(upbeat music) - Christmas in July, Scott. - Christmas. ♪ This is you and me and me and me ♪ - Long time listens to recognize that song from Jordan trying to remember it Christmas. - Man. - The Grinch soundtrack. - That's my Hannah's favorite Christmas movie. So we remember. ♪ Shoopity doopity doopity doop ♪ - It came on in the house and I was like, "That's it!" - Yeah, that was it! - Yeah, that's it. - That's right, Justin Hagler back for another round. If you missed last week's episode, go back and check out the building update. We've been talking about all the new space, what's been happening. It was great, shared a lot of good stories of people who've been giving, sacrificially, helping make it happen. You've worked your tail off, Justin. - Whole lot of people, yeah, sweat equity. - Sweat equity, that's really, it's a good phrase. - See, well here's the thing though. So like when you have Christmas music starting they're probably going like, what does that have to do with anything? Well, it's because it's gonna be your chance to give now. - That's right, that's right. - It's the Christmas spirit. - Christmas in July. - Yeah, what 'cause it's Christmas in July. And that's a little weird 'cause people are like, what do y'all mean? So we're gonna try to explain that today because a lot of people have given to this point to make everything happen. They've donated granite, they've donated labor, they've donated, you know, materials. They're just missing a lot of people that have helped. So we're gonna try to guide them through how they can give and also be given too, 'cause we're gonna give them an exclusive behind the scenes tour. Come on. - We got, pull, we got Santa. - Oh yeah, he's gonna be in person. We're all doing this on Sunday, July the 28th. - Go, go, go, go. - We want you to join us at the boardwalk in the new space there. We talked about it last week of all the work to get done for the wedding that we had, the event center area downstairs is a lot closer to being done, if not very close. - Yeah, yeah, probably 95%. - There you go. - So we want you to be able to see that. We're gonna have the band do worship night. So if you've missed live music, we're excited to come back. We'll have communion. And then you're gonna talk a little bit about the building and the space and give you a chance to see it. - Yeah, and I'll be talking that morning too. So don't miss the morning message 'cause we're gonna try to invite you and kind of set it up in the morning and then come back, take communion, let everybody worship together, have a little Christmas music. Santa's gonna be there. He's even maybe singing out here. - Oh, I mean, they're maybe a little surprised. - We got ice cream, blue bell, ice cream hooking us up. - Thank you for that blue bell. We got somebody in the church, great to us and so-- - Will it be Christmas themed ice cream, then? - No, I don't know about that. - I don't know if they produce how far out. - Christmas tree. - No, I don't know if they're gonna do that. - It's gonna be delicious, though. And it's gonna be hot. - It will be delicious. - Glad to get some ice cream. - So, it'll be fun. - It'll be fun. - Let's back up real quick, Justin. You're talking about this message of the church in the building being different things and the building is just a tool. So, let's just recap that and kind of get your thoughts of as we're preparing and talking about this, you see the space, get everybody's mind right, get them wrapped around. - Well, the only reason I say that is like, we've all been apart of simple church that's, you know, in this room and then you go beyond that the volunteers and then some of us for 17 years is 17th year coming up this September. And it's a little counterintuitive because you're always like, well, I thought y'all didn't care about a building. I didn't think you really worried about that and it wasn't about the building. And so, they're going, I don't really understand. Well, the main reason is, and I said a little bit last podcast, the church is the people and that really is about us meeting needs, serving, solving problems in the community in the name of Jesus, whether that's locally or globally or whatever's gonna go on and the building that you meet in, we've always leased space from. Well, when we got the opportunity to be the boardwalk, it became a unique opportunity that gave us more time for less money. So it was a wise investment of the resources that we have. So we decided to go ahead and pull the trigger and create a home for the next 30 years, long-term lease at the boardwalk. But that also meant we had to remodel it. We have to put money into it. You have to put, you know, equipment into it. So all of that is going on currently, but we didn't want people and we still don't want people to think, well, now we're home and that's it. And it's like, now this is just a tool. That building is just a resource to be used to help us do the job that God's called us to do. And that's meeting on Sunday mornings. And now we can have six other days we can meet because we have it now for the first time ever. You got more time than ever. You also have different spaces, you have children's space, which is gonna be incredibly upstairs, downstairs. You got upstairs worship area where you can have church and all kinds of large events. And then you have a downstairs meeting space. It can be an event space. It can be for weddings. It can be for any kind of meetings. There's all of this space. You have outdoor space in the, you know, grass area with an outdoor stage and a, you know, a little cafe area, big parking lot that's now through the city. But we obviously, let's get to use it. All of those things are just tools to be used to help us further the gospel and, you know, love on people and solve problems. And yeah, I just don't want people like when they go and it's like, well, you know, well, now we've made it. You know, I was like, man, we got a long way to go. Yeah, 'cause the truth is, is we haven't. We still got a lot to accomplish and the resources that we have now are true blessings. So whether that was the boardwalk or, you know, a company that's helped us out or someone donated a resource to make it all happen or volunteered their time, their skills, all those things matter. But we got a lot left to do, you know, and that's why people to see how far it's come. But then also see how they can get involved and see what they can give back, whether that's a little bit of time to work on a project or a little bit of more resources or maybe an idea. Hey, man, what about this? We've had a lot of people throw out all these different ideas and so we're putting all those into a, you know, think tank and go, okay, what can we pull off? What can we not pull off? How can we help, you know, what will it look like? - Absolutely, so if you have a skill or something you can donate or be a part of, we'd love for you to fill out the skill survey. It's in the link we've been talking about. It's in Father's Day and that is the best place to get on that list, to get updated on upcoming things. The building and angel build coming up and these different resources and opportunities. So thank you to everybody who's already done that. We definitely want you to do that if you're interested in helping. But on the 28th as we're doing this, the kids building especially, I was thinking about my kids and growing up there, Scott's about to be a dad, Jordan's got young kids. This is gonna be this church they grew up in. This is gonna be this place they do in this next generation. So bring your kids to the 28th, have a family night, come do the fun stuff with Santa, take your pictures and get ice cream. But really, we want you to see and buy in and get the vision of this is the space that we want your kids to be a part of. The stats, everything is saying that kids, the next generation is leaving the church more than ever. We wanna be for this next generation, and for the kids, Christy does a great job with her team, what they're doing, they'll be able to do more than they ever have before. And we're theming at Christmas in July because we want that spirit of giving and generosity at Christmas that comes around to help them be able to make that happen. - Yeah, and I think the reason that, like if you talk about all of those things, whether that's kids coming or staying or them being involved, if you're involved, it's obvious, you just feel better about it. You understand what's going on. And this is what's going on. We're giving you a way to be involved behind the scenes. It's not open to the public. We've only done one event, and it was a favor to Eddie and Elizabeth's 'cause we really wanted to try to help them out in a binary, but this will be the- - It's done anyway. - Yeah, this is the first event though, for the whole church that we'll have. There's only gonna be one time for it to be the first. So we want you to be able to walk through and get a behind the scenes tour of what the kids space it. It's not totally complete, so you're getting to see it still in renovation mode. But we're hoping that by September-ish, we're gonna be in. So we want you to come in now and see it before it's completed so you can appreciate it a little bit more. And then also help us meet some of the needs, whether that's chairs that need to be bought, some little stuff, TVs or countertops, there's little things that we want you to have a party and we want you to go, man, I'm in. Maybe if you've already given to make it possible, but maybe once you see it, you go, man, I can give a little bit more or I'll give to that specific thing to make it cool to see it get pulled off in time. So I think it's gonna be cool. - And being involved though, gives you ownership. - Thank you to everybody who have done pledges, we've been doing it for a while, you've been faithfully giving you that, we still need you to do that, please continue to do that. - Yeah, just real quick on that, Evan, if they wanna pay it off early, it really would help us 'cause there's some people asking about that. The reason why is we're coming to the end of the construction, but the money's not all in yet. That was intentional. We wanted you to have time to be able to fulfill the pledge, but if there's any way you go, man, I can pay that off early. It gives us access to the resources to complete the job without having to have more debt 'cause we don't wanna be hanging debt over our heads. If some people is just holding the money, they're like, "Oh, I'm just gonna let it play out." Some people have to, like me, I gotta let mine play out. I don't have the lump sum to be able to pay it off, but if you do, anything will help to go ahead and get it, turn it in now if you wanna turn it in early 'cause it'll help us to complete the job about having as much debt. - Yeah, and some of you have been coming to the church and joined and been a part of it since the pledges even happened, so you weren't able to do that. You weren't a part of that. Some of you might have been in a place to pledge, but on the 28th, we're gonna have some creative opportunities in some ways that you can buy in and be a part of it. So if that's helping to buy kids equipment that we need or different furniture or different parts of it, you'll be able to walk around and see it, see what it looks like, get the vision, and we want you to be a part of that. So you can help to make the next generation happen, that it can be a part of that kid space. - Let's all get the vision in '80s graphic. - Oh, there you go. - Well, the thing is, is that if someone's new, I think that's what'll be cool is that we don't talk about it every Sunday. We try in the pre-show, but not everybody watches the pre-show. - Which it should? - Yeah, 15 minutes before we reach out. - Just go back and watch it on YouTube later or whatever. Listen, but the benefit of seeing it now, you really do know what we're talking about. You've not had a chance to walk through it. Early on, we had like a groundbreaking where we started the demo. People, the kids tore up the walls and all that stuff. I spent a long time ago. So if you've not seen it, you're coming into it now, you can go, man, it really has made a lot of a ground up. We're close to opening. I mean, like very close, but we want to finish strong. We want you to help finish the pledge strong. If you can pay off early, if you can give a little extra, if you can buy something to help a piece of equipment or whatever's gonna go on, all of that's gonna help. Because we got LEDs we'd like to accomplish. That's big screens where people can watch outdoors. There's all this great, cool things that we can pull off, but you got to have the money and the resources to do it. - Not shocking anybody listening. Things are getting more expensive. - Well, but also-- - Yeah, that's true. - But unlike certain organizations, we don't have a lot of money that some organizations like us do. - Well, I was listening to a podcast. There was a church raising money for a building that Bill already had sent. And they're like, yeah, we're trying to add and expand. It's gonna be a $25 million project. That's a lot of money, depending on how your list is $5 million seems like a lot to you, but if you've never done it, that's really about as cheap as anybody could possibly do it. And having people volunteer and donate and give helps offset that. - Oh, yeah, and we know for us, it's been a lot, but hopefully you've already seen, God's blessed you for what you've sacrificed. I mean, there's been plenty of opportunities that God has given back to us as a church and me, as a family. And so if you've not tried that, just try something small and wish watch it, see how he doesn't give it back. And then when you get to see that you're family and you will be able to enjoy something that we've never had before, it is an added benefit when you walk down there and go, man, this is gonna be pretty cool. If you can go outside and watch the service outside or watch the service downstairs or go into the big room or drop your kid off or your grandkids on the church. I mean, and hopefully we'd love to, right now, we don't have the money, but we wanna raise and do the playground. Everybody keeps talking about don't talk about stuff that's, it's a big value though. Like if you want the area to be finished, you want them to be able to walk out there and go, man, there's a grassed area, there's a playground, there's-- - And that's the vision for outside where the fountain was. - Yeah, you'll see all those and talk to companies and it's-- - Yeah, it's doable. - It's just my money. - And you'll see it when we-- - Kids can play on it. - Yeah, when you come down there on the 28th, you'll be able to walk through and see some of that. And then you can kind of go, yeah, that is of a value to me. I wanna be able to enjoy that part of it, whether it's an outdoor worship night, on Ashrow Turf with your kids playing on a playground. That sounds like a pretty good night to me. At the same time as if you're having a, like we had big 4th of July, just recently. Imagine now, fireworks go off the bridge, by the way. Imagine having free fireworks and having a place for an outdoor concert, your kids to play and you can go in and have food and food trucks all around there. We can do anything, but you gotta finish it. You gotta have that stuff done. And so we need a little help crossing the finish line. It's gonna be awesome. - And then even if you aren't, if you're an online watcher, we've been reaching more people than ever and doing that. It's part of a big part of my job, what we do and talking to people and we had Troy White on a couple of weeks ago on the podcast. He lives in Tyler, but he watches every week. He drives over some and if you enjoy being a part of the church and you can't be there in person, we'll have some creative ways that you can be a part of that if it's an Amazon list or if it's shopping for different parts of the things. To be a part of the online community at Simple Church, Tim and Sherry go way back and have been excited in doing it and just think about for the last five or six years as it's really changed and shifted. There are lots of people that watch that will never be there in person, but to stream it, to see the equipment, to be able to get the product that you do and enjoy and be a part of Simple Church. You can still be a part of that too and we'd love for you to partner with us. - Yeah, go to the YouTube channel so you can. When we do this walkthrough on the 28th, it's walkthrough and worship and then the theme is, Christmas in July 'cause we're gonna have some fun with Christmas music and giving and stuff, but it's really two things happening. You can walk through the facility, not completed, and we'll have a time to worship together. So it's not gonna be a long night. We're not gonna keep you there all night, but if you wanna see it first, this is your opportunity. And if you wanna help us, then we're gonna give you ways to help us from the smallest to biggest gifts. It does matter, all of it adds up to be able to help us out. And I mean, I think we were looking at a chair of $35 or something. So believe it or not, we gotta have about 800 of those. So like when you're adding that up, do 800 times 35, I didn't go to-- - That's a lot of money. - Yeah. Well, it's just hard to do it all at once, but if everybody does a little bit, you go, man, I can't even afford that. Well, you can do part of a chair, you know? It's the same thing, all of those little things add up to being able to fill it, you know? What you guys got? - 28,000. - 28,000. - Yeah. - So you can't write a $28,000 check, but you can help buy a chair. - Yeah, you can buy a chair at it. - $28 check. - We read a kid's book for 4th of July. Do y'all know the story about the Statue of Liberty getting crowd sourced? - No, that's cool. - Yes, it had to. 'Cause France gave it to us and they're like, "By the way, U.S. the money." - No, France gave us the thing free. They didn't have the money for the podium. - That's right, yeah. - It was gonna go on. And the U.S. government said, "Nope, Congress didn't pass it." - Yeah. - So kids sending their money and mailed it in and they raised like the equivalent of $150,000 and today's dollars, they sent it in points. - Joseph Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize, put it in the paper and they all sent it in, and came together and did good. - Mm-hmm. - You ever been to the Statue of Liberty? - I have. - I have, we went. - I have too. I did not climb it 'cause-- - Got a narrow stairwell. - I did not go for either, yeah. - I was not going to, it's beautiful. - Beautiful, from a distance. So crowd sourced and working together, we can accomplish more than we can. - We can build the Statue of Liberty. - And simple church is not a 100 year old church and it has a bunch of old givers, it's not a big money, and it's, this picture, this group of 100 year olds in a church, sorry. - There's some of them that haven't. - No. - Absolutely. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - But we want to be for the community, we want to do that and takes everyone working together to be a part of that. So if you have not given, if you've not been ever someone that's been able to tie, they're given regularly, this is a chance that you can buy in and be a part of helping to make it happen for the future. - Get some ownership, sweat equity. - Well, the biggest thing is, I think for, there's all those things are big, but the biggest thing on the 28th is you will be able to see it. A lot of times like for us, we've, you've given and people have given, but there's not always necessarily a way to go like, what's it going to? - And we see it in an hour. - Yeah, we see it, but when you walk through this now you go, man, this is gonna be good. And everybody's seen it up to this point is impressed and very, very grateful. So I think everyone that walks through there go, and this is gonna be cool. And you will be seeing upstairs in a rough state still, it's still in the middle of construction, so it's not quite there yet. - Oh, it's beautiful. - It's getting there. - That air conditioner works. - Yeah, we got a good air. Thank God, thank you for being here. - July is quiet up there too. - Yep. - Absolutely. So July 28th, we want you to be a part of that. We're excited about what's coming. August 4th is promotion, so kids are gonna move up while we're in the theater. We're still in the movie theater having services. We'd love for you to be a part of that, being able to come and enjoy that. And I know the preschoolers moving up into the theater for the first time, it's a big change. They got a little Han the Lazenby. It's excited to be a kindergartener. We're talking to her about it and going. So it's all exciting. It's a lot happening. We want you to be a part of what's coming up here in the next few weeks. And if you've listened to this, you missed July 28th, we got more stuff coming. It's gonna be close. - Yeah, I just realized that when I drop off my kid, people are gonna think I'm his grandfather. (laughing) Oh, people are glad you're on the podcast. - I can't wait. Scott is getting his world right here. - Yes, he's 25. - I was just gonna say real fast too, when it goes back to it's just the reason that we want you to see it now. And Evan's kind of lived to it. And I kind of set it in the podcast, the last one. But we're trying to shoot for this fall. So we're to open, open. So everybody keeps asking, but we gotta get the money in. That's why we want you to see. If we can get over the money in, we get all these things in. We hopefully can even maybe make our birthday around September 15th. - We're hoping to fall into our new building. - Wow. - You already been talking about the Christmas series. We're excited about some creative Christmas series. - Yeah, that's gonna be fun. - For December, but Christmas and July. - It's a series I'm excited about. - It'd be fun. - The possibility of what we may be able to pull along. - I made chips, I twitched the other day. You know what, they just announced. - What? - The unnamed New Star Wars movie comes out December, 2026. - Ooh. - Ooh. - Ooh. - The Unimid. - We could bring Christmas too. - Christmas back, yeah. - Yeah, that's all right. - Such a great. - Well, we're gonna have fun this Christmas. We got Christmas in July, July, 20, 8. - Early Christmas. - Yeah, and then you're gonna have a pretty cool Christmas thing at the boardwalk. That's gonna be pretty awesome. - Here more. - And you're gonna be in the new facility. So that will definitely be happening that we'll be there. - Christmas, we're falling into it. (laughing) - You're proud of that one. - Yeah, absolutely. - That's average at best. - That's best. - Maybe. - That's actually Scott's middle name. (laughing) - Yo. - Hey, yo. - Hey. - Hey. - Hey. - Hey. - Oh man, so. - Justin, thank you for coming on. Thank you for sharing the vision. We're excited about what's happening. I know all of us that are there and a part of it. It's getting to that point. It's gonna be looking back and seeing that we got there, but we gotta get there. - We gotta get there. We need you to get there. - We need you to get there. - I hope make it happen. That's right. So thank you for downloading. We put the links in the show notes, all the information there, everything you need, if you want to give, if you want to fill out that skill survey, if you want to be a part on the 28th, we'd love to see you. And if you're listening after the fact, keep checking in each Sunday. We'll be at the boardwalk in the movie theater and we're getting closer and closer to September. - All I was gonna say for we leave, thank you to everybody who's given, who's sacrificed, it doesn't matter, pledge, giving your sweat equity or your cash or whatever. Really, we're super, super grateful because you're fixing to see by the end of this year and maybe in this fall, we may be able to all experience it together and just very, very grateful for everybody, but don't miss July 28th, man. I think you're really, really gonna come Sunday morning, just put a little time that night, bring your kids out, you're gonna have a good time and you're gonna be able to see what we're so excited about. - It's insane. - It's innocent. - That's it, Christmas in July. - Thanks for listening, bye-bye. - Bye-bye. - Thanks for downloading this episode. We appreciate you listening to Backstage with the simple church podcast, subscribe. So each week you get the new episode when it comes out on Wednesday. - Exactly, 'cause that's what you want, it's the new content. - That's right. Automatically pop up in your feed, Spotify or Apple podcast, wherever you listen to podcast and while you're there, leave a five star review. - Please do, 'cause it helps people find us and plus, we deserve it. - That's right, Scott, you do a great job. - Oh, so do you. - And thanks for listening, share it with a friend, send it to somebody that should enjoy this episode and subscribe as well. And thanks for being a part of the simple church. - Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
