Building a Prayer Life That Lasts with The Table 61

everybody wants to be celebrated but not everybody has somebody to listen hey in this episode I sit down with my friend Jason Stu Miller and we talk about discipleship and how vital it is for the Christian Life and how we can be effective at engaging in discipleship through relationships with other people we also talk about their Ministry in Harrisonburg the table 61 and how they're making an impact in their Community through prayer I encourage you just hang around watch this episode you'll really enjoy it yeah man I appreciate you taking the time to sit down and chat and letting us use your space here man this is it's super nice super well done in here I enjoy not just the Aesthetics but what you guys do here at the table and on your heart really for their Community here so it's awesome to be able to have a conversation and sit down we've known each other for how long now 15 16 years that's crazy yeah it's just that means I'm getting old yeah you're a grandpa now right yeah we've got three yeah is that the name is it Grandpa or what's that no it's definitely not I am JJ okay not pops Crystal push for that yeah is that a push for pops yeah she did she pushed for that she's Gigi okay and yeah I was 38 when we became grandparents and I'm like I'm not ready for one of those old persons names right JJ is what I went and it stuck so we're good nice yeah that's good yeah I think when Ashley gets to that age like I'm really pushing for that Granny for her yeah for her 100 not for me no I'm not granny yeah so well sweet man so the table just maybe just take a few minutes and just tell me about like what I know what the table is but tell me a little bit about what your heart is behind the ministry here and what you guys are doing that may be a little different from what people think right it's like sometimes you hear about houses of prayer and it's like well didn't you just try to start a church on a different night of the week right and it's like how is this different from your typical Church that people would plant yeah that's good I'm just going to give just a brief history of even where this idea started within my wife Crystal about six years ago she started meeting in my office and it was the upper room of a like a Schoolhouse and she just started meeting one day a week and just praying they would turn on IHOP International House of Prayer and just flow with that for a few hours and so that happened for about five six years and then through the pandemic we had a an opportunity to explore this space and so in the meantime Crystal was in the parking lot feeding the homeless in this in the parking lot of this building in Rosa shopping center feeding the homeless on a weekly basis yeah and there was a meeting with a local pastor and he said hey what do you guys what's what's your name what do you guys call yourself and she was meeting with another lady yeah and he was like the table and Crystal's like well we haven't but now we are going to call ourselves and so it evolved into a just a prayer room a place that we could gather and just host the presence of the Lord and so where did the 61 come from so that is Isaiah 61. okay awesome yeah Crystal's the passion even for the homeless Ministry is just Beauty for Ashes hope to the Hopeless restoring the Brokenhearted and so yeah the the gist of what we do here is we Gather and we lift up Jesus and there's a culture I believe that the Lord is creating and it's a culture of prayer a lot of times in a a Christian setting people are gathering in Jesus name but the what does it look like to really contend in prayer a lot of times the Lord has called us to go after the things of that he's called us go after in intercession and contending and yeah so it's it's been this place of con of creating this culture of Prayer in the city yeah I like how you said like before like the building came about right you're in the parking lot like feeding the homeless yeah and so there's this like seems to be this balance I think sometimes the church Christians all of us in general just have this ability that sometimes we go to one extreme or another like it's either all works and we don't do anytime in prayer we're not ministering to the Lord or it's either all prayer and like we're just always in the prayer closet and never taking action right and so to hear that like the heart behind this is we're just praying but through that prayer like compassion Ministries that's right are happening in the community and I think that's that's amazing you mentioned something to me I think you had a conversation we had a few weeks ago that the Lord had given you a vision not just for this prayer but almost to see this entire section of the town like revitalizing right you want to talk about that a little bit and how that came to be in your Harvest it's just something that God just dropped on you or yeah yeah so when we first started talking with the owners of this building it had there had been just a stirring for what what could happen in this area of town and so Crystal and I we went to a conference at the beginning of this year in February and at that at that space the Lord con or at that conference the Lord just showed me this picture of what the what he wanted to do in this part of town and this part of town is the part that would maybe be a little bit scary like a little bit more rejected by the rest of the Harrisonburg I have a pretty good buddy that lives on the east side of town and we were going to meet here and he had to use Google Maps on how to get to the center of town and so yeah like putting the putting this area of the world back on back on the map in a sense and just restoring the heartbeat of the city in a place that is revitalized from the way that it looks but for the way that it cares about people yeah I think in the city in the heart of a city on a lot of cities like that's where accumulation of people from homeless to business to the gist of the workings of the city end up and right across the street from us as the administrative building that's the it's a key place of business on a daily basis yeah that's good yeah that's awesome man and so I think part of that like brought you on what I know about you and how you wrap your relationships with people right you're very intentional I think about your friendships but then also like the discipleship piece it's mixed into that and so I wanted to dive into that a little bit more I love what's happening in the table I also love the the kingdom mindset behind a lot of this like right partnering with people right and we may not we enable we may not get Joe on the first go right I didn't mean to rhyme I'm not a rapper but whatever but we may not get it but when we're here when we're just putting Roots down yeah and being a part of the community There's an opportunity to build those relationships and disciple over the Long Haul and I know from our relationship that you're you're pretty passionate about that like one-to-one discipleship not doing so much from the stage if you will but really getting close to people and getting into their heart and helping to mature and grow them in the faith so how did that desire how did that heart begin in you like for that type of discipleship I'm gonna backtrack real quick and the gist of the part of the reason that we started the table 61 was the the essence that everybody has a seat at the table and so as the Lord speaks to everyone's heart it's it's our job to contribute to bring that to the table and I would say rolling into discipleship is that for me is the heart cry of where I am coming from is everybody needs to know that they hear from the Lord right there's this loss this lost thing that people don't realize that they can hear from the Lord for themselves yeah and so as we begin to walk people into that identity is released and I think that to answer your question specifically the gist of it happened from a lack of discipleship in my life early on as I was discovering and walking through what it looks like to walk with the Lord my parents had made me go to church as a kid and it was like all right they're they're going to a Presbyterian Church I said I was going to go to the Catholic church because it was 50 minutes and I knew exactly what to expect and I could get out the door you might want to cut that part out that's fine yeah I know it's true though man I think I we'll get into but that everybody has a seat at the table right like and I see the vision in that like because when somebody's at your table they're close eating a meal is so intimate and I think just my personal experience coming here as a pastor I'm a lead pastor of a church and I think so often I go to places and this isn't an arrogance thing but I think even with the leadership like the mics expected to go in your hand immediately right and there are opportunities to be able to just go and sit and experience the presence of the Lord and continue to purge outside of my home obviously it always can happen in the home right but in the gathering with other believers sometimes it's lost as a leader and so my personal experience showing up several times is that there's been no expectation right and I appreciate that I value that a lot it's like I I can just come and just engage and everybody's just calling me Justin yeah not that I'm ashamed of the title right but there becomes there Comes A Time in all of our lives that we just have to just be us and I think I'm yeah that's that's powerful and so sitting at the table like right I guess that would be where discipleship is almost formed right do you have any thoughts on that side of it well the I was invited to come into an evangelist committee at a church a couple years ago and the committee was trying to come up with ideas on how to get young people or college students to their their site or their campus and they said do you think if we offer hot dogs or we offer a pizza after service if that will attract them and I thought through this years ago as I pursued discipleship and the answer is no like we have if there's a target of a type of person that we're going to whether it's a young person or if it's college campus or high school campus the strategy is we need to go to where those people are and build relationships that's good it's it's not necessarily can I say hey we're throwing a pizza party or hey Jesus is going to be here it's going to get them in the door it's a relationship that's going to get them in the door right and so I think that is the key to the discipleship in general is building a relationship everybody is hungry for a relationship even in our gen Z generation it might be the digital relationship but they're still hungry for a relationship yeah and as we can connect that those dots and connect that line it's the people come to life when they're in this one-on-one-on-one discipleship relationship or if even if it's a small group there's a freedom to exactly what you said be who you are and not this Mantra of all right I've got to live up to this expectation or to let my reputation precede me it's no I just get to be Jason hey just drop it in for a second to tell you that I recently opened up a behind the scenes Community where I'm uploading all the unedited versions of the show and also dropping the podcast early before they go live on YouTube I've opened that Community up as my way of saying thank you for those that support the show for five dollars a month you can jump in and get access help us continue to put these podcasts out I'm also really excited because I've got some special videos planned specifically for that group so if you're interested in supporting the show you can see the link down in the description below and I'd really appreciate you jumping in yeah I've talked about that a lot with folks about I even heard a guy I can't remember the name of the guy who was on talking about what the Lord was showing them for this year and all that stuff and he just talking about the model at Jacob Church in general at times like we've we tried to replicate the old school Evangelistic Crusade on Sunday morning right and those Crusades had their place and I think I still think they can be effective around that time and reaching large crowds but like in doing that consistently on Sunday the whole relationship piece has fizzled right yeah and I have nothing against large churches or mega churches or anything like that I attended a much larger church and had I not moved to Verona I may still be attending there so I love big churches but I think the big churches that do it well have wrapped their mind around Sunday is one piece right there's relational stuff happening all throughout the week that is helping Christians mature and grow because when that's lacking you just have people thinking they need to get saved every week right and that's that's not growth right yeah now engage in relationships like so I want to go back on like the whole gen Z thing and the connection piece because the college age seems to be a group that people are just struggling reaching right now they've considered them like The Lost Generation I think that's why Asbury was such a big deal for a lot of people a lot of people were quick to jump in and criticize and all that stuff and I hate that about our social media age it's like I heard somebody say well I'm testing the fruit I'm like the seed was just put in the ground but there's no fruit yet what are you testing like no you need to give a comment on something and criticism attracts more eyeballs than praise right so it's really more about getting their own yeah whatever I'll digress but what was significant for a lot of people was seeing that move happen on a college campus right where most of the news we see about college campuses are just it's not positive right we see them oftentimes fearing very far in One Direction a lot of the confusion the identity crisis is everything we see happening on college campuses but yeah you guys seem to be pretty connected to college students right like the Lord's giving you influence there right so if it's not pizza and a hot dog right like what does that look like how are like you said going where they are but practically speaking what does that look like for you guys on a practical matter it looks like going and making herself available to meet with people so one of the other initiatives that we've launched is a Ministry called coaches USA it's the gist of it is teaching people how to use their influence and everybody wants to be celebrated but not everybody has somebody to listen and so as through these individual relationships we're able to create that place a safe place for people for leaders for just random people to have somebody to walk with yeah and so practically all I the Lord's laid on my heart to prayer walk all three campuses in the Harrisonburg area on a weekly basis and so I'll just begin walking walking on campus and praying with the Lord and there's open doors there's opportunities to interact with people whether it's a smile whether it's a conversation or it's just saying hey and it's it's being intentional about those next steps right the we just let's I'll just share an event that we did this last Wednesday we had the opportunity to go onto James Madison University's campus and do 10 hour sorry it was it ended up being 13 hours of prayer and worship on that campus so we started at 8 A.M and we ended at 9 00 p.m and we partnered with other Campus Ministries and churches and came into two-hour sets and we had evangelism teams we had prayer teams and then we had worship teams and through that we were able to build relationships essentially it was just hosting the presence of the Lord like it wasn't necessarily the intentionality of gathering people but through that people they notice yeah hey what's what's going on and they come and they worship and they engage and where does this happening like what is this thing so it was it's I think the intentionality of getting out and getting into the places where people mingle like yeah I've heard in the past of bar Ministries right like how we're gonna minister to people at bars well you got to go right yeah not for the sight of engaging activity but be obedient to the Lord where is the Lord leading our hearts maybe it's downtown of the city that we're in or maybe it is a nightclub or maybe it's even a restaurant and being intentional to listen to what the Lord's sharing and how to build those relationships what the prayer and worship thing of Jamie right that was interesting hearing that story and how it wasn't intentional but you guys happen to be there a day where political events happening right there's a lot of controversy especially on college campuses around anything political that's right because you've got one side you've got counter protesters and I don't want to get into a case in this conversation and making for one side or the other but I think the even though I do have opinions on that but like but I think the Providence and the direction of the Lord to lead you guys to do that prayer and worship right and be an influence on the campus on that day where there's a lot of controversy and a lot of room for potential conflict right and if I like causing effect right if I think about typically when there's a speaking event on a college campus with one side and another side is their controversy protesting usually violence there's usually issues and I don't know did any of that take place in Jamie this is there a lot of that or is it pretty calm it was really common really strategically the way things worked out where we had set up was in the middle and not intentionally obviously we were there all day long but the Lord put us in a place that we ended up being in the middle of both of these groups of people and there wasn't much interaction yeah so there was a large group in a building and there was a large group out of a building but the other than a few here and there stragglers from each group that would interact there wasn't a mass Gathering of the two groups and so yeah it was crazy to see the intentionality of the Lord and even how like all this stuff was supposed to happen on the other side of campus and our event was supposed to be here and then within a week of changing they all ended up on the same spot at the same time and it's like all right Lord he stuck you like almost right in the middle to just like reconcilers mediators if you will just like a wall right and yeah there's no question that the prayer influenced right like what took place in the campus that day and I believe it without a shadow of a doubt that your God you didn't plan it but God certainly did right yeah and that's that's pretty that's pretty awesome yeah so the whole going on campus prayer walking praying we're really practically speaking for folks that are in communities or colleges like that's one way to do it and to clarify like the Lord showed me two scriptures one being John 12 32 Jesus says if I be lifted up I'll draw all men to myself and so our action point in that scripture is to lift him up a lot of times we take that initiative I need to gather I need to get people here I need to and some people have this connecting Gathering gifts but at the same time if we're just lifting up Jesus his promise is he's going to call people unto him yeah and then Joshua 1 3 where Yahweh says that where your feet tread I have given you the land and not us specifically but the kingdom of God and that's that's where he's moved my heart on these campuses is my intention is not necessarily evangelism my attention is not to build relationship while it can be a direct result my intention is to claim this land for the Lord yeah and to walk it out according to his promises and to just put my feet he's called us to put our feet on places yeah the Roses Shopping Center parking lot the campuses of our universities and high schools like we have the ability I think through the Holy Spirit to change the Atmosphere by communing with the Lord yeah so would you say from a personal perspective or even a Ministry perspective like if you had to put a target a priority on a group or an age group like I know your goal ministering to the Lord right but if there was a person that God's called Jason to reach who is that a person would be the leader okay and so for if that makes sense the Lord years ago show just showed me that leadership's lonely and in that place of leadership I'll I'll use it in a sports analogy a head coach doesn't necessarily have a safe place to be themselves right they're always coach so they're assistant coaches they can't share the frustrations of life in a sense because they're the leader of those coaches and to their athletes they can't be that vulnerable I think while vulnerability is good there has to be a measure of vulnerability that you share in leadership and yeah and so such a hard line to draw it is yeah but sorry go ahead well and I think that translates to the business world to the marketplace but then also to the churches his leaders are lonely they find themselves like the lead pastors the head coaches the guys that are the CEOs or the main people of business there's not a lot of safe place for them and so in that's in part of my ministry that's that's one of the areas that the Lord has given me favor is just to build relationships yeah and to be to make myself available to walk with people in that way we all need discipleship I firmly believe that we all need to be in two types of discipleship relationships one where we're being poured into and then one where we're pouring into right and I found in my life I grow the most actually from the ones where I get to pour out is because what I feel like the Lord is equipping me to do is I have to understand what he's having me say or share before I can share it yeah and truthfully I don't have permission to speak into many things that I haven't walked through before because I have never been there right and so as we share testimony and as we share our life like it's because we've been there yeah that's good yeah I think that a lot of times we find ourselves being looking for like I just need somebody to Mentor me sometimes and it's like we can get caught up in that mindset and it's just like we discount sometimes like the act of giving and mentoring other people and being intentional about that and trusting that through that the Lord will also provide people to speak into our lives right but that can be a challenge I think sometimes coming from a Leader's perspective because it's hard to find those people that that you can you can be vulnerable with like what I can't be vulnerable with on stage what I need to be vulnerable with alone and finding those people that I know that I can without a shadow of a doubt share that stuff and be vulnerable and know that it's going to be handled properly right and I think that's a gift people give us when they give us their vulnerability that's right and I think a lot of times people have mishandled that and that I did a podcast on Church hurt with somebody three or four weeks ago and I think a lot of times that's where Church art comes up oh yeah because leaders have mishandled people's vulnerability right and on and people end up disillusioned and hurt and discouraged by the church and it's not everybody it's not the entire church it's not a tirade the churches are all bad but there are instances where this happens and yeah it's our responsibility as Leaders to Shepherd and Steward that vulnerability appropriately that's good yeah somebody's going to take that step to engage with me or engage with us in a relationship then I've got to be able to handle that correctly So speaking of influence you and you said God for he's put your heart in the leaders and I've seen you model that we meet all the time right and so I had lots of coffee and conversation and I feel like sometimes it's one-sided we get together and I'm rambling for 75 of the call so the time we're together I appreciate that but like but like then so building those relationships out over time they're like what is discipleship like is it a program right yeah is it like are you sitting down with somebody putting them through a 12-week book that you are doing together because so often like you were like we need to disciple people it's like okay what program can we start to do that right yeah so how does that work out in the context of relationship yeah in in my opinion I firmly believe that discipleship can't look like a program or necessarily a book well those can be great resources that can be included in discipleship in general is unique to the individuals that are walking it through and what I found to be successful in how I've walked it out is life on Life Ministry okay and what do you mean by that what by that essentially is opening my life to others to investigate to be a part of to see and I think open in the term spread if you will exactly yeah it's a crude way to say it but it's right it gives a good image yeah specifically young people and then even in leadership they want to see how I interact with my life they want to inter they want to see how I interact with my kids and I think if we're thinking of discipleship as a program it's all right you need to be fixed and this is how we're going to do it wow but if it's really walking this out like hey Jesus essentially had 12 guys walk with him that'd be where his disciples yeah he just did life with and so we end up with a bunch of projects instead of like Brothers and Sisters in Christ right yeah I think that's the interesting thing about a project is like eventually like if we're committed to people in relationship and friendships versus somebody as our project projects come to a close yeah relationships are for a lifetime that's right yeah that's such a good I've never heard that before like the what you just said about that like you were not we're not called to fix people yeah right and yeah we my dad used to say something all the time we were running seen challenges together that used to irritate the snot out of me because I couldn't never I could never figure out how to program it what he was saying he would say well we're running Teen Challenge we have 50 beds we have 50 different programs I'm a dad well there's no way to fund that like there's no way to figure that out he's like no you're missing the point he said we've got 50 different people that have 50 different sets of needs right 50 different personalities yeah and our way of ministering to each person isn't as you need that's good it may still go through the same process yeah but what works for this student may not work for that right yeah and so we have to be close enough to people to know them right in order to be able to adjust and give our lives to them in a way that's going to be appropriately received yeah so life on life so let's go a little deeper in that later so like what is that I guess in context you're giving your life to people inviting them to be a part of your life and I'm assuming in that there's opportunities that's where the gospel is ministered right yeah I think the one of the biggest differences about one-on-one discipleship as group discipleship is I don't know how Jesus walked essentially with 12 guys pretty closely and there's there's breakdown in the five and the three and then the 72 but 12 of them in gist so essentially maybe we're not created to disciple 100 people at a time maybe we're just we're created to walk in smaller groups with people and then create disciplers and so to fully get it I don't know if I was sitting with a gentleman or a woman that was mentoring or talking to a hundred people at a time if I would get the gist of what their life looked like as if they were meeting with me as one person or in a smaller group of two or three right so the yeah like the I think the table of of eating right breaking bread together there's so much power in eating together yeah it first of all it's it's a distraction uncomfortability right because we all got to eat and we're all good at eating right yeah 100 right we practice every day yeah and so as we're able to sit at our table and eat and commune like it just walls are put down immediately in general and then the aspect of like we have to build a relationship to gain trust yeah and the discipleship's not necessarily this organic thing that really happens right it takes intentionality it takes follow-up it takes follow it through and a lot of guys that I've walked with in the past like I've had to pursue it's not this thing that it works it's this oh man this relationship's going to take off right away it's there's there's a pursuit in it obviously the Lord is pursuing our hearts at all times yeah and he specifically put certain people on all of our hearts that he's called us to pursue through discipleship yeah that's good and I think step one if I if we're gonna put steps to it's seeking the Lord of what that looks like Lord who have you pledged on my heart specifically unless and walk through yeah I think I wanna mention this real quick back in early fall Crystal and I had the opportunity to go to a Revival tour up in Hagerstown Maryland and it was with a group of people that were retracing the step of the circuit letters of the Francis Asbury of the William Otterbein and essentially like these guys were all leaders of different denominations yeah but they were best friends there's a William getting and then a oh there's another gentleman I can't remember his name but these guys like four guys were his name was Christian Newsome or newcomer sorry but they were best friends and they lived in four different Geographic parts of the new world in a sense in the 1700s wow but the key was what this group had discovered is the reason that we have not been able to sustain Revival is because too much emphasis was put on this vertical relationship and not enough on this horizontal relationship and so as we engage not only in discipleship but in fellowship and communion like yes God is God has to be that has to be a initial connection point right but he's also created us as relational beings that we grow and we learn from each other as well yeah and he's in that too yeah and so we need to connect with him individually but then we need to connect with him in togetherness too yeah so amen that's that's powerful yeah there's a lot like the dominational thing and the divides like if I get Doctrine like I understand the goodness and Doctrine and all of that and yeah I 100 percent agree the doctrine is appropriate and all that stuff but I think so often the church as a whole has like we have our things we have our maybe secondary issues that we're so passionate about right that we just completely discount Brothers and Sisters in Christ that have the same primary focus and that piece about like four different denominations right but they still consider themselves best friends it's almost like politics like in modern culture like I think went on Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away right everybody talks about how far her and Scalia were apart but there was this thread that was out there in The Ether of life even though they were far apart politically they considered themselves friends right and like and again this isn't a political conversation but it's just the emphasis there that they were still able to overlook differences and engage in relationship and that's so huge just as you were talking this verse they continued steadfastly and Doctrine Fellowship breaking a bread and prayers then fear Came Upon every soul and Many Wonders and signs were done through the apostles and that's like I guess that's the mindset right of the discipleship for sure right just like they continued steadfastly right consistently but it's not just the teaching right it's the breaking of bread the prayer and the engagement with one another and out of that place Ministry yeah flows right yeah so yeah and I think too man this the trust building I think that's a huge part and why the relationships that's good we talked about how difficult it is to build trust and so if you're I'm assuming right if you're going to disciple somebody they've got to have a level of trust with you right and so that part about breaking down those walls and whatnot so what on let me shift like what excites you about what the Lord's doing right now yeah that's that's so cool that even bring that up like I felt like the Lord's really put on my heart like what is the now story of what he's doing and we've partnered with the with a couple in here that the Lord had placed on Rachel's heart to share on Wednesday nights every other Wednesday night we meet at the table and it's called now testimony okay and to just to create a space for people to share the now testimony of the Lord and not to Discount like how we came to Christ and what the Lord's done in the past but I want to know what the Lord's doing now right I want to know what the Lord's doing now in my life and what is my now story and so sorry that just to preface what you're saying the Lord really in a place now has my heart of contending for this college campuses right yes this demographic of 18 to 24 that our society and culture say that as this lost or this lost place or the church does like now that it's it's redeemable yeah and it's redeemable by the grace of the Lord like what does it look like to win back a or a generation right it's going to be hard work but if we all link arms and we're intentional about building relationship and not trying to create a program and not trying to put them into a church building or a another program but we're able to build a relationship and so I think that's the place where even the body of Christ needs to step up in a place like hey I'm willing to go I'm willing to invest dollars I'm willing to invest in dollars for coffee or for lunch right not like hey throw millions of dollars at a ministry right but just to invest in the lives of individuals like the availability piece I think is so key like when I was a college student I would have loved some random guy started to build a relationship with me and showed interest and begin to pursue me in a way of like I Got No Agenda yeah I just want to love on you yeah and you think about that too like right college students a lot of times they're away from home away from family and friends and so they're they're going to follow typically whatever the culture is right of that campus and they're going to get into that realm because they are isolated they are alone and they've only got the people that they're meeting at the college and so but I think it translates down to the the high school student and the middle school student like me we are losing a generation to to the cyber world or whatever we want to call it our phones and technology have our kids attention more than even parents do I noticed it with my own boys like I gotta we have to intentionally put our phones upside down to have conversations because it's so engaging it's so appealing yeah like it's I feel like it could be a strategic piece of how the enemy could be allowing us to lose connection in relationship with each other is technology yeah absolutely it's it was a tool meant to connect but it's all it divides right I'm a huge fan of Social and Tech and all of that stuff and using it but like I see it like I think Ashley and I were gone this weekend and I was very intentional about like putting my phone in personal Focus mode do not disturb the entire weekend so I didn't get anyone occasions wow and I don't do that very often right because there's a lot to come in and to deal with but just for her like a knowing how much she values that like I didn't make it tried not to make a big deal over it or whatever just did it and said it's on do not disturb no work this weekend et cetera but that meant the world to her in regards to relationships that I'm willing to take this time this pause right to just shut that down and just I'm all in I'm here with you right and on not but a million people that I don't really even know just like out there in the world so it's gen Z during the raspberry stuff I heard I had a friend post about that and he said that like if the church could just stop the bleeding if you will like slow down the losses right and just bring it back to a point of Burgess we're just not losing a ton and he did shared the statistics on his Facebook page and I'll try to find the post and I'll drop it into the comments or whatever but like the numbers you share but that the amount of people that would win to the Lord and see in the church with like outpace all the great Awakenings that we've ever had combined in history well like the way he did the math it was pretty fascinating I probably just butchered it so I'm sorry Dennis if you see this but like it just caught my attention it was like wow that's that's a huge huge thing it's a huge opportunity for the church yeah so I typically at the end of my podcast I have on in my office we're not in my office we're doing this off-site but in my office on my shelf I have a Lego DeLorean so back to the future is one of my favorite movies of all time and so I've got the Lego DeLorean with the LED lights in it's lit up and everything and she built it I did yeah it was like I think it was like 8 000 pieces maybe not that much but it was a lot I felt like it and I started building it random Side Story and this would be funny but like I started building it and I love the girls being a good dad letting them get engaged so I let them build a few pages and I step away and just let them work on it right and my kids like to rush through things right and so they rush through it and they were like yeah we got can we do another one they're just rolling through it and then like on they were in a hurry and man this may even apply to discipleship they were in a hurry to get to the result and hadn't put all the pieces insecure yeah and I got a little further down there the guide brought and I was moving something in the entire infrastructure the car just collapsed yeah and I had to build it all over again like I think sometimes that's what we do with discipleship yeah that's good like we're in a hurry just to get people to the next right the next box the next check have you committed to Christ you've gotten baptism you've taken the Lord's Supper okay now let's dedicate your kids it's just like let's move them through the programs right and the structure of the foundation is adults This Is Here Yeah and get a little later on in life a hard time hits that's right and the core just collapses yeah man wow yes obviously the foundation needs to be Jesus but as like man as you're doing life like it's all centering Around Jesus is studying the word together it's talking about the goodness of what he's doing and I think that's where the now comes in if we're not seeing the Lord moving our life on a daily basis we need to investigate where we're at with the Lord in a sense like I want yesterday's man I was good for yesterday as we're walking with the Lord we just need we need to cultivate this this the relationship in a place where I'm not living off of yesterday's word of yesterday's Mana yeah we were on on Monday night we a fire tunnel erupted at prayer and Crystal made a comment the next day she's like a fire tunnel experience with the Lord might last for about two weeks but if we're not cultivating a relationship with him it's good that two weeks ago is not going to carry me into the future it's not going to carry me into that next place that I need to be and so ultimately with the Lord like we're all called to carry our secret place with us and so even as we do discipleship I feel like it's important to seek the Lord together to and the hardest thing that I learned as I walked into the back end of discipleship like to discipling is how to communicate what it looks like you need to get closer to the lord well yeah we all know that's but how what does it look like yeah for sure and so one of the strategies for myself you mind if I go into like secret place talk no go ahead yeah absolutely one of the strategies let's talk about prayer on the show what I've for so Crystal now we've paid a lot of attention and listened to Corey Russell quite a bit over the years and Corey teaches about how to structure your prayer time and so even further Billy Humphrey him and Corey are they do a podcast together called gripped and he does a he presents breaking down that a little bit further of structuring our time with the Lord and so I struggled in my secret place with the Lord for a long time of like aimlessly seeking the Lord all right I know I need to spend time with the Lord so what do I do yeah I go and I sit and I listen to worship music maybe I read a little bit maybe I pray but it was this like all right have I been here an hour yet oh my gosh I've only been here for three minutes what in the world and so I've learned this strategy of first of all I need to make this meeting with the Lord the most important meeting of my day and one that I never miss right so I'm a very structured guy on my calendar and so I will in every day is different I can't be the first thing every single day some days I have 6 a.m prayer readings and so I've structured my week in a place where I'm meeting with the Lord in that he holds a place on my calendar every single day where i'm able to commune and spend time with him and then even further breaking that down into 15-minute increments I don't I'm not necessarily claiming 80d but I would say I have a short attention span yeah and so claim it in small increments is how I focus so I'll read for 15 minutes I'll worship for 15 minutes I'll write for 15 minutes I'll listen for 15 minutes and then I'll actively pray for 15 minutes and by the end of this hour and 15 minutes hour and a half I'm like oh it feels like I've been here 10 minutes and an hour and a half's gone by yeah and it's been like there's this sense of human accomplishment as I'm communing with the Lord yeah I think breaking things down into very practical sense like especially in terms of helping new Christians develop like it's just like it's like in being spiritual being a good Christian follower can look as simple as right structuring 30 minutes of prayer time every day and being consistent and faithful with it right it's good it's like it doesn't have to be like if I went to Teen Challenge that was one of the things they had 30 minutes of prayer on the schedule every day and like I remember first going into the living room and like you got to kneel you're going to pray and like 30 minutes was like eternity right I learned how to sleep like on my knees like with like so nobody could tell right like when I was first this brand new Christian still just trying to kick drugs and I'm like y'all want me to pray for 30 minutes and like what the heck man and eventually though as I started to practice and do it more and more it like it I looked forward to that time instead of dreading that time we were talking about the DeLorean and I was going somewhere with that question it was a great segue but like one of the things about the DeLorean ride that can go back to different time periods in life and so one of the things I started asking people especially as we if Jason could hop in a DeLorean that functioned and let's say you talked about earlier your season when you were a brand new Christian and there are some struggles with discipleship right not feeling like you were being personally discipled right like what would you what would Jason today tell Jason then to help him through that season right where he's I guess feeling this out figuring and out all on his own at that point if you will yeah what would you tell Jason back then that's that's a really good question and I think the first thing that popped in my mind is if if I were to be craving discipleship is to pursue it I think that's the mindset of the old Jason is I was waiting for someone to come porn to me instead of pursuing somebody to pour into me and I think later on you and I walk through this thing where I came to you and I said yeah the Lord's invited me on the Jonathan Journey David had a Jonathan right and the word says that their hearts were knit together yeah and essentially yes it's accountability but it's in a deeper way like we're supposed to and maybe we're not all supposed to have just one Jonathan maybe it's multiple Jonathan sure yeah but we're supposed to have those type of relationships where we are we're strong in their weakness and they're they're strong in our weakness and it's this act of doing life together so essentially our lives are discipling each other yeah I don't think discipleship like a program it never ends right like discipleship is essentially forever we're just at different places of discipleship yeah and sometimes the Lord will release Us From A discipleship relationship sometimes a lot he'll engage us even further the key I believe is if it stops at discipler and a disciple that's a problem right the process needs to be continually creating disciples and disciple makers and so it doesn't stop at that relationship then it's it's it's the multiplication strategy of hey what the Lord just did in you go do it with somebody else we're not going to end our relationship right this is always going to exist but yeah build relationship with other people yeah and show them what you learned or show them what the Lord did in your life yeah that's really good yeah I think that you we like the relationship with the Lord is the foundation right and it's not a program it's relationship it yet like if my walk with the Lord and my love for the word and my love for the Bible like my love to hear his voice and communicate his voice isn't isn't active isn't alive then it's not going to show up in my relationships with other people yeah and I need a program right I need a book to make it happen and I'm not knocking resources right but it's like that Mutual growth that comes because you and I can sit down and we both value the word right we both value what the Lord is saying and it's not forced for it to come up in conversation it's like this is what the Lord said to me this week or this is what I'm hearing out of the word it's not like we're not forcing that discussion it's just natural that's good because it's in both of us that's that's powerful dude like Pursuit yeah and so like man I'm gonna talk to the camera for a second like if you're out there and you're in that spot like you come across this conversation and there's like a hunger like anything worth having has to be pursued that's right and it's pursuing the Lord is good like in and of itself but people like there's just an acceleration that comes in our life and our walk and a deepening because people see our blind spots they're able to console us encourage us when we're having good things happen mourn with us when we mourn like all of that it adds so much value to life that's what God created relationships and so I think that like if you're listening to this there's a and take a huge note out of Jason's Playbook if you will like you may have to pursue it well they should notice me they should do this I think about my relationship with my wife she didn't notice me at first I had to get her attention now I was looking for more than just discipleship but like she wanted nothing to do with me at first and then not because she didn't like me because I just wasn't on a radar and she had other stuff going on in life right and so I think it's the same with discipleship like that's good people around us are busy and sometimes we've got to wave the flag a few times and get their attention right but once we do you never know what type of David and Jonathan relationship God could build in that season yeah that's right really good stuff yeah well Jason on how can people find the table coaches USA on the ministry that you've got not the ministry going on here how could they find you yeah so we're we're definitely on social media on on Facebook the table 61 in coaches USA and then our websites are soon to be up but yeah the my encouragement if you don't mind me jumping out okay the ministry is great in to come be a partner or create the create your own but essentially I feel like the Lord is just he's having we're all called to lead prayer meetings and maybe not in the official capacity of what we're thinking a prayer meeting should look like but with our families with our kids with our spouses maybe even in our places of business or maybe even on the streets like what does it look like to engage in prayer and it could be simple but to create a culture of prayer really like we the Lord has called us to commune with each other and commune with him and so as we communicate it's it's through prayer so yeah I just you to connect with the ministry no it's good man it's the heart I think in what you're doing it's like it's not just about the table 61. right it's about ministering to the Lord that's right and just encouraging other people that you don't need to show up in Harrisonburg today yeah like your home your business anywhere you're at this type of relationship can be built well thanks man I appreciate you taking time to chat and on jumping on as we yeah continue to move this whole podcast thing forward and see what the Lord does with it thanks for sharing your heart and your story so yeah thanks for having me Justin hey thanks so much for watching this episode if you enjoyed it please hit like or 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