Every name tells a story. We share the reasoning behind changing our church name to Crowd Church, what it represents, and why the identity shift matters for the kind of community we are trying to build.
01What Happens When Crowds Gather Around Jesus
There is a question buried in the Gospels that does not get asked often enough. Wherever Jesus went, crowds gathered. In towns and villages, on hillsides and by lakesides, people came. Sometimes a handful. Sometimes thousands. But they came. Why?
That question is what led to the naming of Crowd Church, and it opens up something worth exploring about what Jesus actually did when people showed up.
02The Eureka Moment
For years, the assumption was that church needed walls. A building. A physical space where people gathered on a Sunday. That was the default thinking, even for someone who ran multiple digital businesses and understood the power of online connection.
"I do business. I am a businessman. I have a digital business. I run a number of digital companies. And whilst I thought church can and should do digital really well, if I am honest, I had never thought about doing a purely digital church before. For me, churches needed walls."
Then the pandemic hit. And like so many things in 2020, what had seemed fixed and permanent turned out to be far more flexible than anyone imagined. The church plant that had been meeting in a Liverpool city centre coffee shop went online. And something unexpected happened. It worked. Not as a temporary measure, but as something with real potential.
The question became: what do we call this thing? The old name, Frontline City, made sense for a physical location. It did not make sense for a digital church that was reaching people far beyond Liverpool.
The answer came from reading Matthew's Gospel.
03Confused and Aimless, Like Sheep Without a Shepherd
Matthew chapter 9, verse 35: "Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep without a shepherd."
That image of Jesus looking at the gathered crowds with a breaking heart is striking. He was not irritated by them. He was not performing for them. He saw people who were lost and hurting, and he responded with compassion.
"It was actually reading this scripture that I saw the crowd and thought to myself, this is it. Because whenever we live stream or whenever we put out content, crowds gather. Sure, it is in a digital context. But crowds gather."
Sometimes the crowds were small, ones and twos. Sometimes they numbered in the hundreds or thousands. The size was not the point. The point was that people were drawn to something. They were intrigued.
04The Most Significant Figure in History
Why did people gather around Jesus? The answer proposed in this talk is simple: intrigue.
"They had heard about this charismatic healer that claimed to be the Son of God, and they were intrigued. They wanted to see someone get miraculously healed. They wanted to hear what he had to say. They wanted to see if everything they had been hearing about Jesus could actually be true."
Time magazine once called Jesus the most significant figure in world history. A carpenter from the small town of Nazareth who affected history like no other character, and he did it in just three short years of public ministry.
"You might not believe that he is the Son of God. But you have to admit he has changed the world. Including, if we are totally honest, our world."
The invitation extended from this observation is not heavy-handed. Not everyone in the original crowds followed Jesus. Some stood at the back. Some were just curious. Some left unconvinced. But they gathered. And the gathering itself was the starting point.
05What Jesus Did When People Showed Up
Matthew's Gospel summarises Jesus's approach to crowds in three parts: he taught, he reported kingdom news, and he healed. Each of those has implications for what a church does today.
He taught. Jesus used parables, stories, and illustrations to take complex ideas and make them accessible. "He talked about the value of people, how to overcome obstacles, how to forgive, and why money is not the answer to your problems. He told the people that God was not mad at them."
The teaching was revolutionary and practical. It addressed the things people were actually dealing with. It was not abstract theology disconnected from daily life. It was about how to live a meaningful life, and the claim that Jesus himself was the key to that.
He engaged in conversation. The crowds around Jesus were not passive audiences. People asked questions. They pushed back. They shared their stories. When the woman who had been bleeding for years touched his garment and was healed, Jesus stopped and made her tell her story to the whole crowd.
"This is why we encourage you to comment on the live streams. It is kind of like the digital equivalent of putting questions and ideas out there, of sharing your story."
There is an honesty in this that resonates. Anyone who has sat through a sermon with burning questions and no way to ask them knows the frustration. The digital format actually improves on the traditional one in this respect. You can ask. You can debate. You can contribute.
He healed. Jesus did not just talk about the kingdom of God. He demonstrated it. He healed diseased bodies and bruised lives. He showed that what he was teaching was not theoretical.
"He inspired people. He engaged in conversation about the kingdom of God. And then he demonstrated the kingdom of God by healing bodies and transforming lives."
06The Woman in the Crowd
The story from Mark chapter 5 that inspired so much of this thinking deserves attention. A woman who had suffered from significant bleeding for years, who had spent everything on doctors with no result, forced her way through a packed, restless crowd to touch the edge of Jesus's garment.
She did not announce herself. She did not ask permission. She just pressed through the crowd, touched his clothes, and was healed instantly. She wanted to slip away unnoticed.
But Jesus stopped. In a crowd of hundreds, he felt something happen and asked, "Who touched me?" His disciples thought the question was absurd. Everyone was touching him. But Jesus knew the difference between the press of a crowd and the touch of faith.
He found her. He heard her story. And he made sure everyone else heard it too.
That story captures something essential about what happens when crowds gather around Jesus. In the middle of the noise and the movement and the crush of people, he notices the individual. He stops for the one.
07An Invitation, Not a Requirement
The talk was clear that Crowd Church is not for everyone, in the same way that not everyone in the original crowds stuck around. Some people are deeply committed. Some are curious. Some are just standing at the back, watching.
"We appreciate that it is not for everybody. When Jesus went to the towns and the villages, not everyone came out to see him. Not everyone came to be part of the crowd. But those that did, even if they just had the smallest amount of intrigue and they just stood at the back of the crowd, well, they gathered. They came to find out about Jesus."
The only requirement is a bit of intrigue. A willingness to show up, even digitally, and see what happens.
08More Than a Thought Exercise
The closing point was perhaps the most important. Christianity, as presented here, is not merely intellectual. It is experiential.
"Christianity for me is more than just a thought exercise. It is a living, breathing, incredible relationship with Christ himself. And you can know him mentally, but you can also know him experientially too."
Crowds gathered around Jesus because something real was happening. People were being taught, engaged, and healed. The claim of Crowd Church is that the same Jesus is still at work, still drawing people, still stopping for the individual in the middle of the crowd.
What would it look like to step into that crowd, even from the back, and see for yourself?
Topics in this talk
View Full Transcript
so oh hmm me well hello good afternoon and welcome to crowd church uh it's great you're here happy sunday afternoon now before we get too far into crab we're going to do things a little bit differently today and what i am going to do is i'm going to introduce my co-host for the afternoon the beautiful the talented the amazing all around good egg which is sally sally birch say hi hi matt what an introduction thank you you've got to try and live up to that now well you know if you're going to do it do it well right absolutely now how's your sunday afternoon going yeah it's going really well thank you we have started to put up the christmas decorations early this year but um everyone seems to be in the christmas spirit so that's good that's true we've not started our christmas decorations yet in fact if you've started your christmas write in the comments and let us know i kind of feel like it's still a little bit too early but i get why people are doing it yeah maybe you're right but bullied into it by the kids i'm afraid so who rules in your house that's the question right very good now for those of you who don't know uh crowd is an online church for those that don't see the point of church and it's great that you are here uh we just like looking at the stories of jesus and just sort of figuring out how to how to do life a little bit uh and today uh i've got like i said sally who's uh working with me uh which is fantastic so even in the global pandemic i can't get rid of my edmondson so it's just one of those things you know you thought kind of maybe just maybe this year but maybe no it's just not going to work out no you're still i'm still around you're still here it's still working uh and for those of you not been around frontline sally and i have for years always done the christmas services together and we haven't it's been a long time it's been a very long time and every year it kind of works like this we go on stage and sally makes fun of me for an hour and i seem to enjoy it and uh it works quite well yeah i think maybe i say too much sometimes matt i promise i'll try and be good this time thank you for having me yeah yeah we'll see how long that lasts now uh so we thought actually what we'd do as well as do it at christmas let's try it now and see how we go on add a little bit more variety to crowd so thank you for doing it so it's great that you're here first time with us yeah yeah yeah why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself okay i am i've lived in liverpool for over 20 years not that you can tell from the accent but i love living here um this is home now we've got two amazing kids as crazy as we are two girls um i'm a primary school teacher and i'm married to james who is a legend yes he is he's amazing he's a drummer so it's very noisy in our house um but it's very fun and a bit crazy very good well that's the birch family and like i said we've been doing the services for a long time so uh this is fun doing it digitally though uh coaches hasn't thought the thing that worries me is that now you have the ability to switch me off or to mute me and i'm not sure that i like the power that you've got i can just do this no no we're loving this low in it right it's good let's look at his so matt good afternoon uh he says december 24th is too early so november is definitely too early matt what are you like scrooge yeah i just that's not so strong just don't go around to andy kent's house um but i think he puts his christmas decorations up in july i'm not i'm jeremy uh he's put here afternoon sharon edmondson and the kitten entered you know what the kitchen entourage is not happening today matt just so you know as you'll see later in ketchup a chunk of the household are down at the warehouse picking and packing boxes because it's been because of black friday so the one weekend of the year that you know we we all just sort of head down there and pick and pack boxes so they are down there which is fab anyway sal what have we got coming up this afternoon well we have um an amazing speaker matt edmondson yourself is going to be doing that so that would be brilliant we have worship a bit later on we'll tell you a bit more about that and we have got the catch up with the amazing josh as well so lots to look forward to today we're gonna also do a little bit of a sneak peek or a little bit of a chat about the christmas services coming up matt what do you think i think i think we definitely if you started putting up your christmas decorations we should definitely start talking about it uh what's coming up no doubt brilliant so over the next three weeks we've got some amazing um christmas themed services coming up um each with a message we've got one about dreams we've got one about hope and we've got one about joy so they're all different speakers i've been putting together actually today i've been working on this a little slot called kids say the funniest thing so that should be really good as well um and this is going to be one of the bits i'm obviously looking forward to uh from the christmas stuff because it's the one which is the most unpredictable ah dear and kids do say the funniest things james is put here so hey guys looking good and sounding good obviously the right hand side of the screen is a lot more attractive i hope he means me yeah because actually on my screen i don't i don't mean to be a little bit disrespectful i'm actually on the right hand side of the screen because it gets flipped on the computer screen so um but i think he's definitely talking about you so and matt says i've been muting him for years sally so you know you're in good company apparently sharon says good afternoon everybody uh so yeah great well um without further ado shall we crack on yeah i think it's probably time for you to go and get ready for your talk isn't it matt i'm gonna go yeah yeah i'm i'm gonna go get changed i'm gonna put you on the screen okay so you for the first time ever you have control here we go oh brilliant the power i don't know if i can quite cope with that lovely okay so we're now going to hear from matt and he's going to do a talk for us about why the name has changed to crowd church hopefully he's had time for a quick change and is ready to bring that word to us today there we go that was quick okay let's get into this now in case you didn't know there's been a pandemic going on oh yes and like you during this this time our journey has changed a little bit we were heading one direction and then wham coveted falls and like you and everyone else on the planet we have had to have a long hard look at life and answer some tricky questions do we carry on as normal and hope things return to how they were as soon as they can or do we look at this time and find the opportunity and scare ourselves a little bit by taking a few risks now these questions have been very real to us with this with this you know online church now for many years uh i have had the immense privilege of being part of frontline church okay love being part of the church and last year we started a small church plant in liverpool city center as part of frontline's outreach strategy it was called frontline city but like when the pandemic hit like many churches we went online and it didn't take too long for me to have well to finally have this eureka moment it finally clicked for me because you see i do business uh i'm a businessman i have a digital business i run a number of digital companies and whilst i thought church can and should do digital really really well if i'm honest i'd never thought about doing a purely digital church before you see for me churches needed walls it was kind of like my default thinking and so we looked more closely at this idea of running a digital church during the pandemic something i don't think i would have ever thought actually before the pandemic hit so you know covered in many ways has forced all of us doesn't it sort of rethink life and how we do it and that's what happened here with church and as we got more and more into this idea of staying a digital church we decided we wanted to rename it because frontline city well it made sense when we were meeting in a coffee shop in the city center but it didn't really make a whole great deal of sense with being a digital church so we went with the name kraut crowd church and this week i want to take a little bit of time to explain why why did we call the church kraut now if you have been following the live streams it would not surprise you to know that the answer to this lies in the stories that we've been reading in the gospels about jesus okay and i want to get into this just a little bit more okay so we read in the gospels that jesus would hang out in kind of various different places it often talks about him being on the road chatting with people or on a mountain praying but wherever he went usually crowds would gather around him and there's a beautiful example of this in mark chapter five okay there's a story about a woman who had suffered from significant bleeding for many years the doctors couldn't do anything for her but in a moment she gets healed and i love this story for many many reasons and one of them is i think it gets a little bit more interesting when you understand that this whole event happens in a large crowd around jesus there are hundreds of people all around jesus you know sort of touching him wanting to get to him they all want to see jesus do something they kind of the way scripture talks about it is the crowd was loud and it was restless it wasn't sitting still it was sort of tightly packed together and yet somehow in the midst of all of this a woman who was a social outcast at a time manages to sort of force away through this crowd and search jesus's garment and get healed right and that's a story she kind of says if i just touch his garment if i touch his clothes i'm gonna get healed and that's that's what happened but there was no show there was no fanfare she just sort of came up behind him touched him and wanted to sneak off right but the story the bible tells us well she couldn't sneak off because jesus stopped her and said what's going on here and he was amazed at her faith her desire to press through that crowd and to get to him okay now i can picture that crowd in my mind i can hear the sort of the loud sound of it and the feel of it and the movement of it and the energy of it i don't know if you've ever been in a large crowd because i know i have right i've stood in the magical cop right which was a standing section at anfield where liverpool play football or soccer if you you know from the states um but liverpool football club play at anfield and i would go and stand in the cop before they kind of sanitized it with seats right and you were in a crowd with thousands of other people and it had an energy about it i mean it was just alive this thing now such a great buzz and a great atmosphere there and it was really great in winter because let me tell you it was very very warm with all the people tightly packed around you and you know what if the crowd went left you went left if the crowd went right you went right there was no doubt you would not be able to stop it and one of the things that always fascinated me about the cop was wherever i started when i stood in the cop i would end up in a very different position by the end of the game right just with the movement of the crowd it's just the way that it was and it's these types of crowds that were regularly around jesus and in matthew's gospel chapter 9 verse 35 it reads that jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages he taught in their meeting places reported kingdom news and healed their diseased bodies healed their bruised and hurt lives when he looked out over the crowds his heart broke so confused and aimless they were like sheep without a shepherd what a huge harvest he said to his disciples but how few are the workers get on your knees and pray for harvest hands now i read this passage in matthew's gospel and i see you can see it can't you jesus is going to the different towns and villages and he goes there uh he goes to the people and as he does the crowd sort of start to gather the crowds gather and it was this idea that really intrigued me and you can see where the name crowd comes from for this church it was actually reading this scripture that i saw the crowd and thought to myself you know matt this is it this is such a great thing right because whenever we live stream or whenever we put out content crowds gather the same thing sort of happens now sure it's in a digital context um but crowds gather right now sometimes there are small crowds ones or two sometimes there are large crowds hundreds thousands but the crowds gather and that is fascinating to me but why why would they gather what is it about jesus that caused the crowds together what did he do why was he so intriguing to people why was he so magnetic what was it about him that caused the crowds to gather just take a few seconds to think about that maybe write your answer in the comments what is it about jesus that would cause crowds together it's an interesting question isn't it now sometimes those crowds are small and sometimes they were large sometimes there are ones and two sometimes over the thousands the size didn't matter as much as the idea that wherever jesus went crowds would gather i think they gathered because they were intrigued by jesus in some way that's my answer right that's what i've come up with they had kind of heard about this charismatic healer that claimed to be the son of god and they were intrigued they wanted to see someone get miraculously healed they wanted to hear what he had to say you know they wanted to see if everything that they had been hearing about jesus could actually be true jesus is intriguing if you can't say anything else about him at this stage you would have to admit that there is a level of intrigue that follows this god man right there has to be time magazine called jesus the most significant figure in our world's history imagine that a carpenter from a small town of nazareth affects history like no other character in all of and it seems he did this in just three short years of ministry there is definitely something about him that that you have to admit kind of draws you in you might not believe that he is the son of god but you have to admit he's changed the world including if we're totally honest our world the world in which we live at the moment right and it's because of this intrigue that we do crowd we appreciate that it's not for everybody uh when jesus went to the towns and the villages not everyone came out to see him not everyone came to be part of the crowd not everyone sort of joined in but those that did even if they just had the smallest amount of intrigue and they just stood at the back should i mean the back of the crowd well they gathered didn't they they came to find out about jesus and so my question i guess is are you intrigued by jesus well if you are i want you to know you are in the right place if you want to know more about him please stay connected with what we're doing come and gather every week with the crowd because jesus uh goes to the towns and the villages and the crowds gather right it's just uh it fascinates so what i want to know right is when when he does do this when the crowds do gather what does he do then what's jesus's ammo when it comes to gathered crowds and is there something that we can learn from that for our own online church services well this verse in matthew's gospel actually sums it up quite nicely he taught in their meeting places he reported kingdom news and he healed their disease bodies and healed their bruised and hurt lives so first of all jesus taught but what did he teach about well he taught about the kingdom of god basically you know how god sees things and what his plan is jesus used parables and illustrations he used metaphor and story to take extremely complex matters and simplify them to the points that even i yes i can understand them which i am super grateful for right his teaching revolutionary and it was inspirational he talked about the value of people how to overcome obstacles how to forgive and why money is not the answer to your problems he told the people that god wasn't mad at them and he told them all about the holy spirit the person from the godhead that lives and dwells in us and whilst i cannot claim in any way to be a teacher of jesus's caliber we can dig into his teaching today and uncover the truths of it ask ourselves how does this apply to us today and draw out from it the practical truths that help us live a full life you see i think we all want to live a meaningful life it's just part of being human and i think it is a god-given desire in all of us right and as we dig into the teaching of christ you start to realize actually he really is the key to it all i mean the key to living that meaningful life and the thing about crowds though is the conversation wasn't just all one way when that woman came up into the crowd to to sort of touch the hem of his garment and get healed jesus had to stop and share her story jesus would present an idea and quite often people had questions or they had their own thoughts and views on the matter and so we see in scripture a dialogue that takes place a conversation and this is why we encourage you to comment on the live streams it's kind of like the digital equivalent of putting questions and ideas out there of sharing your story now i have set in many a church sermon over the years and i've had questions like well what does that mean or how does that apply to this or hang on a minute what about dot dot dot right and occasionally i've gone you know what that was such a good point could you please say that again but of course i can never actually voice that during the talk it would not be british because it would not be polite right i can't just interrupt i can't i can't put my hand up and ask them right the best case for me is to write it down in my journal and come back to either the speaker uh at the end of the service or just you know think about it myself and mull it out but here on crowd you don't have to wait you can put in the comments your questions your stories your thoughts your ideas you can ask you can debate and you can also contribute right and i love it i mean i love it when people add into the comments various different verses or stories or questions right when we talk for example about the god of peace you can tell your story in the comments about how you felt god's peace this week and share that and by sharing your story by asking your questions by debating respectfully you can contribute and shape what is happening much like what happened in jesus's time when he addressed the crowd i mean i love that i really really love that so jesus taught and he taught about the kingdom of god he answered questions he engaged in debate and he invites people to share their story but he also did one other thing he healed people he healed their bodies and he healed their broken lives right and that's what it says in matthew he talks about how he taught in their meeting places reported kingdom news and healed their disease bodies and healed their bruised lives in other words he inspired people he engaged in conversation about the kingdom of god and then he demonstrated the kingdom of god by healing bodies and transforming lives which is brilliant i mean we we could rock and roll on this a lot let me tell you uh so again i want to take note of this right and so on these live streams i am going to ask you and whoever's leading or whoever's speaking we're going to ask on a regular basis uh on the website on social media as well right we're going to just put it out there is there anything that we can pray for you right is there anything you would like us to pray about can we ask god on your behalf to show himself to you and demonstrate what he is all about because he is in the business of transforming lives now you can do that in the comments you can do it via the text message if you want to be a bit more private or you can do it by social media or you can do it by completing the web form on our website now fundamentally we believe that jesus is alive right we just do and that he is intriguing and caring and that he is both god and man and that he rules the universe uh and yet in all of that he is still interested in each individual person we believe that and we believe that when we pray it changes things especially when we pray in line with his will and his plans so we would genuinely love to pray for you because christianity for me is more than just a thought exercise it is a living breathing incredible relationship with christ himself and you can know him mentally but you can also know him experientially too i mean imagine if i mentally knew that i was married but that was it right and my wife and i sharon and i we never connected in a way that was meaningful or emotional or with my kids you know they mentally knew i was their dad but i didn't talk to them you know i didn't uh high-five them or i i didn't tell them that i was proud of imagine that that's not a great relationship it's the same with god and prayer is what helps there with that and so let us know what we can pray for and so genuinely please let us know and i'm hoping that you can start to see why we've called our digital church crowd when you picture the crowd in your mind that gathered around jesus and look into what is going on and it starts to come alive and you start to see it and you get excited by it and you get and you know what that's awesome because we're all on a journey we're all going uh to different places in that crowd it's amazing really and there's another as you would expect really fascinating story in the gospel of john that i wanted to quickly look at right in john chapter 7 it says on the last day the climax of the festival jesus stood and shouted to the crowds anyone who is thirsty may come to me anyone who believes in me may come and drink for the scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart now whenever he said living water he was speaking of the spirit who would be given to everyone believing in him but the spirit had not yet been given because jesus had not yet entered into his glory when the crowd heard him say this some of them declared surely this man is the prophet we've been expecting others said he is the messiah still others said but he can't be will the messiah come from galilee for the scriptures clearly state that the messiah will be born of the royal line of david in bethlehem the village where king david was born so the crowd was divided about him some even wanted him arrested but no one laid a hand on him tell you what whenever you read scripture now you see the word crowd is going to throw a whole new meaning onto it right and jesus here is teaching the crowd about kingdom news he is talking about the holy spirit which is i mean the holy spirit is just an amazing topic right let me tell you and we are going to get into the person of the holy spirit and find out a lot more about him uh the the sort of the completeness of the trinity in our live streams and our web content over coming weeks and months okay but the thing that i want to look at here is actually the crowd's response to jesus it says that they were divided in their opinion about him you see some thought he was a prophet or a holy man serm thought he was the messiah or the christ in other words they kind of think like i do right that jesus is the son of god and that he has come to restore the human race to himself some didn't know what to think they just had lots of questions and some well they wanted him arrested to get rid of him to kind of wipe his memory from existence and that divided opinion is actually the same today right nothing has really changed on that a few months ago we looked at the question that jesus asked peter who do you say that i am and in that live stream we looked at a few stats and here they are again okay so today as in the time of jesus we have a divided opinion about him some of you watching this will be christians and will believe that jesus came in human form right just like me some will think that he lived but was just a normal human a normal bloke uh whilst others of you may think that he lived but he was also a good man a holy man a prophet some of you might not actually have an opinion about jesus at all and unsure and whilst others may think he actually should be wiped from the annals of and don't even think he existed at all even today jesus divides our opinion just as in that crowd in the gospel of john right and that again just fascinates me because we want people of different opinions to gather and the great thing about online church is actually church is not an exclusive club behind four walls but rather it's become a place where people with different opinions and thoughts can come together church is accessible online you can just watch the service you can have it on in the background whilst you're doing something else like i know many of you do and that's fine just keep coming back because eventually you may throw in a question or a comment into the feed you start to engage a little bit and then you maybe even ask for prayer and just see what god does but ultimately though you have to make a decision about jesus and who he really is now obviously our stance on the matter is no secret we are a church right my hope and my prayer is that at some point in this journey with us that you would encounter him in a real and dynamic and undeniable way and that that encounter wouldn't just be a one-off you know but something that is a regular of event i pray that you see his transforming power in action and you see that he is actually worthy of it all but for now just keep coming back we say this be part of the crowd each week as we gather be intrigued by him just like they were you know keep gathering uncover the story of jesus for yourself get into the teaching and ask the stories ask for prayer i think you'll be amazed at what happens when you do so all that said we have a name right and we have a purpose to be a church for the gathered crowds for those that don't necessarily necessarily see the point of church for those that are divided in their opinion about him a place where people can find answers to live a meaningful life i want to be a place where we collectively discover jesus and uncover his amazing story we want to be a digital place where the crowds can gather you know and hear the teachings of christ ask questions share their stories and debate like i said to be a place where you encounter jesus in an undeniable way if you want to right a place where we can receive prayer and that is crowd in a nutshell now i am excited about crowd i hope you can tell and i'm looking forward to the journey together in uncovering the story of jesus and how he really is the key to living a meaningful life so thanks for being part of the journey with us oh brilliant thanks matt well done quick change again um please say before we talk about the talk you when you said you were going to change for the talk i i have to say my hopes were a little higher than just a different colored hoodie i was thinking shirts high you know no yeah no we don't do that we don't do shirt and we don't do thai okay but it's winter and it's cold in the shed where i'm set you know i'll lower my expectations for next time good idea yeah but thank you know that really interesting and thought-provoking um i sort of had lots of questions as we were going along and then you answered them in the next um in the next part so that was really good i was thinking about people who actually feel uncomfortable in the crowd you know some people don't like having a lot of people and how they could connect and um and actually benefit from being part of this crowd um and then you talked about how we can comment and how we can be involved um using the blog and using the website and things i thought that was really really good um i did have a question for you though um you talk about people asking for prayer and how prayer changes things and i wonder if you could just give an example from your life of when people have prayed for you and it's changed things for you sure i'm more than happy to do that i mean the most recent uh kind of examples are going to be probably tied around al marshall right now for those of you who don't know al marshall we call him the hogmeister because you know he just basically hugs everybody uh and covert has been a yeah yeah we've got we love that big big love to well and um an hour's great because al is constantly praying for me i mean just all the time praying for me and he'll send me a text message going on praying for you and praying for this praying and every now and again sounds a bit odd but he kind of goes matt i just feel i need to say to you dot dot dot like god kind of gives him an impression of something to say and um as a result of that sal there's been quite a few times where al sent me a text and what he has said in that text mirrors what is just going on in front of me in my business it's the most remarkable thing uh and so uh yeah it's been it's been brilliant because it's it either confirms that i'm on the right track or you know it's confirming my thinking that something needs to change so recently we've made some big changes in the business i was kind of thinking is this right is this the right thing to go and al sent me a few text messages and never talked to him about it but he sent me a few text messages which was just really amazing so um so yeah there's that there's also uh i'm gonna pull up her photo here because she's a wonderful person i'm just gonna see if this works i don't know if i'm gonna cause the system to crash but let's let's have a go oh no that's the wrong photo obviously my beautiful wife she is awesome yeah yeah there's a wrong photo there's another awesome lady in my life apart from uh sharon and it's this lady so you see that lady um she's a sweet lady she lives in north carolina her name is anne right and and when i was uh 18 i moved over to the states and spent a few years living there and um and kind of you know was one of the sort of handful of people that took me under her wing and anne is a real prayer a woman of press she just prays all the time uh through immense pain and suffering quite a lot actually but she does pray a lot and i think i'm here i think i'm a christian uh because she was one of the first few people to start praying for me when she met me when when we were 18 and so um i think i'm here because of the prayers of that beautiful old lady so i hope that answers your question yeah that's great thank you and i just would say to anybody watching you know what have you got to lose whether you believe it will work or not what have you got to lose so just um you know put it out there if you've got something you want prayed for then then message us let us know comment um and we'd love to do that brilliantly so um we're ready to go into a time of worship in a second hang on let me put you on the here we go there you go you can talk about it thank you and so we are going to have the amazing song reckless love today um and it's a really brilliant song the lyrics are incredible that talk about um that amazing love that god has for each and every one of us and i think sometimes we can discount ourselves from that love and think oh it doesn't mean me but it is each and every one of us and it talks about um the parable of the good shepherd that jesus told and how um the shepherd leaves the 99 sheet to go in search of that one and that's you that one that's god searching for you um so feel free to sing along if you want to or um just you know read the words and reflect as you listen to this beautiful song before i spoke a word you were singing over me you have been so so good to me before i took a breath you breathed your life in me you have been so so kind to me oh the overwhelming never-ending reckless love of god oh it chases me down fights till i'm found leaves the 99 i couldn't earn it i don't deserve it still you give yourself away never ending reckless love of god when i was your foes still your love fought when i felt no worth you paid it all for me oh the overwhelming never ending reckless love of god oh it chases me down fights till i'm found leaves the 99 i couldn't earn it i don't deserve it still you give yourself away oh the overwhelming never reckless love of god there's no shadow you won't light up mountain you won't climb up coming after there's no wall you won't kick down lie you won't tear down coming after me mountain you won't climb up coming there's no shadow you won't light coming after me there's no shadow you won't light up a mountain you won't climb up come it after me i don't deserve it still you give yourself away what a fab song what a fab fab song such a great version of it too i'm not going to lie john's done a great job with that him and anna grace yeah thank you so you said that this is in the comments this is one of your favorite worship songs um why is that i think um just that message that kind of reality of god's love i think you know so often we have this view of god sitting on a cloud with a big beard and all this kind of thing and that's not the god that i know you know this god sort of said this this song says it all about a god who you know will chase for you will fight for you will you know tear things down for you like that just kind of um it just really speaks to me i think it's it's incredibly special those lyrics about leaving leaving the ones that are safe to go and find that one that isn't um and i like i said before i think often we think yeah that's everyone else that's not me um but this song you know so clearly tells us that god has that love for each and every one of us i think that's incredible fab such a great answer i'm an unscripted team it was totally that's totally impromptu i didn't even tell her i was gonna ask the question i'm gonna ask you that so thanks matt yeah deep end welcome to it brilliant brilliant brilliant so listen guys thanks for watching so far i want to put your takeaways what have what's been what's god been saying to you or what have you been thinking about what have you been pondering put all of that in the comments and let us know because uh now without further ado whilst you're busy writing those should we bring catch up on let's do catch up yeah so here is josh let's do this hello and welcome to this week's sunday catch up for those of you who don't know me allow me to introduce myself my name is just gentlemenson i am a student at the university of saint andrews studying theoretical physics for those of you who have not watched the stream welcome to crowd it's great to have you here let me just quickly explain what little catch-up segment is during this little section what we do is we get in videos from the community and i put them together in a little video collage montage just so that we can all share in our weekly experiences just so that we keep track of what everyone's getting up to in usual fashion i will kick things off if you were with us on the stream last week you all know that last weekend it was my birthday i had a wonderful time thank you very much for all your well wishes so my parents very kindly sent sent me a ukulele so yeah that's been a lot of good fun oh yeah this week all my courses are kind of coming to a close so i've now pretty much finished all my my modules for this semester and i've got just this next week and then it's a whole bunch of exams and then christmas which is going to be wonderful but that is all from me enough of my ramblings let's get on to the videos other people have sent in this week so this morning i thought i'd go for a cycle to see the relatively new boulevard on prince's avenue so i've been wanting to see it for some time i've only been past it in the car so i'm gonna go and take a look so i've arrived and it looks fabulous there's loads of seating areas along the way and sculptures and information i really like it so it's been a busy weekend with black friday but i managed to carve out some time to get down into the wood shop you'd be pleased to know so this is what i'm working on at the moment yes that's some oat boards glued together which is going to be turned into a gift for a friend of mine we have got some oh yes pippin oak chopping boards that we're making and we're in filling them you can just see here that gap there that we infilled with blue resin oh yes we did totally and here again we have some more chopping boards and then we have some skyline so you know just making christmas presents hanging out because it's now well it's now christmas isn't it so getting in the christmas spirit what's this is this justice brownie wow love a little little cheeky black friday shift in the warehouse matt crew i hope you enjoyed the birthday brownie thank you very much for sending those in if you would like to see your video on ketchup and we would love to have your video and catch up please send them to the whatsapp number that you will have been receiving throughout the service it is probably on the bottom corner of this screen right now as we speak so take note of that send any of your catch-up videos into there it doesn't have to be of anything super exciting or super exotic just like you playing you playing an instrument would be pretty cool that is all for me this week thank you very much for watching and i will catch you next time well thank you josh for doing that uh it was good to see the guys picking a packing in the warehouse and matt crew your um your surprise and incredulity at the brownie i thought was just fantastic uh just made me laugh yeah absolutely make me laugh you make all your family work for free in your warehouse to like up profits is that kind of is it slave labor or child labor works well for me no no not at all i have to pay them good with with money too and not just love and hugs i should hope so very good i like those chopping boards please can i have one of those for christmas sure no problem [Laughter] yeah no problem at all no problem no i the uh sharon actually has just gone to send me a text message throughout ketchup so she's just going to pick the guys up from the warehouse because they've been busy all day because of the black friday stuff that's been going on so they've been watching the live stream from the warehouse oh bless them bless but this is the beauty of digital church you can just watch it anyway absolutely you know we like that we do like that and just you know for the record in case anyone is watching them and they are about to call social services we do not practice child labor policies here uh and uh i they only work one weekend in the year which is the black friday weekend it is not a regular event uh let's just be clear anyone needs to write to me it was not enforced i said there's an opportunity would you like to take it and they all went sure and actually did you notice john farrington was there um i didn't actually did you not see him uh he's there as well so the guy that did the song yeah yeah the whole community so the guy that's saying the song recklessly was also in the warehouse so uh he was down there as well so it's been good to catch it with him uh but yeah no that was that was cool so if you uh have any videos that you would like to send to josh for the ketchup do send them in he would surely appreciate it send them to the church whatsapp number which was on the screen uh or you can go to the website and find all the details and information there crowd.church and you will be able to crack that code and send that through so please do that be great see them especially around christmas which cell is a fab segway it certainly is and tell you what we'd love to see some videos of your christmas decorations or your christmas jumpers or anything like that christmasy to kind of get christmas jumpers especially clearly it needs a little bit more christmas after it so yeah definitely send us those pictures in and as we said at the beginning next week is our first christmas service so we'll be having our talk with them amazing phil watson will be doing that you won't miss that one um and our kids say the funniest things and there'll also be some downloadable activities for your kids if you've got children around that want to um keep occupied with something christmasy whilst this is going on then you'll be able to download those too have i forgotten anything matt uh carols uh yes there will be carols as well we're gonna make it as christmasy as possible so matt i know that you own some really disgusting christmas jumpers so we'd like to see one of those next weeklies or perhaps even the christmas suit although you might want to save that one i might save the christmas suit yeah christmas suits yeah i don't want to peek too early you know so let's we'll build up so just keep coming back if you want to see the christmas suit but yeah definitely send it next week when you're watching the live stream what's it in a christmas jumper put on a christmas t-shirt a christmas jumper tinseling your hair do whatever just start to get a bit into the christmas spirit uh and it's gonna be fantastic you know it it is we're just gonna love christmas so do come and join us 4 p.m every sunday up until christmas we're going to be here live streaming our christmas service uh and yeah we're looking forward to aren't we we are can't wait it's going to be really good fun i'm going to you know the christmas message as well is going to be in there um so please please join us we'd love to see you thanks for having me today you've been an absolute legend self it's been fun we should definitely do this this time next week funny you should say definitely now listen the way we're gonna end uh i'm just gonna let let me give just give me a few seconds to explain how this is gonna end because we're changing the endings of the live streams now traditionally we've got to this part and gone thanks very much have a great week tara and so what we're gonna do moving forward is when we end the live streams we're going to leave some questions up on the screen okay and those questions are just going to rotate round and they'll last about five or six minutes something like that with a bit of some music playing and you can ponder the questions to your heart's content um or you can just leave sal and i will not be back on the screen we're just going to leave the questions on there and at the end the live stream will just sort of end but if you want to just take a few minutes just to think about you know stuff that you've maybe heard today just process a few things you just get a little bit of space to do so rather than the abrupt ending that we've been having we thought we'd try that do something a little bit different uh so i think all that's left for me to say sally's thank you so much for joining me uh it's been really great fun actually it's like it's like old days yeah yeah i know it's just yeah it's been brilliant thank you so much thanks for having me no you're a legend let's do it again uh matt here says thanks matt and sally thank you thank you matt crew yeah matt we need to see the photos photographic evidence if you can't do christmas jumpers i want to see the cartwheel video i appreciate i'm going back several months and no one else knows what i'm talking about but that's okay you do right so this time next week all shall be revealed uh okay listen that's all from me that's all from sal have a fantastic week god bless you and we will see you next sunday 4 p.m for the very first christmas livestream bye for now foreign bye you
