← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
The Book of James with Luann Riley - Wake-Up Call Conversations
00:47:52
Join J. D. Walt as he welcomes Luann Riley, a passionate preacher and author, who shares her transformative journey from rebellion to faith. Discover how Luann turned her life's chaos into a compelling ministry, offering practical insights from the Book of James. This episode is perfect for anyone seeking to deepen their spiritual journey and embrace authentic faith. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that challenges you to grow spiritually today. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Find Luann's new book here ► https://my.seedbed.com/product/all-the-things-wake-up-call-workbook/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Help us keep this free for everyone! Sponsor a day of the Wake-Up Call at https://www.seedbed.com/springsowing Get the Wake-Up Call in your email each day ► https://seedbed.com/wakeupcall ⛪️ Are you a pastor? We'd love to connect ► https://seedbed.typeform.com/to/dymjFhUB Join the Field Team and help us sow the Wake-Up Call into new hearts ► https://seedbed.typefor...
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Wake up sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. J.D. walt here with a wake up call conversation. And this is one I have so look forward to because we have the Reverend Luann Riley, and honored to be. She is, is a new seedbed author. And today, several things want to do. Want to talk about new Luann's new Bible study that is releasing on the book of James called Growing up. And we want to talk about that. We want to talk about, you know, this is going to be coming out this fall in time for women's Bible studies everywhere. And the main thing today is I wanted for you all to get to know Luann. You know, an author writes to begin a conversation that's, that's what we want. We're trying to bring people together in the presence of Jesus to have a conversation that leads to transformation. And, and, and Luann is, is helping to lead that conversation through this work. So, so first off, Luann, why don't you just tell us like, where you are, where you're serving, what you're doing there, and then we'll go from there. And I want to get into just a little bit of the story.
- [02:00]
B
Sure. I am currently serving as a discipleship pastor at the Woodlands Methodist Church. I have been here for seven years, and I am the mom of twin boys who are 16 years old. And we are trying to make across the finish line to the end of school, but it's a bit like dragging your face across concrete at this point. So that's what we're trying to do. I lead a women's Bible study here called Radiant Bible Study, which I'm sure we will talk about some. But in discipleship here, I get to do a whole lot of really great ministry. And then I am also part of our loft worship community, which is considered our modern worship community, where I serve and preach, and I'm on the leadership worship team there.
- [02:53]
A
Yeah, Luann, y', all, she's a preacher, and she's probably going to become one of your new favorite preachers, if you haven't heard her already. She has this way of just keeping it real and making you feel like, man, she likes you and you like her, and then all of a sudden, there it comes and you find yourself, um, he has a way with the word of God that is both gentle and piercing. And you're going to feel that come through in the study of James, which of course is that I don't know how gentle James is, but it is James.
- [03:32]
B
Not very gentle. It's very direct.
- [03:35]
A
He's straight. He's straight. Just shooting all fastballs. But Luann, tell us kind of just you're from Alabama. Give us just sort of Reader's Digest life story. Because I want people.
- [03:48]
B
I am Lou. I am L from L. Which is what? Luvern. Not. Not Lavern and Charlie Luvern. It is about 45 minutes south of Montgomery. If you've been to Panama City or Destin or any of those places, you've most likely passed through there. It's considered the friendliest city in the south, according to the billboard. But our claim to fame is the world's largest peanut boil put on Labor Day weekend every year. Wow. And I grew up clogging.
- [04:26]
A
No.
- [04:28]
B
Yeah, I'm a clogger. Or was a clogger. A very good clogger. Clogged on he hall when I was six.
- [04:34]
A
Oh, yeah, I did. This is incredible.
- [04:37]
B
Yeah. And clogged at the Grand Ole Opry. All the things Dollywood, Aubrey Land, all the Branson Silver Dog City competitively most of my life, in addition to being a pageant queen from south Alabama, which means I have titles like Little Miss Armadillo Roundup and Little Miss Rattlesnake and Domino Festival Queen. So I have quite the southern experience here that I grew up in. But I grew up in a little church, little Methodist church. My grandmother was a member there for 60 years, actually. the sister church. It was a multi point charge. And I was there every Wednesday night, every Sunday. But my story is that I never had a relationship with Jesus. I. There was a lot of anger in my home, and I had a lot of challenges trying to reconcile what I was learning in church with what I was experiencing in my home. And I sort of came to believe that God was an angry dictator waiting for me to mess up, which I would inevitably do. And then he would be disappointed in me. There'd be harsh punishments. And so when I left home at 18, I was done with church, done with God, done with religion, done with Jesus. I was done with absolutely all of it. And as you can imagine, that did not go exactly well for me. I went to the University of Alabama, Roll Tide. Third generation in my family to attend the best university in the state of Alabama and rub it in. Sorry, just already alien losing. Yeah. So I was a sorority girl at Alabama, lived that life, partied hard by the grace of God, graduated college by the grace of God, drank a lot, did drugs, pretty rough. And it was about a year after college, I was working my first job. I was also still living a very wild Party life, still getting high, still doing all the things. And there was this weekend that I had already been having this feeling of exhaustion of trying to maintain my new life, new job, all of those kinds of things. And also still run with this crowd that I ran with in college. And leading up to this weekend, I'm going to tell you about a few things happened. I had a friend who committed suicide. I had another one who overdosed. There was death and destruction all around me. And so a very popular band who I heard more than 80 times in college, all over the places, sleeping in tents, being barefooted and eating grilled cheeses.
- [08:02]
A
Now, who is the band? We gotta know.
- [08:05]
B
Widespread Panic, College jam band from Athens, Georgia. Okay, all over. Went everywhere. And I had friends from my crowd who came to stay with me. I was living in Raleigh, North Carolina at the time. That's where I was working. And we went to this concert. I had just gotten this brand new car. It was my very first car I bought for myself. We go to the concert at some point. At some point, I gave my keys to a couple of the people who were with us. I don't actually remember why, but when we got back out to the car, the car was destroyed completely on the inside. The gear shift was torn off. The. It was undrivable. All the buttons, all the. Everything. Almost like someone got in a fight on the inside of the car somehow. Nobody knew what happened, but of course I had to file a police report. And what no one wants to do after a concert like I was at after a night of doing drugs and drinking is to have to talk to the police. And. And so as soon as the police came over, every friend that was with me scattered. And they just left me alone there with my car and my. Oh, gosh. And so this police officer was very kind. He put me in the back of his car and I thought, well, this is it. I'm going for sure, for sure. Going to jail, for sure going to jail. But he didn't. Instead he put me in the back of the car. We did all this stuff. And then he turned around and he talked to me and he said, I don't know what a young woman like you is doing with this crowd or friends like this, but if you were my daughter, I would tell you that this is going nowhere. You are going to end up dead or in jail and you need new friends. And so then he drove me back to my apartment. He waited with me till AAA came. He drove me back to my apartment. I get back to my apartment and I walk up to the door and I can just hear in this, in my apartment, this sounds of my friends just partying, like without a single care as to where I was or what was happening to me. And I sat down on the concrete floor outside my apartment that was probably 4am and I told God that I was done doing it on my own and that if he was real, that I needed him to show up and to save me and to rescue me because I couldn't live like this anymore. And he did. He sent a friend into my life who took me back to church and shared the gospel with me. And I gave my life to Jesus for the first time at 22, almost 23. And it took a few months, but God worked in my heart over and over again to tear down all the walls that I had built up and all the. All the things that I thought about him that were wrong, trying to correct those things. And I began this long period of transformation, of walking away from the things that defined me before, of dealing with the shame and the guilt of what my life had turned out like. At that point, he saved me. He rescued me. And I believe that police officer is correct. I was headed for a dead end. And he answered my prayer and he showed up for me.
- [11:42]
A
Wow. It's almost like, you know, when you said that dead end, it's like you, you see those street signs.
- [11:53]
B
Yeah.
- [11:54]
A
And it says dead end. And it's like, it's like a warning. Like if you go down here, you're. You're not going anywhere else. And it was almost like he was that sign. And that's such a great word about what sin is and what sin does. It is a dead end.
- [12:17]
B
Death and destruction all around. And I praise God every day for the way that he saved me, rescued me, set me on a new path. Now listen, I did not have a Paul in Damascus moment. I did not turn everything around immediately or even in the first few years. I would say humbly. Took 10, 15 years for me to break all those chains and to completely find healing in so many ways. A lot of my story is trauma being part of my story. All, all the places that the Holy Spirit had to touch and heal in order to make me into the person that God created me to be and for the purpose that he gave me. Listen, if you had told my mama when I was 21 years old that I would be a preacher one day and that I would write Bible studies, she never, ever would have believed you. And I, I didn't think so either. I entered Ministry, I GUESS it's been 12, 13 years ago from corporate America. I was a branch manager for Wells Fargo. And it was not a turn that I saw coming in my life, but I became a stay at home mom when my twins were born. They were about 18 months old at the time. And I had always made these excuses at church about I worked so much, I worked so much. I was retail manager, then retail banking. It was always, well, I don't want to use my vacation for mission trips and I work so much during the week, I don't want to be involved on Sunday to have to work work on Sunday too. So then when I became a stay at home mom, I had all this extra time. I was like, well, I don't have excuses anymore. And so I decided that I was going to feel my time with serving at the church. And so I think about the way that the Lord is so kind and gracious to only show me the next little piece, not the full story, because I would have run away. But I started as a greeter, which felt like a really big deal at the time. And then I became the leader of the greeters for my weekend. Then I became the leader of all the greeters and then I joined mom's group. Then I started leading the Bible study. Then I went on mission trip and the executive pastor was on our mission trip. And so when I got back, he offered me a job in ministry. And I thought I was going to get paid to do all the serving that I was already doing in the church. And then my kids would grow up and I would just go back to being a normal person. I didn't know that I was being called into ministry at the time. And I think if I did know at the time, it's God's grace, that he didn't show me the whole picture because I probably would have run afraid.
- [15:20]
A
Wow. And so you became a preacher in those days?
- [15:25]
B
Yeah, I actually, the church that I was part of, the senior pastor, Ken Werline, one of his callings that he believed was to raise up preachers. And so he has a preaching class. It's kind of infamous. It's pretty intense. You go through the class, you go through the classroom portion. He selects, you gotta get chosen. And then you go through the. You go through that and then they put you in the pulpit and they put the staff in the seats and they turn the camera on and you preach your very first sermon in front of the whole staff. And then you come and sit down in front of them and they give you Feedback. And my first one was absolutely terrible. Absolutely terrible. I don't even know that I had the right theology in the first sermon that I ever preached because I was so, so nervous. That feels like a lifetime ago now. But that class and that calling or that moving towards that calling, it is sort of the root of God planting in for me to go to seminary. For me to go to seminary. Up until the preaching class. At that point, everything that I had learned in my business major, in the leadership programs that I had trained in, in corporate, all of those leadership skills had gotten me pretty far in leading my team, team of volunteers and the lay leaders, you know, those kinds of things. When it came time for me to preach, that's where, like, the gaps in my theology of the things that I knew and I didn't know. And also I grew up in the Methodist Church and that was a Methodist Church. And I didn't know why I believed the things that I did and I hadn't explored really outside of it. And so seminary for me and that calling for me was part of trying to discern and figure, figure things out. But I felt like if I was going to. If God was going to call me to stand in front of people and be faithful to the Word, that I needed to do everything I could to equip myself to do that.
- [17:46]
A
Yes. You know, you're. There's a lot of people that I don't know at times they're sort of qualified by their education or they're qualified by how much they know. You have an education and you know a lot. But you know what I think your main qualification is, Is like you've been on a real journey.
- [18:12]
B
Yeah.
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A
You've lived a real life. And that is. That is priceless because you're leading people who are also in real lives, want to be on real journeys. Often, you know, you. Lots. A lot of people go will sort of trend in the direction of, like, knowledge. I sense you trend in the direction of knowing.
- [18:41]
B
Yeah, for sure. I mean, my faith has been formed in the trenches. It has been. I have chronic illness, two autoimmune conditions, infertility. My boys had a sister. I actually carried triplets. I lost their sister. There has been a lot of suffering and pain in my story, and I think that my story is not uncommon. That I'm well aware when I begin to write a message and look at scripture, that people are hurting in the room and they're questioning and they're doubting and they're walking through things in their lives that they want they need a word, and they need to know that it's relevant and real. And one thing for me, I have always wanted to be really authentic in my messages and my stories. It was a challenge for me to learn to tell my stories publicly and to tell the things about me that I've struggled with. But I want people to know that they're not alone. And the things that they have felt and they're not alone in that they feel like maybe their life went completely off track. And so many people say, I don't know that God could ever really love me if he don't. You know, all the things that I've done and the shame that I feel. I don't think I can sit in a Bible study and tell people my story, because there's lots of perfect people in here. And that's how I felt when I came back to the church. And if my story helps people connect and feel seen, that is the way that God is using all the things that I've walked through.
- [20:28]
A
Yes. Well. Yeah, you. You. You know your message, and I've heard you and I've read you and your message. Just shy. It's a beacon, okay? It's a beacon that says, you can come home, come back. You're not too far. You're not too far gone. Come back.
- [20:53]
B
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because that's my story.
- [20:56]
A
You know it. You see it. And. And, you know, that's the thing, too. It's like sometimes. Sometimes teachers, you know, can sort of just live on the testimony side, and sometimes teachers can live on the teaching side. What I see in you, Luann, is you're just constantly weaving these things together, and that's not common.
- [21:20]
B
Thank you.
- [21:21]
A
So thanks for. I just appreciate, you know, all that you've been through and all that you've held on to, and just, it's. It's. It's. It's worth it.
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B
Thank you.
- [21:37]
A
And. And people are going to be. I'm so thankful that. That maybe we got to you first, because people are going to see this and they're going to be like, didn't know about her because we got her first. And that's not saying you can't go to somebody else better than us, and that's most people. But let's talk about James a little bit. And first off, the thing that I love is, again, you're not coming from an ivory tower. You've been to those. You can talk to those people, probably teach them, but you're coming from the ground. And this is an actual Bible study with women that you're leading every single year.
- [22:27]
B
Yeah, I, I became discipleship pastor here. I think it was in 21 that I started stepped in and I wasn't women's pastor yet. I have stepped into a ministry called Radiant that I feel really grateful to have been handed. First it was started by Jessica Lan, who we all love. And then she handed it off to Susan Kent, who we also love. And Season passed the torch to me just a few years ago. And Radiant is now on all of our campuses. So it's on three different campuses with a fourth one coming. And I have about, at this point, our largest one, which is this past semester. 600 women in person and online multiple times a week. It's quite the undertaking for sure. And we do books of the Bible. We books of the Bible, some topical, but I tend to lean towards books of the Bible and we do an Old Testament and a New Testament every year. And James, I chose James and Radiant's already been through it, which was really great. I chose James because what I think James and I have in common is we very much like to be direct into to the point. But the message around perseverance and suffering, the hope that he points to in those things, so many real life, practical. It's a very practical book. And we had, we, we did the Gospel of John and it's great and it's theological and we, we loved it. But we were ready for something that was a bit more practical and it was, it was really great. I'm excited for people to get to study it and to read it and to journey with James through his book. It feels, it felt to me when I was writing it every week, oh, this is for you, this is for you, this is for you. Then I teach it and every woman was like, oh, this was for me. This was for me. I just love that the Holy Spirit does that. He teaches us and informs us and convicts us and such good, deep conversations around the questions. Yes, truly an honor.
- [25:07]
A
Yeah. And you know why they felt like it was for them? Because it was first for you. You went there and it is. And so therefore it's coming through you. And I love that you know that, that James is such a stunning opener. Like he says, hi. Consider it pure when you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith, this is what perseverance.
- [25:47]
B
Yeah.
- [25:49]
A
And then he says, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature. And because mature is not enough, complete and, and because mature and complete are enough, he Says not lacking anything. That's remarkable.
- [26:16]
B
It is.
- [26:17]
A
And you call this study Growing Up. And your first, I remember your first title was Grow Up.
- [26:29]
B
Well, when we did it here, it was like, grow up, people. We're being a little softer for the seedbed. People Growing Up. You know, there's a quote in it that I think is from Warren Wiersbe in the study in the opener that says there's a. There's a difference in growing old and growing up. You can grow old without growing up. And James doesn't want you to just grow old. He wants you to grow up spiritually. And he means it like, like today. Like not in the future, but today. Get serious about your faith. Apply these things, Live it out, and you'll know if it's true by the way that you live. Not how much you know, not how much you know about the Bible, but by how you live your life.
- [27:21]
A
Yes. And this is the brother of Jesus, James. Yeah. And it's like Jesus who says, whoever hears these words of mine and puts them the critical and puts them into practice, this is that person's like a person who built their house on the rock.
- [27:49]
B
Yeah. And I love, I feel like there's a lot of ways and that you can see a brotherly dynamic within James. And the idea that, that James didn't believe his brother was the Messiah while he was living, living only after. It just makes me think like the he. James wasn't too far gone. He didn't believe in Jesus when he was his actual physical brother. And if he lived with the Messiah and he missed Jesus, then of course we miss Jesus.
- [28:24]
A
Yeah.
- [28:24]
B
We didn't live with him and call him our earthly brother. And I love that James is like, once he got serious about it, once he believed that his brother Jesus was the Messiah, he brought the message with such an intensity and a passion and a fire for us.
- [28:45]
A
Yeah. I mean. Yeah, James. And of course, one of the things that we love about you and we love about this message is, I mean, CBD is an awakening company. And James, he woke up, right?
- [28:59]
B
Yeah.
- [29:00]
A
And your whole point, there's so many of us and we've all been there in the church, sound asleep.
- [29:09]
B
Yeah.
- [29:10]
A
And it takes some kind of wake up call to shake us awake. And then we're like, how long was I asleep? And you're like, the whole time.
- [29:19]
B
The whole time.
- [29:21]
A
And you're like, oh, I'm finally awake.
- [29:25]
B
Yeah. I had this really great email from a woman who was like, why didn't anybody tell me about the book Of James. When I became a Christian, I should have read this years ago. Why'd I wait so many years? Anyway, I thought it was really sweet. And.
- [29:40]
A
That's. Right. What is it, five chapters? It's a short. It's short. And he's not telling lots of, you know, soft and fuzzy stories. He's like, let me tell you. Let's just. Can we just cut to the chase here? Faith without works. His dad.
- [30:02]
B
Yeah.
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A
Not faith. It's not faith. And he. You know, Luanna, I saw this. I saw this book written, and the title. Okay. It was. It was like, 18th century. This is my favorite book title ever, I've ever seen. You ready? You got to kind of brace for this one.
- [30:31]
B
Hit me.
- [30:31]
A
It's long. It's long. Luann, you ready? A practical view of the prevailing religious system of professed Christians in the higher and middle classes in this country contrasted with real Christianity. William Wilberforce.
- [30:58]
B
Wow.
- [30:59]
A
Okay. The short title of that book is Real Christianity.
- [31:09]
B
You don't need the extended version. You can get the short version. You can get it in the short version.
- [31:16]
A
Real Christianity. William Wilberforce, of course, superhero of the faith. But, yeah, I did. I noticed the will. The. Was it Weirsby? Was it Warren Wiersbe? Quote, he said, not everybody who grows old grows up. And that's. That's. That's an awakening word.
- [31:40]
B
Yep.
- [31:41]
A
And so, you know, this. You. This is. You're talking to women, but the Bible talks to everybody. And men, I think, would equally love this Bible study. I remember back in the day when I was working at your church, we used. It was back in the late 1900s, we used to go down to First Baptist Houston on Sunday night because there was this emerging teacher, and it was Beth Moore. And, I mean, that church would not allow her to teach men.
- [32:23]
B
Right.
- [32:24]
A
And so we would sneak in the balcony because, you know, the anointing when you see it, and we would sit under her teaching. I mean, of course, we were the Methodist guys, and we're 1,000%. Like, of course women can teach men. And so I just. I put that out there to say, anybody's going to like this Bible study, and it's open to everybody. But you. You're. You have. Particularly you. You teach. You teach the whole church. You're a preacher. But these studies, you're teaching to women. And we get. We're. We got a whole hope and vision and plan to do more of these. You want to give us a little bit of a preview of that? Because women, you know, this is here in Time for fall of 2020.
- [33:17]
B
Then there's another come one coming out for spring, but I don't think I can talk about it yet because I haven't told Radiant and they don't know what their next study is for spring. They only know this fall, which is coming up, so I need to announce it to them first or they're going to feel like I told the world before I told them. And they love. Yeah. Every semester I do sort of a reveal of the study.
- [33:48]
A
I gotcha.
- [33:49]
B
Everybody shows up for it.
- [33:50]
A
It'll be pink or blue. What's it gonna be?
- [33:52]
B
What's it gonna be? What's it gonna be? What book People try to guess anyway, which is super fun. But the one for spring I have carried since I went to Women in Church History in seminary from that class. Dr. Mimi Haddad taught that class and she's one of the most vocal women in ministry. Center for Biblical Equality is her organization. And so I have carried the one in my heart for seven or eight years and finally got to write it. And so I'm real excited.
- [34:32]
A
Well, all that to say. There's just some little hints around the edges to entice you. But all that to say, we have a study that's releasing in the. For the fall of 26.
- [34:44]
B
Yes.
- [34:45]
A
And we have a second study that will be releasing for the spring of 2027.
- [34:53]
B
That's that one I was just talking about.
- [34:55]
A
So. And you know, you know by day. O Valente. Right. That's a word from James. Don't say, I'm going to do this tomorrow and that next week. Say if the Lord wills.
- [35:07]
B
He says, if the Lord wills.
- [35:09]
A
He says, deo Valente. If the Lord wills, and I hope he will. We're going to have a. Another one from Luann to come following that one.
- [35:19]
B
Yeah.
- [35:19]
A
Because you know what we're doing here and that's the reason why we're doing this conversation. We care about the relationship. We care about your. Well, obviously we care about your relationship with Jesus, but we, we. We care about your relationship with the people you're teaching and leading. That's why we want them to, to get to know you over time and have a sense of who you are and where you've come from and, and what, what's God doing? So thanks for, for just beginning that introduction here on this conversation today.
- [35:59]
B
Yeah. And I'll be at new room, which I'm very excited about. Yeah.
- [36:04]
A
Yes. Thanks for remembering that. For those of you who may not know, we do a conference every year called The New Room conference. And I guess we've been doing it since 2014. So this is 12 or 13, but it's going to be in Luverne, Alabama.
- [36:26]
B
It's going to be in the biggest church closest to Luverne, Alabama. I believe
- [36:35]
A
it's in Montgomery.
- [36:36]
B
In Montgomery, which I used to clog at Fraser for an annual fundraiser they had. I don't. I have pictures in my scrapbook. I think we did boot, scoot and boogie. This was very that Brooks and Dunn time period. But yeah, so I'll be back, but I will not be clogging this time.
- [36:59]
A
Are you gonna bring the clogs, though?
- [37:02]
B
No, I hung up the shoes. My knees are old. No clogging.
- [37:08]
A
And now, Luann, another. This is a sad. A side note and I don't know if you want to talk about it. Maybe you will. But it certainly intrigues me and I love it is that you got a brother who sings country music.
- [37:22]
B
I do. And he also. He was my duet partner and we were. We won world clogging championship together. So we've formed in the trenches, interestingly enough. Well, maybe not interestingly if you study family patterns and behavior and trauma. My brother also went off the rails. He went to Alabama as a pre med, full ride presidential scholarship because he made a perfect score on the ACT on the first time out. Bright, young, promising young man, joined a fraternity at Alabama and semester and a half later went to rehab. So he. He burned out faster than me. I made it through the four years before. I probably should have gone to reh. Anyway, long story. He is a worship leader in his church. Jesus rescued him in his 20s also. And he writes and sings. He was on American Idol. We went and watched him audition and he made it all the way in front of Randy and I think it was Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler at the time. And yeah, so now he leads worship. Owns a hardware store that's been there for a couple hundred years in a little town in Alabama called Troy and writes, sings, produces music.
- [38:44]
A
Now we. We need to know his name and where can we listen to his music.
- [38:49]
B
He's JB Roberts Music. He's on Spotify, he's on Instagram, he's on YouTube, he's on all, all the. All the platforms. J.B. roberts.
- [38:56]
A
J.B. roberts. Yeah. I listen. It's good.
- [39:00]
B
Thank you. Thank you.
- [39:03]
A
So great. I know your folks have got to be so happy about all that. Yeah, both of y'. All. Well, so growing up, faith lessons from the Book of James. And I can tell you all you need to. It's gonna. It's available. We'll put links to where you can get it. Cbed.com and we want you to consider this for you. We want you to consider it for your church. Small groups this thing will work in. Obviously, we know it'll work in the biggest group. And do you know why it will work in the biggest group? Because it'll work in the smallest group. It's been road tested. And so if this is something you can do even like with a group of moms or in your neighborhood or there's a thousand different applications, just start praying about how can this seed get planted in the soil of your world, in your heart and your home and your churches and your cities? And we know the seed will grow up and produce powerful fruit. We know that because it's the word of God.
- [40:26]
B
Absolutely.
- [40:28]
A
And, and, and you have. And this is the thing. The, the super blessing is you got a trusted, tested teacher and preacher. And every week, so Luann's made. There's videos.
- [40:44]
B
Videos.
- [40:45]
A
There's the workbook, put that together and. Yeah. Anything else about it? I mean, you. How does it work? Do you do the readings ahead of time?
- [40:59]
B
You actually watch the video first? Because the pattern tends to be that people show up for a study or gather in a home. And the introduction is the first video. It's a short introduction to the study. And that first session that you're together is about getting to know each other, talking about why you're in the study and what you hope to. I feel like everyone comes to study the Bible from a different perspective. Some people are really looking for community. Some people are really looking for a deep biblical knowledge. Some people are looking for a place to ask questions. And so I try to design my studies by. By thinking about all the different people who may be gathering in a room talking about why and what they hope for. And I think when you. When you ask God to meet you on the pages with your specific way that you're looking for him, he shows up. And then he also surprises you in ways that you never knew that you were joining the study for. And so there's a lot of space and room for question asking and reflection. There's also the academic portion. There's the study of the Greek, there's the study of the context and the historical. Kind of all in a package is important to me that people also, number one, grow in their biblical knowledge, also grow deeply in relationship with other people. And so that the study is designed to do both of those things.
- [42:27]
A
Yeah. And it's a little bit of homework every week.
- [42:30]
B
A little bit. Yeah.
- [42:32]
A
Doable. And yeah. So it's. This is red. It's ready made for local church small groups, any place that you want. And they're the videos come with the thing and it's gonna be good.
- [42:48]
B
Thank you, jj.
- [42:49]
A
I need to finish the. The loop. You said it. But I want to make sure people know Luann is going to be a preacher at the new conference this year in Montgomery that's at the very tail end of September 1st of October, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So we'd love for you to come to that. And that's gonna be a good time. It always is in Montgomery, Alabama at Fraser. So. Yeah. Well, you know what I'd like to do here, Luann? Just. This is something we started doing in seedbed from the very start when we. We're not really sellers, we're sowers. Okay. We're not really marketers, we're sowers. We're just like. And so I think of a book literally as a seed that we're putting this seed in the ground and what we used to do and we're picking it back up. We would have these little sowing ceremonies when we released a book. We'd just say a prayer. It's almost like we're putting the seed in the ground. And we would invite anybody who would agree with us to say amen over it. So I want you just to kind of just lift the book and I'm going to lead us in prayer and we're going to invite the sower nation out there to agree in this and that it would. That it would do what God's word does, which is always accomplish all the purposes for which he sent it. So, Father, here we are, Luann and I, and Jesus is right in the midst of us. And there are many friends who are going to be hearing this and watching it, and we've already sensed our hearts just leaning in. I just. Since there's probably a lot of men watching this, there's like, how come. How come this isn't a men's study too? But we just want to say you're welcome and. But we just want to hold this. These pages themselves, they've been made from trees. And the trees, it's like they've become seeds again. And the book is a seed. And as we are right here, right now, today, we just gently place the seed in the ground and we cover it with soil and we say, come Holy Spirit, and just pour out the rain of heaven on this work, that it would germinate and sprout and come up and begin to grow, that it become a great tree in your kingdom that bears fruit, that that fruit then becomes more seeds, and it'll go as far as the grace of God will go. In fact, we just. Just, just. Your word, it says, as the rain and the snow come down to the earth and water it, causing it to bud and to flourish, and bringing bread for the eater and seed for the sower. You say, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me void, but it will accomplish all the purposes for which I send it. We just say amen over that because this is your. Let it go forth. Let it be a blessing. Let Louann be encouraged by it and energized to stay with it and keep going and keep. Just keep farming up this good seed of the word of God for the body of Christ. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
- [46:43]
B
Amen.
- [46:45]
A
Hey, we did it, Luann.
- [46:47]
B
We did it.
- [46:48]
A
It's planted.
- [46:49]
B
It is. I got to get better on my agriculture metaphors. And
- [46:55]
A
God is a farmer, Luanna.
- [46:57]
B
Farmer. I know. I gotta. I really gotta up my game.
- [47:00]
A
Come on. Well, thank you so much for being part of this. Thank you for trusting us with your work. And I want to thank everybody who's been able to be part of this conversation. Thanks for giving us the time and thank you for your interest in this resource. As I said earlier, we'll put all the information where you can get it. You can just sort of start@seedbed.com I guarantee you can find it from there. And yeah, until next time, I'll see you on the field.
- [47:39]
B
Thank you, JD.