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unSeminary Podcast
From 70 to 2,000: Loving People Back to Church in the Northeast with Jeremy Baker
00:36:06
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- [00:00]
A
Hey friends. Rich here from the Unseminary podcast. You know we often talk about churches not doing well, but maybe your church is doing really well right now and your leadership team is looking for solutions to keep the momentum going. It could be the time to start a new location. Maybe you've hesitated in the past few years, but now, now is the time for you to step out in faith again and launch your next location. That's why I've partnered with Portable Church Industries for a new resource called Launch a new location in 150 days or less. Portable Church has assembled a bunch of resources to help you leverage your growing momentum in a new location by sending part of your congregation back to their neighborhood and on mission. This bundle of resources will give you a step by step plan to launch your next or new location and a five minute readiness tool that will help you know if your church is ready to go. Listen, I really want you to drop by portablechurch.com rich that's portablechurch.com rich to get this free resource. Launch a new location in 150 days or less. Listen, if your church is growing, now is the time for you to step out and launch a new location. You know I'm passionate about this, so I want you to drop by portablechurch.com rich today to pick up this brand new resource. Launch a new location in 150 days or less. Again, one last time. That's portablechurch.com rich today.
- [01:37]
B
Welcome to the Unseminary Podcast, the place where church leaders get practical insights, tips and strategies for ministry growth. Today, you're stepping into something bigger than just a conversation. This podcast is part of a bold mission to help 100 churches grow by 1,000 people. Whether you're dreaming of increasing your impact in your community, empowering your team, or reaching more people with the message of Jesus, you're in the right place. We're here to bring you the stuff you wish they taught in seminary. Ideas and tools you can put into action this week to see transformation in your ministry. Let's dive in.
- [02:18]
A
Hey friends, welcome to the Unseminary Podcast. Pumped that you have decided to tune in today. We've got a very good conversation. I'm really looking forward to leaning in and learning from this leader and the story that God's been writing at his church. In the last two and a half years, Elevate Church in Connecticut has grown from 70 people to over 2,000 on a weekly basis. It's been named one of the fastest growing churches in the country. I love their mission and purpose is really simple. Making heaven more crowded. Today we've got Jeremy Baker with us. He is the lead pastor. Jeremy, welcome to the show. So glad you're here.
- [02:52]
C
Thank you so much for having me so excited and what a great privilege and honor to be on, on live with, with you today. So thank you.
- [02:58]
A
Yeah, I'm excited that to unpack this story a little bit. It is not normal for a church to grow from 70 to 2000 in any part of the country, but even more so in Connecticut. I can say as a guy who served in New Jersey, I'm Canadian, you know, don't hold that against from. So I understand the spiritual context that you're in a little bit, but why don't you unpack the story, kind of tell us a little bit what's gone on over these last couple years for folks that don't know, tell us about the kind of spiritual, you know, climate in Connecticut. Talk us through those issues.
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C
Yeah, I, I, first of all, it's a God deal all the way. And I know a lot of people are asking me, hey, give me some handles. What's some formulas, what's some how tos? I'm, I'm just blown away by what God's done. And I, I think it's really just the heartbeat of God is going after his people and serving the community really well. So we're in an area, I'm 30 minutes away from Yale University. I'm not too far away from New Haven, Connecticut. I'm in a town about a hundred thousand people.
- [04:02]
A
Wow.
- [04:03]
C
Matter of fact, the building is actually in between two cities. The building is divided right down in half. One half being. Yeah, it's crazy. One half being Meriden, one half being a town called Wallingford. And so in those two cities is about a hundred thousand people. So three and a half years ago, I'm working at a big church in Dallas, Texas. Mega world, mega, mega church. On staff XP and the Lord just pressed on our heart, me and my wife, that we're comfortable. We're, we're living the good life. We're living the Dallas life, the big Texas life. And there's more, you know, and nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with the Dallas life, the big life, the Texas life. Nothing wrong with big churches. God loves this. The Capital C church, you know. And so long story short, prayed for about a year and we said, we're going to the Northeast. This is where my wife is originally from, the Connecticut region, this area, actually a little town called North Haven. And, and we're going to go back up here because there's a group of people that need the Lord. And you know, the northeast, New Jersey, you know, New York, Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, these kind of, this region up here in this New England region is, is an unchurched region. There's great people that are God fearing people, good Bible believing churches. But it's not known as a Southern, you know, Christianity. Like everybody goes to church in the south, but up here it's a little different region. So we came up here, we, we didn't know how to plant a church. Honestly, I'm just giving you all the honest, the real, real. I wish I could tell you that I wrote the book on it and I know how to do everything perfectly. But I could, I could tell you every horror story, what you know, so we, we pulled out our life savings and we started a church and we had 70 people on our launch date and we put about a hundred thousand dollars into our launch day thinking we would have, you know, 800 people, a thousand people are going to show up. We put mailers in everybody's mailbox. So long story short, we had 70 people. And then out of that we have just been going after our city after out of that, we have just been reaching people, inviting people to God's house, serving our community, Clean days, outreaches, food ministry, backpack giveaways, Christmas, Thanksgiving, I mean just every major holiday, we have just attacked our community. And this last week we had over 2400 people in attendance.
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A
Wow.
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C
And so, praise God, in three and a half years, it's just been wild. And there's so much in that story I could tell you, but that's kind of been from where we were planning. Humble beginnings. God, what do you want to do? And it's not about a size of a church, as you know, because I know there's great churches out there that are ministering very well to the size that is in their community and they're doing a really good job shepherding people, caring for people. But it's just, you know, I always believe God, let me not mess this up. Lord, if I can steward this well, you'll keep bringing them to me. And, and so we have a brand new team, new staff. I like to call us the, the misfits of Toy Island. If I could, if I could, if I could use the Christmas kind of.
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A
Yeah.
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C
Thought process. You know, we don't know what we're doing, but we're loving people. Well, we're serving, we're discipling to the best of our ability. We're preaching the full gospel. Now, I don't want people to think that we're not preaching the gospel. We're preaching from Genesis to Revelations, and we're preaching the whole Bible, the whole council. And. But that's kind of. That's a little bit of. Kind of like how the beginning happened. But it's been wild. It's been wild, man.
- [07:40]
A
Yeah. And I know, you know, we know that well, all of our churches, you know, they have the impact. They do because God chooses to use what we're doing. At the end of the day, it's got nothing to do with us. It's got everything to do with Him. But he is choosing to use something that you're doing. He's clearly blessing something. He's working through something. When you step back and think about the last couple years, two or three years, what would be some of the things that you've seen him use that are like this. This seems to be a part of the equation of what he's pulling together. And that's not from a, hey, we want to replicate all this, but it's like, hey, here's, here's your story. This is what God seems to be using in your context to reach your people. What would be some of those things that bubble up to your mind?
- [08:20]
C
Yeah, great question. I would think the first thing for us is people want to be seen. People in the world that we live in today want to know that someone cares about them, that someone loves them. We like to say it around here. We have little cultural sayings. We see you. We hear you. We celebrate you. We see you. We hear you. We celebrate you. I love what Mary Kay said. The, the makeup organization. She had a quote, and if I can quote her right, she said everybody has an invisible sign around their neck that says, see me. And, and I think it's important, I think it's real important that we see people the way God sees them, you know, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him. So the whole thing is about seeing people the way God sees them, not seeing them through their lens of brokenness or through the lens of may divorce, or the pain or the regret or the shame. No, we got to see them through the grace and the mercy of God, through. Through what Jesus wants to do in their life. So we're just loving people really. Well, from the street, if I could say it like this, because I know it's been said in church conferences, but from the street to the Seat. We're just loving people really. Well, you know, how to. How to make people feel like they're the big deal, you know, that God does love them. So that would be probably one thing that I would say would kind of be our bread and butter of just loving people. Well, helping people find hope, especially in a season like this, you know, holiday season, it's like, you know, a lot of people are hopeless, and we need to give hope to people. And so that would be a big thing. I say thank. The second thing I would say is taking people on the spiritual journey where they're at. You know, I've been in ministry for 30 years. My dad's a pastor, so I've been in church for a long time. And I think sometimes, you know, we can as. As. As church kids, or if I could say it that way, or church people. We're. We are called the shepherd. We're called to minister, we're called the guide. But sometimes we want people to be on the road that we're on and. And they don't realize we have, we have. We have been on this journey for a long time. There's been a lot of going to the mat, dealing with us. God, do it a work in us. Like David said in Psalms 51, Lord, create me a clean heart. Help me, help me grow. Lord, as a leader, as a mature, you know, put away childish things. I, you know, I want to grow. So, so we're taking people on their journey. Okay, you're new to faith, so we need to start you on this road or this path. If I could say, you know, oh, you've been walking with God for three years. Okay. We got to make sure that, you know, some of the foundations, some of the basics, you know, I think that's been some of our greatness of helping people stick, find community, be a part. So those are. I think those are two things. Understanding people need to be seen, and the second one is taking them on a journey of where they're at, you know?
- [11:08]
A
Yeah, that's good. I love that.
- [11:10]
C
The.
- [11:11]
A
Let's. Let's unpack that a little bit. I'd love to start with the loving people. Well thing. A little bit more detail when you say that. What does that mean? From the street to the seed. How are you? How do you feel like, oh, this is something that elevate life's doing well to love people as they're coming, as they're arriving, as they're a part of what's going on at the church.
- [11:27]
C
Yeah. So great. So for Me, it's going to be guest experience. What does it look like when people pull on your parking lot? You know, do we have parking lot? We don't call them attendance, we call them parking lot banner waivers. They're waving a banner, a blessing over your car. Now it's going to be a little charismatic, a little bit, there's going to be a little bit of a, you know, my background is, you know, is I'm, I'm very, I'm very energetic, very enthusiastic. Sure. Passionate as a leader. So I want people to know it's a big deal that you're on property today. It's a really big deal that you brought your family, that you showed up, you didn't have to show up, you didn't have to be here. You could have stayed home, you could have did what you wanted to do. But you gave God some time today. And so what we do is we, we, we, we really pray that as the tires hit the parking lot that miracles take place in people's lives. Whatever that miracle might be. A miracle, a miracle of, of a mindset change, a miracle of restoration. So banner waivers in the parking lot. Loving on people. We have a team called the impact team that's in the parking lot. They're what we call our first time guest experience connection moments. So when, when there's tents outside. Of course, even in the winter we got tents outside with heaters outside. You know, we just got 4 inches of snow the other day, but they're still outside. So the commitment from our servant leaders is there. The commitment from our staff is there just to make people seen and feel love. So as they're walking into the property, if they're a first time guest, our team has been trained how to identify a first time people even with the amount of people that are coming and they'll walk up to them and just say, so glad you're here. Is this your first time? No, I've been here for about a month. Okay. Do you need anything? How can I serve you? How can we help you? Do you know how to check your kids in or. Hey, can I, can I walk you to your seat? I mean we literally have a team, over a hundred plus people that are helping people walk into a building, get a, free, get a, get a cup of coffee, find them to their seat, make them feel love if they're new. Hey, let me take you on a, a, an experience tour is what we call it. An experience tour. You're walking into a brand new building, you've never been into the Building before, you know, a lot of churches, it's all love, but might not have the right signage of communication of where restrooms are. Kids check in nurseries, nursing mother's room, you know, special needs, whatever. So we have these people that go and walk these people through this building. And you know, we don't have a large building where we're adding on to our building, but we're about 28, 000 square feet. And so even in that size, you know, you can get lost in a building that size, you, you know, especially where there's hallways and doorways, you don't know. And so we're having people walk through and then people walk them all the way to their seat.
- [14:14]
A
Wow.
- [14:14]
C
And then when they're in their seat, we got people that are on the host team, which we'd call modern day ushers. We call them host team members. They, they just walking up to them. Hey, good to see you. How you doing? Good morning. Before service starts. So we're creating this, we're creating this interaction culture. Now. If you're introverted, I'll be honest with you, it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard, man. It's going to be hard. If you're more introverted in your life personality and your style, you're gonna feel overloaded at a level. You know what I'm saying? So, so that, that's some of the feedback we get. Like, hey, I love the church, But I got 18, yeah, I got 18 people talking to me, man, before I even find a seat. And it's like, I get it, I get it, I get it. But you know, we just want you to feel seen and feel loved. So that's part of.
- [15:00]
A
That's very cool. I love that. Super practical. That's cool. And then I like this idea of talking to people where they're at. I think that can be a, of part. A concern we run into. Or it's like we're not even aware that in our, our churches we're, we're, we're using language or, or we're assuming everyone's at a certain place. What does that look like for you at Elevate Life? How are you helping? Because that's a lot of people in a short period of time to both get to know and then also try to communicate in a way that actually connects with where they're at. Talk us through. What do you mean by that when you say we're trying to talk to people where they're at in their spiritual journey?
- [15:34]
C
Yeah. So if, so, if you're new, let me just give you context. This year alone, in 2025, we've had 3,919 first time guests walk through our doors this year alone. So for us, we know as a new plant, as a new church, we're going to have to really walk people through this spiritual journey. Some of these people maybe have some form of God, maybe they have been walking with God, maybe they've been out of church since, you know, let's just talk about pre, you know, after or during. Maybe they haven't been back to God's house because that's really real in the Northeast. I mean, some people are just now coming back to church in the Northeast that have not been in church for the last four years. You know, it's like, oh, yeah, I've been out of church for about three and a half years and I'm just now getting back into the rhythm of getting back in my faith. So there's so much I can talk about that like, how do we make our services flow? Like, I always introduce myself, hey, my name is Jeremy and I have the privilege to pastor this church. And I just want to say welcome if, if this is your, you know, 52nd welcome this year or if this is your first welcome, I just want to say welcome because I want, I want them to know that we're real, that we're authentic and we want to help them on their spiritual journey. So we offer stuff like, you know, first time, you know, decision. If you made a first time decision, let's go, let's go into, you know, who is Jesus, you know, what does Jesus, you know, want to do in your life? So there's, there's, there's classes, there's paths that we offer there. Grow track, you know, we have grow track that we offer every month. Hey, hey, we want to teach you a little bit more about faith. Who elevate life is what, what our mission is, what our vision is, what, what the values of our church is. And so we walk them through that and then, and then what we have is we have life groups. And these life groups are from all different walks. Deep dive of revelation, deep studies of the Old Testament, or hey, we're just going to go through the book of John. We're just going to start in John 1 and learn what Jesus, you know, who Jesus is, and we're going to start there. Or if you're more intellectual, we're gonna, we're gonna go a little bit deeper, you know, so we, we, we we have these. These life groups, we call them because we're elevate life. So we call them life groups. We want to. We want these groups to bring life to people. And, and so. So we just. We. We have people, we encourage them to sign up, to get involved.
- [17:55]
A
We.
- [17:56]
C
That's our conversations always in the hallways. Hey, are you. Are you serving on a team? Are you in a life group? Here's why. The goal for me is not just gathering large crowds. The goal for me, as. As a shepherd, I would just say as a. As. As the lead pastor now in this season of my life, is. Is to help people develop spiritually, to help people find their personal walk with God, not just come and hear a. And a good word. You know, motivating. It's inspiring. It's. It's helpful. Yes, it's practical. I've got handles I can live my life by throughout the week. But my. My heart is, don't just take a Sunday and give it to God, but give God every day of your life. You know, sometimes we just turn the surrender switch on on Sunday, not realizing the surrender switch needs to be on every day of the week. So I've got. I've got to turn that surrender switch on every day. And just like you, a natural thought, when you turn the light switch on when you're in the room, you turn it off when you leave the room. Well, a lot of people look at church that way. I'm gonna turn my surrender switch on today. It's Sunday. I'm gonna go to God's house. And then on. When they leave Sunday, they leave away the property, they pull away, the surrender switch turns off. And I think that's where the consumer mindset, especially in the western part of the country, you know, we have gotten, you know, we're. We're inundated with consumerism. And so. And so how. How do we help people really become disciples of. Of Christ? So the second part of our mission statement is making disciples that follow Jesus. So the goal is making heaven more crowded, but making disciples that follow Jesus.
- [19:31]
A
So good. It's great. Let's talk about a bit like up the funnel, a little bit like at the top end, where. How are people learning about elevate life? You talked about when you launched, you did a bunch of marketing stuff. Has that continued to happen? Is this just like. You're really good at Facebook ads? Help me understand. What does that look like? How. Why is the church growing?
- [19:52]
C
Yeah, great question. I personally, I will never do an ad in a mailbox again. That was $25,000 that, that I think one person showed up and then we had a bunch of them ripped up and mailed back to us and told us to never mail in again. It's the funniest story. Yeah. So it's all good. It's, it's is. This is not the South. I'm a Texas guy and I'm living in the New England region and it's, it's night and day, you know.
- [20:17]
A
Yes, it's.
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C
So what we have done really well at, I believe causes some of the growth to happen is two things is every week we're encouraging people to invite somebody that is a part of our culture. Invite culture. Who you bring in? Who do you know that's far from God that needs the Lord right now? Who do you know that's far from him that you know that, that you could bring? So then the second thing is we're doing really good social media ads. We're spending about fifteen hundred dollars a month on social media ads. And our team has done a phenomenal job. And all my team is 19, 20, 21 and 22 year old young men and women that are running all of my social media.
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A
That's great.
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C
I'm, I'm 50. I, I want to act like I'm current, but I'm not. You know, there's things I don't, I'm not adverse in. There's things that are constantly changing with technology and I just got to trust this younger generation and they have done a phenomenal job. That's been one of our huge success for us to put us on the map in this region, to put us, make us aware.
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A
Let's pull, pull apart both of those. When you say you're encouraging people every week so you, you're like ringing the bell that I want to hear churches to hear more of. You're inviting people every week to invite their friends. Give us a sense. What does that look like? How are you doing that every single week? What's that look like?
- [21:45]
C
Yeah, so part of that is in our services. It's a language, you know, we always say, you know, thank you for being here this morning. We pray that you have brought somebody with you. And then at the end of our service we're saying, hey, don't forget to invite somebody back next week. So we're always saying that in our language. So it's become part of our, our culture has become part of who we are as a church. We are a bringer church, we are a inviting church. We are a Reach the lost church. We are the Great Commission because the goal for us is not just giving information, but we're hoping that the people will receive the information that causes some type of revelation in their own spirit that leads them to the Great Commission because we want them to be a part of what Jesus said. You know, he said in, In Matthew chapter 10, he goes, the harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few. You know, pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send more laborers. So we are, we are the Ephesians 4, equipping the church to do the work of the ministry. We are, we have to encourage people to build the local community of the church, the local house of God. And so that's part of our language in our hallways. We have really practical things. We have invite card stands everywhere. Invite card stands everywhere. So simple. We have QR codes. You can scan, you can download all kinds of invite information. You can invite our service times. So really practical steps like that have really helped us. And then in our life groups, it's in, it's being said in our midweek services, it's being said we do eight services a week. So that's what we're doing right now. Eight services a week. And, and, and so in every service, it's just been indoctrinated. It's been just re, re. Repetition, you know, over and over and over. And then, And I think that's a big part of why God's allowed us to. Honestly, I don't know church any other way. I personally don't know church any other way. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I, I, I'm just that, I know, I'm just, I appreciate the love. I mean, I pre, I'm a guy who barely graduated from seminary. I barely graduated. You know, I was like, everybody looked at me, all the professors, like, oh, man, I hope you make it. You know, it's like, it's like one of those guys. It's like, I just, I just love people. Well, and I want people to know Jesus. I mean, Jesus changed my life. I mean, he changed my life. He, he did something in me that no one ever has ever done or no one could ever do in my life is I'm indebted to him. I'm living my whole life for him. That's why 30 years of working through whatever I've got to work through in ministry and working through stuff as a, as a young man, now as an older man, I've just stayed the course, stayed faithful, not Perfect, but stayed faithful step moving forward every season of my life. And so I just love people well, and I think people hear the heart of that through our pastoral team, through our elders. They hear the heart of loving people. Well, that we want people to find Christ. So that's the language, I think helped us in this last, you know, really, in this last season, really grow. A year ago, a year ago this time we only ran, not, not only it's great, but we were around about 900 people.
- [24:59]
A
Right.
- [24:59]
C
A year ago. And then this last year, we've exploded. We've doubled our church. I mean, we've doubled, I mean, we, we, we have no more parking. I mean, we, we, we have 345 parking spots and then two out of the five weekend experiences because we do other services throughout the week. Two out of the five weekend experience. We have to turn people away. Which is, which is breaks my heart as a pastor because it's like, yes, we can't build fast enough. We're looking for bigger venues. Again, I, I could go on that, but we want to make more room. We want people to find hope. It was never about being big. I, I, I told, I told a pastor locally, I said, and he was, he was coming here to, you know, just to encourage us to keep going, which was very kind of him. But I said, pastor, it was never about being big. It's always been about reaching the lost. It's always been about reaching the loss.
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A
Yeah.
- [25:50]
C
So I don't know if that makes any sense. It does, it does.
- [25:53]
A
There's a lot there that you, that I, you know, I, I didn't want to interrupt because there's so much packed in there that I think was so helpful for people and, you know, that singular focus on, hey, we're trying to reach people. I want to come back to that in a minute. I want you to kind of speak to leaders on that, but I want to underline what one of the, It's a simple that we miss in too many churches. And I've done a bunch of study on invite culture. And you're doing classically, you're doing the best behavior classically. You've got to keep invite in front of people. We can't, you can't let up the gas pedal on that one. You've got to keep that in front of people, make it super practical, give them tools, all that like, invite card stuff, all of that super important. Years ago, I was talking to a lead pastor of a church that was growing very rapidly, and this wasn't on A podcast. We were talking sidebar, and I was like, hey. Asked a very similar question. What's God using? He's like, oh, it's a little embarrassing. I don't want to say it. And I'm like, no, no, tell me, what do you think he's using? And he said, well, every weekend for this last year, we put invite cards on every single chair in every auditorium for the entire year. And we told people, take those and invite people. And he's like, I really think that, that he's like, just the intensity of. We're keeping it in front of people. We can't let up. So I want to, I want to encourage you and that. And listener. Thank you. Hey, friends. That is. That is a key part of this. Talk to us about the focus on reaching the lost or reaching people who are far from God or untrue people. Talk us through that because what, what's happening at your church? I know we've kind of, We've referenced this a few times. Is super unique in, in, you know, New England. What would be some of the challenges that you're facing to keeping that singular focus of reaching unchurched people, people far from God? What, what's been the challenge there? And how are you having to adjust and kind of keep your culture focused on that as you continue to grow?
- [27:46]
C
Such a great question. I mean, such a question. I would. Man, you're such a great question. Ask if I could say it that way. I mean, great question. I would think for me, for me, I got into ministry so that people's lives could be changed by the good news. I. There's no other way. There's no other reason why I'm in ministry. I'm here because I want people's lives to be changed the way my life has been changed. So the, the thing I'm always projecting from the, the, the. The platform that I get to walk in, the, the. The place that I get to stand is it's got to be about people. That's why Christ came. He came and he. And he died on a cross so that people would find eternal life, so that people would find hope. And so we're always pushing that agenda from the front and you know, whatever said from the platform stage, whatever you want to, however you want to articulate it is, is. Is. Is being pushed for a reason, I believe. So we're constantly pushing this from the stage. We. We've got to reach people. People are dying and going to hell every day. And this is where I think the church sometimes drifts we got enough people now. So now let's get. Let's. Let's stop making it about people and let's start making about preferences. And I think that's the danger. That's the danger where guys like me can. You know, I was just having an elder meeting a few days ago, and I. And I was telling our elders, because now we got to implement some other pathways of discipleship, some other handles to help people grow and mature faster. And I said, you can't push maturity. Maturity takes time. If we're not careful, we'll. We'll lose the vision of what God is here. And then what happens is will become inward focus rather than outward focus. I said, I've seen it, guys. And I was talking to my elders. I was just opening up my heart to them. I said, I've seen us do this. I've been a part of big churches where now it's about the building, it's about the butts, it's about the budgets, it's about, you know, I've seen that. And I'm like, let us never lose the very thing that God's allowed us to be a part of in this season. I, I never woke up one day and said, hey, let's go and have one of the fastest growing churches in America in the New England region. I woke up one day, said, God, I'm comfortable, and I don't want to be comfortable anymore. I want you to use my life for the rest of my life until I see you to bring an impact in this region, whatever region that you send me. He sent us to the northeast. He sent us back home to where my wife was from. And so that's our prayer. And I want to keep the main thing, the main thing. I don't want to drift because there is a difference between, there is a difference between preferences. And then, and then purpose. You know, the purpose of elevate is to make heaven more crowded. The purpose of elevate is to make disciples that follow Jesus. The purpose is to reach our community, to make an impact. But, but if you're not careful, you. You'll get. You'll get satisfied with the people. You'll settle. You'll get complacent. We got enough people now. But what, but what if God really wants to change? What if God, this is my question I've been wrestling with, and maybe, maybe you have answers for me, but I've been wrestling with this question in my own spirit. Like, is it possible that one church could really change a community? Is it Possible that one church. God could use a church, a group of people. Not, not. I'm not talking, I'm not talking about a domination. I'm talking about just a group of people that are passionate about making heaven work.
- [31:34]
A
Right.
- [31:34]
C
That God could use a, A group of people that would change the facet of a community. You know, that would, that, that's the, that's the thing I've been wrestling with. Can God use, Elevate life in this region? What if God wants to use us to help Yale? What if God wants us to use us to, you know, to, to, to get on college campuses and see a revival, you know, at Yale University, you know, and I mean, that's an Ivy League school. I mean, people from all over the world go to that school and, and we haven't even, I feel like, scratch the surface. So that's part of my, my always. I got to keep the main thing, the main thing. It's got to be about people. So one of our values is people is our pursuit. That's what we're, we're pursuing people and not programs. Not, not preferences. I got preferences. I mean, I'm sure we all got preferences.
- [32:25]
A
Yeah.
- [32:25]
C
But I'm putting down my preference so that I can carry the purpose of, of the good news. I hope that makes sense.
- [32:32]
A
Makes total sense. And yeah, super encouraging. And yeah, I think God's placed your church in a. You know, every community across the country is an important place. There's people all over the world that need Jesus, obviously, but I, I don't think you're. I think it doesn't. It's not surprising to me that the Northeast is a place that is. Some call it a spiritually dead or spiritually dry part of the country, while at the same time it is of global significance in a lot of different ways. Like the communities that you're serving are different than other parts of the country. From an influence point of view, a place like Yale, it's not just another university. And so I think God's placed you there for a real specific reason, which I think is super encouraging. Well, this has been a great conversation, Jeremy. I just want to encourage you. Thankful that you would come on today and help us kind of peek behind the curtain a little bit as we land today's episode. Any kind of final words you give to church leaders that are listening in to today's conversation.
- [33:36]
C
You know, the only thing I would encourage church leaders is my, my, my thing. I always tell pastors and, and people that I, I, I'm connected with Always is. Just make it about people. Make it about people. And I, I'll say it this way, it's not problems to be solved, it's people to be pastored. It's not problems to be solved, it's people to be pastors. Sometimes pastors. And I get it because I'm talking to myself sometimes. We make people the problem and the people are not the problem. The people are the purpose of why we do the pastoring. That's why we do what we do. That's why we do shepherding. So, you know, when you're dealing with, when you're dealing with people, it's messy, it can be hurtful. There's. There's different things that come with that, and we could list a thousand things in that. But I would just say just love people well, to the best of your ability, give them grace, give them mercy. If they leave your church and they go somewhere else, just let them know the key is under the mat. We're on the same team. We're part of the same family. We're all going to go to heaven one day. It's not about who's got the bigger church or who's better, who's got the better kids program or who's got the more youth. It's not about any of that. It's about just trusting God with what he's given us stewardship over and then stewarding that really well and just loving the people that God brings.
- [34:56]
A
Yeah. So good. Pastor Jeremy, appreciate you being on today. People want to track with you or with the church. Where do we want to send them online to connect with you guys and kind of follow your story a little bit? I would encourage people to follow your Instagram. So where can we find that and your website and all that?
- [35:12]
C
Yeah, so our website is elevate life ct.com elevatelifect.com and that would be the same for our Instagram. So and so thank you so much for having me. I'm very grateful and thank you for your time.
- [35:26]
A
Thanks so much. Take care.
- [35:27]
B
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Unseminary Podcast. If you found today's conversation helpful, I'd share it with a friend in ministry. It's a simple way to spark new ideas and grow together. Also, don't Forget to visit unseminary.com to sign up for our email list. You'll get exclusive resources and practical tools delivered straight to your inbox to help you lead your church more effectively. Most importantly, take what you learned today and put it into action this week. Ministry impact starts with small intentional steps. See you next time.