Louie Giglio - We Gather to Scatter
We’re in a series called «Imprint,» and really all we’re trying to say is you and I are going to leave a mark on the world. More specifically, we’re going to leave a mark on the lives of the people around us. As a church, as a family, as a house, we want to leave a mark on the world, more specifically on the lives of the people in our cities, in our communities, and in the world. So we’re really thinking on two tracks: How can you and I elevate to a higher altitude and leave a more lasting mark on the people around us? And secondly, how can we as a church understand and clarify what mark we’re aiming to leave? Over the next few weeks, we’re talking about our house at Passion City Church, and today we’re really asking one of the most important questions of all: What is the church, and why do I need it?
Now, you’re here today, and you came on a rainy Sunday, so apparently you love church, and it seems like you felt you needed it today. I’m a little bit preaching to the choir in the room, but let’s expand the conversation. After all, what is church? What is the point, and why do I need to be a part of it? We want to answer those questions today, and we’re going to find a lot of that answer in our main text today. If you have Scripture, please turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 1, and we’re going to jump into mid-text in verse 23. Feel free to say «Amen» during this verse, so I won’t have to read it again: «For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.»
Now listen to this one-word summation of the power of this scripture that we have the privilege of resting our hope in and joining our stories to today: «All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever. And this is the word that was preached to you.» Not some message, not somebody’s idea, not somebody’s philosophy, not somebody’s expertise, but this is the word that was preached to you, and that’s how you became born again. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
So the goal of the word isn’t just to get us saved. The goal of the word is to bring us the gospel that gets us saved and then continues to nourish us in that salvation so that we can grow into the fullness of the salvation that God has brought to our lives. As you come to Him, the living stone rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Salvation, we see right away, is not an individual sport; it’s a collective event. When I got saved, I got into the word, and the word started growing me up in my salvation. I realized that other people had gotten saved, and they were getting into the word, and the word was growing them up into salvation too. Then all of us together, like living stones, were building a house for God.
In other words, it helps us see a few things about our terminology right away, and words really matter at Passion City Church. We always say here that the church is not the building. That’s not unique to us; a lot of churches say that because it’s true. Church isn’t about walls; it’s not stained glass; it’s not a building on the corner. Church is living stones, not bricks and mortar. The second thing we say is that this is a house. We talk about our church all the time. What are you talking about? Your house? Yes, our house. Yes, we’re the church, and yes, we’re a part of the big C Church, but the big C Church is a house that God is building, and in that house is a family, and the family is people.
So, Passion City Church, at the end of the day, is you. If you consider yourself to be a part of this family, you are born again; you are in this word; you’re growing in your salvation; you’re looking around and realizing other people are also growing in their salvation. God is linking us together in this expression of the local church called Passion City Church in Atlanta and in D.C. You are us, so it’s not like there’s an organization over here, and occasionally you may pass through or drop in or out. No, there’s a family here, and it’s made up of me, and it’s made up of you, and we are the church.
I think you can say it this way: that church is people brought to life through Christ and knit into a living family for His glory. That was the story in Ezekiel 37, where Ezekiel had this vision of a valley of dry bones, and the Spirit of God said to him, «Prophesy to these bones that they may live.» You know the story; the bones started organizing, then they started assembling, tendons and muscles, and eventually, skin came on the bones. Now you’ve got a whole bunch of bodies in the valley, but they’re not yet alive. He said, «Prophesy the breath into these bones,» and the prophet prophesied the breath of God. The wind of God came and filled up these now together bodies, and they rose up and came to life, and the Scripture says as a vast army.
So from death to life, from bones to vibrancy, from scattered to now linked together into a body that could receive the breath of God’s Spirit. Now, together, all these living and breathing ones are forming a family and an army to be God’s people on planet Earth. So what is church? Why do we come? What’s the hope of it all?
Well, let’s talk about church first. Passion City Church has said from the beginning, it’s in our «Us» document, and it’s been a part of our rhythm and rhyme from day one. We’ve always said about our church, we want to gather to worship, and we want to scatter to serve. This is what the New Testament church did. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes, the Gospel is preached, and 3,000 people are added to the church that day. Then it describes how they function, saying they continued day by day to gather and worship in the temple courts and met in their homes, breaking bread together. In both ways, they were gathering together, one publicly, one privately, one on a large scale, one on a small scale, but they gathered together in worship.
That’s what we’re doing today. So the first thing we do as church is we gather. You made it today; thank you to the parking team, by the way, who has been out in the rain all day while we’ve been gathering at Passion City Church. But you’re here; you’re in the gathering. Let’s ask: What is the gathering all about? Why are we here? We are primarily here for three things. There could be 33 things happening today, but we are primarily gathered for three things: Number one, to exalt God; number two, to edify one another; and number three, to equip you to be the church in your sphere of life. We gather to exalt, to edify, and to equip.
Let’s talk about those just for a moment. The number one reason we’re here today is for God. That’s why we say at Passion City Church we’re for God, for people, for the city, and for the world. Those are in that order on purpose; we did not want to miss that church is at its best when it brings its best to God.
Now, I know that sounds a little bit backward in a culture where we have a tendency to turn the tables on everything and make everything about us. It was so easy for us to do that about church, wasn’t it? Even from a young age, a lot of us who have been a part of church life have thought, «Okay, what am I going to get out of it?» You would hear people leave a gathering on a Sunday saying, «Well, I didn’t get much out of that today,» or «I didn’t really love church today,» or we come through the door saying, «Well, I hope this person speaks,» or «I hope this person sings,» or «I like it when we do this song,» or «I don’t like it when Sister So-and-So does that song.»
It’s kind of like everything is seen through the lens of our state of life, our need in the moment, and our preferences for what we really like. That’s all fine and good to come to church with our needs; it’s great to come to church loving one song more than another. But if we’re not coming through the door motivated and prompted by this overwhelming sense of awe that we are alive from the dead—dry bones in a valley made alive and breathed into by the very breath of God—that we’re invited to come to worship Almighty God, if that is not on your radar as you are coming toward the gathering, then it’s likely you are going to miss the power and possibility of the gathering.
This is not a spectator event. This is not a stadium where we all take a seat and watch and see what happens on the stage. This is grace at the door. This is overwhelming mercy on the way. This is us coming together and saying, «I didn’t come primarily to get something out of church today; I came primarily to bring something to church today. I came to bring my voice and to bring my praise.» And that praise may be a sacrifice today, but hello, all worship involves sacrifice. Worshiping the world involves sacrifice, and worshiping God involves sacrifice, and often the sacrifice is that I need to work through what I feel, work through my circumstances, and work through all the clutter of my world right now to get to the door into the house to say, «No matter what, You’re holy; no matter what, You are worthy; no matter what, no one compares to You. You are raised high on a throne, and I came today to honor You and to bless You and to amplify Your name. I came to church to exalt Jesus.»
Oh, come on, church, if you really believe it, if you really believe that today, that He is worthy no matter what, and that we have breath by His grace, we are here today to exalt our God. I think that is a 180, and I think some heads are spinning because you’re like, «Well surely God knows my situation and my circumstance and He knows what I’m going through and the pressure and the pain and the needs, and He knows I barely got here today.» Surely He knows that—He does know that—but He also knows that the best thing you can do for the way that you feel, and what you’ve been through, and your needs, and your circumstances, the best thing you can do for all of that is to generate a spirit of gratitude and exhibit an expression of worship in your heart, because that’s going to cause you to get swept up into the slipstream of greatness and glory, and that’s what you need today more than anything else.
The second thing that happens, though—so don’t feel left out—is that we want to edify each other. That’s why we came; that’s why we preach; that’s why these songs have good theological content; that’s why we come alongside each other in the themes of the day, and «How are you doing?» and «How can I pray for you?» There’s a spirit here that wants to strengthen you, and God wants to build you up. So He should be glorified, but you should be stronger when you leave today.
Then the third thing is—and this is what Paul said in Ephesians 4—we want to equip you so that you then can go forward and do the works of service. The text in Ephesians 4 said He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as teachers—not so they could go do the work, but so they could equip the saints to do the work of service. So in other words, the way church works is not when you pay us to do church things; it’s when we equip you well to do the church things. Because then there are a lot more of us in the city tomorrow being Passion City Church.
So, exalt, edify, equip; that’s why we gather. But at the end of the day, the equipping is so that we can scatter. We gather to worship, and then we scatter to serve. Here, we believe serving is worship too, but let’s just say serving for today. We gather to worship, and we scatter to serve, and we take delight in that opportunity to gather as the people of God. We don’t take lightly the opportunity to gather as the people of God.
Let me just talk about that, especially in this time of global uncertainty. I totally get that there are people, lots of people in our church, that do not feel comfortable coming into a gathering of a thousand people yet, and I understand that. There are a lot of different dynamics at play in the world. But for me, I just want to make sure that it’s not somebody saying, «I don’t feel comfortable yet being in church,» but «I did feel comfortable going to that United game yesterday.»
Like, «I don’t feel good about coming back to the office yet, but oh, they had a show at the Tabernacle, and I slipped in the back.» I just want to make sure that the enemy doesn’t plant a seed in our hearts—the seed that says, «You know what? I can do all three of those things you just talked about at home. I can exalt God at home; I can get in the word and be edified at home. I can go on an online course at home and get equipped a little bit.» You can, and we can, and we are, and that’s one of the beautiful things about global uncertainty. A lot of those things are happening without people being in the building together.
But here’s the thing: When we come together in worship, when we gather in the spirit of worship collectively, a tide rises, and if you’re not feeling it on a certain day, then all of a sudden, the tide that’s rising around you buoys you in its faith. It doesn’t give you faith necessarily; it just reminds you that God is alive, God is working, and being in a room right now, I needed to be buoyed by the common faith that God is going to come through.
It’s very unlikely that it happens, but it’s very rare that people who are choosing to opt-out of the gathering of God’s people are spending significant amounts of time exalting Him, being edified, being equipped, and being sent into the world. I know very few people who are actively being agents of the kingdom, light, and salt in a dark world who are not a part of the gathering of God’s people. It is a trap, and so I just want to encourage you, whoever you are, wherever you are. Find God’s people—the ones who gather under this word in Jesus' name, seeking the Spirit and on mission for God—and join in the exaltation, the edification, and the equipping of the saints to be scattered as the church.
I love Psalm 122:1. «I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord.'» So I entered His gates with thanksgiving and I entered His courts with praise. I didn’t wait and see how the sermon went. I came in with praise; I came in giving thanks to God. I came in wanting to exalt Him. I want to say, «This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it. I will bring a sacrifice of praise through Jesus. Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and serving others, for with these sacrifices God is pleased.»
Hebrews 13: so we gather to worship, we scatter to serve. What does that mean? It means when we gather, the church is in the same place. When we scatter, the church is in every place. That’s what the text goes on to say. If you read down a little bit, we stopped at a living house, living stones built together. There’s a little section in the middle that talks about our foundation—this living stone that He became the cornerstone—but He was the stone that some builders rejected. Meaning, the historical faith through which Jesus came, some of them said, «Hey, He’s the cornerstone.» Well, guess what? They decided their own demise. But others gave insight, revelation—God gave insight and revelation; they accepted that stone.
Then it describes us in verse 9: «But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people; but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy; but now you have received mercy. So, dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.»
We gather to worship, scatter to serve, and where are we scattering? Everywhere. Today Passion City Church is in the same place—right here, right now, virtually; physically we’re in the same place—right here, right now. In a few hours from now, Passion City Church is going to be everywhere, and that’s the strength of our house.
So what would it look like, and what does it look like to scatter? Well, there’s no ABC, one-two-three plan, but I’ll give you a couple of things that you can point at as we scatter from this gathering today and every time we scatter from a gathering. Number one, scattering looks like reframing the sphere we scatter to by the splendor we’ve encountered in the great assembly. In other words, wherever you’re going gets reshaped by where you’ve been. If church doesn’t do that for you, you’re in the wrong church. If you don’t see something of the splendor of God in the great assembly, you need a new great assembly. If you’re not getting a glimpse of the bigness, majesty, power, beauty, and glory of God in the great assembly, you’re in the wrong assembly; you’ve got too little church and too little God.
You don’t have enough glory, majesty, awe, and wonder; you don’t have enough splendor in your story. But if you’ve got splendor in your gathering story, then when you walk back to wherever you walk back to—say you’re in a meeting with the bigwigs tomorrow—you’re like, «These are big wigs in this meeting.» Oh, not bigger than the one I was with yesterday in the great assembly, but they are big wigs. «Oh, I’m meeting with some famous people today about a deal we’re gonna do, blah blah blah blah blah.» It is inconsequential compared to the glory of God.
Oh, I’m not belittling it at all; I love it; it’s my job and calling, and I’m going to be here. But I’m not going to walk around starstruck all day because I’ve been in the great assembly. «Oh, we’re talking about a deal, Louie; I’m talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.» Yeah, and I don’t have star signs in my eyes because I got a taste of the splendor of God yesterday, and hundreds of millions of dollars fall out of His pocket when He gets up from a table. If church doesn’t do that for you, then you’re already sunk when you get in your sphere.
Oh, we’re working on something that’s going to be groundbreaking technology? That’s awesome! Couldn’t be happier for you! But I came from the author of the ground that we’re breaking. The second thing scattering looks like is carrying the hope that we’ve inhaled in the great assembly into the conversations that we’ll try to prevail on Wednesday. In other words, when we come together, it’s easy to go, «I needed that hope, thank you God.» But the reason we inhaled that hope is because, in a few steps from now, as we scatter, there’s going to be a conversation immediately in your face that’s going to want to cause you to have no hope, and if we just join in the no-hope conversation, then it undermines the validity of the great assembly.
We should be the ones scattering, saying, «You know what? That is a problem; that is a seemingly dead-end street; that is something that we’ve got to address and be serious about. But I’ll say this: God comes through, and I believe He’s going to come through now. In fact, let’s just stop and pray right now and ask God to help us come through as we face this.» And it’s not great hope on Sunday, and then everything else is just barely making it through all the uncertainty every other day until we get back to the great assembly.
The reason we got the hope is to breathe hope into the scattering process. The city needs hope; your friends need hope. People around you need hope; somebody needs somebody speaking out hope over them—not false hope, not fake hope, not a little hokey hope, but God hope. «I’ve been together with the saints. Don’t give up on the church! I heard stories of His faithfulness while we were at church on Sunday. I heard about God moving in the lives of my friends. God is still alive, and I’m still going to be a carrier of hope.»
Thirdly, scattering looks like giving God our best in our work because we believe He’s worthy every hour—not just for an hour. Colossians 3:23, Paul writes that whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. I want to tell you, we’ve said this a hundred different ways here: the main way Passion City Church can impact the city of Atlanta tomorrow is by having the best workers in the city of Atlanta tomorrow.
The bulk of the time you’re going to spend from the great assembly to great assembly is at your job, and at your job, you have an opportunity to be great, to act great, to serve great. And as you do that, the church is alive in the city. I just want to encourage you, by the way, that in the very first pages of Scripture, when there was only paradise in God, Adam and Eve had a job. That’s not a political statement; that’s a biblical statement. And I’m telling you, you and I were created to create and contribute to the common good. If you are not creating and contributing to the common good, you are not in God’s will for your life.
I understand we’re in very difficult circumstances, and a lot of people—many of us—right now need assistance, and I’m not knocking that. If you’re in a situation where your business or you personally need assistance right now, thank God we’re in a climate where as a church we can be that, and in some ways as a nation we can be that. But that is not the path and the plan; that is not the future. Even while you are in a situation of needing assistance, I’ve noticed a «We need help» sign on every business I’ve been in this last year. So working is good for us, because we were created to create and contribute.
But be the way we work! Oh my goodness, it helps your company be better. It will blow your boss or supervisor’s mind; it will cause intrigue among your teammates, and at the end of the day, it will give you a platform by which you can be the church where you work. Number four: I think discerning how chance encounters are actually God appointments—that’s how the church scatters.
In other words, as you go out from the great assembly, ask God, «Put people in my path, put opportunities in my path, put somebody who has a need in my path.» Put somebody who doesn’t know Jesus in my path. «Please bring a question-asker to me this week.» And then when it happens and the chance occurrence happens, we don’t go, «Man, that was weird. I met this lady today,» and «That was the strangest thing.» No, when it happens, we’re like, «I was ready for this! I actually asked God today. Don’t just let me miss the point—send me out on God assignments today for your kingdom.»
I am the church now, scattered to the city—the church in every place, in every sphere. So I’m not going to end up at the end of the week going, «Man, I wonder if I should have talked to that guy on the train Tuesday.» No, I was ready for that guy on the train Tuesday because I was asking God to show me which of these chance encounters were actually God appointments. Number five, the way we scatter is okay—we’re praying about everything. That’s how we scatter.
Did you hear about the Joneses across the street? They’re getting a divorce. «Well, I don’t know them very well; they’ve never been nice to us.» Too bad! All of my conversations the rest of the week: «Did you all hear about the Joneses? Did you all hear about the Joneses?» Did you hear about «Jonesy»? «Y’all hear about the Joneses?» «Y’all hear about Bob’s Joneses?» Did anybody stop and pray for the Joneses? Because I’m on a kingdom assignment; I am the church; I’m a church in my neighborhood. «The Joneses don’t go to church.» «I don’t like our church, really. I don’t think they like me.» But that hasn’t stopped me from praying for them!
I pray about everything. I went to work yesterday, and there was a big blow-up happening in the corner there, and I was like, «Ooh, I’m glad I’m not a part of that.» Do you notice what’s happening down in Bob’s office? No, I just said, «Well, maybe somebody needs to pray for these people. Dear Lord, I don’t know what the heck is going on, but I just want to call out on Jesus that you would give clarity and that you’d be part of what’s happening.» You’re like, «Oh my goodness! I’d spend all day praying,» but realizing that often it’s our action that is the answer to our own prayer. James 2:14 texts—we all just want to breeze over: Faith without works is dead.
Then he gives an example: It’s like seeing somebody in need and going, «Man, I’m praying for you. Be blessed. Be fed. Be well, brother. Take care,» and then moving on. James said that’s a perfect example of a guy who says he has faith, but his faith is dead. If you see your brother in need, then ask the question, «What can I do to help my brother?» And that way, you’ll have this robust prayer life. «Lord, I’m praying for my brother over there. Look, he’s in need,» and then God says, «Well, I’m going to answer your prayer.» And you’re like, «Yeah, go help him!»
And then you’re like, «What?» How’s your week? «Going great; God is answering all my prayers!» Asking about the couple across the street—the Joneses—you know they’re getting divorced. «I was praying for them,» He said, «Hey, get that resource that you know, help that other couple, and put it on their door anonymously. Sneak through the bushes so they won’t see you on ring, slide it out from the side of the porch, and then get out the other way. Do something to be the answer to your own prayer, and don’t make the mistake of thinking because you can’t do everything that you shouldn’t do anything.»
The sixth way we scatter? We notice what doesn’t look like heaven and help create a clearer picture on earth. Jesus said this: How you pray your will be done and your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. That’s not some mysterious spiritual event taking place; that’s kingdom agents walking around on a broken planet going, «That doesn’t look like heaven; that doesn’t look like heaven; that doesn’t look like heaven. What can I do to help that look more like heaven on earth?»
On the most basic level, pick up the trash. Just pick up the trash at your company, on the way in, at the mall, in the parking lot, in your yard, in your neighborhood, at the park, because that’s not heaven! No trash in heaven! So it’s a simple like number one step. And then I can go all the way up to, I need a transformation of our community, and I’m going to start thinking about it and asking God to open a door for me to get involved in doing something about it.
You may feel again like, «I can’t do everything, so I’m not going to do anything.» I’ve told this story a bunch of times, but a head of a leading national organization goes to our church, and I’ve been around him a lot. He’s a trash picker-upper. Like, anywhere you go with him, by the time you get there he’s got ten pieces of trash in his pockets until he can get to a trash receptacle. He’s putting in the straw wrapper, and the gum wrapper, and the Wendy’s cup, and all the stuff that he’s gotten out of his pockets while we’ve been walking wherever it was we were walking to the trash can.
I was with him in Manhattan once, and I’m not kidding; we only had like a 20-minute window between these things to grab a sandwich, and that never happened. We didn’t even get to where we were getting sandwiches, and finally, I said to him, «Hey, it’s Manhattan; we’re not going to pick up all the trash in Manhattan.» But that’s a seed! It’s a little seed that says, «I want to pick up the debris of a broken world, and I want to make this world look more like heaven.»
Two more real quick: Number seven, seek peace while remaining planted in truth. Romans 12:18 says, «As far as it depends on you, seek peace with everybody.» You’re like, «Oh, well the truth, you know, divides, and it’s like a sword.» True! Do not forsake your convictions; do not forsake the anchor of this word. Stand firm on truth but seek to be a peacemaker, not a problem escalator.
Then lastly, scattering means living like you’re an actor in God’s story—not an extra in somebody else’s drama. So many times, I sense this in my life, and I think you would agree. By the time we get a few steps away from the great assembly, we’re feeling pretty good about life. God is on the throne; He is in charge; He loves me; He’s included me; He has a purpose and a plan for me. Then all of a sudden, a few steps into the scattering process, it’s more like we’re a sock in the dryer, just going around in somebody’s chaos. Like, «Get me out of the drama of this moment!»
We’re just tumbling through the week now like an extra in somebody else’s drama when we were sent into the week as a kingdom agent of Almighty God to be actors in the story that is God. God has a purpose for you this week! You’ve got assignments for you! You are sent as you are scattered! You are not random in the wind of the circumstance; you are not a sock in a dryer; you’re a son of Almighty God; you’re a daughter of a King!
It is the coming together and the going out that makes church, church. If all the church does is show up together, that ain’t no church, and if all the church does is just scatter all over the world doing their own thing, that isn’t any church. But a church that can come together, exalt, edify, and be equipped, and then go out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit to do the things of God and be the hands and feet of Jesus to come back together with stories of God’s faithfulness and then to be sent out again over and over again—that’s how church sings!
It’s a little bit like an accordion. We talked about this a few years ago at one of our vision and leadership nights. Jeff is an amazing music director at Passion; he does all things music here, but he can also play the accordion. Church is a little bit like that, and I want to close with this picture because you’ll remember it. This is church; this is us; this is Passion City Church; this is the church—this is biblical church. Living stones built together, now go out into a pagan world and show them the glory of God so that on the day that He comes, they’ll give glory to Him.
It’s a little bit like this. This is how accordions work; I think everybody understands now something was going on there that everybody already knows. But I want to see if we can understand it better. Can you just close that as tight as you can? Keep it closed. I know that’s counter to being an accordionist. Now can you just play a little something for us? Beautiful. Okay, can you open it? Maybe we need to open it! Can you just open it as big as it’ll go? Just keep it big; wide! Can you make it go back and forth now? Do a little bit of that.
A church that is always together won’t make a song that the city will hear. It’s just clacking! And a church that’s always out doing its own thing isn’t going to sing a big anthem that the city is going to hear. It is only when we come together, and then when we scatter in His name, only to come back together corporately and scatter again in His name. To come together privately and publicly, and then to scatter in His name. That’s when we make the song that the city hears—that’s why there’s a church, and that’s when the world knows His name.
Thank you, Jeff. I’ll let you jump on your real instrument right there, and we’ll wrap this thing up. That was beautiful! We’ll be dropping that at midnight tonight on all the platforms where your music streams. You need church, with all of its bumps and imperfections; it’s God’s family, and Jesus is the head. You really can’t exalt Him in the same way—or you can exalt Him, but you can’t exalt Him in the same way as when you’re shoulder to shoulder with your brothers and your sisters in faith to be edified and to be equipped to be sent. But here’s the thing: The church needs you! So don’t let anything steal away you playing your part; you have a unique gift, unique ability, unique story. You’ve had unique opportunities; you have a unique tone in your voice; you have unique influence. And with you, it just hits different with some people. You need church; the church needs you!