Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
Conversation with Fum & Renee Oduko
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This conversation with Fum and Renee Oduke explores the tension and the integration between vocational success and faithful discipleship, digging into the practical realities of following Jesus while pursuing excellence in the workplace.
We pray you’re blessed by this conversation—and we’d love to see you in person. Join us every Sunday at 10am. See you there.
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Alright gang, how are we feeling? Are we feeling good? It's great to have you with us. If we haven't met, my name is Luke. I'm one of the pastors here. It's great to have you with us. Welcome, welcome. Today's gonna be a great day together. Um we had we have actually organized to um to have uh conversation with Kelly, who's one of our um amazing people in the church, um, who's also a psychologist, but she's is actually quite unwell um this morning. So we've actually done a little bit of a pivot, and I thought this actually might be a real God moment for some of you. Maybe this is exactly what God wants to communicate to you. So I'm going to spend some time talking through vocation, being very successful, as well as following Jesus in the workplace with Film and Renee. So would you make them welcome? Love these guys. If you haven't met, um these guys uh have been part of our church for I guess a couple of few, a couple of few months. Four, three, four months, okay. Um, and amazing people, and you you wouldn't know it by talking to them because they're quite humble, but actually have quite significant uh contributions in the workplace as well as having great family and marriage and contributing at a high level in our church as well, and have done for many, many years throughout church, their church life. So um guess a great example, and I would just love to be able to dig into your life a little bit together with us. So we're gonna open up. Does anyone have a question for them? Um we'll just open it up this morning. Um that's a joke, it's okay. Just be calm, it's okay. Um, so you start off with um firm. You have quite a fun and large career role in your life. I think we've got a picture of your LinkedIn actually. Um we just won't keep it up there all day. But um but but you have a large role in I believe it's in mergers and acquisitions for one of the largest companies in the world.
unknownYeah, so I'm a partner.
SPEAKER_01Is that on? There we go. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, sorry. Yes, I'm a partner at um PWC. So we're a professional services organization in 150 countries. In Australia, we have uh 7,000 staff, and so I'm one of the partners in the what we call the deal space. I help companies uh essentially like borrow the companies, help them in mergers and acquisitions, restructuring strategy, and all that sort of good fun stuff.
SPEAKER_01I love, I think on your LinkedIn, I think it basically says boss of deals. Not quite, but it's um which is pretty cool. Let's try that. Um and and so would you tell us like when how when did you guys meet? How did this all how did this all begin?
SPEAKER_00Do you want to go, babe?
SPEAKER_02We have different versions of this story.
SPEAKER_01As always, yes.
SPEAKER_02When did we meet? We actually went to the same church together for years and years. Um I've known for probably since he's 13. I'm slightly older. Um and we were just in the same church together for a long, long time. Um, and then in our young adult years, we were always just great mates. There was a heap, heap of us. Laz was one of those mates. Um just a heap of us that would just hang out all the time. Um that was the Maccas era, so we would just all eat at McDonald's and like hang out in the church car park. That was just like the height of cool. Um and then there was just a moment where I was like, this guy's more than great, like he's awesome. And then two years later we dated. So there was a long gap of just being special friends. Is that how you would describe it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I think I was a little bit more shy than than most others, but I just yeah, I think we just had some really great times together and just thought, let's just make this official.
SPEAKER_02Actually, if you were moving to London as the catalyst.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so one of the reasons I was gonna be moving to London, I got an offer with PWC to go move to the UK office, and I just felt I didn't want to leave without at least having this person as one of my special friends as a girlfriend. So I just put that off on hold. I said, I'm not gonna go, I'm gonna pursue this instead.
SPEAKER_01So you actually put off your career to pursue Renee? Yes. Wow, there you go. Shout out. Come on, boys, get it together.
SPEAKER_02Write that in your notes.
SPEAKER_01There you go. Okay, so obviously, um, so Renee these days, working in some of the church planning evangelism space in Australia, we actually cross paths a lot because we both are working in, you know, helping church planners in Australia. And so we often run into each other.
SPEAKER_02And we just point at each other across the room and laugh.
SPEAKER_01Um, but obviously it doesn't all start there. We could look at your life today and say, wow, what an amazing career, what what impact you guys are having. It doesn't start there though. Um, talk us about the journey to get from from from you know where you are today. How did it how what was that journey like?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, maybe I'll just take a little bit of our journey with Pit IBC. So just context-wise, I've been with the firm um 20 years now, so 20 years this year, which I think um when I tell people that, I think, oh wow, 20 years. I think it's just my moisturizer, that's what it looks like. It is, but um keeps me keeping fresh. Um but basically I started the grad of university, um, and we actually spent uh 10 years overseas, so in 2012, and we moved to the UK to London, and it was interesting because 2011, we were both engaged, not both engaged, we were engaged to each other. And we were we were out. I was I think I was at home doing my master's studying. Renee was getting her wedding dress with her friends, and we both felt at the same time that we were not gonna be in Brisbane the next year. Um, and it was really interesting because we just thought, oh, that's that's an interesting, we just felt the prompt from God. And back then I'd actually had a lot of opportunities to uh move to Melbourne, so I thought that's probably what we're gonna be going to move into Melbourne, and then I started sort of pursuing those things, nothing, nothing came up, um, which is very strange. And then we just thought, well, just give this to God. Um don't do this, but we said, hey God, you have till September 30 to tell us what's gonna happen. If not, um we're gonna just put this on on hold. And then um, and then interesting, like on the I think on the 15th of September, I got a call from my boss in Brisbane and said, hey, the the the guys in London want you to come over. Can you they want to have a chat with you first? Can you have a chat with them to see if also you want to pursue? Okay, great. I had a chat with them, and then they said, Yes, can you come over to London? And that chat day was on the September the 30th, which was a pretty ironic, I think. Um, but then then we then got married in November, then went to the UK initially for two years. Um, we had a really great time, but we kept extending. Renee got a role at the church, um, they were attending to sort of out of nowhere, they wanted her to come on staff, so then we extended and extended. Um, and then our first son, Oliver, Ollie, was born there in the UK, and then we then moved to the US, so New York, for 18 months, and that was a really great experience with the firm as well. They're just doing some really interesting things, working in strategy from a global perspective. And then my our second son, Zeke, was born in New York as well in this state, so he's an American citizen, um, and that comes from tax consequences for those who know anything about that. So we've got to manage that later on, but that's that's neither here nor there right now. Um, just see my brain, where my brain works. Um, but then I think what was interesting about that season is that actually we when I was in the US, we're then trying to explore what's next for us as a couple. For us, we're very we very want to know that we want to be led by God. I think we want to focus on our time, make sure we can hear from God what it's God is asking us to do. And at that point, um we we actually each season we call each season something differently, and that season we called it the nevertheless season, so which meant that whatever God is saying to us, and if we're very clear on what he's saying to us, we're gonna follow it nevertheless, all right? So we're gonna have to pursue that. And we felt in that moment that actually God is calling us back to the UK, and we knew that was gonna be actually really challenging. So we just thought so we prayed about it, we felt God is saying, go back to the UK. And it was like, nevertheless. So we thought, nevertheless. In that moment, when you make those decisions, I then got a contact from my boss back in Australia saying, Hey, film, what are your plans? You're gonna still be in London, US. What are you what are you doing? He goes, I'm looking to retire soon. Um, I want someone to take over my business with a new partner, and I want you to be it. Um, so are you gonna can you come back, please? And I'm like, Oh, this is a great opportunity, it's what I wanted to become a partner, and this is like really great. But we had felt from God to go back to London. Um, so that was like a challenging decision, and then linked with that as well was um there was some complicated, some administrative stuff, and so basically going back to the UK was also gonna mean that we had to like fund everything. There's like some expensive visa costs. I think we worked out moving costs were gonna be like 40,000, 50,000 to go back to the UK. So we had that choice to make versus going back to Brisbane and becoming a partner with the firm, which looked quite lucrative. Do you want to jump in?
SPEAKER_02Can I add in that was um at the end of 2018? And um 12 months later we were in lockdown for um in London for I think 18 months off and on, um, not church in a building for that long. And so we didn't realize, but the nevertheless really meant we were spending all this money to be in our home, in a tiny home with two children, and God did incredible things in us. That's where we learned so much about the four of us and God. And so we wouldn't have chosen that, we would have chosen the partner route, but the we had a word from God nevertheless, and we followed that. And in that time as well, um, I started working for Alpha International, and that's where God really changed my heart for the evangelism of the globe. And so I think these pivotal moments in that time we wouldn't have known, but we said yes to nevertheless.
SPEAKER_00Just one very quick thing on the sort of London second our second London season. So we're there for a bit in New York and then back to London. Um my work is pretty fun and deals as often, you know, late nights, weekends, um, sort of short turnaround things. I remember 2000 and 2008, 18, 90, 18 was or 19 actually. When did you pray? 19. Yeah, in 19. So I was I was working it was pretty full on. I was working at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was working, I was working pretty full on, and it was it was challenging as a as a family. Um and this is this is the message where I'm being specific. So Renee, she's a powerful woman. I love her so much, she's very spiritual. When it comes, if you need to pray, go speak to Renee. And she prayed to God, hey God, like you know, because I was working late in the office all the time. She goes, God, I just pray something will change next year in 2020. That film is going to be home more. Next minute COVID. So she got her prayers answered, and I told her, Hey, baby, I broke the world with that prayer. Next time, can it be a bit more specific? So God knows exactly what you want, all right?
SPEAKER_01Um, could I ask you a little bit about um how do you do big career, big, big life, and you know, you've you've seen in scripture, what does it what does it profit you to gain the whole world but lose your own soul? You know, how I imagine in for you, Fim, in the finance space, there's a lot of it's kind of cutthroat, there's a lot of um lifestyle that goes with big finance. How have you been able to be in that world? But also you guys seem pretty happy. Like marriage-wise.
SPEAKER_02I love him. That's true. Do you want to say that? Yeah, I think I think I'll cut in later.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the key thing, I mean, it's it seems pretty cliche, just being grounded in our faith. I mean, I'm super fortunate to have grown up in a Christian home where my parents encouraged our individual's journey with Christ. Um, Renee was the same. She grew up in a very loving family with great parents who encouraged the Christian walk. But even including in that, then we used to grew up in church, we went to youth group, and then we've we found ourselves very planted in our church. And then and that has sort of cemented our our relationship with God, and that has sort of continued on through the whole journey. So even whilst you know my my career progressed, our our careers both progressed, we've done different things, we've always kept it back and moved back to the center, which is like having God as a center and being centered in what He has called us to do, but also being planted in a Bible-believing church as well.
SPEAKER_02That is that is the framing of our marriage, but each day we really talk about the forming of who we are. So we have that framework. You don't have to have that framework to have a loving marriage and a big life. So we um we are fortunate with that framing, but really comes down to how we frame it, uh um form are formed in him every day. And so you probably might remember a few weeks ago I talk about talked about our rhythms, but we um we we pray together daily. So that that looks like five minutes. We're not talking about intercessory prayer for two hours. That's not Fum's vibe, that's my vibe, me and Jesus, but um five minutes, we keep it very succinct. Um, and we first of all we say, Fum will say we just as a as a family, we come under the lordship and the leadership of Christ. We are ambassadors of Christ as we go out into our day. And then Fum will ask, what are you believing for and what are you grateful for? And then I will ask him that question because there is a lot to be grateful for, but it is a hard life. It's a big, beautiful life, but it's a hard life when you want to be in leadership. Leadership is more about responsibility than enjoyment. There is enjoyment in it, but we have chosen to live a life of responsibility, and so um that frames our life, but it we are formed in him first, then we go out into our day. Sometimes those calls are when it are through gritted teeth. I am angry or frustrated. We had that call on Thursday morning, I think you might not have noticed that, but I wasn't super happy with something, but we have decided to pray together. It's our way of coming together in the morning and then going out into our day. We also cover the boys in the blood of Jesus in our prayer. And so we don't have control over our boys when they go out into their school, they're in a beautiful school, but we entrust them to the lordship of the Holy Spirit. And so we say that, we declare that, we entrust them into your hands, Holy Spirit. And I think that just brings a centrality to who we are as we then go out into our very different worlds.
SPEAKER_00And that's all we do as a um as a couple together, but we all have each have our individual time with God as well. We have in what quite fortunate in our in our house we've got like a like a library room. So we've got two different chairs, Renee's chair and then my chair, where we've got our Bibles next to each other, and then we just read in an individual or together like Bible in a year, and we've got the same Bible reading plan, which is which is helpful. Um, but I think me for me as well. So I get up earlier than Renee. Um so I so I do that. Um, but I also unfortunately I also drive to work, so it's like a 35-minute drive. And then for half the journey, I know when I until I get to a point, I don't have the radio on, I don't have a podcast, I don't have music. I just pray um for 20 minutes until I get to a specific point and then and then I do a podcast. Yeah, I told you that already.
SPEAKER_02You I think you did tell me that. Yeah, could you say you don't pray?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, is there anything else you want to share? Um, this is good, teach me. Teach me. We've discussed this, baby.
SPEAKER_01So what what time would you be getting up praying? Can I just ask you practically? Um reading scripture.
SPEAKER_00So I get up actually at 4 30 in the morning. Okay. Um all about that Brisbane life. Yeah, I mean, sometimes it's five, sometimes four thirty. Just depends what what's happening during the day. Um and then other other times I would be like there's some days where I take, so Zeke, our son plays tennis in the morning, so I'll take him into Renee does most of the school runs and drop-offs, which is really amazing, helped free me up with more time. But one day I take Zeke into school um for LA mining tennis, and I then have a coffee time with um um Ollie, our oldest supernumerine, because he doesn't like tennis. Um, but then I sort of spend that time with him as well as part of that moment.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep. So obviously, yeah, you do long hours, I think is is part of your normal. But what's inspiring to me is long hours. I was asking you this before. You do long hours, but you're spending time with God, and and your kind of response was yeah, because I need it. Um rather than oh, I have to, it's more like I I need these things. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and and I think um, and there's a balance, like it doesn't come, it's not it the 430 seemed to that's like in this current season, it's not always that, and I know that seems quite extreme, but it's like it's not always everything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I remember being in Tokyo and working long hours in Tokyo and being on the morning commute on the train. It was me and my Bible with my headphones on. That was kind of my prayer every morning for 30 minutes on the train on the way to work. Um, so you're kind of gonna make it work in those times, but that was so for me, like you said, formational. Formation is what you do every day that that helps you to become the person that can actually do something big. So if you think about your capacity then, there's a lot of people here who would aspire to do something great in life. I don't think there's any lack of like aspiration in this room. Um talk to me about capacity then. How do you build the kind of capacity inside you to do something really big with your life?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, I think when we were um young adults and first married, um we were super happy to go through the night with stuff. Like we would we were leading all this kind of stuff in London. Fun was full-time work, I was full-time work. Like the hour, you know we were happy to be tired, you know, and we were just happy to go for it. Being tired is good. Do you think's good? It was really being tired. I thought being tired was like being tired when it's something I mean, you know, is the thing.
SPEAKER_01If you're on TikTok, you might think it's terrible to be tired.
SPEAKER_02No, well, look at me. I'm I've had a big week. I'm yeah. But it's tired is not a bad word in our house. We reframe it if we need to, if it's stopping us from getting out the door. When we had kids, we needed to reframe that. So every season requires a uh redesign, you know, even within season, we are very agile of going, is this working, is this not working? Who needs what? Are they getting their needs fulfilled? So we talk a lot about um uh nurture versus neglect. Are we drifting into neglect in any area or are we nurturing it? So we're very super intentional about our language. We're fun too. This sounds like we're just like you know, boring people, but we we have a lot of fun. But we're super intentional about language and and design of our life. But I think for me, Foom Foom naturally has a really um God's design him with growth mindset. So he he's very rarely negative, he has an incredible outlook on life, he can push himself, he has natural drive. I need support with my mindsets and framing. So when we're not shy about saying I see a psychologist to help me with my mindset framing, um, it's because I want to I want to grow. I want to be an amazing mum, I want to be an amazing husband, I want to live a big life, I want to be in the arena, you know, I want to have skin in the game. And so that requires me to just tweak mindsets. Um, and so I just want to encourage if that's anyone in the room, like you are not um counted out because you might need support in that way. Foom needs support in other ways. He needs help with interpersonal stuff, like with how to deal with a lot of people's stuff, and that's where I help him. So we're not shy about what our need is. Need is not a bad word. You are not counted out because you need support in different areas, because we have a big goal and we want a big life and we want to contribute to the kingdom in a big way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I think part of my sort of rhythms as well is making sure that I can um, you know, contribute in the way from a professional perspective that I want to, but I said to my family as well. Like my family have tell Renee, the kids are not, they're my number one priority. And so me getting up early is is what I do to make sure I have I can make time to then spend that quality time with the boys, with Renee, doing things like that. So like I train my, I coach my Zeke's um undernines football team with 11 other boys, which is supposed to be a joy. But if you've dealt with 11 under 9 boys who want to muck around for the majority of the time, it stretches you.
SPEAKER_02That's your capacity stretch there.
SPEAKER_00Exactly right. Um, but I do because I want to spend time with my boy, right? So that's why that's one of the reasons I do, and he loves it, and so I do that as well. Um, Ollie has other things that he loves doing as well, so I want to make sure I can spend time with those doing those things as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would say one other thing that we are in the process of learning more is recovery. Um, so I think capacity is not just what you can do in the moment, it's how quickly you can recover and do it again the next.
SPEAKER_01day and so we are uh we tell we talk about this a lot like we when phum travels um um we we are very strict on like how that looks like two drinks or two you know like it's it's not we don't overindulge so that we can recover well and you we're not big drinkers I don't know if that's okay to say that but as in how we comfort ourselves matter um and so we don't indulge so that we can survive this life we're really clear on what comfort looks like for us um and you know sitting on the couch and just binging TV just isn't able in our life you know so we work out how we recover well what do we need to then do this again tomorrow what do our boys need to be on the journey with us so we really talk a lot about like okay this is not serving us anymore is this serving what we need and what what do we need to enjoy so I'm gonna start kayaking again I need to be on the water you need to um be on the football field so not with those boys though not with those boys so if there's some young people here saying how do I build some capacity like how do I stretch basically how do I stretch my ability to handle responsibility what would do you have anything practical that comes to mind about how you could grow your ability to handle responsibility adulting don't we? Adulting how do you do adulting a little bit better? You talked about some of these skills you learned by serving in the I think that's right.
SPEAKER_00I think um I think capacity is an interesting point. I think people actually can limit and have self-doubt about what capacity can actually hold. I think a lot of people actually just need some people to champion them and encourage them and actually have some self-belief and recognize that they are a child of God and God ha has given them um gifts and abilities and strength. I think that's probably one aspect I think secondly for me if I just talk about my a bit of my sort of career journey and what has um served me well um earlier on in my career people have told me that my ability to take ownership in different different areas from a from a junior level has been has sort of stood me out um amongst the the crowd and that ownership is actually what I learned from serving in church. From a from like like we talked about from a younger age like we were leading different teams I led I was on I was on the band for a while led our production part of the production team like um media um governance teams led like life groups and Renee led a number of different areas well like in London we led um like you know massive like large ministries and young adults and but I think all through all that journey what you what you discover is those skills that you learn in in terms of leading people in a church context where people are coming and not they're not getting paid to be here, they're coming here because they want to serve God and not because you've you sort of inspire them actually and that doesn't translate really well into a work environment as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah I would say two things I would say um thoughtfulness be a thoughtful person um not just about what you need about what what do others around me need. That skill of noticing and being thoughtful and then owning that environment is like second to not like that will you will stand out if you can be a thoughtful person about what is required in this moment and jump to it. The the next thing is I think being able to receive feedback well this is super hard like this is not like oh we do this I find feedback receiving feedback hard I have found that hard but I've decided that I I'm not aware of everything I need to be aware of. I think self-awareness is a little bit of a myth if you are aware of things um like you you wouldn't be like if you're aware of everything you needed to be aware of you'd be like um through the roof flying around the room we actually need one another to point things out in each other. Now you don't give permission to everyone this is a permission thing if you have someone that you trust that you know that they are there for your betterment then lean into that person and then ask them hard questions about yourself. If you can what number one ask yourself hard questions that's a huge thing we ask ourselves hard questions all the time but if you can invite someone trusted um in a church space as well as vocational space to to tell you the hard stuff um because they love you not just because they want to give feedback that awareness and thoughtfulness I think is a huge capacity um builders for life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah I think that's really helpful. I wanted to ask you just a couple more questions. One was I I heard of uh a young man who works for you um from he said that you're a very kind person um but then when it times to get things done he's like we're getting we're getting things done. So can you tell us about like um being a boss at the tip of the spear when it comes to like big um deals happening in the world and also being a Christian at the same time like being nice to people how do you how do you kind of manage those two things I think the the awesome thing is that um you can you can do both.
SPEAKER_00That's just a reality and that's that's that's just that's just um the starting position. But I think um one in again it seems a bit cliche we're just trying to leverage of what what what Jesus has has taught us of the Bible and how he he himself behaves. Like he's the ultimate boss and he's the ultimate example and but from a practical level number one is your team like when they sort of talk to your team needs to know that you have the their best interest at heart at heart and therefore they you have the permission to push them as needed. So they have to know that when they come work for you or if you're on the manager or what whatever capacity you have hey I know that they all said I know that for want the best for me in my career. And I think people have said that to me and said it to other people as well so that's that gives me then the permission apart from my title to able to to to direct. Um I wouldn't say crack the whips but yeah direct. Yeah and I think the next thing just being um being clear in what the ask is of people we we and we have the phrase like you know kindness is c is clarity because people then like ambiguity. When things ambiguous then it makes it very challenging for people um people can spin the wheels around stuff people can redo stuff they don't need to so just being clear about the ask um and we used to say this thing we don't say this often anymore um but like this phrase where the um the why is high the pain is low and this is around just casting a strong vision. So we people understand what the ultimate goal is or the why what something needed to be done and they can then help encourage people to get over the hurdle around the cost that is incurred because if you understand what the what the vision is what the why is then the pain of doing that then can be minimized as well. And that can't that's not just in a work context but that's in l that's in life in general so it's very key to be able to center around why the why that you're doing something.
SPEAKER_01Yeah I love that. And for for you Renee um we we both of us work a lot in spaces of helping church appliances um in Australia. But could you just take just a little bit to what's happening in Australia right now? What are you seeing in through the work that you do? Obviously we just see you you know you're in future churches it's great to this this is a church appliance that's three years old but what are you seeing around Australia when it comes to church applianting and other spaces like this that are having a real crack.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow it is um it's it's actually incredible what what God is is doing in Australia. We've just been at a conference uh this last week in Gold Coast called Exponential conference and it is a um intentional space for uh not not just church planters but many church planters are there and I'm telling you there's over 800 people there and it sold out within two days or something crazy. So God is doing something in um multiplying um spaces for people uh to get to know him what I'm really encouraged by is the amount of young church planters and female church planters was something that really stood out to me. I went to a female church planting luncheon last year, this time last year and I thought there'd be like three of us there. And there was maybe 50 women in the room a lot of them planting by themselves their husbands in vocation work and just phenomenal that the courage of these people like church planting you know Luke won't say this but they are um humble heroes like in the kingdom like what it takes to plant a church is phenomenal. But what God is also doing is he's extending exactly like this model is that it's um yes Sunday church and community throughout the church but also this pre-church um space is is really widening out and people um are strategizing church planters are strategizing and established churches in how they can create spaces where we can meet where people are at now not everyone is ready to come through the doors of a Sunday church experience and so church the creativity and the innovation in the in church planting is is so inspiring and people are trying to really think differently about how can we meet the people where they're at outside of the church building and walk alongside them relational discipleship even well before they're ready to make a decision to follow Christ and so that's really inspiring to me. The model is widening I would say so so inspiring.
SPEAKER_01Could you guys say thank you to these guys today so encouraging don't go anywhere because we're gonna pray um we'd love to take some time to pray together if that's okay um I would love to pray over um maybe some of the aspirations that you have for a a larger life and career. And I think for some people what I was trying to do today is paint for you a picture of what it means to have a great marriage and a big career at the same time a great family and a great impact in the world at the same time and I remember growing up seeing a lot of um pastors lead either lead a big thing and have terrible family or have a great family but not really have much impact. And I wasn't I I remember being so hungry to see someone make a great impact and have a great family as well and I think that's what we've really aspired to do. And I think if we can paint that picture of that is success in the kingdom is impact and great family. That's that's the win. That's what we're trying to do. So I would love to pray over that for you and maybe maybe allow some space for the Holy Spirit to come and work into your heart right now about what that could look like for you even if you've come from a broken family even if you've come from something where that's not the normal maybe that God could give you a new a refreshed vision today of what that could look like for your future is that sound okay yeah can we pray into that can you pray with me thank you Lord come Holy Spirit God thank you for all these beautiful people here as we commit all of our lives to you God I pray that you would come now and bring some healing into people's lives where there needs to be healing where it's been hard to see a picture of a great future that you would bring some healing to those areas and I pray God today you would set people free to not be fearful of being wildly successful for you and also having an amazing family and home life as well repaint the imaginations of our minds God of what this could look like I pray even right now God that you would be giving people visions and dreams about a future that is blessed by you with great impact in the world give us courage Lord for those here who need courage give them courage to step out in faith for those who feel like they don't have the capacity God I pray you would enlarge their hearts God to dream bigger I pray against the voice of the enemy that we come and try to rob people's confidence to believe and dream for something big.
SPEAKER_00And we just rebuke that voice of the enemy and we ask you Holy Spirit calm and speak words of life life into dreams and visions that faith would be kindled today to believe for an amazing life thank you Lord Heavenly Father Lord we just thank you for your presence here thank you for your evident felt presence here Lord we just speak to all the the vocations that are represented whether it be in business education hospitality even in the medical field entrepreneurs across all the different spectrums that are represented here for those who are even studying those who are focusing on agricultural and even in their home life as well with kids raising kids which is a really critical and important season the creative industry as well all the industries that are represented here and even those I didn't speak to today we'll always just pray that we here can be ambassadors for Christ in those spheres of influence that you've put us in we pray that your love will shine through us we pray that we can represent you and to share the love of Christ to the people around us we just thank you God that we can walk in the boldness knowing that you have done it all for us that by your stripes we're healed by the blood of Jesus Christ and by what you've done on the finished work of the cross but we can go into all our situations all our circumstances all our spheres of influence knowing that we are called there by you our heavenly Father and we just thank you for that God we just thank you for that we just pray that that we continue to have opportunities God to share your love we thank you for those those little small conversations we thank you for those larger moments that we can like the your word says be ready with the word to share the hope that is within us to the people around us so we can fulfill the great commission that you've given to each and every one of us we just thank you for that and Lord I just I I really have a sense that there's um um not just families um every everyone represented there's just some of us who weren't really in the stretch and we feel like is this stretch going to take me out and and how do we how do we actually survive this stretch and and I I really want to ask the Holy Spirit to come and minister into those spaces and and to um lift off that burden of survival and we exchange it Lord for thriving in the stretch and um I thank you that is possible and you grace us for the God design on our lives and so you have designed this room to be big capacity room and many hold uh huge responsibility and will hold lots of responsibility.
SPEAKER_02So it's the now and the not yet but Lord we thank you for the God design on each and every one of us. I've always said Fum is graced for this life and and we are graced for this life and so I just want to pour out this sense of if you are called to this you are graced for this. And so I've asked Holy Spirit to grace those in the now you're holding big responsibility right now we speak grace over you not just to survive but to thrive in the name of Jesus and for those who are visioning for this to hold responsibility to be leaders in their fields to be leaders in their workplace we speak your grace and the God design that you'll call out to them in even greater measure and that today would not be a frustrating day to hear this but there would be a seed planted and that you will water and germinate it in the name of Jesus and you will bring them through to great places. I thank you that many in the room are called to be in in places of influence and to change society in many ways and so I say yes Lord more more we do not shrink back but we are those who stretch our tent pegs further out and we say yes to that and then we also receive grace for that and wisdom for that in Jesus' mighty name.
SPEAKER_01Thank you Lord I sort of want to pray for those who don't really know God you wouldn't say that you feel close to God would love to pray that today that you could receive the grace of God into your life. So I pray that you would have courage today to receive God's love his grace into your life receive the incredible plans that he has for you in the future and that is that the Bible says that if if we invite God to come into our lives he will he won't leave you stranded he will come and what he does is he comes in and he washes away all the sin and the junk of the past that's that's been just ravaging our lives and he comes and sets us free free to actually live a life full of purpose following him close relationship loved forgiven if you would like that I just pray that you would right now that you would just receive it receive it say God come into my life come into my life and he will make me new and he will pray that many here would receive that today Lord in Jesus' name thank you Lord thank you Lord for what you're doing in our church God thank you for what you're doing in outside of this space in our rising generation and pray your blessing on them. May those places be full of dreams and visions for lives of impact in the world in Jesus' name amen very good if you would like some prayer though um it's always a joy to pray with people so if you would like some prayer I'm just gonna stay up here and um feel free to come and um I'd love to pray for you okay we we would love to pray for you okay um if maybe you're going through some sometimes you know you go through difficult things in in work and you might just want to switch off from that and come to church but it's still there waiting for you tomorrow. You never you know that feeling why don't you come and get some prayer about it and maybe you should go back into tomorrow with some fresh sense of God's with me and maybe some clarity and a new idea we'd love to pray with you okay so feel free to come otherwise God bless you um really consider giving into the into the rising generation our church really consider giving we're trying to raise $40,000 together to do something important with with these these young people and so would you um consider that um please give the the details on the screen but um if you didn't want prayer please come forward otherwise I will love to see you back here again next Sunday be blessed have a great day thank you