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- [00:00]
Rich
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- [01:05]
Unseminary Host
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 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.
- [01:45]
Rich
Hey friends, thanks so much for listening in tuning into today's episode. I'm really looking forward to today's conversation. We're talking with a leader leading a prevailing church in frankly, a part of the country that is not known for tons of prevailing churches. And so it's an opportunity for all of us to lean in and to learn. Super excited to have Lou Pisochello with us from Community Church. They're in Babylon, New York on Long Island. They're known as a church for people who don't go to church. They're big on being real, bringing real questions, struggles, hang ups, doubts, disappointments and failures. Lou, welcome to the show. So glad you're here today.
- [02:22]
Lou Pisochello
Thanks so much. Yeah, it's a privilege to be here.
- [02:24]
Rich
Yeah, it's an honor that you would take some time to be with us today. Why don't you kind of tell us a bit of the community story, kind of give us a flavor of the church, help us kind of imagine if we were to arrive this weekend, what would we experience?
- [02:37]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah, so we have an interesting history. We launched in January of 2020, and so we were open for 10 weeks. I know, it was perfect. And then we closed down for 52 weeks and we relaunch. But because of that, what's been really cool is, you know, when you're launching a church, the launch team is a big deal. And to launch twice, we've had really, like, two launch teams. And so team culture has always been a real big part of our church. But, yeah, we like to say that we're a church for people who don't go to church. And so we try to keep things pretty casual. We try not to assume that there's any interest or experience with the people who are showing up on a Sunday. And. Yeah, nice.
- [03:21]
Rich
Give us a sense of so, like, size and, like, your, you know, ministry style, that sort of thing. Like, what would you help us kind of place what the. What the church is like if I was to arrive on a weekend?
- [03:33]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah, we're a pretty contemporary attractional church. We've got services on Thursday night and on Sunday morning. So we say the weekend starts on Thursday. We call Thursday night search. Oh, that's funny. Yeah, it was a joke at first, but then it kind of, like, I don't know, just kind of gained a life of its own. Yes. So, yeah, so the church over the course of the weekend, right now we're at about 1200, and it's exciting. There are a lot of new people, and things are constantly change, changing, change. Is that really the only concept for us? Yeah.
- [04:07]
Rich
That's so good. Well, you're on Long island, and I can say, as somebody who I ministered for years in New Jersey, I'm from Canada. Uh, I. I get that people don't wake up on Long island on Sunday morning and think, hey, I should go to church today. You're serving a community that is. Is more unchurched than other parts of the country, which is a challenge for planting. So help us understand, you know, help us just kind of get into the mindset or the perspective of people who are outside of the church. What do they view on, you know, Christianity? Tell us. Give us a sense of. Of kind of what you've learned, you know, planting in that kind of context.
- [04:47]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah. So one thing that was really helpful right off the bat was somebody mentioned to me, they were like, you know, I'm not a gym person. And so when a new gym opens up in town, I don't even really notice it. Right and they're like, I think it's the same thing for church people. It's like, if you're not a church person, then you don't really notice when churches are doing things. And so that's like, really, it's a big reason why we're so vocal about saying we're a church for people who don't go to church, you know.
- [05:17]
Rich
Right.
- [05:18]
Lou Pisochello
And yeah, from there, honestly, we found that the biggest obstacle with people here is the existing reputation of church, of what church is like and what church people are like. This church is seen as very judgmental, hypocritical, fake, exclusive, impractical. You know, it's something you just do to kind of check the boxes and then you go on with your life. I've spoken to even a lot of, like, devout Catholics here who have. Have said, like, they don't. They do their church thing because. Because it's what they think that they're supposed to do, but they're. What they are doing in church does not translate to everyday life. And so church is seen as kind of an impractical thing. And that's kind of the starting point for a lot of people who we're trying to connect with.
- [06:10]
Rich
Yeah, I've heard it said in other contexts. It's like, not that people don't know the church. It's like, it's what they know that they don't like.
- [06:16]
Lou Pisochello
Yes.
- [06:16]
Rich
Like, they have a sense of, you know, that. That reputation. Are there any. Maybe even stories or engage, you know, conversations or engagements you've had with folks that have kind of brought that reputation to the fore that obviously has led you to say, hey, we're going to position ourselves as a church. People don't go into churches that. Was there something that kind of influen that as you were having, you know, even in these early years, as you've been kind of get the ball rolling?
- [06:42]
Lou Pisochello
A big part of it, honestly, is a lot of my extended family. Like, they're. Most of them are not church people. You know, they have a lot of respect for God. Like most people on Long island especially, you know, most kind of nominal Catholics, like, they would say they're Italian or Irish. They say, oh, of course. Jesus is my Savior. You know, like, they. They know the right things to say, but in terms of what it actually means on a regular basis, it's like kind of a totally different thing. So. So, yeah, I mean, that's kind of kind of where we're starting.
- [07:16]
Rich
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, people have criticisms about the church. They have criticisms of. Of their experience with the church. How do you discern between criticisms that maybe either need to be challenged, like, hey, that's actually just not true. Or like, oh, that's a critique that is actually fair. And we're going to try to steer in a different direction, you know, than that. Help. Help us think about those, you know, when we think about skepticism towards the church.
- [07:44]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah. I think, honestly, the best thing for us has just been to have a posture of listening, because even if their claims aren't valid, a lot of their experiences are. And so, you know, they're like, there's somebody who's been going to the church for a while now, and somebody that was very close to them has, like, a pretty intense story of church hurt, like, real damage. And so to know that he's walking in with all of this baggage and that there are a lot of other people walking in with that baggage that don't let you know that they have that baggage. Right. Just kind of giving them the space to. To be hurt and for it to be real. That's been huge for us. Just having that kind of posture of humility.
- [08:31]
Rich
Yeah, that's good. So. So that obviously has led to the way you've developed either the way you talk about ministry or the values that are underlining, you know, the ministry. What has been important for helping communicate or articulate to people, like, hey, this is a place that you can show up, you know, before you, you know, you've kind of bought it all. It's like, hey, you. There's a place to explore that sort of thing, help us think through how do you communicate, and then how do those, whether they're phrases or that sort of thing, how does that translate then into the values of how you actually operate?
- [09:07]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah. So big thing is, for us, it's training the team, like, getting those values into the team and helping them to understand what that looks like in a concrete way. So we say, like, a lot of churches say, you can belong before you believe. And the illustration I give almost every single time, I'm like, if somebody walks in with a church with a shirt that says I hate God, we are glad that person is here. Right. Like, we're not assuming that they are walking in with interest or experience and they might have a story that's a lot more complicated than we know. So, yes, we try to celebrate that. When somebody walks in and they're very open about their beliefs and their views not lining up with us, that's something that we celebrate. Right. Like, because these are the people that we want here. The other value that's been really helpful for us is to say that people have permission to be in progress, and that has to do with their actions, the choices that they make, but also the things that they believe. And so you can be on board with some of our beliefs and not be on board with all of our beliefs. And we're okay with that. Right? Like, rather than just saying, okay, I accept all of it at one time, and now I completely agree that everything in the Bible is true, and, you know, I endorse it. Like, we just kind of give people space to say, okay, like, let's maybe let's start with the claims of Jesus. Like, right, did this guy really rise from the dead? And now let's look at what he says about things like the Old Testament, you know, and so that's. That's been a huge thing. We go back to that over and over and over again. It started as kind of like a main point in a sermon where I was like, you've got permission to be in progress. And so many people repeated it back to me that I was like, okay, this needs to be woven into our culture because it needs to be articulated. Or people just assume, okay, if I'm going to say I believe, I got to say, I believe it all. And there's no room for disagreement. And then from there we say, like, you've got. You can belong for. You believe you got permission to be in progress. And if both of those things are actually true for us as a church, then we can also say, like, our third value is no pretending. Like, you don't have to pretend to be on board with certain things if you're not there yet. And I think if we create an environment where people can be real and dialogue and be open about the things that they're, you know, that they disagree with. I think that's where there's real hope for ultimately ending in a place of alignment.
- [11:24]
Rich
Yeah, permission to be in progress to me feels very, like a very Jesus value. It feels like, oh, that to me, that's like, when I read the New Testament, that feels like the way he oriented himself to the people around him, right? There were clearly people that were like, the rich young ruler came to him and was like, you know, asked a pointed question, Jesus gave a clear answer. And he didn't. You know, Jesus didn't. Even though he said harsh words or clear words, I would say it all was done in an environment of trying to say, hey, I want you to be a part of this conversation. I'm really trying to be on the same side of the table. How do I bring you along? Can you, like, let's double click on permission to be in progress. Talk us through what that looks like. Because I think. I think so many churches draw very strong lines on, like, you got to believe these 15 things to be a part here. Even if we wouldn't explicitly say that it's, like, implicit in our cultures. How does your culture look different when you say, hey, you've got permission to be in progress? What would be some of the things that might stand out to us as, like, that's a little bit different than how maybe some other churches handle this?
- [12:32]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah. So we have, like, we have values, but then we also just have sayings. Right. Like, it's. It is too hard for me to define what the most important values are. Like, I get too obsessed with the wording and how we're going to phrase things. And so in our. Our conference room, we have a big whiteboard, and we write down little sayings. We actually write them in permanent marker on the whiteboard, which is wasteful, but at least we have something to reference. So when somebody says something and we're like, hey, that's a culture thing, it gets written on the board. One of the things that came up that's really helped us with this idea of permission to be in progress is that the goal is to get people to Jesus, and everything else is secondary. Everything else comes after that. And so I'm not going to, like, get into it with someone over a secondary issue or really something that's an issue of sanctification. When we believe sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. Right. Maybe your view on that will change after you understand who Jesus is and begin to follow him. And so in a lot of ways, I feel like when we. When we get too into the issues, we're putting the cart before the horse. Right. And so we're trying to bring people to Jesus and show him. Show them what he's like. And that. That has been clarifying when it comes to permission to be in progress.
- [13:41]
Rich
Yeah, that's so good. And I. I think in heavily churched context, when we kind of assume, oh, basically everyone here has some level of faith, those secondary issues can become, like, a really big deal. It's like, we spent a lot of time talking about those things, but when the majority of people we're interacting with, you know, they haven't. They really, really wrestled with what they think about Jesus and the difference he can make. In his life, man, we got to keep that. That really clear. So, no, pretending is an interesting value as a communicator. How do you live that out in the way you show transparency? There's this interesting thing. Years ago, I had one of the. A preacher that I love or communicator, I just think the world of, you know, he talked about how there's this tension when we're communicating that, you know, we're. We're trying to be transparent, but up into a point and how. Where is that point? And how do we do that in a way that's not. That brings people along? So what does that look like for you, even as a. As a. As a leader to say, hey, it's not my job to pretend I'm going to just be honest and transparent, authentic to where we are?
- [14:46]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah, Well, I mean, I can definitely say that every time I tell a story that has me screwing up, it is. It is the thing that people come to tell me about, like, oh, thank you so much for telling me about, you know, the way you spoke to your kids or the thing that you said to your wife, or. It is just by far, the thing that people love to hear. And that's been encouraging. Now, I have had people, like, throw it back at me, and that. That comes with the territory. But I think that the stories of how that's been helpful for people, like, dramatically outweigh the people that are gonna, you know, weaponize that stuff against you. Something else I heard, I think Brene Brown said this in one of her books. She. She said she doesn't share things she hasn't processed through yet. Right. And that, for me, is a really helpful thing. Like, if I'm in the middle of something and just in the thick of it, it's not the time for me to, like, bring that to the congregation. Right. I think that can be really unhealthy for a lot of reasons. So that's. That's kind of something that. And it doesn't mean I can't share something that just happened. You know, sometimes I'll explain an issue that just happened with my kids that's different than something I'm still processing and haven't resolved yet.
- [15:58]
Rich
I think she said it's the difference between scars and wounds. Right. You can talk about your scars. That's like. That's an area that has. Has had some level of healing to it versus an open wound. Right. Like, this is a part that's. That's still gaping. And, you know, we don't necessarily want to share that and that, you know, that is a change. So I'm, you know, I'm of a certain age, been in this game a long time. And I remember when we first started, when I first started that generation that came before me, people wanted like the superhuman religious leader. They wanted the, like, pastor to be. To have their stuff 100% sewed up. Like, don't tell me that you're a real human. They didn't want that, you know, and that has completely reversed. People are like, no, no. Like you said, we, we need to be transparent, open, authentic. People know that we're not perfect. They know that we don't have it all together. And when we try to hide that, when we try to, in your language, pretend that actually is repulsive, it pushes them away. One of the things that stood out to me, just by reputation, kind of seeing your church is it appears that you guys have a conviction around getting out and serving the community, actually making a difference in the community. You know, it strikes me as very. A very James approach, Faith in action. It should make a difference in our community. Talk to me about what that looks like for community. How does that. Even your name, Community, Church reflects that. Talk to me about what that looks like.
- [17:25]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah, so we're pretty clear. Like, we tell people we want to be an asset to the community. We want people to be glad we're here whether they attend our church or not. And so that started really early, actually, before we launched, we did this thing called the 12 days of Christmas, where. So our church is in a village, right? So there are a lot of local businesses around us. What we did is during the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we went to shops and we gave away gifts from those shops. It was a different shop every day for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. So we planned this out ahead of time. We. But we would post on social media and be like, hey, today the, you know, the shop is Bunger Surf shop. The first 25 people there are going to get beanies from Bunger Surf Shop. And we paid for them. We sent the bunger, agreed to hand them out, and people went to go get them. And what was. It was a win, win, win, really. Like, the people who participated got free beanies. The surf shop, like all the different shops in the village, they got people to go, they got traffic to their business, right? Cause people went in and then bought other stuff. And it helped us communicate that. We say, we want something for you, not from you. Right? We want to be an asset to the community. And so it helped us communicate that message, and the response to that has been great. Now, what's interesting, if this doesn't tell you something about the church's reputation, on year one, before we launched, it was very hard to get 12 shops to agree to do this with us. Like, they were like, you're a church. I'm sorry. No, we're not doing it now. It's year seven right now. We're in the middle of our seventh year, and there are shops lining up to do it. There are shops reading out, reaching out to us, asking us to collaborate. They're helping to pay for this stuff. So it's actually in some ways getting a little bit cheaper, and it's just cool. It's shown this posture of partnership with what's going on, rather than, okay, there are the shops and then there's the church. And, yeah, we actually have someone on staff now who first heard about the church. On year one, during the 12 days of Christmas, she started coming to the church. She eventually got baptized, and now she's on staff. And it's just like, it has been so, so cool.
- [19:38]
Rich
Yeah, I love that. That's what a cool. You know, even just a cool tactic, kind of an expression of that. Is there other ways, other kind of activities like that that you're engaged with throughout the year that could illustrate this idea of being for the community, being an asset to the community? What would be another example of that that that's happened?
- [19:56]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah, so there is this fair that happens right across the street from the church. It's called the Argyll Fair. It's. It's around a lake. There are about 30,000 people that come to this fair. And the fair is on a Sunday during church. The first year that we were here and had services during that Sunday, it was a mess. There are people, you know, like, parking all over the place. It was hard to have services. Traffic was crazy. And we left church, and my wife and I walked to the fair and just felt like something didn't feel right. Like there's some. Here's something everybody's doing and we're fighting against it. So we went to the people who ran the fair and we were like, is there any way we can help? Like, is there? What do you guys need? And right away she was like, we need volunteers and we need parking. And as a church, we are uniquely equipped with volunteers and parking. And so really, it was there. Like, almost right away, we were like, okay, next year we're going to be on board with what you're doing. And so we decided to cancel services. And in the weeks leading up to that, we teach about the importance of serving the community. It's kind of like the grand finale to whatever, you know, outreach series or message is being given. And. Yeah, so we teach on that. And then we're like, hey, you know, two weeks from now, we're not going to have services. Instead, we're going to go out. Instead of staying in here talking about serving, we're going to go out there and serve. And, you know, yeah, what's happening out there is not more spiritual than what's happening in here. Right. It's a different way to express and grow in our faith. So we did that, and the response has just been unbelievable. Like, the community has loved it. The fair has had the help that they need. The people in our church have loved it. But this year, we actually. It got rained out on the first week, and so they postponed it to the next week. Oh, wow. And that made it tough for us because now we were like, okay, are we gonna cancel church two weeks in a row? And we had a meeting about it and looked at our values, looked at what we were talking about, and we were like, you know what? This is actually an opportunity for us to really double down and say this. We're not doing this at a convenience. We're doing this because it's a value. And so I called up the guy who was running the fair, and he was like, I get it. If you can't do it, I get it. And it felt. It was. It was amazing to be able to say on the phone, like, hey, we're with you no matter what. So. So we did. And it was. It was awesome.
- [22:24]
Rich
That's incredible. Like, that again, that. What a vivid example, because I think there's a lot of church leaders, if we're honest, we've been engaged in the conversation that's literally on the opposite side of that, where we're like, man, how do we. These people, they're, you know, they're cramping our style or whatever. It's like we naturally default towards that rather than to serve. Take us back early in the discussions, because I. I think a lot of us have not done a good job in building trust bridges in our communities. And, you know, trust isn't built with just, you know, one conversation. It takes time, right? It takes, like you said, those. Those first 12 days of Christmas, you couldn't get anybody. And now here, seven years later, we want to. We want to get to the seven years later part really quickly. But those early conversations. How are you handling yourself, interacting with the other people, you know, approaching them, having those conversations? What did you learn in the early dialogue that could help us if we're trying to build, you know, deeper community trust in a place that just is so skeptical of that we're coming with, just looking to take from our people.
- [23:30]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah, I mean, you have to be willing to be inconvenienced. I think that's been a big part of it on week one. So we. We launched literally on the first day, and launch day was bigger than we thought it was going to be. And on that Monday, I was called to the mayor's office, the mayor of the village. And I was like, okay. Thought I was going to go have a conversation. And when I got there, it was the. It was him. It was the head of code enforcement and the fire chief all in a room waiting for me. And they had pictures of cars parked all over the street. And I. I realized there, like, there was a real concern about what this church was going to be in the community. And so from there, we've just been looking for opportunities to earn trust. The neighbors have made it very clear that they don't like cars parking on the street. And so we. We began paying for a lot so that we could take the cars off of the street. We don't have to. They can legally park in the street, but we rent the lot. We told the owner of the property why we're doing it, and he got on board with what we're doing. We're now in a place, kind of a long story, but we now don't have to pay for that lot. We also, like, the trust has been earned. One decision at a time. We were going to do this big thing in the parking lot. We did a parking lot renovation that took the whole summer. After the summer, we were like, hey, in our new parking lot, let's put on a Christmas show. We'll run it throughout two weeks in December. We had an animator who goes to the church. He, like, had this great idea for a show. He's like, we'll project it on the building. People will drive in. We'll run it multiple times a night, do it for a few weeks throughout December. We were calling it Christmas in Lights. So we put this whole plan together. He's making the thing, we start advertising it, and the village comes to us, and they're like, you're in violation of the code. You can't do this. And they're giving us all these reasons that I felt like, didn't really hold that much weight. But in thinking about it, I do understand the inconvenience it would have been. We just had a major parking lot renovation. There were huge trucks making tons of noise for months. And now that's finally over. And we're going to ask the village to deal with the traffic of a show happening every single night for a few weeks in December. And so I went to the mayor and I was like, hey, it's a new mayor at this point. But I just sat down with her and I was like, hey, listen, if you have concerns about this, I want you to feel the freedom to just come to me and say, this is a lot for the neighbors. Like, what do you think about pulling this in? And it was cool. It was an opportunity for the two of us to kind of bond. Like, there was some trust earned there. And we canceled the show. We decided not to do it. And I released a video explaining why we weren't doing it. And the amazing thing is that I think canceling the show accomplished more than we would have accomplished if we actually did the show. Like, it earned it was so well received. When people found out that we weren't going to do it, they were like. And even the people that attend the church, they were like, I want to be part of a church that supports their community. Like this.
- [26:30]
Rich
Right.
- [26:31]
Lou Pisochello
And so it went really well. And it was a lot less work. And so it was. It was kind of.
- [26:35]
Rich
The animators say, I felt feel bad for that person who started doing that work. They. They understand. Obviously, they're bummed or concerned.
- [26:42]
Lou Pisochello
He was bummed out, but he's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. And so he totally got it. And he's on board with what we're trying to do. And when he knew the reason why, he was totally, totally supportive of it.
- [26:53]
Rich
Interesting. So where have you seen churches kind of get this wrong? As we've tried to engage with the community, Maybe a common pothole that we fall into or a way that we stub our toes, you know, a thing maybe you've seen that we just. We kind of consistently make this same mistake.
- [27:12]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah. You know, one of my mentors told me a while ago, he was like, when you're thinking about the church in the community, he's like, there's a small percentage of people that are for you. He said, there's also a small percentage of people that are anti church and they always will be, and you're not going to change their minds. And he's like, but then there's this large percentage that's just kind of going to go one way or the other. And he's like, that's the percentage that you really have to be intentional about connecting with. And so I think, you know, it is very easy to tell the story, like, hey, they don't want us to do our Christmas show. This is persecution, you know, and we got to fight and suffer for the name of Jesus. And we've just found that that's not always the case. You know, it's people that don't want to be inconvenienced, and they may love church, but there's. There's all this stuff going on in the community. Maybe they have. Maybe they have, you know, other reasons why. So I think, I think it's just the posture, like a lot of most people, Most people aren't unreasonable, and I think if we give them the chance to really articulate what's going on. I've been surprised at how understandable a lot of the feelings have been. A lot of the resistance to church comes from real stories, real experiences.
- [28:35]
Rich
Right?
- [28:37]
Lou Pisochello
And so, yeah, I think it's, you know, the whole, like, persecution thing or suffering or that is real, and people do really experience that. But a lot of times I think we're a little too quick to say, oh, this is what that is, when really it may not be well, and
- [28:52]
Rich
it's, in some ways it's like a low form of. Well, it's a leadership shortcut for sure, to like, demonize, to like, oh, there those people are. Come out to get us. You know, any leader that's led before realizes, oh, that's like a. That's a tool that actually works. People respond to that, but we don't want to do that. Like, that isn't. These are the people we're trying to love and care. These are the people we're trying to point towards Jesus. They're not our enemies. They're not, you know, they're. They're not. They might just not like parking, like, at the end of the day. And so let's not, let's not get over revved, you know, on that. And unfortunately, there are, I know, you know, way too many churches that have got themselves on the wrong side of this. And it's very hard to backwards engineer out of that. Once you go down that road of like, we're going to try to go negative with our community, that just isn't, it's just, it's. It's very difficult to step back from that. If you think About a church leader that's listening in today and they're, they're saying, hey, they're thinking, we want to do a better job being trusted more locally, trusted by local leaders, trusted by other, you know, businesses in town, that sort of thing. What would be a couple first steps you think they could take? A couple things where they could start to try to build that kind of trust with the community around them.
- [30:10]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah, you know, I think I'm a big believer in praying for those opportunities and also just giving things a second look. You know, when you're in a situation that may seem like a challenge or something, that may seem like it's getting in the way to just stop and think, okay, is there an opportunity here to build trust with the community? Because when we say the community, we're not just talking about this nebulous idea of Babylon Village. There are people there. And if those people see this church as trustworthy, they may come here when they're. Relationships are falling apart or when they're looking for answers. And so it's really just been. We have great people here who have bought into what we're doing, who have really helped us to see, like, this is an opportunity to win with the community. And yeah, you kind of. You have to look outside the box and also be willing to. There are moments like with church has left the building, with the fair and with the Christmas and light show that there are moments where they'll see, okay, do you really care? Do you really care? Like, how much will you inconvenience yourself? And I mean, the payoff from that has just been huge, even though it's been an inconvenience. And our giving goes down that week and it throws off the series and we gotta restructure the calendar. It has gone. There's never been a time where we've regretted it.
- [31:37]
Rich
Yeah, it's good. And you know, there's no doubt, one of the things I think we can, in our little world of kind of church leadership, I think we can forget often that people in the communities that we're serving, they really don't have any frame of reference for a church of 1200 people that isn't people's normal perception of what a church is. A church is 25 people or 50 people in a room somewhere super small. And their perception can be, they just don't. They just don't have any idea what is that? What's that look like? And some of that can skew negative because it, it's busy and blah, blah, blah. All those things and so we've, We. We have to take it on ourselves when our church gets to the size that you're at or larger to try to help them understand and see, though this is, like, really positive for the community and actually point towards that.
- [32:27]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah. Yes. And. And like, along those lines, it's also perceived as a source of power. Right. Like, if. If there. If you got 1500 people that all believe the same thing and you're trying to run a village or a community, that there is this. This sense of like, okay, well, are they going to be for us or against us? Like, are all these people going to be anti village? And so there is like that. That instinct to kind of protect from this group of people that make things really hard for us. But over time, as they begin to see, like, all these people are. Are behind us, they're here to support us and they want to make this place better. It's. It really is a beautiful thing. And we're not there yet as a church, but we're getting there. And we've just seen a lot of. A lot of positive signs. And, yeah, things paid off so good.
- [33:17]
Rich
Lou, that's. That's great. Just as we wrap up today's conversation, any kind of final words, you'd have to, you know, to leaders that are listening in thinking about these issues today.
- [33:28]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah, I mean, I think I would just say it's worth it. It's messy. It does make things difficult. It can be inconvenient. And when you have people who don't go to church coming to church and you give them permission to be in progress, you get a lot of hairy situations. And we have a lot of conversations where we're trying to figure out which way to go. But it's in those conversations that we kind of stop and remind ourselves, like, hey, we're glad that these people are here, and we're glad that these are the problems that we're having. And at the end of the day, this is what we feel like it's all about.
- [34:04]
Rich
So, yeah, it's so good. I just want to encourage you as you're leading. You're doing a great job, and it's been fun to get a chance to get a little window into what's going on at Community. Want to encourage you and your team. Just, you're doing the right thing. If people want to track with the church or with you online, where do we want to send them to connect with you guys?
- [34:23]
Lou Pisochello
Yeah. So community church.net is our website on Instagram. We're Community Church LI or @community churchli and we try to keep that handle throughout all the platforms. So YouTube, same thing, but yeah, that's it.
- [34:37]
Rich
Thanks for for being here today. Lou.
- [34:39]
Lou Pisochello
Thanks for having me, Rich. It's an honor to be here and I love what you guys are doing for the church.
- [34:43]
Unseminary Host
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