The Meet Hope Podcast
The Meet Hope Podcast
135: How Are Food and Togetherness Pathways to Faith? This September at HOPE!
How do food and being with others lead to faith transformation? Check out this week's episode with Pastors James and Rick! Get a peak behind the scenes of all of the ways you can hang out with others, enjoy delicious food, and become like Jesus at HOPE this September!
Come experience community firsthand by:
- Attending a BBQ on September 7 after worship
- Grabbing a donut at the Groups Expo on September 14
- Enjoying a pretzel (with dip!) and finding a place to belong at the Teams Challenge on September 21
Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch. Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.online.church! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.
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Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions, in person and online. We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others. Welcome to Hope.
SPEAKER_02:Hey there, welcome back to the Meet Hope Podcast. I am Hope's lead pastor, James, and I am joined with my very, very good friend and discipleship master himself, Rick Cort.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, Rick. I'm laughing at very, very, very good friend and discipleship master. Yes. Yes. I am like the Yoda of
SPEAKER_02:discipleship. Yes. Every time I see you, you are discipling someone, Rick. So I always have to interrupt your very important meeting. So I'm always sorry when I have to knock on your door. So today we're talking about discipleship. This fall, we are preaching a very exciting series based on the Message Versions translation of Matthew 11, 20 to 30. It says, walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I love that. So Rick, we care about discipleship here at Hope. I'm just curious, who does You
SPEAKER_01:know, there were so many different people, and I don't mean that. I can't think of one moment, but I can think of two significant moments where I grew in my faith. The first one, I was unaware I was being discipled, and it was in college. I have this... uncanny knack of thinking i know it all already uh it's a um i'm this spiritual discipline of knowing it all uh and when i was in my 20s i was convinced i had already i already knew i was i went to college to become a pastor uh i knew i was going to become a pastor and um But I was already pretty sure I already knew enough about following Jesus to be a pastor. And this seminary... I was in college and the seminary was across the street, graduate school for pastors. And this guy who was young at the time also, but way older than me, he was probably like in his late 20s, really old. And he had invited me to be part of a small group. And so we would meet on the second floor of our dormitory. on Sunday evenings, and it would be six or eight of us in a room, in one of somebody's dorm room, and he would just kind of ask us these spiritual questions, and we would give smart answers. Not really caring as much as he did, or at least, but yet at the same time, it was kind of this... It was like this osmosis, discipleship by osmosis. It just kind of happened. I just noticed he really cared about us and he was interested in how we were developing as men and how we were developing a faith. And I didn't know he was discipling me at the time, but when I look back now, 40 years ago, I realized that that was a significant moment for me. And so that was more about, he just was like, it was more about, that was the why of my faith. Why was faith important? Why did I care about Jesus? Why did I wanna be a pastor? Those were kind of the questions he was
SPEAKER_03:asking.
SPEAKER_01:The most significant moment in my discipleship, though, happened when I graduated I was going to seminary and I had to lead a group of students, high school students in a small group. And so now I'm the leader on the other side. And, um, I picked this curriculum. Um, it was, um, uh, it doesn't matter what the curriculum, I was not going to go into the details of that cause it turned into a commercial for them. Uh, but, uh, and it probably doesn't exist anymore. Uh, but, um, um, we started, uh, Gathering together, and I said, this is what we're going to do. We're going to read the Bible. You're going to show up, and we're going to just talk about what you read. And we're also going to hold each other accountable to how many days a week you were reading and how many scriptures you were memorizing and all these disciplines that I didn't even necessarily know. I didn't have this idea of spiritual formation yet. And so what happened was... accountability became really important and encouraging each other to memorize scripture became really important. And then sitting together and saying, hey, I'm reading, for instance, I'm reading from John and I read this verse in chapter three and I think it means this. And then a student would say, well, I think it means this. And then this combined effort of discovering spiritual truth together was really meaningful. Meaningful and powerful. Kelly, my wife, was in the group as well, and we still mark that as a really important, significant time in our spiritual growth. And I was the youth pastor. Yeah, yeah. because we were leading them. We had to stay ahead and it just really forced this significant growth in our lives over that next... I think it was... We only did that group for three years because I moved on to another church. But man, it was... And two people from that group, two high school students are both in ministry today. Wow. Because of that group. That's awesome. Or from that group, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And Rick, even now, you are going through... You're leading a small group through John Mark Homer's book, Practicing the Way. Yeah, we just finished that. Yeah, okay, yeah. And I love... And even this phrase, the unforced rhythms of grace, the first time I really came across it, because it's the message version, was in another book he wrote, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. But he mentions it again in this book. And I love... that that is one study that you've been doing, and it's also been formative for both of us as we've been preparing for this series, because he describes discipleship as sort of these three steps of being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And that was such a simple way. I love how he describes it. What has been sort of the response from your group?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think I'd even go a step back that what I loved he said is that discipleship in the first century was about being a student and it was about being like the rabbi. And so if it wasn't just being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus and doing... It was that... if I'm a student of Jesus or a disciple of Jesus, that means I need to do the things Jesus did. And so I think it's John Mark Homer who says, the reason Peter got out of the boat and decided to walk on water is because he was doing what the rabbi did, right? And I'm like, man, that's really neat. So it became so practical for us as we're talking about this in our study that, all right, so being with Jesus is just that. It's just... Spending time, what does that look like? You know, so we each had a, as in our group, each of the small, guys in the small group would talk about what does being with Jesus look like for you? And it looks different for each of us, but yet there was these, some, you know, common things like, oh, reading the Bible and praying, and what does praying feel like? And it's different for each of us, but yet it still is being with Jesus. And then what does becoming like Jesus, what does that look like, right? And it's like, oh, again, so practical, right? It's It's like, oh, how do I relate to people? How do I respond to circumstances in my life? And that is becoming like Jesus. And then for doing what Jesus did, I love John Mark Homer says, doing what Jesus would do if he were me. I love that. Like, all right, if he were me, for me, again, this practical idea, so tangible of, all right, it's not religious. It's life. It's how do I live this life and how I live this life the way Jesus would live this life was really meaningful. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I love that. So at Hope, the way we... have described our discipleship pathway was worship plus two. And I love that wherever we see different people, different churches, different traditions of the Christian faith, different denominations, seem to ultimately come back to this three... I don't want to say steps because it is more fluid than that, but three sort of ways in which we grow in our discipleship, right? So John Mark Homer said, be with Jesus, become like him, do as he did. And here we say worship plus two, which is worship groups and teams, right? So we worship, it's being with Jesus. It's to look at him. and to be with him, be in his presence together as a community. As
SPEAKER_01:community.
SPEAKER_02:Right, as community. And then we are to become like him. And that happens in groups where we are asked questions and we learn and we grow. And then it's not just about, learning and becoming better myself, but really to share and to do as he did. And we do that in service. We do that in teams as we serve our community and serve our world. So I love that even worship plus two, it's not just a hope thing, right? It is really a Christian thing.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah. It's a spiritual formation thing, right? Yeah. Here's how we can grow in our faith by, by, you know, connecting with God and connecting with each other. Right. Yeah. Can you know, it just, it just, um, It's just
SPEAKER_02:a way to live
SPEAKER_01:life, right?
SPEAKER_02:It's a way to grow in our faith, yeah. So, I mean, one, before we go on, just a shameless plug, that we please continue to consider joining us for worship, whether it's in person or online. I think that is one step to just be with Jesus each week. And it doesn't end there. Find a way to plug in with a small group. You could find out more about that at meethope.org slash today. But that is how we become more like him. Yes. And then it's then now we're also invited to do, do as he did. And there are many teams where we can serve and to be like Jesus, do like Jesus did. So worship plus two. We really want you to plug in that way and grow in your faith.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And again, back to the fluid nature of those pieces is that over the years, we've seen how people find their connection to hope in different ways. For some, it's worship is the first way, is the way they come into the door. And probably for the majority, it is. Sometimes, though, it's people who it's, oh, they were invited to a small group, and the first thing they do at Hope is a small group. But there's so many people that their connection to Hope is because they started serving They started serving at the food pantry. They served on a mission trip or one of those kinds of things. And so I do love that it's not steps. It's not even a pathway because it really is these three components, these three pieces, and they're all equally important. And it's like there's so many different on-ramps. Each is an on-ramp. I
SPEAKER_02:love that. I love the language component. That really lands for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. compelling missional disciples. So for instance, if you only do presence, he calls it hyper spirituality. If you only do formation, you are, you could fall into spiritual narcissism, et cetera, et cetera. And it's just a fascinating look. It's something I'm studying and probably going to explore deeper throughout the sermon series. But I love that again, it's, it's not just one thing. We hope that you, we all enter into one or we lean more into one. Maybe you really love worship. We love the music. Maybe I don't know about worship, but I really love serving in the food pantry. My hope is that you would grow in all three of these areas in different ways throughout your, your, your life. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm excited
SPEAKER_01:about
SPEAKER_02:that. Yeah. I'm
SPEAKER_01:excited about the series. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So Rick, tell us, there's a lot of events also happening throughout September alongside this series. Can you tell us first and foremost, September 7th, we have the barbecue. So this is kind of new for me. So can you share with someone like me who will be their first time participating? What can we expect?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So September 7th, we're doing a community barbecue and that's going to happen right after the second worship service. So it's starts at 1130. We've done it, done a barbecue before, uh, at different times, but we're excited about this one. And, and I love how it's connected with the series. So it's, we worship together as community and then together as community, we're going to celebrate and have a barbecue. Uh, we're going to have some fun times. Uh, there's going to be an ice cream truck there. That's dessert. All right. So let's start with dessert. Okay. All right. Uh, then we're also going to have some great food. It's going to be a catered meal, uh, with some, with some grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and all that kind of stuff. So it's going to be, it's going to be a lot of fun and And you can go to the Today page, and you'll be able to register, and people are allowed to sign up for that. So we're excited about that. It's going to be fun. Thanks for the kids, that kind of stuff. So that's the barbecue. The next week, we're going to have donuts. I love donuts. Donuts is a big deal for us. We do Donut Sundays a couple different times a year. And so we're going to do donuts. And we're going to do something– this was your idea, I think. We're going to end service a little bit early on that Sunday. Yep. On that Sunday and the following Sunday. We're going to end service a little bit early so that we want people to hang out in the lobby, have some donuts, and– be with each other. Right, right.
SPEAKER_02:And I want to tell the adults, like, don't go pick up your kids early because they're still going to be very busy with their, the kids ministry programming. And they're going to have donuts too. And they're going to be having their own donuts. So they're not going to want to leave anyways. But yes, I will be preaching a shorter sermon. Yay. So that, you can go out into the lobby and the other spaces in the church because we are going to be having, what is it called? We're going to have a groups expo. Groups expo. Because we really believe that this is not something we want from you. We want it for you. To join in with a group. I get it. Joining a small group, if you've never been in a small group before, could be very awkward. But this is where we... from experience. I've found that small groups is really where we grow in our faith. It's where we really become more like Jesus. There's some, you get challenged, but also you just, you belong. You know, in today's world where loneliness is an epidemic, I believe that small groups is the antidote that Christ offers to us. So we long for you to join in with a small group.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I'm five for five in my small group invites right now. All right. Yeah. So I have a group of six or eight guys that are already in my group and I've invited five new guys to join my group and I'm five for five. Amen. Five yeses. So to your point of people want to be in the group, want to be in a group, they want to be invited. So we have worship and barbecue on September 7th. We have a group Sunday with donuts on September 14th. And on September 21st, we're doing a team's challenge and we're going to have pretzels, soft pretzels. Yes. And all the dips. Okay. Thank you. I was going to ask, is there going to be cheese? Yes. Yes. We're We're working on cheese, mustard. I heard there's a selection of dips. Yeah. So we're going to have barbecue. We're going to have donuts. We're going to have soft pretzels. Yeah. It's going to be
SPEAKER_02:fun. It's going to be fun. And that team's challenge will be an opportunity to see all the different ways in which you can serve at Hope Church. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Different teams. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And again, I think, you know, we're doing food and food is fun. And I love the... So I'm going to tell a quick story, and Ashley, you might have to edit this out because maybe it doesn't fit, but I think it fits. Years ago, when we had a Mount Laurel campus, we went to the Taste of Mount Laurel. And the Taste of Mount Laurel, real quick, was an event once a year where they invited all the restaurants to come into a school, and they all had to bring free food samples. And the idea is people can come in for free food. You go around and you could sample all the different restaurants. And so it was a great promo for the restaurants and it was a great community event. So we found out about it. And so as a Mount Laurel campus, we said we would help them serve. And so they asked us to hand out flyers. So all we had to do was hand out flyers. So I had a team of volunteers handing out flyers. And my job as the pastor was just walk around and just connect with people because I'm good at that. I like doing that. So I was just going around just shaking hands and saying hi and going up to restaurant owners and getting to know them and then introducing myself. And it was a very non-spiritual event. It was just a food event. Except God... when a group of people get together, sometimes changes the agenda. So I'm there, and I am talking to one of the township officials, and he got asked about why I was there, and I had said I was the pastor of the new church in town, and he said I was really glad that I was there, and we got talking. And while I'm eating a piece of brisket from a barbecue place. He says, can I ask you a question? And I said, sure. He says, do pets go to heaven? Wow. And I said, and I just sensed that there was more to that. So I said, yeah, you know what? I think maybe they do. I said, why do you ask me that? Right. And he said, um, I got small kids at home and our dog, we had to put our dog down and, um, It was really hard. And I told them that they'll see their dog in heaven. And I hope that's true. And I said, you know what? I hope that's true too. And I said, can I pray for you? And he went, you would do that? I said, yeah, I definitely would. And he went, here? And I said, or I can just pray for you later by myself. And he went, I would like that one. And I went, okay, I'll do that one. Well, that turned into an email conversation about faith for days following. Wow. And it was all about food. It all started because of food. Yeah, brisket. Yeah, over brisket, right? Yeah, with hundreds of people in attendance, but... God made it a spiritual moment, right? So that's why I love things like barbecues. I love things like donut days. I love soft pretzels in the lobby because God moves in those moments, and especially when the church is together, right? It's this whole idea of food and faith. I think there's a connection there. All right, so you can edit that if we need to take that out. No, I
SPEAKER_02:think it was a very valuable story. It was a great story. We're not editing anything. I love that because that's exactly the way of faith is. accidental conversations that happen when we come together and we're challenged. Our faith grows and usually food is involved. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:yeah. And the connected discipleship, it's so practical, right? You got to eat and you got to be in community. We're designed to be in community with people and those things happen. It's got to turn spiritual, right? It's who we are, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:so
SPEAKER_02:I would love for you all I'm excited about this series Unforced Rhythms happening in September and all the different events that are happening this is the kind of Sunday where excuse me this is going to be the kind of month where even for our regular online folks to say hey you may want to come in person just for three weeks because there is barbecue there is donuts and there is soft pretzels or maybe if you're usually hey I come once a month kind in person, I would say, all right, well, that's a good week. What food do you want? Right. Yeah. Pick one and we'll make sure we'll save a donut for you.
SPEAKER_01:I guess you could, I guess you could go buy burgers and have them at home while we're eating them at the same time, but it just doesn't have the same impact.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Just, just for September,
SPEAKER_02:I would just say, Hey, if you are local and typically you're online, maybe you do want to come in person for this one. Yes.
UNKNOWN:Uh,
SPEAKER_02:especially if you're feeling a bit of FOMO right now. I'm really excited because I know God has called Hope Church and all churches to make disciples. And sometimes that can be very mysterious, like what does it mean to be a disciple? And I think during the series, we'll be teaching about what that really breaks down to and what does it mean to be Be with Jesus, become more like Jesus, and then do as Jesus did, right? Not live just for myself, but begin to live for the sake of others. Absolutely, yeah. And I know that is going to be a powerful transformation, that God is going to do some amazing things. So you don't want to miss out. Please join us on Sundays, September 7th, 14th, and 21st.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm
SPEAKER_02:excited. All right, well, we hope to see you there. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for being a part of the Hope Community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope. If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand. You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials at Meet Hope Church.