's not so fun when the next person is a boomer, you know, and the language you're talking is just. Is not the same. And so there's nothing wrong against that. It's just been really difficult to have colleagues. And so when the. When the quarantine happened, and for me, as our congregation, we had to switch from being in person to online. I mean, we do this every week, right? So it's not a big deal to us. And we have a very active Facebook presence. We have a full hire, full time hire that does social media and technology for us. But for me, what was so exciting, exciting is that all my colleagues that, like, from college, and I, like, reached out and I was, like, so happy because I was like, you guys do have my number, right? You guys do have my email, and it was so great. And I was, like, taking all these calls. I was like, yes. Like, I was coming, I was getting my car, and we'll call. How are you handling it? Just felt so great to have friends again. And then, like, they just disappeared, right? Like, they took all the information. I don't care if you all listening, because you did. They took all the information. And, like, I saw. And what hurt the most was I saw one person literally do a Zoom call that monetized the information I gave him for free.

Wow.

And that hurt. Like, that really, really hurt. And so I hear what you're saying in terms of creating community, I think it's important to name friendships and name and name Colleagues and name purpose. Right. And I think it's also interesting in these moments of forced boundaries, think we're revealing who really desires to be intimate with you and who you desire to be intimate with.

Right.

Like, I. I haven't talked to my mom this much in ages, Right? And not just concerned about her health, but just, hey, how are you? Like, do you have food? Like, whatever, like, the best man at my wedding. We. We hardly talk, but we've been talking more in this quarantine than we talk before this. Right? And it's amazing that we're talking more, we're engaging more. And then, like, it's amazing that it reveals people who literally, not necessarily who want to. Who. Who. You can't be used, like you say all the time, but the individuals who were trying to use you. Right? And that was my prayer, God, don't let me become used. But that stung, and it made me think about, in this quarantine, like, I want to create community, but at this point, I mean, I'm tired of looking at calls. I'm tired of looking at Scott screens. I'm tired of zoom. I'm tired of Facebook. And I know, like, my job calls for a lot more video time. Like, I have to be working on a screen, not just meandering through it. So I'm personally getting tired of it. And if I'm there, then others probably going to get there soon. But that's kind of. That's one thing. In terms of, like, creating community, I'm all. I believe it's so important to cultivate community in these moments. But I. I tell you, man, I got to a point when I saw that fool put that thing up Facebook, and I was like, are you really charging for the information I gave you? Right. That stung. And I think it's a revelation of community and all of that.

Yeah, I think that's a good time, too. It's like what we talk about all the time is balancing that act between being helpful to those in need versus being used. And I think there's a fine line that. Right. Like, I said this to you, like, all the time. You were ahead of your time. Like, you've been doing this. You've been doing this since you started in ministry, like, using a technology component to everything that you've been doing since the beginning of time. And people will always think that you were crazy. You're just trying to be this crazy millennial that just always wants to use technology. And now when literally the only crutch that we have to lean on For a lot of time, a lot of things is technology now. Everybody has been like knocking down your door and saying like, wow. You know, after they are like, oh, you're just extra. Oh, I can't believe you did that. Oh, I can't believe. The good thing is that they're looking at you and they're looking at this. I do believe that now is the time, though, to start those business ideas. And that's for everybody. Like, start those business ideas. Start them. There's still money to be made because takeout is going up more than ever before.

So did you see the stocks for. So the CEO of Slack put this up on Twitter. He said, as much as a lot of people are dying, our stock and our business is growing exponentially to a point where he gave it away for free because he felt bad, which the Zoom Zoom is free now. Like, it's just free. Like outside of like the super, super, super premium enterprise versions, it's free because their stocks run over in Netflix. It was great to invest in Netflix like three weeks ago and like Hulu like three weeks ago. And like no one cared about half these things. But it was great to invest in these things like three weeks ago and, and, and Disney plus like three weeks ago because it's now at a place as a premium to buy these stocks, whereas you have the, the local shops going. So it's going to. I think, I think one of the challenges I know you put invest. I think the other part would be read. I think readers are leaders. If you're going to be leader, you have to read. If you're not soaking up knowledge, then you're not. And then the second part of that reading is also podcasting. While we're giving podcasts away, I want you guys to be considered at least in the four different podcasts a week, people who are not of your gender, people who are not of your socioeconomic status, and people who are not of even of your race. Like I listened to one from this super staunch white Australian woman, right? And it is beautiful the information she gives you from an Australian white woman. Then I listened to this multimillionaire black man and it's amazing to hear his story as a multi million, like a millionaire who's a black man and how he generated and cultivated wealth. And then I listened to a preacher. He was this old white guy who was just a very, very sound expositional preacher. But listen to different genders, listen to different races, and listen to different socioeconomic statuses. Courtney said, investing your time. I think investing one's time is so important. Like, so I think it's like not to bring another book in, but a book that I finished reading is this book called Future Proof. What she talks about in the book is the importance of being ready for the future before the future gets here. Because it's not your practices, it's your principles.

Yeah, right. And that's, that's, that's really important. It's not your, like you said, it's not your what you're practicing, it's your principles. And so that started now. Right. So if you have the idea, now is the time to launch it. Right. To see where the market is for it. And exactly what you're saying. Just because it was down in one part of the market, it's, it's very good right now for another part.

Yeah.

And just because in sooner or later it's gonna go back up for the other part of the market and it's gonna go back down because once we get through this virus, it's gonna be summertime and now everybody's gonna be outside and doing those engagement and all of those things that take community are gonna go up and it's gonna level out for the other things. And so like you have to get out there and doing that. I know. With us even just switching gears so you're a pastor. If they didn't know that. And I go to church, I go to church all the time. So a lot of the questions that we get is how do I balance my time? This was like even before the quarantine. Right. Like we really love to give. And you know, those that come in, they're like all on fire for, for Jesus and they want to come in and be in a church. And so they like over exert themselves. I say so like they are at everything. They are the first to show up. They're here, they're providing the food, they're providing the this, they're coming here. All these different things which are fantastic and which are good and then at least to burnout. And then we don't see these people like in a long time. We have to check on them, be like, hey, are you okay? What's going on? And it's that balancing act.

Yeah.

You know, so in our time and in our service.

Yeah. I feel what this is going to do for the. So I could talk for hours about this. I feel like what this, this is changing. This quarantine is changing everything. For work, for churches, for non profits, for government, for childcare. I mean it's changing everything. Right. Your children are going to go back to daycares where they spend two hours a week or two hours a day learning on screens because their parents, I mean they, they probably would have memorized the like the same way. Like a lot of, like a lot of my friends memorize Die Hard. Like you're going to have memorized Frozen.

You know, Die Hard.

I don't, my friends do. I don't watch that's. It's still a Christmas movie. But anyway, so I think what this is going to do, I think it's going to reveal if we're going to talk about church and even jobs. I think it's going to reveal the things we really care about. Right. Like, so it's going to reveal my real gifting. Right. So I. When you think about. So there's. My buddy has a church and he said that he has a young lady who's a praise and worship leader over kids ministry, opens church up and does.

All the technical job.

Right, Right. Exactly right. And so he said, but now all she has to do is technology and she's been thriving and she's been amazing and it's been like great to see her do that. And it's because now she's able to run in one place. I think what's happened in churches in terms of like even burnout and all of that and I'm even learning as a leader now, which is why like I don't, I don't overload with unnecessary prayer calls and stuff is I think we're realizing the places we really care about working. Right. I think we're realizing the places we really care about engaging. And then we also I think are realizing the places we don't really care. Right. Like I don't, I don't want to give my extra. I don't want to give my Saturday up. I just, I don't.

Or that aren't necessary. Yeah, this is really bringing to the top and separating the oil from the water. Like what is really necessary and what was the fat that we could say?

And also what are the times? This is just church, but I'm prior to the world. What are the times that really matter? Like our Saturday morning. Our Saturday afternoon services better. Our Saturday morning services better. Do we really need Sunday morning? Because Sunday morning, like we talk about all the time is an own farming practice. Yeah. 11 o' clock on Sunday morning was a farming thing.

It was the only time.

Yeah, it was a time where like you can milk the cows at six o', clock, you can get your Stuff together. The slaves have been gone. You go to church at 11, you come back, slaves go to church at 1 and then y' all are resting. Like that was, that's what it was. And they were taking care of stuff. And so it's like, it's church at 11 or even like work 8 to.

5 that we really need factory practice. Yes. So that the factory could keep going each shift. So they would have eight hour shifts where different shifts will come. But now.

And you were talking even about how it was set up for. I mean I know we're gonna have people that are not black listening to this, but watching this. But you were talking about how even childcare was set up for the benefits of white men and white women.

Yeah. After school education was set up for the benefit of the white woman. And after school care was set up for the benefit of black people. So when you think about it, a lot of times when you look at education from 8 to 3, there's no job that is from 8 to 3, 3, there's no job that is set up. Your job is set up probably from nine to five. And so for eight to three was for those privileged stay at home mothers which were predominantly white women, that they can go, they can watch soap operas, they can watch things like that. And then after 2 o', clock, 3 o', clock, I'm able to pick up my child in time enough so I can come home, finish dinner, clean up my child and then, or be ready and my family is clean at the table. So when the man of the household came home, we all are eating dinner and we're serving him. So things have drastically changed of course in America and how we see and do things. And I really think that this quarantine has been a shakeup in how we're seeing things, doing things in church, out of church, at work and that saying that I read something too in that same book about the factory shifts where they say that an average worker and like how if you hear me, an average worker works a maximum on a good day, four hours. That's it of a maximum.

That's why Sweden and that's why I even changed offices hours in my own context where we only go six hours max a day. Sweden only has four out four day, six hour work weeks. Yeah, right. So speaking to one other thing. So you say all of in cls, I think the challenges you have are to invest. Challenges we have are to read. Challenges are how to really learn with our real giftings are what we really, really care about. But then lastly, what about coordination? It's like coordinating with yourself, coordinating with others. What? Not just looking towards the future, but pulling things together in terms of working with the people around you. What does this speak to for the future? If we're going to be people in this quarantine, we're going to invest in ourselves. We're going to read and listen to stuff. We're going to listen to our hearts, our real gifts. What does this speak to about like coordination? Because I know you mentioned something earlier about how divorce rates are starting to go up.

Yeah. I saw this article where it says in the two weeks of us being quarantined that couples are separating and divorcing because of the times together. I don't know if that was like a funny article. Yeah, that, that, that couples are separating and divorcing within these two weeks of being around each other and kind of seeing that whole person. And that's where I'm also, I'm a well being coach, my day job. And so really it's this notion. I say it all the time at work. I say it all the time to my clients and to the people that I work with that everywhere you go you should be bringing your whole self. Long gone are the days where you're like, you need to check it at the door. Don't check anything at the door. When you're coming into any space, you're coming in. For me, I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a worker. This is what I do. This is how I do it. I'm a part of this church and I'm bringing it all with me. I'm not silencing that I'm a Christian. I'm not silencing that I'm a mama, I'm a wife. I'm not silencing that I'm black. I'm not silent anything. I'm coming my whole self. And long gone are the days where you're going to be expected to, to check that at the door. I think we're coming into our households now where we have no choice but to bring our whole selves here. So we're bringing work here. Like remember that funny like little article where it's like my husband's a circle back around guy. Like you're making the meetings longer. Like you the one that is like doing this. You're the one that's like, just to recap what we said, you're the one that's saying that stuff. Like they're like really astounded as if Their partner is talking in tongues.

They.

Because they don't know this side of a person. Right. Because they come.

Right. I think that's where adultery comes in. Because it's like you're showing a piece of yourself to other people that your, your home has never seen before. And I think coordination in terms of time, time blocks. Reading together, studying together, worshiping together. Worshiping together. I mean, if you're, you have no excuse now not to go to church together. And you literally can pick any church request across the country. Well, not every church because some churches still, they refuse to use anything. But everybody still got the iPhone videos on a tv.

But that's them. And that's their standard.

You gotta be. Yeah, that's the standard. It's unfortunate. I was joking with my professor, my advisor, she said, you know, some churches don't need to live stream. They just. They just don't. They just don't. They don't. The last thing I would say, going back to investment as well, the last thing for me is so the stimulus check and all the things that go with the stimulus track. Here's what I want to challenge you to do. So I understand money might be strange and funny right now. I get it. I. Homeownership and buying a home, buying cars, generating wealth, I think is the opportunity for the future. Yeah, right. 1912, 1910, 1915, when this happened at the end of. Just like renaissance of black art when the influenza virus came through and thousands of people died. When that happened, it changed the world, changed the way that things were done. FDR became this monumental, moving president. And there's so many things that happen because of a movement. Crisis reveals our real needs.

Yeah, right.

So think about if your body failed you. It reveals. So you need to stop eating certain things. You need to work out more. Crisis reveals real needs. I believe in the world right now. Crisis is revealing, man. We really need to invest in technology. It's revealing intergenerational conversation. It's revealing things like that. It's also revealing the need to generate wealth because too many of us, we live in the state for the highest rate of filing for unemployment in three weeks.

Yeah. One in 15 people in Rhode island.

Are unemployed right now. And it's, it's sad, you know, and we can talk about business loans, we can talk about all of that, but there's, there's no reason. And what we've talked about before, and you've read it and we've seen it, and all of this about what it means to save three months of Your salary, what it means I get. The world is crazy. That's why I want to challenge you to generate wealth. Use this stimulus check I get. If you have necessary things, you have to pay, pay them. But do not go out and buy like a purse or pair of shoes or a new computer. Pay. Save it. Like, I'm like, you still use the checks you'll get to pay off debt. But I want to challenge you because we're in the process right now of closing our home. And man, the money from a stimulus check literally is like part, like most of our closing costs, right? And you're gonna need.

Not really. We have the. We have money for the closing costs.

Not that we need it, but like.

But it helps it put that back in our investment.

That's it. And to invest in, invest financially in yourself. And so use the resources you get. If you have necessary emergency things to take care of, great. But start nest egg. Start saving. Like umbrellas look stupid until it rains, right? I mean, umbrellas are stupid.

Yeah.

And then, then it rains and now you're getting wet, you're getting soaked, and we talk about rainy days. It's literally having an umbrella. So when it hits you, you're not the one who feels lost or feels wet because you have invested in yourself, you've invested in your future, and you invested financially. And homeownership is going to go up like crazy.

It is.

Because even as we're staying in an apartment, I can't wait to have more than three rooms.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just saying what you were saying. Like, this is a massive reset button. That we could look at the quarantine as very negative. Right. And my heart goes out to all the people that have been laid off from their jobs. And hopefully this is just a temporary pause in your job and you can pick them back up once this silly virus, this virus just goes away. This serious virus just goes away. And I hope everybody can pick up their employment right where they left off when this is over. And I hope that it's over very soon for you. But if you were blessed to continue in your work and working from home and having that, that security that this, this quarantine, like, see the good things of it, God just gave us a big reset button right now, just like we said, like the things that were essential and not essential in life. Now we realize that you don't necessarily have to eat out all the time. Right? Like, eating out has significantly gone down. Like, yes, there's takeout, there's different things like that, but people aren't doing that. People are going to the grocery store, stocking up.

Creative. Yeah.

In. In cooking together and eating food. There's so many times that Cam brings a little stool in there, and we've cooked so many meals together doing something that's so new and so fresh. But now you can do it. You can cook, and you can sustain off of cooking. And, yeah, it might take a little bit more of work, but God is getting us into this preparation mode of doing that, of saying, let me make sure I have my staples in my house all the time. And, like, I really feel like this is one big factory reset button.

I want you. I want you to consider, too, and even think about for you, like, what are the things you haven't. I said this in my church today. What are the things you haven't done? Yeah, right. Like, I'm, like, doing wrong. Like, I miss basketball, but I didn't realize basketball wasn't here until I saw that the ESPN app on my phone had to be redownloaded because I hadn't clicked on it. And I miss inside of the tournament. I miss that, but I don't miss it in such a way that my life is going to be completely change and altered. But the influenza virus is what brought this stuff to light, right? So then all of a sudden, the NFL is created and the AFL is created, and there's mergers and there's money in it because, like, because at the time, there was no social media, so there wasn't a escape to do XYZ or do funny, stupid games on your phone. There was no escape. And so you had to go play football, you had to go play basketball. But now you have television, you have social media, you have all these different games in your house. You can make it up yourself. You can do all this. You can make up your own games. I wonder. I wonder the things for all of you listening that you just stopped doing that you didn't realize, like, what are the. What are the things you just. You stopped doing? Like, you mentioned not going to take out. Not going to basketball games, not until, like, do you really need to invest in season tickets next year? Wow. Right? Do you really need. Yeah. Do you really. Do you really need multiple cars?

Yeah.

As you guys look at your homes, like, do you really need multiple cars? Do you. Do you need. Do you. Do you need more televisions? Do you need to learn about coding so you can do things like that at home? What are the things you haven't done that don't matter? So when you go back into the world. You're not doing that.

Those old practices and downloading those old things, I think that's really powerful, that this is a powerful reset button. And things that you have deleted in erase. Some of them should be perfect, permanently deleted and some of them should stuck in the practices that we're learning right now should, should stay family time at least having that like we have a two year old son and the other day we're having like a full blown conversation now. His, his vocabulary and his language has grown over the past couple of weeks because I'm like, I couldn't have been this busy at work where I done miss all these, all of this. I mean we having a conversation station. He talking about this. He working. He told my mom, she's like, oh Cam, what letter are you working on today? And he was like letters. Okay, I'm working on letters. So he's so funny and I'm like where do you get this personality from? But it's just that when I've only had a couple of hours with him throughout the week, here and there and on the weekends, I, I was missing all these great things. And so I'm like, nope. As soon as this quarantine is over, I'm still having like my full days with Cam. Like I want to like hear and know and have these two year old old man conversations.

Well, even for me, I have. I've already shifted our work hours when we get back together and I've already shifted our. The timing at which we work. Cause I notice when my team is the most present and creative juxtaposed to when they aren't. Right. I think we're gonna have to be intentional as leaders about when we're working from home. I think it's also a challenge to all of us too to think about extra streams of income. Right. I wonder what childcare is really going to look like. I wonder how these individuals who are home are going to adjust. Because what's. I think what we're going to see and all of you who are listening, the places we go for money and the places we go for our minds and our bodies and ourselves. Are you really working on a job for dollars? Are you really working on a job that fills some deep well of yours? And what's going to happen after four to five weeks of deep well filling? And I go to a place where I can't empty it out. I'm going to find the place I can empty it. And that might be. I don't know if it'll be entrepreneurship Because I don't think people want the fear that goes into this, but it's going to have to be us as leaders reevaluating how we structure and what we hire.

Right.

So then, even for me as a pastor, you know, most churches are built around pastor associate pastors, executive pastors, ministry pastors, outreach pastors, all of that. I'm in the process of thinking through three new positions that are completely out of the box of outreach and executive and stuff like that. Right. You need some necessary stuff, like you need a finance process person. But you really have to begin to think about, man, what are the places that people are going to unearth, Right. That people are going to come out and want to. Want to do so. For example, we talked about home ownership at our church recently, and when we talked about homeownership, I now need to make sure that on my team is somebody who's going to help people walk through that financially, physically, like, connected to people. That's New Age outreach. New Age outreach is not. I mean, there's nothing wrong with blessing bags, but New age outreach is the people inside of our church want to buy homes. Who are the realtors inside of our church or just in the community?

Yeah.

Like, where are the places to go shopping?

These New age millennial needs of, like, buying a home, buying a car, where people don't know who to talk to. Like, I've had so many conversations of people that I've managed on a personal level where they're saying, courtney, can I personally talk to you? There's this car that I like, and it costs this much. Do you think that this is a good idea? And it's just like, you know, you have nowhere to process that. You know, you have nowhere where somebody is, like, not listening. You have to pay them, or you have to be like, oh, they're trying to sell you something themselves. And so it's like we. That's a dream manager, is what you're saying. So, like, a house, how to buy a car, where to go to for taxes, that you're not going to be like, you know, duped different things like.

This and having available list of that in every work sphere. So not just church spheres, but every worksman, anybody who's listening, you feel free to take it. And I'm still working it out. So if you figure it out first, I mean, we'll hire you to come in and look at it. But I think we. I think we have to be even your own job. Right. So what are the things that. What are the things you really need right now, right? And then how is. How is the effect of zoom going to change families, right? Going to change homes, going to change jobs? Our Fridays are. Wednesday is a new Friday. Like, we're just gonna be off in the middle of the week and we have two day work weeks, like Monday, Tuesday off, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday off Saturday, rest and relax, whatever on Sunday. Because church is going to have to change from Sunday, right? So I think this quarantine, as you guys are listening, you guys are hearing us think. I think that's the last piece of it. We said, invest, read, reveal your real gifts, coordinate. And I think the other thing is, I think quarantines. And you guys heard us for a second. Just. You have to give your space, your chance of self to think, right? Your space, yourself. A chance to think. Crisis reveal real needs. I remember when I had to go to the doctor last year and all these issues, and the main thing they kept saying is, you need a nutritionist. You start drinking less coffee. Because the crisis in my body revealed. My body needed, as you are in this moment of the world is in crisis. What does your organization need? What does your family need? What do your resources need? What does your mind need? Crisis reveal needs. What do you really need? Right? Like. And vocalize those things. And Cory talks about this all the time. What it means to be selfish.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And. And what it means to be selfish to ensure that your needs are fully met. Because if not, that leads to resentment, that'll lead to hatred, that leads to depression, anxiety, suicide, frustration, hatred. Even for all of you college students who are listening, what do you need right now?

And then this whole, like, balancing act of. Of life. You are the one in control that has the power to balance it. All right? You determine what to give to a need versus looking at it, saying that I've been used. You determine. So if you are out of balance, you've been given out, you've been giving out, but you don't have anything for yourself. Meaning that you're very unbalanced. Push it back, pull it back. You have so much more to offer. You are the wealth, you are the spring. You are what it's coming from. You are the one that God is blessing and God is gifting to generate this into the world. And so you are the one that has the option to pull it back and to balance yourself of saying that, or if you're saying, you know what, I'm very heavy on this side. I have a lot. I have a lot to give. I have so Much. And I'm just like hoarding all my knowledge. I'm hoarding all the toilet tissue. I'm hoarding all the. Everything I can afford to kind of balance myself out and give. And that's what we're called to give. We're called to give from our deep wells. And that's what. And that's what well being is. And that's what coming from our whole self is. And that's all it is, is this balancing act. And I hope that after this quarantine that you guys, we can make it. This is a beautiful time. This is a serious time. And this is a time for us to really, really have that balancing act.

You know, I say this all the time. Prophets are able to look at deserts and know they can bring water to it. That there's not bring water to a. Sorry. That there's water in it.

Yeah.

I feel like what we're able to do in this moment is it doesn't mean there isn't death, doesn't mean it isn't desolate, doesn't mean that it's very ugly. But I see water and I think the water that is able to come out, the water that's able theirs in your investments, in your reading and listening, in your revelation of gifts, coordination, and in your willingness to think and be comfortable with raw thoughts. Because it's amazing, y'. All. It's amazing what happens when raw thoughts become fruit. Beautiful. So thank you guys for joining us. Saved apically. This is a blessing to you and we'll be back here soon. Soon. Please be sure to like this page and to follow our podcast so that you're able to get notifications when we come up as well. So any last thoughts from you?

No. We have a thing called Just the the Effing Truth, which means the Faithful truth. We like to play on words to make you turn your head. And I think just the. Do you want to leave them with just like one statement of just like the effing truth of the time?

Crisis reveals needs. What do you need? I think if you leave out of here vocalizing to yourself three things you really need any time. I need energy. I need patience. I need love. I need people to listen. I need to write. I need to read more. I need to read, period. Right. I need to worship. I need to go to church. I need to quit. I need to quit my job. You know, things I need to. I need. I need to stay on my job. I need to need to search for another one. Crisis reveals. What does your body need. What does your mind need? What does your soul need? And walk to that rhythm and do not apologize for it. I guarantee you God will always meet you in terms of being faithful. Having that true God will meet you on the other side of that need because he is faithful to supply.

Hey.

Every one of our needs.

Well, thank you guys so much. You can find us on we'll be.

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Have a good one. See you guys.