[00:00:00] I think this is a great opportunity to, how do we create moments for people with their senses? Because when you engage all of your senses, or more than one, you have a better shot of remembering it for a long time. Think of how many times, Jesse, you can hear a song and it feels like you remember exactly where you were years ago. I mean, you're brought back to the moment, to the people. It's because your senses were involved. And so, how do we create moments like that in worship?
[00:00:28] Welcome to episode 466. Everybody knows the Christmas story. So how do you handle preaching during Advent and Christmas in order to maximize your in-reach and your outreach? There's a rule of thumb that we call Preaching the Mac and Cheese. We'll talk sermons, music, and other tips to help engage your community with the gospel. That's today in The Reclaimed Leader. Welcome to The Reclaimed Leader Podcast. I'm Jason Tucker. And I'm Jesse Skiffington.
[00:00:58] We're two pastors in the trenches who are passionate about church health for greater gospel impact. We share the ups and downs of ministry, strategies that work for us. And some that didn't. Best practices and practical tools for church leadership. The goal? To help all of our churches flourish. Let's get started. Hey everyone, welcome back to The Reclaimed Leader Podcast. We got Christmas on the mind, Jesse. I don't know if you're singing Christmas carols yet,
[00:01:27] but we're recording this in October. Yeah, not quite yet. Yeah, yeah. So it's a wholeheartedly to quite get there. You know, we're not even at Halloween yet. But this is the time. This is the time we really got to be thinking about how are we going to be intentional with our outreach at Christmas time? And how are we going to engage people with the gospel at this wonderful moment where it feels like everybody's celebrating Christmas?
[00:01:48] Yeah, it's so important. And it's good for us too. I mean, it's like, it's fun to get to celebrate the Christmas story and to teach on it and just to remember the heart of what it's all about. So, yeah, this time of year is key. Get ready now. Start thinking ahead. Start outlining your Christmas Eve services and your Advent series and all of that. Some people are probably way ahead on that. Others, maybe you're like looking up and you're like, how did we get to the middle of October already?
[00:02:16] Like what happened? And so I think this is just in time to be able to get a hedge enough to do really well in the Christmas season. If you kind of spend some time just thinking ahead, you know, even give yourself an hour to just lay things out, do it now. And it's going to iterate and become something really awesome by Christmas time. Yeah. And that's the thing. It just needs time to marinate.
[00:02:41] It's like all of the creative juices, all of all of the things that can really make things special. Just take a little time. And so when we're always rushing to slap everything together at the end, I just don't think it's as effective as it could be. When we rush, we miss opportunities because we do what we've always done before or what we know how to do. We when we rush, we also rob ourselves of the opportunity to hear an idea that might really just be special and good.
[00:03:07] And when we rush, we're I don't know, we're not being quite as faithful as we could be and being good stewards of that. So don't rush. Plan ahead. And let's use this opportunity to be a catalyst for that. Well, and, you know, welcome everyone who's joined us recently. And we're glad you're here listening. And one of the things that we realized we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, Jesse, is that normally we do our Christmas episodes and they're just way too close to Christmas. It's really not super helpful because you.
[00:03:36] That's right. So a year from now, it's kind of like buying those Christmas decorations at the sale after Christmas. And then you forget where they went. And you're like, I don't know. Did we buy those? And you just wasted a bunch of money because they ended up in a box somewhere that you don't remember where it is. So now we're far enough ahead. We're far enough ahead. We're far enough to be useful for everybody else. Yeah. So and we did a we've got a PDF with a lot of our maximizing Christmas ideas on there from last week.
[00:04:05] Just want to point you to it again. It's very easy. Reclaimleader.com slash Christmas. And you could download that. Maybe you want to work along or add some notes as you listen to these two episodes last week and this week. But this week's really about what do we do in the worship services leading up to Christmas, including preaching and creating moments and all of that. So let's talk Advent.
[00:04:29] Advent. We said last week, you know, we we've ordered an Advent devotional and we're going to build the sermon series around that devotional. So there's some continuity where people are taking some ideas from the sermon and then really able to go deeper on those ideas through that devotional that we're giving away. And that's we're using Christianity Today's devotional on the names of God, which is different. It's a different kind of series we're going to do at Christmas, which I'm excited about. So because Advent, I think you can do that.
[00:04:58] Advent, you know, we said a little last week, Advent's kind of for your own people. There are some guests for sure that come back this time of year because they like the music or they like the vibes or whatever. But it's mostly our own people and, you know, the themes of waiting and hope and getting ready. And it's also a great runway to encourage them to step out of their comfort zones and invite guests. Yeah. You know, Advent is for is for the family. You know, Christmas Eve is for the guests. Yeah.
[00:05:28] And I don't know what do you we usually it's kind of like the classic Advent themes we go through, you know, hope, peace, joy, love. And yeah. Or like a four week series on voices of the Christmas story, like Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, angels, you know, there's all sorts of things. Sometimes we'll do, you know, the Isaiah passages and we'll kind of look through the Old Testament looking ahead. But I think there's probably some and some folks just do the lectionary.
[00:05:58] You know, I what we loved about using the outreach dot com devotionals is, again, those. It you could preach. It's the themes of of Advent for those. Sure. So it makes it very easy. And I think it comes with a preaching outline as well. So. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. What do you what do you guys. Yeah. Yeah. Some of all that, honestly, you know, depends on the year, what we've done. And sometimes it depends on where Advent falls and different, you know, the calendar and how it lays out or whatever.
[00:06:25] But yeah, typically following that Advent model for Sundays that build into Christmas Eve. We did one a while back. We were talking about identity, security, meaning and purpose and kind of walking through those four things. And then on Christmas Eve, highlighting how Jesus answers those things for us. And so you just kind of but I tend to think in terms of helping Advent build towards the kind of the core theme of Christmas Eve. Yeah. So sometimes it's that connection.
[00:06:54] This year we're doing Christmas together and just thinking about how does it mean to be together with God and with each other? And what does this story mean for all of that? A couple of years ago, we did one called Creation, Fall and Redemption. And that was one that I think was one of our most popular. It was just the arc of the whole story. Why did Jesus need to come? And what does that mean for us? And so it's a time to be thoughtful. I don't think we have to reinvent the wheel, though.
[00:07:23] There's a lot of great resources. And if you can connect, you know, something like a journal or a devotional to it, it just adds another layer of engagement. So, yeah, I really like your thought of Advent being kind of for our people, the discipleship opportunity and Christmas really being the way that we connect and reach our neighbors. And I think that's just a good mindset. So what do your people need this Christmas?
[00:07:48] Advent, each Sunday, what's the message that's going to connect the story of Christ's birth into their life and the hope of his return? All that stuff. What do they need to hear? So what are you guys talking about? Are you doing hope, love, joy, peace this year? No, we're going to do that in the names of God. Oh, the names of God. That's right. Yeah. So is it like from the Isaiah 9 passage, like Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, that kind? Yeah, it's all of that and more.
[00:08:14] So we're going to like what I'll need to decide is which names to focus on on the Sundays because there's a different name every day in the devotional. Yeah. So we're going to lean into that as sort of a different way of approaching. And I always see Christmas. For us, it's Christmas Eve. We don't do Christmas Day services. But I always see Christmas Eve as it's both a continuation of the thoughts from Advent and yet its posture is different. Yeah.
[00:08:43] It can stand on its own, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it's definitely geared to reach a bit wider with people on the continuum of faith rather than just the people who've been with us on the Advent journey. So it's a little bit different, but it's connected, which I think is not a standalone necessarily. Now, before we get into some of the, a little more into the weeds with this, what are you guys doing on the 27th this year? I think it's Christmas a Friday and then the 27th is a Sunday. Yeah.
[00:09:13] So we're going to do what we've been, ever since COVID, our tradition has been we don't have church the last Sunday of December. And it's, there's a whole social media thing about people saying how bad that is. But so I know it's very divisive. And I know that there are a lot of pastors in churches that get angry when they hear people like me say that that's what we do. But that's what we do. And I'm not apologizing for it.
[00:09:40] It's one of the best things that we do is after the, the blitz of December, we have online services only that we pre-record. And we give everybody time off that does not count against their vacation. And I know, I know all the, you know, well, if they're running that hard, that's a problem. They shouldn't be running. They shouldn't need that. Whatever. They're okay. That's just what we do.
[00:10:07] And it really, really works for us and for our people because we got, a lot of our folks are traveling or, you know, not around. It's just kind of part of our culture. It's kind of your culture. Yeah. Yeah. Same for us. We're down the week after Christmas. And, you know, do whatever work you need to do. But this is kind of the office is more or less closed. Yeah. We're just getting the bare bones stuff done. And, of course, we're available. You know, I'm around. If I'm not traveling, it's like pastoral care.
[00:10:36] If somebody's in the hospital, it's that kind of stuff. Yeah. But we're doing an online service as well this year. And just giving our staff that breather and our volunteers. And, but we're going to, we also want to take advantage of the opportunity. So we're sending some things home for our kids to do and correspondence with the online service. And just trying to, like, it's not a throwaway. We think it's another meaningful way to engage and to worship without all of us coming to that one spot.
[00:11:04] So, anyway, I, you know, no judgment towards anybody, towards you, Jason, or hopefully towards us. And if churches are out there doing Sunday services, excellent. Great. I think it's great. That's what you want to do. Yeah. Yeah. A couple of other just sort of notes on Advent. I'll say, because it's a lot of your own people, I think, I think there's an opportunity to really lean into your church's traditions there. Build anticipation.
[00:11:31] You know, if you do Advent wreath lightings, if that's kind of part of your culture, like, lean into those things. I think those things are great. But if you're looking to sort of spruce up maybe those things you've done or freshen them up, I think there are a lot of resources out there. I think, you know, actually our friend Stu at the Pastor's Workshop has got a bunch of liturgical resources for churches and, you know, stories, illustrations, liturgy.
[00:11:56] Trying to change things up a little bit, I think is good while at the same time leaning into kind of what you do. I think for people it feels like home and you want it to. Just so long as it's not so familiar that it doesn't get listened to. You know what I mean? Yeah. Or stale or cringy or whatever. Right. It's got to feel connected.
[00:12:21] And I would just say when we're doing those kinds of things, like the Advent candle lighting and we have a family come and read scripture and pray or something, we really want to set them up for success. This is not a last minute. Like, you know, we were like, here's the scripture. You know, we need to invite them to come early, do a mic check. Like, we want it to be a good experience for them and to be connected into our worship and in a meaningful way where it really contributes and isn't just like an afterthought or like, oh, it wasn't that nice that they did that.
[00:12:50] So, yeah, I think this is good. Lean into the things that make it feel like home and make people go, oh, I remember growing up as a kid at Christmas. Our church did. Fill in the blank, right? Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, how could you hit some of those touch points for people while at the same time, you know, stirring them to a new thing that God is doing in their lives? So let's talk about the worship services themselves.
[00:13:16] I think, you know, all the data shows 65% of people are visual learners. And I would say nearly everyone's a visual engager. But most sermons are built for the ear. So, you know, I think there's some Christmas things to kind of workshop to figure out. But obviously, I think if you can engage them visually, I think that's a really good thing.
[00:13:41] And you and I use slides and we have we have a certain cadence to it where we know how many slides equal our amount of time. And we know that if we add I can't have 53 slides, it's got to be 50. You can't. You know, it's three. Right. Like you just figure that out. But the point is and I'm just going to tell a quick story about this. So.
[00:14:01] For I've been here 14 years, for 13 years, we refuse to use visuals as in, you know, graphics video in our traditional service. And the reason was there was so much pushback to the idea that we just didn't want to rock and roll with the traditional group or make them feel like they lost another thing or felt like they were trying to change them.
[00:14:26] And so for the sermon, we just never did, you know, any visuals to go with it. While in the contemporary services, it's a big part of it. And over the years, we started getting people like once. So here in New Jersey, a lot of people retire down in Florida. But it's funny. So they go to Florida. Traditional churches in Florida use visuals all the time. Sure. And they grow to love them because they find that they really engage and they're really helpful and they remember things. So then they come back up north and like, well, why don't we do visuals? Yeah.
[00:14:56] Now it's their idea. I like it. Right. And so anyway, we started doing a year ago. And yes, there were some the first day we did it. We're just like, I hope you never do this again. This is terrible. But you know what's funny, Jesse? No joke. Today, I will say, and this was almost immediate. That service has never been more engaged in the sermon than they are now. Yeah. It's just because we're multi-sensory people. Yeah. Yeah. That's it.
[00:15:25] So how do you take that idea and translate it, not just to the sermon, but to just think about multi-sensory in worship? And this is not a new idea. This has been going on forever. But I still think we need to think about it because I've been to plenty of churches and plenty of church experiences. And I'm sure we've been guilty of it, too, where it's really just for the ears. And that's the only sense that's kind of being engaged or if you're reading a liturgy. And I think this is a great opportunity.
[00:15:53] How do we create moments for people with their senses? Because when you engage all of your senses or more than one, you have a better shot of remembering it for a long time. Think of how many times, Jesse, you can hear a song and it feels like you remember exactly where you were years ago. I mean, you're brought back to the moment, to the people. It's because your senses were involved. And so how do we create moments like that in worship?
[00:16:20] I was thinking for Christmas, you know, one of the cool things we did one year was we had the room dark and we just had a single candle. And, you know, Christmas Eve at the end, we do all the candles, but we started with just a single candle about the light shining in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
[00:16:45] And we had like a little kind of set with like an empty manger and it was sort of a prayer exercise, a prayer moment. And people still talk about that because it was different and it engaged them in a different way. They really got the visual of the light in the darkness. It was just there was so much darkness, but the darkness wasn't the same once that light was, you know what I mean? Like people really connected with that.
[00:17:13] And it's because of their senses. You know, how do you create moments that lead to movement? How do you leverage kind of these spiritual ideas into moments, candlelight, sacraments? How do you shake up what you're doing a little bit? So we've been working on this actually not for Christmas, but for our regular rhythm is we felt like we got a little stale with our contemporary service. Mm-hmm.
[00:17:41] And the area that we thought needed some improvement was kind of in the middle of the service. It was to start and stop. Like we do a song, we'd stop and do something else or then we do something and then a prayer time. And it was a little, it felt kind of bumpy so that the worshipers sort of pulled out of worship each time. And what I want and what we want is for people to just sort of let go.
[00:18:18] Mm-hmm. Maybe we get better at doing a partial song connected with another song. Yeah. So they're just continuing to go. We'll do a lot more singbacks like a, hey, everybody, you sing kind of things just because we want to increase. Mm-hmm. And we want to make that a real moment for people. Yeah. And man, it has, we're like four weeks into this and it has been amazing because it's different every single week. Mm-hmm. And it feels electric.
[00:18:45] It feels, and people are really, really into it. Mm-hmm. Even things that have worked great for years, it just may need a freshen up. How do we make sure that we are continuing to try to create moments? Yeah. Because it's in those moments that people are vulnerable enough to put their walls down and they're ready for the word of God. Yeah. And like all of these things, it takes planning and forethought and creating a framework.
[00:19:12] You don't just throw in it at the last second and hope it works, right? It's, but it does. It helps a ton. I mean, I think there's a difference between consistency, which is good, so that people have some sense of what to expect. And if they're going to invite someone, I have a sense of what's going to happen. Yeah. But then to think in terms of creating moments within that is really good. I mean, something we've tried a little bit is what we're calling bookending, where we'll start with the song, sing it, sing it, sing it.
[00:19:42] We'll do another song or maybe a song and a half and then end with where we started. And it's just trying to be a little more thoughtful and to do the song, song, prayer or whatever. And so it takes a little extra creativity, but it actually is energizing for some of the people planning it. They're like, oh, I didn't know we had permission to think that way or to try that way. So it is for sure. And this is exactly our experience so far. So we're and we're planning about two to three weeks out. Yeah.
[00:20:12] And all the things that look spontaneous, they're all planned. OK, we're going to have this one singer is on next week. We'd like her to read, you know, Romans 8, 28 and maybe say this line. Yeah. And we'll kind of give a line to give that connects the scripture and the song or, you know, hey, Pastor Chris, will you jump in before they finish the song and will you lead prayer? Mm hmm. And again, it feels very exciting.
[00:20:40] It feels very responsive to what God is doing week to week. So I don't know. It's good. Creating moments. And I think there's lots of opportunity to do that at Christmastime. All right. So let's get to the real thing. What's that? How are we preaching? How are we preaching? Yeah, this is your favorite topic. I like it. You know, it is. You know, it is. Because. What do we call it? Preaching the mac and cheese.
[00:21:10] That's right. I think the people we're trying to reach, even the people that don't go to church deep down, they just want to hear the story. Mm hmm. For the hundredth time, even. Mm hmm. We can do our best to be creative and to engage them on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. But whatever we do, we should make sure that they are hearing the story. Hearing the story is the star. Mm hmm.
[00:21:37] If you're going to serve mac and cheese on Christmas Eve, so to speak, don't throw jalapenos in there. It's not time to spice it up, Jason. It's not. No. No. Like, and this is why, Jesse, because all of us who have been preachers for a while, we've preached Christmas so many times. Mm hmm. We feel like, oh my gosh, you know, what am I going to say this time? It's got to be something new. And I think we out, we just sort of overthink it. Sure do. Yeah.
[00:22:03] And we can end up complicating the story or sometimes, you know, gosh, not tell the story at all. Mm hmm. Which is weird. But I understand how that can happen because it's easy to do that when we, because we feel in our heads, how many times are they going to hear me tell the story? Well, that's why they came. That's why they're there. Yeah. Yeah. That's why they came. So. And I would say this, less is more on Christmas Eve. Yeah.
[00:22:31] I feel like in our family services, I've got five good minutes before those kids just lose it. Yeah. Lots of little kids, lots of noise, the whole service. I feel like the whole service is on borrowed time. Yeah. How long do you guys go on that one? Is that 40, 45 minute kind of thing? Yeah. Tops. Yeah. Yeah. And then in our evening services or like our adult services, let's say, I mean, I'm talking 15 minutes. Mm hmm. 20s on the long side. Yeah.
[00:23:01] But just get to it. Get to the story. Give it some gospel urgency. Mm hmm. And because the last thing I want to do is, well, I don't want to bore people to death on Christmas Eve, but I don't want the service to drag. Yeah. I want it to be powerful. I want the message to be portable. Mm hmm. And inspiring. I want people to feel like, man, I really miss having this in my life. Yeah. Yep.
[00:23:31] Yeah. I think there's a couple of ways to do it too. I know you kind of do a kind of a, I wouldn't call it standard order of service, but kind of do the music up front, right? Worship and then to sermon, to response, imagine silent night and joy to the world. They're kind of the landing point, right? For all of us. But for the way that we've thought about it is if we have people who are not used to sitting and sometimes I'll preach 30 to 35 minutes on a Sunday. And I'm sure people are like, did you need 53 slides today?
[00:23:57] But on Christmas, we're thinking, okay, what is the attention span? Not in the kids portion, but just of the general person there. And so we've done it kind of in segments. It's, you know, where it's like scripture reflection song, scripture reflection song. We'll just kind of go through it like that. And I'll just keep my comments in that to anywhere like four minutes, somewhere sort of maybe four to five minutes. So it's about 20 minutes total of talking time.
[00:24:23] And always there's one core illustration or point there from each section. This is the thing I want them to remember and take with them from this. And it kind of builds to that, you know, the Christ candle moment or whatever. But I think you're hitting on a really important point. We want Jesus and what he means for our lives to be the center of the story and the center of Christmas. And so it doesn't have, you don't have to reinvent the wheel or do something super creative.
[00:24:52] And I think for myself sometimes, especially when I was first putting these things together, I felt a lot of pressure, a lot of performative pressure to do well and to have it go so well. And then just kind of remembering, wait a minute, we just, we don't have to do anything fancy here. We're just telling the story of hope, love, joy, peace, the good news of Jesus' birth. So do that and do it simply and do it well. Yeah.
[00:25:20] And how, just, you know, kind of real quick, because I know some pastors sort of wonder, what is the role of the visuals in your sermon? So do they just, do you just show strategic slides that kind of, I don't know, how do you use slides? Sure. Yeah. So scripture is always on the screen for sure. Anytime we're reading scripture, words to songs are always on the screen. We always have some sort of visual up there if it's a background, backdrop, whatever.
[00:25:49] For the teaching time, a lot of times I'll blend between images that kind of make up the point or, or serve the illustration. And then just like text that makes the key point, kind of the key takeaway. And so for those four to five minute segments, I usually have about four slides, a question, maybe an image or a thought or illustration, and like a key takeaway. Here's what that might mean for our lives or what we might want to remember and kind of work that way.
[00:26:18] And you know, you and I talk about, this is getting way into the weeds, so I'm glad you asked, but we talk about the IU God we inspire kind of model that sometimes we'll use in preaching. And I do like a tight version of that for each segment. I don't know, maybe in your life, you're, you feel like you're walking in the dark and you're just not sure if there's a way forward and where's hope? Where, is there any reason to believe it could get better? Maybe you can relate to that. Yada, yada, yada. Tell the story, Isaiah, hope shining, light shining in the darkness, right?
[00:26:46] So it's kind of compressing that into a little four minute segment. And then thinking about what are the visuals to engage all the senses that will help them remember what was the heart of that point. I'll often use object lessons on Christmas Eve, like a little light bulb, like, you know, the candle example from your church. I love it. But the little, there's light bulbs you can get if you touch both sides, they'll light up because, you know, or think, you know, just cool little things that are just help people to remember what you're talking about and make it, making it fun, but meaningful.
[00:27:16] Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. For you guys, how, what's the screen like for you on Christmas Eve? Yeah. It's a similar function. All of our scriptures up there, but also it'll be sort of, if I, if I have any key quotes or teaching points, those will get up there. Sure. Or also lots of images. Most of the slides have images on them, one kind or another. Maybe it's the theme of the sermon series. Yeah.
[00:27:43] Or it's a strategic image that just speaks to the idea I'm talking about. So for example, let's say I'm talking about somebody dealing with temptation. And so, you know, there'll be a slide up there of somebody maybe just looking for Lauren or maybe looking like they're struggling. There'll be some sort of image to correlate with that. I also use it a lot for just goofy stuff like jokes. Well, there'll be a strategically timed image that will come up or a movie reference, which I sort of speak in movie references.
[00:28:12] But the idea is that, is that just kind of goes along so that it helps engage. And it breaks things up. It breaks things up too. A little short, like sometimes I'll bring in a reel that I thought was really funny just to kind of break it up. I mean, it doesn't, it's not necessary, but it helps. It is not. Yeah. So like there's the one, I mean, you've probably seen it before where there's a sheep in a ditch. The guy pulls the sheep out, runs, runs, runs, jumps right back in the ditch. And I'm like, isn't life like that sometimes? Like, ha ha ha ha ha.
[00:28:42] It took 15 seconds or whatever the video length is, maybe not even that much to like give you a visual that you go, oh, I can relate to that. Or, yep, yeah, we're a mess. We're like sheep like that, you know? So it, I think it's, it's in the preparation time as you're going along. Again, I find the times where that works best is when I've given myself more room to prepare. And the creative things kind of are, come to my heart or mind and it connects.
[00:29:12] It's when I'm rushed or I'm a little bit last minute that those things kind of get squeezed out and they're just not as there. So, um, but I love it. It's good. Yeah. Thoughts Jason. So, uh, if anybody wants to just sort of see how it works, I'm sure on both of our websites, you can go look at the sermons and you could see sort of how those visuals function if you're wondering how to do that. I know, I think I still have a link and I believe it's reclaimleader.com slash sermons where we put up some example sermons and slides if that's something you're interested
[00:29:42] in. But, uh, one more thing before we kind of close out. And one more thing before we pivot off of that, you, you make your stuff in ProPresenter, right? You build it directly in. So for people that are maybe, you know, you're like, what do you use? Um, I I'm old and, and I use a PowerPoint or a had for the era and now I have to use keynote cause it talks to ProPresenter better. So anyway, so, but you can build it right there in ProPresenter. You can bring in images, you can do all that. And there's, it's just both Jason and I, I think they want to speak for you, but we've
[00:30:12] learned to build our sermons off of the slides. And so we're kind of, I'm kind of thinking in terms of 30 seconds to a minute around each slide that's going to come and that you start to get into a rhythm of how that's going to work for your presentations. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good reminder. Uh, last thing is when it comes to all of this, take care of the preacher. Like take care of yourself, pastor in this season, a completely burned out.
[00:30:42] You is not going to be super effective. And so just make sure you're building in into your rhythm, at least some mini Sabbaths, an hour here, an hour there, maybe half a day. Yeah. Make sure you're taking your days off. Um, just make sure that you're on one piece at the end of this run because, you know, God, God's ain't God and the people are counting on you to be at your best. And so how do you do that? You take care of yourself. Yeah. So make sure you're getting some sleep.
[00:31:12] Make sure it's like, you know, you're eating a meal, not just a meal of Christmas cookies. You know what I mean? Like just take care of yourself faster. That's so good, Jason. Yeah. It's so true. And, and just let people love you too. And that's, you know, people are so gracious and there's so many amazing people in our churches that want to encourage us and want to pray for us and want to be there for us. So I think it's a time to, to kind of just invite people to that and say, Hey, you could really be praying for me right now. Just a lot going.
[00:31:41] And I would value that if you would, you know, just pray for the sermons coming up and it just, I don't know. It's, it's important for us. We give a lot of care and, and, and we look out for people and to let folks do that for us is also important. Yeah. All right, folks. Well, Hey, good luck in all of your Christmas planning. Hopefully this is helpful and it came at the right time for you to sort of engage and to think about, you know, how you guys are going to handle between now and Christmas. It's a very special time. I hope it's fun.
[00:32:10] There's a lot of joy in all of this because if there isn't, we're probably doing something wrong. And, um, man, thanks for being with us, uh, on this journey. Jesse, 466 episodes in the bank. And, uh, uh, if you guys ever want to reach out Jason or Jesse at reclaimleader.com and, um, yeah, I don't know. Do you have anything else before we kind of. No, just thinking Christmas will be here before we know it. The old space balls reference. When will then be now soon? So it's coming. Right.
[00:32:39] We're, we're almost there and yeah, we just, we want good things for your churches and for you as leaders. And so thanks Jason for bringing these topics and helping us just get a little bit more prepared, think a little bit further ahead. And, uh, so hopefully this is helping everybody. All right, everyone. As we always say, ministry is hard. It is so much better when we do it together. Take care.