What's the Deal With .... Saved and Redeemed? Plus more about RushChurch

We answer listener questions that sound simple until you look closely, unpacking the difference between being saved and being redeemed and why that changes how we live. We also talk baptism and the Holy Spirit, then step back to explain how Rush Church is led and why strong, studied leadership helps a church stay healthy. 

• weekend plans and serving at prom and after prom 
• upcoming Rush 1.8 events and why volunteers matter 
• saved as rescue from sin and death 
• redeemed as being bought back and belonging to Christ 
• key Scriptures on redemption and ownership in Christ 
• baptism as a command and a public step of faith 
• biblical examples of receiving the Holy Spirit in different ways 
• Rush Church history, Restoration Movement roots, and being non-denominational 
• how elders, deacons, and ministry staff share leadership 
• why we value leaders who study, pray, and ask hard questions 

We need your help. 
Send me pictures and where they're graduating from, what's the next step in their life? Cody C at Rush Church. That's my email. 
Please ask questions. 

www.rushchurch.com

Transcript

New Music And Weekend Plans

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome everybody to Rush Hour. Some new intro music for you in the background. Kind of feeling dancey.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Better or worse.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Better or worse.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Better or worse.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

But we're glad that you're here with us for another episode. And I'm here with Britney and Ashley today. And it's a beautiful morning in Russellvania. It's actually it's rainy. It's not beautiful. Well, it's cold. Rain's not. It's cold. Yeah. Let's be honest.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

It's a I wore a winter jacket today.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

You wore a winter coat today? Yes. I'm going to an Ohio State baseball game tonight. And I thought maybe, you know, May, it'd be warm, but it's going to be raising. Well, it's supposed to be 52. It's at 6 o'clock tonight, so supposed to be. So it's not too bad. Yeah, it's supposed to stop raining about lunchtime. But for Timmy's birthday, he's got tickets to a baseball game. And could do that tonight. But uh, what else are you guys doing? What are you guys doing this weekend?

SPEAKER_03 1:07

We're hanging out with you.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Oh, yeah, that's right. I do. I've got big plans. I just forgot about them.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

Obviously memorable.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Dang. But yeah, so we got that tonight. Tomorrow we're going to prom. We're helping out Ben Logan's prom tomorrow. So we'll be doing that. And then we got after prom.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Yes, which I read that only goes till two, not three. So we gained an hour.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Oh, thank goodness. Only 2 a.m. instead of 3 a.m.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

Yeah, we can start cleaning up at 2.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

I'd hope you were about to say it'll it only goes to 12 30 or something. He's like, oh man.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Every time we say the word after prom now, I like shiver because I know it's gonna be cold.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Cold goes down. It's supposed to be like 30s.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Yeah, 30 degrees. Stupid snow. We axe the snow cones.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

And outside. After prom is outside.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So come and join us if you'd like. Bring us hot.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

We will have smiles on our faces no matter what.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

I won't. I'm gonna be very bitter.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

All the kids are like, who's that angry guy in the corner? Like, that's the youth pastor. You want to go hang out with him?

SPEAKER_00 2:19

He is the best. He looks not happy to be here. So yeah, we're doing that this weekend. Thanks for reminding me. I'm not dressing up or anything. Last time last year I put on like a fancy outfit, but yes, you are dressing up for prom.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

Yes, you are. You're going to prom.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yeah, but I don't have to dress up. I'm not part of prom. Yes, you do. No, I'm gonna wear a suit. I'm not wearing a suit. Yes, you are. No, I'm not.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

You can't wear jeans.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

I'm wearing jeans. Oh my word.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

If you're not and yeah, I can't.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

You'll call Erica.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Thanks. Hate this place. All right. Actually, I don't even know. I'm arguing with you. Right? You don't literally have your wife's phone number.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Erica, you'll be hearing from us. Yes.

Prom Help And Summer Outreach

SPEAKER_00 3:04

So Rush Church goes to prom. We're gonna be using our photo booth and you know, just offering some different things. So that's fun. Another Rush 1.8 thing coming up is Pineapple Palooza in June. Uh, what is that? June 6th. That's gonna be a downtown Bell Fountain. They're gonna shut down the roads. We'll be outside of Kaomi Steakhouse, right? Down that strip.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Yeah, right down there.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

We need your help.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

We do. We definitely need your help. I will say this is probably one of our easier events to work. There will just be a lot of people, which is why we need more volunteers. But you will have the easiest jobs out of all of our rush one eight rush one eight events. Uh it's just manning the obstacle course, two in the back and two in the front, and then two people on our photo booth. So shout out to Leah. They thank you so much for signing up. We need more of your friends, please. Yes, Leah. Get your friends.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

All you have to do is just sit by the obstacle course, make sure kids don't fall off. Yeah. And send them two at a time.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

Yeah.

unknown 4:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

If you like yelling at kids, this is the job for you.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Hey, it's not your turn. Wait. Back of the line.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

All right.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

So it's gonna be great. Great time.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yeah, we need your guys' help for that. I see anything else coming up. Graduation Sunday. If you have a senior graduating college or high school, or just let us know. Let me know that. Cody C at Rush Church. That's my email. Send me pictures and where they're graduating from, what's the next step in their life? And so that's that's what I need, basically. If you want to be recognized on May 17th, which is uh senior Sunday at Rush Church.

unknown 4:38

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Am I forgetting anything?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

I started working on worship songs for Kids Jam, by the way. And so I am looking now for fifth and sixth graders who want to lead motions for Kids Jam. So if you have a fifth or sixth grader who would like to help us lead the worship art, let me know, and I'm gonna send you guys the videos of what they need to learn.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Prior.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

When you say motions and songs, you know what song that comes to my head for motions in church? It's like an old 90s song, I think.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Every move every move I make I'm making.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

That's exactly what I think of. And I'm like, waves of mercy, waves.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Yes, they have all the moves memorized. Yes, we'll never forget them.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

We'll be up in line in heaven waiting our turn to be judge. We'll be like, yep, we know those emotions.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Anyway, that's what came to my head every time I hear emotions and songs at church. But taking aback. Oh well, and then we were talking about like I was in a teen choir called Audience of One in high school. We talked about that yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

We did, we talked about the names of here. I thought it was so original back in the day. Be like, I named my mime team Audience of One. And Cody's like, that was my choir's team. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

We did the same skits that you guys did, and you're like, we thought we were so original.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

I thought my leaders were the only ones who knew that.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Yeah, it was all over the place. Oh well, still fun.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

It's so rough to get your childhood dreams just crushed.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Still cool of us. We're still cool.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

It makes us better today. We're cool. I will be voting on who is the coolest. It better be me. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Not me. We'll have to see. I'm gonna come in with my makeup and everything.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And take myself out of the competition. I can't compete with a mime. All right. Do you guys do you have any jokes ready for us today or no?

SPEAKER_02 6:22

I do. You want icebreakers first or jokes first?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

We'll do icebreakers real quick just to get us talking. But something else besides mimes.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

All right.

Icebreakers On Trends And Smells

SPEAKER_02 6:30

All right. What is a current trend right now that you just cannot get into? I just talked about this yesterday. Really?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yeah. What?

SPEAKER_03 6:38

High water pants. Oh. Yes. I hate them. Rosalind had on baggy jeans and they were about a half inch above her shoe. Like, not like Capri. Right. They were just high waters. High waters.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

What's a high water?

SPEAKER_03 6:55

It's this, it's the length of your pants. When you grow too tall and your pants are too short.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Oh. Right. That's what it used to be a trend. Yeah, to actually. But if we wore them in high school, we'd get making fun of.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

So it was like high water, because like you could step in it and your pants won't get out.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

And your pants wouldn't get wet. Yeah. That's why.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Those are useful, aren't they? If you're like in a high water situation.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

I just can't.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

It'd be like, you'll be making fun of me until there's a lot of water. That'll be cool.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Except those jogs are gonna pick you up and throw you in the water.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Whatever.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

So But yeah, I just said that yesterday. I can't I can't get on board with that. I get that. Cody, what about you?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

A trend? I'm not I don't I don't I don't know about a name. I'm not trendy. Okay. Maybe a trend that I don't like. I don't know. Arguing on social media. Social media in general.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

The trend of that's legit, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

But I I just see so many people like arguing in comment sections. I was like, this is point this is pointless.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

I have never seen someone comment something, someone disagree with them, and then that person changed their mind.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

No, no, it doesn't. So I'm always the internet's not a good place to argue. No.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Never was that person like, oh, you know what? I think I was wrong. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

If you're one of those people that like to comment on comment sections and social media, just stop.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Stop it.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Just don't do it.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

I did it once and I regretted it for the rest of my it haunts you today.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

I'm in like on Facebook, I'm part of groups for like youth ministry stuff. I put a comment and then I got, I was like, I'm not even gonna comment in here anymore. People respond and be like, I'm like, people, calm down. My goodness.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

For me, I think a trend that I've just not into are these middle school words, like these middle schoolers who are using words that don't make any sense. Yeah. I just I'm not into that. I'm like, just speak, yeah. I'm just like speak real language, please to my kids.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

I was like, you guys sound like Pauly Shore. And they're like, who's that? Wait, are we not allowed to mention Paul?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

I don't care. I'm just I just they don't know anybody though. Like I said, Chuck Norris died, and they're like, Who's Chuck Norris? And I'm like, son of a gun.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

And then I introduced my youth group the Chuck Norris jokes, and it was pretty good. They were like, I don't know who this guy is. They didn't understand.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

They probably thought you had Riz then, which is just a word I'm not gonna get behind.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Well, you said no cap. I signed my kids' note in their lunchbox. Love the Rizzler. I never lived it down. Please don't.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

All right, last icebreaker question.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Oh, there's a weird one.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

What is a weird smell that you actually love?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

When I was a kid, I used to like the smell of gas when my mom was at the gas station. And be like, ah, gas. Not even not so much anymore, thank goodness.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

At $4.99 a gallon. Smells like money.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Gosh.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Which is my weird smell. I love the smell of dollar bills. Like it doesn't matter what size. No, that's it's not the money. I know. It's not that I like love money. Like that's the Bible verse, don't love money, but I literally love the smell of the money.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Spoken like a true woman of the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Bible says I can't love money, but that's the thing about smelling it. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Smells like money.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Brittany, what do you what do you pretty have anything?

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Weird smells that she actually weird smells.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

You can say no and be normal.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

Oh the stuff I drink every day. Oh the mushroom coffee. No, my amino acid.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Does that smell like you like that? I mean, you do not.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

It actually tastes really good. It smells good.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

We're not talking about the taste. We're talking about the smells.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

Okay, at first I had a problem with it, but now I'm addicted to it.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

What does the smell like to you?

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Wet dog. All right. That's enough about our personal lives. Let's move on to.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

That's stuff I drink every day, and you're both like, this we should never record this early in the morning again.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

We're recording it at a different time, different day.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Oh my goodness. That's that's awesome.

Bible Jokes And 1,000 Downloads

SPEAKER_02 11:18

All right. Time for the joke of the day. Okay, first a short one. How long did Kane hate his brother? As long as he was able.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Oh my god. Um Wow. I feel really guilty laughing. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Um, Moses is wandering around. Oh, Moses is back. All right. I like Moses.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

But we got Moses back. Okay. So he finds the burning bush. He looks closer and sees that while the bush is clearly on fire, it is not burning up. He can't, he just can't believe his eyes. And he inf he sorry, in his amazement, he says, no way. And then a voice comes from the brush and says, Yahweh.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Oh, see, that's better. That's a that's good. I can get behind the oh. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

What was wrong with nothing's wrong.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

It was good jokes. All right, Brittany's microphone's falling apart. Why has our microphones always fall apart?

SPEAKER_02 12:33

It's finally her turn.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

You've gone through one of holding it. I've gone through one of holding it.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

Everyone, just hold on. It's a great day to be on rush hour.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Hmm. You might be listening to us while you're driving to work. I hope that you have a great day.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

They're still going. What was that joke? Thank you, Cody.

unknown 13:00

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Gonna let go and not touch it.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Alright, I fixed Brady's microphone. Now I'm back.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

I was just killing dead air.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

What were you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 13:13

I'm saying I hope they have a good day on their way to work. That's not bad. That's good.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

On your way to work.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Yeah. Listening to our voices. Hopefully you guys listen again after this episode. That would be nice. Oh, we did reach uh a thousand downloads or a thousand listeners.

unknown 13:31

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Oh, that's the wrong button.

unknown 13:35

Cody.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 13:40

There we go. Oh, I hit the cricket button. Sorry. No, we're we're happy. Yeah. We're very happy. Thank you for listening. This has been, we've been doing this for what, six months now? Almost? Oh over six months, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

But yeah, it's been fun.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

All right. Before we get into well, I well, we might just do this. We'll see how this goes. We had some questions in our question box I thought we would get to this morning.

Saved Versus Redeemed Explained

SPEAKER_00 14:02

We'll just kind of try to answer these rather quickly. I mean, you could talk about this kind of stuff a long time, but here's here's the first one. We pulled these out of the question box. If you this is your question, then thank you. If it's not your question, write us one. Write us one.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Good job.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Write your own question.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Write your own question.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

This one says, Is there a difference between being saved and being redeemed? Signed innocent bystander. So, innocent bystander, thank you. I don't know why they felt I like I laughed when I saw that. But uh saved and redeemed. Any current thoughts on those two words? What comes to your mind when you think of saved?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

No longer going to hell.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

No longer going to hell. Alright. That's good. What about redeemed?

SPEAKER_03 14:51

I don't know. Like when I first think of redeemed, I think maybe I don't even know what it means. Okay. Honestly.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

Like I almost feel like like my sins are are covered. Like, even though I think that's what saved means as well. When I think of redeemed, I think of like it has to do something with wiping my slate clean. Okay. More than being saved. So maybe they do mean.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

When I first read this question, I was like, ah, that's an easy question. They're kind of the same thing. And then I thought about it more and I kind of processed it and thought about it. I was like, there is a difference between being saved and being redeemed. At least what the words mean. Saved is being rescued. So as Christians and believers in Christ, saved, like you guys said, we're saved from you know, death and saved from sin and the punishments of those things. And so we're it's like a rescue. Saved is being rescued. And then redeemed is kind of like it's a word that's you know, a legal term, actually. It was in the especially in the ancient world, it was specifically used for buying a slave's freedom or paying off a debt to get property back. Alright. So this word redeemed, when we think about it, is buying something back, getting something back that once belonged to you, redeeming something, redeeming. And so when you put these kind of things together, it makes this cool kind of idea of you know we're saved because we've been redeemed, I guess you could say. If it was just saved, if you were just saved, like thank Jesus, I'm saved now, and if that was it, you'd kind of be, well, saved in what now? But since we're redeemed, and here's kind of the Bible verses I really like about the word redeemed, and so kind of think about this. First Corinthians six, nineteen. You are not your own, you were bought at a price, therefore honor God with your bodies. So this idea of you were bought, you were purchased. Jesus went to the cross and purchased us back from death is this idea. So we've been saved, but what we're we're saved to something now, we're saved to Christ. And it kind of a couple more goes on. Romans 14 8. If we live, we live for the Lord, if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. It's this idea of belonging, ownership almost. Colossians 1 13, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son, He loves. So you're you're rescued, but you're rescued to something. There's another part of that. It's not just, oh, saved you, and then good luck. Or on your own, or you've been saved, and then good luck with whatever comes next. It's no, you've been saved and redeemed, purchased for a purpose, I guess you could say. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah. Romans 6 22. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. And you see this idea. We've been Paul talks about it a lot, being a slave to Christ or being a servant to Christ. And so you've been purchased. You've been purchased from being a slave to death and sin to now being a slave to Christ. And we think of that as a negative term. But if you look at it, it's like the idea of belonging to God, belonging to something that was crushing you and and bringing you down, to now belonging to something that wants good for you, to once the best for you. And so I really like that idea of the the idea of saved and redeemed. And so, yeah, God is the new owner of our lives, I guess you could say. And we see that in those scriptures that I was talking about. In Titus 2 14, uh talks about Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all our wickedness and purify us for himself, a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. So now we belong to Jesus now. So saved and redeemed. When I first read that, I was like, it's kind of the same thing. But it's it's a little bit deeper meaning behind those things. Yeah, we're rescued. Jesus rescued us, but he also redeemed us to something greater than what we were slaves to before.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Um so hopefully that kind of helps that question a little bit. Any thoughts? Cool things?

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Um, I wonder if hearing that would help somebody who is new to Christianity or new to exploring their faith in God just to know that he's already, you know, when you say redeemed, like he's buying you back because you're already his. You know, it's not just you're walking around going to choose, you know, if I'm saved or not. Yeah. You've already been chosen by him. You just have to choose to accept it. To accept it. So I I wonder if that would help hearing that those explanations.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Jesus died to save all people. You can be this the salvation is there.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

You just have to I think that that would help if I was new and didn't fully understand what I was.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

I think it would too. People kind of get the idea.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

So like you've already came from there. Like you're you've already been there.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Yeah. Final thought on that. I liked this. Uh, if if we are saved from the penalty of sin, but we don't realize that we've been redeemed, do we ever really live like we belong to a new master? Or do we keep trying to live like we're still on our own doing our own thing? That's kind of what you were talking about. So the idea of to put the two together, you have to have both, I think, to really understand what Christ did. Understand that you've been saved, he saved you, but you're also redeemed, and you live under a new rule now, and you there's a new way to live about life, and you still can't just go do whatever you want just because you've been rescued.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

You're you're owned by something better now. So all right, that was a good

Baptism And Receiving The Holy Spirit

SPEAKER_00 21:14

question. Thanks for that. This other one we have in the in the basket was this Is baptism the only way to receive the Holy Spirit? Is baptism the only way to receive the Holy Spirit? And so we see in New Testament that baptism is a huge part of the church. Baptism is a huge part of accepting and believing in Jesus. But in the in in scripture, we see a couple different ways to actually receive the Holy Spirit. You see, Pentecost, the Spirit comes down in Acts chapter two, and uh, they're filled with the Holy Spirit there. I see in Acts chapter 10 a Roman citizen named Cornelius. They come in and he hears the good news and it's preached in his house, and it says the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and then they were baptized. And so I don't think I I think God can do things in many different ways. I know it could be a little controversial here and there talking about baptism, but I think the simple answer to this is baptism the only way to receive the Holy Spirit? I don't think so. Any thoughts? You guys might not be.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Well, my I personally say no. Okay. I don't. I feel like, or I have I have learned throughout my time that you receive the bat you receive the Holy Spirit when you accept Christ. The Holy Spirit now dwells inside of me because I've accepted Christ. Now baptism is yes, a command it to to excuse me to follow through with. But my point of view is baptism is I am now telling, showing my friends, my family, this is what I've accepted. I've accepted Christ. I love him. I know that what he's done is true. And so now I'm being baptized to be held accountable, accountable, can't talk. Sorry, to be held accountable to you to follow that way of life, to follow that path. So that's my my point of view.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

There you go. I agree with both. But I if I were to truly debate it and put myself on the other side, the way I felt when I was baptized, it'd be really hard to argue that. I mean, I know that I accepted Christ before that. But that feeling of baptism, that's what I associate with feeling the Holy Spirit come in come on to me.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

I mean, not that I didn't feel things before, not that I didn't accept Christ before. I was baptized later in life. But when I felt that, like, talk about bottling up a feeling of I've heard that before too.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Yeah. I know a lot of people have that experience of baptism.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

So I don't know if like maybe I hadn't fully I I did. I thought I did.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

I think it happens. I mean, I think it could be. But I just see this question is is it the only way? And I don't yeah, I don't think that you can say yes, it's the only way, because I see other examples in scripture. So it's a good good question. You know, we maybe we can fill a whole episode about baptism sometime, talk more deeply on that one. But just to just to answer it a little quickly, and there's our thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

So good questions. Keep it.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Good questions. We love answering the questions. So those are our thoughts.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

There was one question in the box that we cannot answer.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Oh, there wasn't. It wasn't it wasn't a question.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

It's true, it was a statement. It came from Mr. Sam Watkins, and he said, Can you embarrass my dad? That, Sam, is the answer of no. We are not.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

We don't really have to. I think he does enough of that on his own.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

However, he's a very respectable man around here, and we will not embarrass him.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

I will if I get the opportunity, but it has to be in the moment. But all right.

Rush Church History And Identity

SPEAKER_00 25:02

So we've been talking about church history, we've been talking about denominations, we talk about like a bunch of church things. And so today I just want to take a quick moment to kind of talk about our specific church, Rush Church. Uh, if you go here, how we do things, kind of where we come from, and things like this. So our church has been around since what was the what's the year on the back of the shirt? 1840?

SPEAKER_02 25:21

1840. 1840.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

That's what's on the that's what's on the shirt.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

1840. 1840.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Established in 1840. So how many years is that? Like almost 200, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Yeah. Coming up.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Really? We should be having a big celebration.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

We are.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Oh, we are?

unknown 25:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

In 2040?

SPEAKER_03 25:41

2040.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Wait, is that 200 years? That's 200 years. Yeah. Yeah. Good job.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

One, two.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

So that's in that's in 14 years. So be ready for that. Put that on your calendar. 200th birthday of Rush Church coming up. Great. But so yeah, this is I you guys, well, we've all been here about the same amount of time, I think. How long have you been going to Rush Church?

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Since John started.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

So he was here in 2017, 2016? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

Something like that. I'm like around your time.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Yeah, we got here in 2019. I did.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

Yeah. I had to be. I it was close.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

So we might we might might not be the best people to talk about the whole history of Rush Church, but uh maybe we could bring somebody on who's been here longer, been around longer to talk about it sometime. But so they used to have a building up in town that they tore down, and we built this building in 2001, I believe. And so we've been here and then they added on the fellowship hall and the gym and all that stuff a few years after that. But Russellvania Church of Christ, we started out with that name, and technically that is the name of the church, but we don't really go by that name anymore. We go just by Rush Church. That's what's on all of our stuff. That's what we tell people. And so Church of Christ is one of those denominations that I we talked about last time, where kind of branched out and we have all these different bodies with different uh titles and different things and the way they do things. And so as it's gone on, Rush Church has become what we would call non-denominational. What do you what comes to your mind when you hear the word non-denominational?

SPEAKER_03 27:19

No rules.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

There are no rules. Well, my my funny thought is we don't have a mothership that we answer to.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Don't have a mothership. That's what I meant. That's what you meant? No. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

Kind of.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

So yeah, non-denominational just means we don't tie ourselves to a certain denomination. We don't have a a a I don't know what you call it.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

You can only think of mothership.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

I can only think of mothership now.

How Elders And Deacons Lead

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

Like a higher up hierarchy above us districts that we are attached to, or you know, the conference that we answer to. Because I came from Camp Wesley too. So I knew that side too.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

We we run ourselves. We don't answer to a higher organization. We just do our own thing. So the way Rush Church runs is we have our ministry staff, and we have those, and then we have elders, a group of men that lead the church that we call elders, and then we have ten elders that kind of run the decisions, and we meet. I'm one of the elders, John's one of the elders, and then we have eight other guys in the church that do these things. And so elders meet once a month to just talk and see where where things are going. We meet another time of the month for prayer. So we're always meeting two times a month, one for you know checking in on different ministries, where the church is at, making decisions going forward, and then the other one is for prayer and devotion. And so we do those kind of things, and that's really how this church functions. John's here, he runs the kind of day-to-day through the week and preaching and stuff like that, and senior pastor things, and then Ashley and I are here during the week, also, and then Brittany and Katrina share time, and then so that's kind of the setup of Rush Church, and elders are a big part of that. And we we we just do things according to scripture. So we come out of the Church of Christ movement. That's where the church originally started in 1840, came out of that movement of the church of Christ, and so that was a the restoration movement, and it started in Kentucky with Stone and Campbell, a couple guys who really just wanted to get back to the New Testament church, get back to the Bible, and forget all the tradition, like you know, traditional things and all the different things that people put into all these denominations, and so they they met and they split off and they did all these different things, and so the restoration movement began. And then you got the disciples of Christ churches, the churches of Christ, the Christian churches, and they all came from that movement in the 1800s. And so, but as time went on, Rush Church has kind of moved farther away from that, and like I said, we become non-denominational. Um, we're not tied to those things. And what non-denominational churches is you can have a bunch of different people that meet together with different backgrounds. So, like, you know, all of our backgrounds are different. Like I grew up in a Baptist church, you grew up in uh churches of God or assemblies of God, churches of God.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

Assemblies, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

You were what Presby Methodist Methodist.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

Oh Presbyterian was when I was a baby. Oh, okay. I'll go Methodist.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Methodist and Assemblies of God and Baptist.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

So we're completely different. It's kind of like the priests that was close, all right.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

But we got different backgrounds, and so I know I know Rush Church, like our people here, like there's a lot of different backgrounds of people that came together, and so we have like a melting pot of different things, and so non-denominational is that you can we can all kind of be here and be on the same page, and the essentials are what are most important, and then you got some other issues that we can kind of disagree on or have conversations about, and so even even in the leadership of Rush Church, I know that not you know, sometimes we have conversations and the elders, the leaders of the church, kind of have disagreements sometimes, and that's okay. We talk about it, we discuss, we study, and we kind of just be like, Well, you know, the essentials have to be agreed upon, though, and the essentials are the you know, the basics of Christianity. Jesus, who he was, he was the son of God, died for our sins, rose physical resurrection, came back to life, and and we have the Trinity, God, and three distinct persons. And and the Bible is our authority where we go to God's word. We believe in that, and we always go back to scripture for everything. So Rush Church is is really focused on the essentials, plus going back and looking at scripture and being like, this is this is authoritative. This is where we see God speaking to us, and we try to follow that as closely as possible. And then we have those leaders and and we have deacons and they serve in the church. I think we have six deacons maybe uh right now.

SPEAKER_03 32:10

Six or seven.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Six or seven deacons. Six or seven.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

Another trend I hate. Yeah, talking about trends that are six.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

I'm gonna go six. Maybe we have seven. But anyway, seven, actually. Seven deacons are they they run behind the scenes a lot. You might have seen them getting communion ready in the back on Sunday mornings and going around counting things on Sunday mornings and just being around to work on things and serve the church body. Oh, Levi's a deacon. Yeah, yeah. There you go. He is Brittany's husband, he's a deacon. He's been around, saw him and Russ carrying a door down the hallway the other day, fixing things. And so, yeah, that's how our structure is here at Rush Church. We have elders and deacons, and then we have ministry staff, and then we have just a lot of people that love to volunteer and do things because they love this church and they love Jesus and they want to help out. So that's kind of what we have here at Rush

Why Leadership And Study Matter

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Church. What do you guys? Do you have anything to add? I don't really know.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

What was our trivia question on how many volunteers it took to run? Oh, to run a Sunday morning. Yeah. Was that like I mean it was like close to 40, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:16

It was. It was it was over 40. It was. I I want I think I want to say the answer was 52.

SPEAKER_03 33:21

Crazy.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

It is. Yeah, that's just to put Sunday morning on.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

With worship team, upstairs crow nest, kids' rooms, breakfast, kitchen, coffee.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

So yeah, greeting, um, all that.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

So, yes, we have great volunteers.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

We do. We can't do it without them. Like, there's no way, you know. Yeah. There's just, yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Yeah. I really don't have anything else to talk about for this episode. So good thing we had questions.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

I feel like we did a we did a good job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

I really like the way our church is set up. You know, I like that that there's I I respect the elders. That's that's my biggest thing that I take a take away from our church is that you know, I our elders are amazing. They truly see the heart of the church. They keep our church moving. And I really respect that. I the other thing is I really respect that they're not all yes people. Yeah. Like they definitely are like, okay, well, what, you know, let's work this out. What is what would it look like if it was this, or what would it look like if it was that? Like it's not just, you know, like when we did our presentation for Rush 18, like they really, they grilled us, you know. What was the what was the heart behind it? What's the reasoning for this? You know, is this all just for show or is this for outreach? Like it was, it was it was really good. And it it made me respect them even more to be like, thank you for not just saying yes to me, but actually, you know, understanding where our heart is coming from with all that.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

I think going to elder elders' meetings, because we've sat in a couple of them now, I know that those men take their study really serious. Yeah. And so I do trust that when decisions are made with the church or like that, or more serious, or not so much. Um, I trust that they've done their homework, that they've studied up, um, and that they're making the best decision that they can with what they have. So it gives me a lot of peace of mind.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yep. We got a lot of different types of leaders, a lot of different types of guys on the elders. And so everybody's got input and we always take it seriously. We always kind of discuss and make sure that what we decide is what's best for the body of this church. And so it's really cool. I've been lucky enough, I've been in full-time ministry for what, 12, 13 years now. My last child, I've only been at two churches, and both churches have been amazingly run with great leaders and awesome way of doing things. And so it's just been cool because I've heard stories of other churches and the church I grew up in. You know, we had a church split when I was in high school because they couldn't get along, and people argued and just kind of it ruined what it was supposed to be. And so I've seen and I've had friends that go to churches and they had to leave because of different things and leadership and different decisions that have been made and stuff. So it's just been to I've just been blessed to be a part of great churches, and this is another one that's been great to be a part of, just to know that the leadership has your back, they care, they're genuine, they're not just gonna be like, do whatever you want. No, they check. Like I do stuff in youth ministry, and I'm glad I have those guys there to be like, Are you sure that's a good idea? Or why are you gonna do this this way? And to kind of, you know, push you to make you better. And and ultimately that's because we want this church to be a good place for the body of Christ, for the people that go here. And so, yeah, if you're wondering about how this church is run and how it's led, it's in good hands, I think. Yes. Um, I might not be the one to kind of I'm on the elders, so I'm one of them. So, but uh we can attest. But you guys, and so yeah, I think it's uh it's a great place to be, and it's biblical and always go back to the Bible, which I love. I love the Bible and scripture, and they're just heart is in the right place. So yeah, that's rushed church a little bit. I know we could get into lots of details about all different kinds of beliefs and the way they do things, but I don't think it's necessary. If you have questions about how the church does things or what we believe or where we stand on different things, we're always here. That's another thing about the elders. If you pull one of them aside, they're always there to ask. You can ask questions. Please ask questions. If you're confused about something, don't be afraid to ask. We'll be happy to talk to it. I love questions and stuff like that. So, all

Prayer And Closing

SPEAKER_00 37:54

right. That's it for this episode. Let's pray, and then we gotta go get ready for prom. So, and I might dress up nice, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Oh, you will.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

Okay, Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thanks for this opportunity that we have to talk of with each other, discuss things, bring up different topics, and really just grow closer to you, grow more, know more about you and who you are and what you what you want for us. We're thankful for church, thankful that you gave us the church, that we can have a place to come and be encouraged and lifted up and be together. Help us to go out and look for opportunities to live it out for those around us, that they can see you through all the things that we do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, thanks again, guys. Brittany. She's always just taking her headphones off, ready to get out of here. All right. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Rush Hour.