00:00:01:17 – 00:00:19:20
Andrew Gibson
Welcome back to part two of our CFC podcast. We’re going to jump straight in as we are thinking about this theme of community. We laid the background for it in our first part, and we’re going to continue this conversation. Jill is back, welcome back to you. Yeah, good to see you and have you with us. As I say, with us, it’s just with me anyway.
00:00:20:03 – 00:00:20:08
Jill Boyd
It’s fine that’ll do.
00:00:22:12 – 00:00:47:05
Andrew Gibson
Yeah. So we finished off our conversation the first time, Jill, with this idea of what makes church community different. Like, as you said, you’re part of lots of different communities. You know, as am I. Particularly from a sporting world like that. That’s been a lot of like my life has been part of sporting communities. You’ve got your work community, the Sydenham community, you know.
00:00:48:08 – 00:01:13:17
Andrew Gibson
All of those good things and and yet we are, you know, we like quite literally, you and I are part of the church community and and the Church as a global community as well. So there’s like both the local and the and the global aspect of this. So like what makes church community different and why can’t I get community or can I get community outside the church?
00:01:14:20 – 00:01:17:13
Jill Boyd
It’s the big question. I mean.
00:01:17:18 – 00:01:18:23
Andrew Gibson
That’s just a small one to kick us off
00:01:18:23 – 00:01:42:09
Jill Boyd
Yeah. But I kind of think about the communities that I’m involved in and what’s the purpose of them. So I think of all of them are sorry. So I can’t even speak right now but I think of like work and whenever we’re in community and work. Yeah, we are challenging each other and our skill set, we are dreaming of how do we be a better team.
00:01:42:09 – 00:01:46:17
Jill Boyd
There is, there’s clear focus on the stuff that we are doing.
00:01:47:02 – 00:01:47:10
Andrew Gibson
Yeah.
00:01:47:16 – 00:02:17:04
Jill Boyd
And I think the interesting thing about church community and a Christ centred community is that for me it’s the community that actually it takes my entire being into consideration. So it’s not just here’s this community that’s helping me, up-skill in teeth world, here’s this community that’s helping me engage my children, you know, in the evenings or here’s this community that’s helping me do. You know, you can, you can label it for what it is.
00:02:17:04 – 00:02:40:13
Jill Boyd
Here’s this fitness community, which I am not part of. You can one day keep dreamin, but here’s this community that we, we have a goal in sight. But there’s something about our Christian experience where the community of God’s people are drawing us. Our entire being into a like a betterment programme, right? We’re trying to become more like Christ.
00:02:40:13 – 00:03:03:02
Jill Boyd
And that actually encompasses everything about me. It’s not just the fitness part or the diet part or the hobby part or I like to do this. So there’s that community, the Christian community is, is all of my being Spiritual Body so that actually when I present myself in those other communities, my Christian community invades them, right?
00:03:03:10 – 00:03:17:06
Jill Boyd
Because it’s about my whole self. It’s not just here’s a dental community that we just sit and talk around teeth. Which we do because we’re sad, we talk about floss, toothbrush and all that. I’ll not give you dental advice on this. Every part of me the hygienist in me wants to.
00:03:17:06 – 00:03:17:16
Andrew Gibson
I’m now going to close my lips.
00:03:17:16 – 00:03:29:12
Jill Boyd
Everybody does but the Christian community is about my entire being which is interesting, right? Because it’s about growth towards Christ likeness.
00:03:30:00 – 00:03:41:12
Andrew Gibson
Yeah. And I think I think I think you hit on something quite quite important there because Jesus was Jesus shows us what what it’s like to be fully human.
00:03:41:16 – 00:03:42:00
Jill Boyd
Mm hmm.
00:03:42:16 – 00:04:16:07
Andrew Gibson
Like so obviously we know he’s fully God, but he’s also fully human. And he shows us what it’s like to be a human who is completely yielded and submitted to the will of Yahweh, the will of God, the will of the Father. And he does that not by himself. But He does that with others. So there’s something in that holistic human experience of Jesus that he submitted to the father.
00:04:17:06 – 00:04:44:06
Andrew Gibson
He’s only doing what the father asks him to do, and he does that with others. So therefore, as followers, of Jesus who want to become more like him, who believe which we do, that he is and he is, that he is the one that we are journeying towards, becoming like he is transforming us and to to to be fully, fully human, to be fully who God has called us and created and made us to be in His image.
00:04:45:00 – 00:05:03:06
Andrew Gibson
And we do that together. And not just I suppose for me, I think about like the sports communities that that I’ve been part of and the team, you know, we use language of team all the time, you know, and, and we have, you know, you’ve team songs, you know, sort of similarities with churches that, you know, you’ve team songs.
00:05:04:05 – 00:05:28:16
Andrew Gibson
Yeah, actually we do actually saying there’s a flag flying high from the castle of my heart as our team victory song. But there’s team songs and there’s team, I suppose ritual, you know, there’s, there’s things that you habitually do and there are similarities. But I would never say that our sports community exists for anybody other than those in it.
00:05:28:22 – 00:05:29:17
Jill Boyd
100%.
00:05:29:18 – 00:05:32:05
Andrew Gibson
Is important that makes our church community different.
00:05:32:22 – 00:05:40:07
Jill Boyd
You know what? It’s back to that thought that we talk then and the very first podcast was like, we’re created for each other for others.
00:05:40:11 – 00:05:42:03
Andrew Gibson
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:42:03 – 00:05:51:15
Jill Boyd
So there’s, there’s a, there’s a mission where yes, we’re becoming like, Christ, we do that and form that Christ likeness by rubbing off one another.
00:05:51:16 – 00:05:52:18
Andrew Gibson
Yeah. Big culture.
00:05:52:20 – 00:06:11:04
Jill Boyd
Yeah. So we’re growing and we, we learn that the parts of us that aren’t doing so great in community and then we either choose to yield to the process and become more like Christ in those awkward scenarios. But the goal is always for others outside of our community to experience what life is all about.
00:06:11:07 – 00:06:11:17
Andrew Gibson
Yeah.
00:06:11:20 – 00:06:29:01
Jill Boyd
So within the church, what we’re saying is that we carry what we believe to be the essence of life, the truth of what life is all about. And which makes us slightly different. It’s not just this like club where we do stuff and we all like it.
00:06:29:18 – 00:06:57:03
Andrew Gibson
Yeah. There is a danger that, that that you reduce church to that. Yeah. Isn’t there like that? It becomes like an add on, like it’s another club and you know, for those who are listening, I know doing like inverted commas, you know, or like, you know, You know, it’s another club or it’s a hobby or it’s, it’s a thing that you add on to your, to your day.
00:06:57:03 – 00:07:04:21
Andrew Gibson
But actually the, the concept of being a church community is that it’s, it’s actually all of life. Isn’t that.
00:07:05:08 – 00:07:25:14
Jill Boyd
Yeah. Which then is even it like do you think just as you’re even speaking, I’m, I’m thinking out loud, but you know, is it then that we go to all these other clubs and if we’re honest, it benefits us because it ticks a box for us. Either we like the at the hobby. I go to this club and work because it pays me really well.
00:07:25:17 – 00:07:35:06
Jill Boyd
Right? So there’s reasons that I turn up in other communities but is the message of the kingdom that I turn up in this community For others.
00:07:36:23 – 00:07:39:03
Andrew Gibson
Not actually for me. Yeah.
00:07:39:11 – 00:07:54:12
Jill Boyd
And have we reduced the Christian message that I turn up here because I like it here and I get encouraged and I’m going to be challenged and I’m this and I’m that. And maybe that even needs to be a massive mind check. I’m turning up here for someone else this morning.
00:07:54:22 – 00:07:55:08
Andrew Gibson
Yeah.
00:07:55:20 – 00:08:22:13
Jill Boyd
Because if the focus is always other were have we got we treat this like another club when we just turn up in a hobby like experience as like, what is this doing for me? And the thing is, whenever we reach out to others, we will naturally grow and that but when we come into this space looking for our own needs to be met, we’ve kind of missed the message of the gospel, I think.
00:08:22:13 – 00:08:23:22
Jill Boyd
No, no, yeah.
00:08:24:00 – 00:08:49:04
Andrew Gibson
Yeah, no. Yeah, I think so. And I think I I’m interested in this conversation that I’m hearing people saying, you know, that I’m not I’m not going to go to church anymore. Mm. Or you know, I’m, you know, over the last couple of years, I’ve decided that I can, I can do this by myself or I’m going to take myself off and have my moments with God or, or whatever.
00:08:49:12 – 00:08:58:19
Andrew Gibson
And, and, and my response is like, well, if you’re not going to church, but you are part of the church.
00:08:58:19 – 00:09:00:02
Jill Boyd
You can run away from yourself every Sunday.
00:09:00:02 – 00:09:22:17
Andrew Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it’s not even, it’s not even just that, that it’s, you’re, you’re, you’re not, you’re running away from yourself every Sunday. Actually, you know, during your week, where are you church? Where are you being? Church, you know, and are you with your you’re like, again, if you follow Jesus, what was he doing in his daily?
00:09:22:17 – 00:09:53:01
Andrew Gibson
He was with his twos and threes. He was with Peter James, John, he was with his 12. If he was pulling them aside, he was talking to them. He was also going with them to the other as you as you’ve said, like so it was for each other. But it also was always for for others, you know, and so be that, you know, tax collectors or be that, you know, as the Bible says, heathens or sinners or, you know, and we then transpose that into today whenever you say something like, well, I don’t go to church anymore.
00:09:53:10 – 00:10:12:02
Andrew Gibson
And you what actually are you saying? Are you saying, well, I’m not following Jesus or I’m not part of the community. I’m not part of the body of Christ, because that’s also why the community of the church is referred to, isn’t it, as the as the body of Christ. And and you can’t then remove yourself from the body, can, you.
00:10:12:18 – 00:10:25:01
Jill Boyd
No, and is it then because we’re treating it like every other community. We’re part of like I know I’m joking about not going to the gym, right. But actually I’m not in a gym community because it doesn’t serve me well.
00:10:25:11 – 00:10:27:07
Andrew Gibson
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:27:07 – 00:10:49:14
Jill Boyd
So if I remove myself from community because I no longer it’s no longer a benefit to me. That’s that’s what happens with the gym. That’s what happens with sports clubs. That’s what happens to our slimming world. That’s no longer is working for me. So I’m out so that that is ingrained in our culture this is no longer serving me.
00:10:49:16 – 00:11:13:05
Jill Boyd
Therefore, I’m going to remove myself from this community. So are we translating that posture into church community where the language if we’re honest is like, this is no longer serving me anymore, therefore I’m removing myself when the message of the kingdom is, no, you’re here to serve the very person we follow washes feet.
00:11:13:23 – 00:11:15:14
Andrew Gibson
Came as a servant.
00:11:15:14 – 00:11:19:06
Jill Boyd
Yeah. Yeah, the very person we Follow lays his life down.
00:11:19:17 – 00:11:20:00
Andrew Gibson
Yeah.
00:11:20:00 – 00:11:30:20
Jill Boyd
So are we are we flippant with our posture when it comes to. It’s back to say it’s honestly back to being selfish on like, let’s just call it.
00:11:31:02 – 00:11:31:10
Andrew Gibson
Yeah.
00:11:31:18 – 00:11:47:03
Jill Boyd
It is, right? We we’re not self-centred community. We’re a Christ centred community. Which is why even on our vision statement, see if we don’t get that. Yeah. The rest of it, we might as well just close the doors.
00:11:47:03 – 00:11:50:18
Andrew Gibson
Yes because fundamentally the church then becomes no different.
00:11:50:19 – 00:12:10:08
Jill Boyd
No, this isn’t serving me. So off I go. And we’re never going to grow. We’re never going to mature, you know, isn’t that Paul’s like, I guess wish for believers. I wish that you would reach full maturity of faith like me, you know, I want you to imitate me as as you grow because I’m imitating Christ
00:12:10:08 – 00:12:10:13
Andrew Gibson
Yeah.
00:12:10:14 – 00:12:22:21
Jill Boyd
Yeah. So it’s a growth programme, and growing’s hard growing is hard to even think when you were kid. Growing pains in your knees. Like, it’s not. It’s not easy. Yeah. And it’s too easy to walk away.
00:12:23:19 – 00:12:58:00
Andrew Gibson
And actually, let’s let us lean into growing, because when when you think about times in your life and I think the times in my life of when we have grown the most, when has that been and you know and what has happened to enable that and and where did that take place you know and so that’s an interesting thing if we’re talking about growth and as we grow to become more like Christ where does that growth take place on how does that growth take place.
00:12:58:14 – 00:13:16:23
Jill Boyd
I know my biggest growth spurts have been in adversity. And it hasn’t been in a comfortable environment I praise the Lord right that he blessed. I think you’re never just in one sphere, are you? You’re in several spheres. And I always think that, you know, you’ve got the people who are like you and actually they make life really fun.
00:13:17:11 – 00:13:32:20
Jill Boyd
That’s really good. But if that’s the only sphere we’re in, then that’s, that’s all we’re going to get from life. If we want to grow, we actually have to throw ourselves into an entirely different sphere, a sphere that’s going to push our buttons, like for me, that’s like…
00:13:32:22 – 00:13:42:20
Andrew Gibson
Are you saying Jill? That church may be a place where there are people, who aren’t like you and who push your buttons?
00:13:43:03 – 00:13:43:20
Jill Boyd
Well, yeah.
00:13:43:21 – 00:13:44:17
Andrew Gibson
That’s the reality, isn’t it.
00:13:44:17 – 00:13:49:19
Jill Boyd
That is the reality. But yet it’s in my interactions with those people.
00:13:50:06 – 00:13:51:09
Andrew Gibson
And their interactions with you.
00:13:51:10 – 00:13:52:19
Jill Boyd
Yeah. And their interactions.
00:13:52:20 – 00:13:53:19
Andrew Gibson
Maybe a button pusher for People too
00:13:53:19 – 00:13:58:18
Jill Boyd
Well, obviously you’re not everyone’s cup of tea. That’s why I drink coffee.
00:13:58:18 – 00:14:03:03
Andrew Gibson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. I’m partial to the peppermint tea you know, on occasion.
00:14:03:03 – 00:14:26:01
Jill Boyd
Controversial but yeah, we very deliberately. I’m even thinking about connect groups because I think connect groups are super important yeah. Right. Because it’s not a friendship group. Now, you will make friends in connect group, but what is the purpose? This is where we got to think about why am I turning up and what is the purpose in my turning up to this community.
00:14:26:03 – 00:14:51:24
Jill Boyd
Yeah, what am I here to do? What am I here to give of myself? How am I being like Jesus and how am I serving by just simply being present to these people who are nothing like me? Those are the spaces I grow the most. And like I, I, we very deliberately, even when we were young Christians, put ourselves if we’re going back to that like intergenerational prophetic word, I have always found value in being in a room with those older than me.
00:14:52:03 – 00:15:00:06
Jill Boyd
Even when I think of like my parenting journey, I’m very deliberately friends with people who are ten, 15 years ahead of me, who have parented teenagers.
00:15:00:06 – 00:15:01:02
Andrew Gibson
Massive. Yeah.
00:15:01:02 – 00:15:11:19
Jill Boyd
Well, that’s huge, right? Because if I just do that, so you’re at the same stage of life if you and I just come together and have a moan about our kids, right? We can’t see.
00:15:12:07 – 00:15:13:00
Andrew Gibson
Yeah.
00:15:13:00 – 00:15:31:24
Jill Boyd
We don’t know what the next five years is. I can’t really give you hope because I’m, I. Oh, yeah. Our doors are wrecked too, because there’s holes in them. People are killing each other. Right. But I know from having someone ten, 15 years ahead of me, actually, that is what happens at this stage of life. And wait til you see the beauty that comes?
00:15:31:24 – 00:15:54:03
Jill Boyd
Like you keep pressing on. Yeah. Keep praying for your kids, keep going. And those people are so encouraging for me because they’ve been there, done that, got the t shirt and are up there championing people who are ten years, 15 years behind them, which is the importance of community that we look at other people who have paved the way and we don’t dismiss them, but we, we need their voice.
00:15:54:09 – 00:16:12:12
Jill Boyd
Because they’ve been here and they’ve journeyed it and they’ve made mistakes and they’re so open. Like I’m asked what I love about our CFC family. There is vulnerability in those conversations. We’ve, we’ve got it wrong or I wouldn’t do it that way. I try to this way. This is what happens. And there’s just so much wisdom in the room.
00:16:12:12 – 00:16:46:23
Andrew Gibson
And there’s value in that. And like I even, you know, it is, it is, it is it’s not unique, but it is it’s quite unique actually that that the church community and we here at CFC and, you know are multigenerational like, you know, even at one of our sites yesterday where I was speaking the the amount of people in the room from all generations, like literally from like literally a two week old baby who’s interestingly whose presence actually brought lots of joy and made a difference to the room.
00:16:46:23 – 00:17:13:08
Andrew Gibson
So it’s that aspect of you have everyone actually matters, right? And then you had like, you know, great grandparents in the room as well. And like literally everything in between, there was vitality, there was connection, conversation and and there was much learning and you know, it wasn’t it wasn’t going to be where everyone would, as you say, like choose to be or it’s like a friendship thing necessarily.
00:17:13:18 – 00:17:34:14
Andrew Gibson
But there was a recognition that as as people came and served served communion and shared communion ther were people who served through worship and song. There’s people who welcomed, there’s people who prayed, there’s people who serve tea, coffee. There was people who, even during the sermon were putting an arm around someone who’s in tears and they’re praying for them as a as as you know, you were speaking.
00:17:34:18 – 00:17:42:23
Andrew Gibson
You had this beautiful. Like, we are here for each other. Not just to have my own needs met.
00:17:42:24 – 00:18:02:24
Jill Boyd
Yeah. And do you know the thing that’s I think is really good in community and I’ve definitely noticed this with myself, right? Is when I over focused, I come into a room and I want to actually hear about other people, I go, tell me your story.
00:18:03:00 – 00:18:04:01
Andrew Gibson
Yeah. The importance of other stories.
00:18:04:10 – 00:18:32:10
Jill Boyd
And tell me your journey. And I’ve realised that even people who, who really do wind me up the wrong way see when I hear their journey, their history, their story, lots of things start to fall into place and I, there’s just, there’s a softening in me because I think at times we, we want to dehumanise people, right? And people do something to hurt us and we make the thing the thing.
00:18:32:23 – 00:18:47:12
Jill Boyd
And then we’re responding to the thing and forget that there’s a person attached to the thing and the minute we start to see each others heart there’s just something that changes things whenever we open ourselves up to connection with people.
00:18:47:15 – 00:18:48:03
Andrew Gibson
Yeah.
00:18:48:03 – 00:18:57:24
Jill Boyd
And that it becomes less about the stuff they do and about who they are, which we ultimately know, right? Because if it’s about who you are, why it is what you do, annoy me.
00:18:58:20 – 00:19:08:01
Andrew Gibson
What I would say and not as well is you’re talking about seeing the human in someone I would maybe even go and take us to a stage further.
00:19:08:01 – 00:19:34:11
Andrew Gibson
Go see the image of God in them. That I think if that’s the first thing and what we prioritise as a CFC church community that we look on each other and first of all we identify and we see the image of God. And so I think that changes how we see church community and our role within that and yeah, wow listen we’re rollin through to the end of this Jill
00:19:34:11 – 00:19:59:11
Andrew Gibson
But I think before we do, I think it’s important to, to acknowledge this idea of of continuing steadfastly like in Acts 2 we read this, it’s like they’re devoted to this. They continue steadfastly there is. It continues on. It happens. It keeps going like we commit to it. You know, we don’t give up in meeting together not just on Sundays but like through the week and connection and all that stuff.
00:20:01:02 – 00:20:10:14
Andrew Gibson
And we know we read that in the early church that this community was doing this and it was making a massive impact. They were for each other, but it was making a huge difference to others around them, like thousands.
00:20:10:15 – 00:20:11:22
Jill Boyd
And they stood out
00:20:11:22 – 00:20:34:23
Andrew Gibson
They really did. But it’s not too long into the story of community. And we would maybe know this as well where problems start to come in community. But maybe next time in part three we’ll we’ll we’ll have a chat around that and what does problem look like in community and what’s your.
00:20:34:23 – 00:20:37:12
Jill Boyd
That’s soon going to soon be part 49.
00:20:39:24 – 00:21:01:06
Andrew Gibson
It will be really really really great in our next conversation around what is it look like when community has some issues and there’s tension and there’s problem and what how are we more like Christ than ever actually in that moment and what also does that say to each other and what does it say to others as well? Right.
00:21:01:06 – 00:21:02:18
Andrew Gibson
So I think it.
00:21:02:21 – 00:21:03:06
Jill Boyd
Sounds Great..
00:21:03:06 – 00:21:06:01
Andrew Gibson
Brilliant. We’ll chat then.
00:21:06:01 – 00:21:07:00
Jill Boyd
Yep. See you soon.
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