The Power of Asking Questions, and Active Listening

Well, thank you, Mr. Mango. Thank you once again, Mr. Graham. Happy Sabbath to all of you also once again. Today I'd like to give a sermon that's a little bit different. I would like to report the results of the congregational survey that we had recently, and let you know some of the things that all of you said, or at least 24 of you said, on the survey, and also at the same time tie it in with the importance of communication and asking questions to gain knowledge. Contrary to what a lot of people think about Jesus, Jesus Christ was not the ultimate answer man. In truth, he was more like the great questioner. To be precise, in scriptures, Jesus asked 307 questions. As a matter of fact, asking questions was central to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. He gave one answer for about 100 questions that he asked. So usually he didn't answer the question. He would ask the question, but only one time out of 100, on average, did he actually answer a question that he asked. Now this is contrary to most religious people today who believe they must have an opinion or an answer for everything, especially when it's not asked for. Jesus asked questions. He didn't spend his time just telling people everything. And again, for religious people, I think that's something that's important for us to appreciate and understand. Let's see some examples of Jesus asking questions. We'll begin by going to Matthew 6 and verse 25 and see an area here in which Jesus is encouraging his followers not to become anxious, not to be consumed with worry or fear about being taken care of or what's going to happen today or tomorrow. He tried to give them a better perspective on life. Again, Matthew 6, verse 25.

Question mark. Look at the birds in the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather in the barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Question mark. Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? Question. So why do you worry about clothing? Question. Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Question. Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? Question. Or what shall we drink? Question. Or what shall we wear? Question. For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Now for many of us, we don't realize there are that many questions in just a very short passage. As a matter of fact, when we read these, we read these as declarative statements, not even as questions in most cases. If my math is correct, Jesus asks eight questions during this short passage. What's he doing? He's trying to get the audience thinking about their lack of focus on the very important things of life, and that is spiritual, not just our physical needs. A major mistake we make in our Western culture is that we think telling or lecturing is the key to learning. We do that in our school system. Our education is famous for that. We used to have a cartoon in the church years ago of a student with a big funnel in his head, and you're pouring all this knowledge into the funnel into his head. That's the way our educational institutions are mostly configured to supposedly teach. The problem with this is that people simply learn to repeat answers from memory. They repeat the answers that they were told, but they haven't thought through why the answer is correct or valid. Then, when they are later asked a question that they had never heard before, they're stumped. They struggle with it. That happens to a lot of our teens, a lot of religious teens. They go through churches and so on, and they learn all of these answers, and they're told all these things, and they get into a college classroom. The professor asks and cloaks questions in ways that they never heard before, and it stumps them. They struggle with it because their response is simply to have memorized what they were told, rather than being asked a series of thought-provoking questions to figure it out. They ask ourselves, is it rational? Is it logical? Ah, yes, I understand. I get it. It's part of my value system, rather than just something I was told.

So, when we learn by being asked a series of questions, we build a thought process that supports what we believe to be true. Let's take a look at another example and see something else Jesus can teach us. Mark 8, verse 27. Mark 8, verse 27. Mark 8, verse 27. Now Jesus and his disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi, and on the road he asked his disciples, saying to them, Who do men say that I am? So they answered that, by the way, Who do men say that I am? Question.

So they answered John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets, and he said to them, But who do you say that I am? Question mark. Peter answered and said to him, You are the Christ. Then he strictly warned them that they should tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

So he's talking about the events leading to his death and his literal resurrection. Verse 32. He spoke this word openly, And Peter took him aside, began to rebuke him, but when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men. When he had called the people to himself and his disciples also, he said to them, Whoever desires to come to me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

And since he's saying to Peter, you're thinking carnally. You want to preserve your life. You want to avoid pain. You don't want to make a sacrifice. You're of Satan. In my case, I was born to bear a cross. I was born to deny myself and die young. I was born to go through a torturous crucifixion and shed my blood for the sins of all humanity. And sure enough, in each generation, we all have our own cross to bear. For some of us, it might be a physical handicap, an emotional handicap, a mental illness, whatever it may be, every human being has their own cross to bear.

But as Jesus says, whoever desires to save his life will lose it. If all we're focusing on is the physical and the me and the now, whoever desires to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for my sake, and the Gospels, the power behind that message, will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

How important, when you're talking about eternity, how important is the wealth of Elon Musk? As I've said numerous times before, you're probably tired of hearing it, but the day that he dies, death is the great equalizer. He'll be put in the ground like some homeless person who dies in the streets of Illyria. He'll just be in a prettier box, but they're both equal, they're both in the same place, and that's called dead and buried. So what good does all the wealth, all the celebrity, all the prestige do in this life? If you gave up eternal life to achieve those things, what value did it really bring to you?

That's what Jesus is saying. Now, for those of us looking at the questions that Jesus asked here, for those of us who are older than Demetrius Earth, you'll remember the old Bible correspondence course that existed in the 1950s and 60s and 70s.

It was a 58 lesson course written to guide the student to discover the answers to the Bible, not simply by lecturing or telling, but by asking a series of questions. It would ask you a question, and it would ask you to read a scripture, and the scripture gave you the answer to that question.

Why? Because it's the best way to learn. You were able to perceive it, come and discover the truth yourself, which is much deeper than just being told something, and you were able to lock within your mind a reasoned and logical understanding of what you were reading from scriptures, and it became part of your value system.

It became part of who you are. So it would ask a question. It would have you read the scriptures and come to your own conclusion answering that question, and only then would it oftentimes give a comment afterward to help you to cement and solidify what you had just read. Now, this was primarily written by a man whose name was, his pen name was C. Paul Meredith. His first name was actually Clarence. You may not have liked Clarence, and maybe that's why he put C. Paul Meredith, but he was a gentleman who came to the understanding of the church in the 1940s, and you may not know that in 1949, Ambassador College had a financial crisis and almost closed.

And this gentleman, Clarence Paul Meredith, who by the way had a doctorate in veterinary medicine, he was a doctor, and he was one of three people who gave very generous donations in the late 1940s to keep Ambassador College open, so it didn't close. After that, he came to Ambassador College himself, and he began to work on staff, and he was the primary individual who created the Bible correspondence course, especially the early lessons. He died in his mid-sixties, I think about 1968, and when he died.

But he understood the concept and the idea of asking a question and allowing the person, through the excitement of self-discovery, to come to a logical, rational conclusion themselves, how much more powerful that is than just simply telling and lecturing people about certain things. So, this is actually the best way to learn something new. The questions prod you to think through new knowledge, to perceive and engage it in a logical, rational way, and to conclude that it's valid.

And again, this is contrasted to simply being told something. So, let's see another quality that Jesus had that I think would be good for us to appreciate before we get into the results of our recent survey. And that is, Jesus had active listening skills, something again that's very rare in our Western culture today. Luke 24 and verse 13. If you'll turn there with me, Luke 24 and verse 13.

Luke 24 and verse 13. Now behold, Jesus has been resurrected. There's a lot of confusion among the disciples. There's discussion among them whether he was really resurrected or if his body was stolen. So, these are two disciples that are traveling to a village. Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all of these things which had happened. And so it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were restrained so they did not know him, much like Mary's initial reaction of seeing him at the tomb. She didn't recognize him and that could be for numerous reasons. Verse 17. And he said to them, question, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? Again, this is a question. Then the one whose name was Cleophis answered and said to him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have you not known the things which happened there in these days? Question. And he said to them, What things? Question, Jesus asks. And they said to him, The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty indeed in word before God and all the people, and how the chief priest and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this today is the third day since these things happened. Do you notice what Jesus is not doing so far? Unlike typical conversation of Americans, Jesus is letting them talk. They're telling a story, and he hasn't interrupted them once. He's just listening.

Yes, verse 22. And certain women in our company who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find his body, they came saying that they also had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Jesus doesn't comment. He's still listening.

And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said, but they did not see. So after they've told this story, after they vented, after they said what they wanted to say and reply to him without interruption, then Jesus, he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone further, but they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.

Getting close tonight, why don't you just lodge here with us this evening in the village, is what they're saying. And he went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass, as he sat at table with them, and he took bread, this is the bread of life doing this, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

And then their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight. So what we see here in this scripture is Jesus provides a classic example of something all of us need to work on better, and that is active listening skills. He not only asks questions, but he patiently stops to listen to the answers. He lets them talk. He does not interrupt their discussion.

From verses 19 through 24, Christ lets them tell the story, and he simply listens, occasionally interjects a question to keep them talking, to keep them communicating with him, and telling their story without interruption. Then he lets them finish, and only when they're finished, he expounds to them the scriptures. So active listening includes focusing on the speaker without allowing your mind to drift, and to be listening to when someone's talking to you rather than thinking about what you want to say next. And all of us as Americans are guilty, in a conversation usually, of already thinking about what we want to say next when someone is talking to us.

That's because our mind thinks at 400 to 600 words per minute, but conversation is usually about 125 words per minute. So there is excess mental bandwidth, and that's why at the same time, you can be appearing to be listening to a sermon, while in your mind you are on that awesome ride at Cedar Point, and while the pastor is droning on and on, in your mind you can be all at the same time, because of that excess mental bandwidth that we have.

So it takes discipline to train ourselves that when someone is talking to us, we're focusing on what they're saying. We're showing positive body language, nodding our head, looking at them in the eye, getting what they're saying, rather than being distracted. I'm going to tell one on myself. Actually, I've told this story to a number of my clients, in the particularly early years of our marriage relationship.

There were times when I would be talking to my beloved, and she would say out of the clear blue, what did I just say? I don't know. It might have been the way I was looking. It might have been my body language or something. What did I just say? And I had no idea what she had just said, because I wasn't really focusing and listening to her.

And that's a struggle that we had particularly in our Western world, in our Western culture. In our modern American culture, we think that talking a lot is a great quality. As a matter of fact, some people are addicted to talking, and they're very poor listeners, because of what the media has done to us. In our babble culture, people in a conversation are even uncomfortable with a pause.

It's like somebody's got to say something. They're uncomfortable with silence. It's like it feels freakish to be in a conversation with another human being, and for both of you to look at each other for five seconds and not say anything. It just feels odd.

In contrast to so-called primitive Native American cultures, many of them used something that was called the talking stick, when they needed to talk about something that was important and have a council together. All of the braves would gather together to discuss something that was difficult or complex or important, and they used an instrument that was called the talking stick. Only the brave who had the talking stick could speak. Period. It was his turn, and he would talk, and the others could sit there and mmm. They could nod their head in approval. But he who held that stick could talk, and only when he was done he would give that talking stick to someone else, and then it was their turn to talk.

And that's actually a very respectful way of not interrupting someone and allowing them to speak and get their thoughts across. Well, brethren, communication and listening is very important. And it's one reason we recently had an anonymous congregational survey, and I would like to thank all of you who responded. There were 24 online responses and a few paper responses. The paper responses aligned with what the survey reveals, and they're included in some of the comments that I would like to make.

So I would like to give you some of the highlights today. I have only eliminated—I'm going to give the good, the bad, and the ugly—and I have only eliminated some very positive comments that, frankly, make me uncomfortable to read to all of you. But aside from a few comments that were very positive and complimentary to me that kind of embarrassed me, particularly if I read it publicly, those are the only ones that I am leaving out, though I do thank everyone for every comment that they made.

Alright, let's begin. Number one, the first question is, rate the frequency of monthly online Bible studies and our interactive fundamentals belief class. So the weighted result of response was 8.95 out of 10. In other words, about 9 out of 10 individuals said it's just right. The two Bible studies we have during the month, one interactive and one on Zoom, is just about where most people feel comfortable and felt were right. I might add, if you're in a position in life, if you're retired, you're in a position that you want to devour Bible studies and devour sermons, that's awesome.

And I might add that there are many other UCG congregations that give Bible studies throughout the month that you can listen to. The UCG sermon site, ucg.org-serman-site, as of this morning, has 35,615 sermons in Bible studies you can hear on demand if you have internet access through your cell phone or a tablet or a PC. So you can listen to lots and lots of Bible studies and sermons if you have the time and you have the inclination to do so.

So I just wanted to make that comment, and if you have the time and the willingness, we live in an age where all that is possible. When I first attended the church, obviously there was no internet access. My first feast of tabernacles, the most choice seat in the tabernacle, was one that had an electrical outlet, because men carried in their reel-to-reel tape recorders.

They were like a big piece of luggage. And power! They'd run over and grab that seat and they'd put their suit, they opened it up, these two huge reels. And the whole sermon, the gentleman sat in his seat holding the condenser mic like this, because that's the only way that you could pick up the speaker. So we've come from that age to if you have a smartphone, you have your choice of 36,615 sermons.

And I encourage you to take advantage of that if you'd like to hear more than we're able to provide locally. Number two. List some topics you would like covered in future sermons and Bible studies. So I'll just read these and occasionally make a comment.

Current events and their similarities to historical events in ancient Israel. Good comment. Place of safety, overcoming sin, end-time prophecy, Christian living, preparing for the end times. All excellent topics. Being in the world, but not of the world, especially concerning political involvement, practical applications of bringing every thought into captivity. Again, deep thinking, really great suggestions, brethren. And these are already been sent to the deacons and the elders, and all of these responses will also be sent to all the sermonette speakers. Now I will encourage them to incorporate, as I incorporate some of these in future messages, I will ask them to do that as well.

Here are some more comments. An occasional sermon study that goes in depth about a person in the Bible and how it relates to us today. Occasionally I've had a series talking about the apostles and the king of Israel and others. Those make great sermons and we certainly could do more of them. Expounding on the verses and subjects such as Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, that aren't touched on that much. Dealing with grief and stress. Ways of coping with it all. Helping us prepare for the kingdom of God. How to better serve the brethren in the church. Points to enhance our prayer life. These are all awesome. And thank you for these comments, brethren.

Faithfulness. I would like more background on each of the apostles. Keeping the Sabbath holy. The God of the Old Testament. The two trees. The heavenly realm. And God's realm. The role of Europe in prophecy. Maintaining godly values in an immoral world. Christian living topics. Family living. Health laws. How to effectively communicate your beliefs in a contrary culture. That's becoming more and more challenging. What advice does the Bible give us for dealing with toxic people?

The Book of Revelation. Suffering. Pain. Baptism. Death. Bible stories in the lesson. Scriptures. How to apply the Bible to our everyday life. Again, thank you for those. Those are really good topics. And this is sent to those who are speakers in the congregation. It will all be encouraged to incorporate these messages in our future messages here in the congregation. I certainly will touch on some of these topics as well. Alright, number three. What are your comments about the quality of our local Bible studies and sermons? Excellent. Feeling fed, loved, the Holy Days are preached about before to prepare and during the Holy Days. Sermons are great in Bible studies as well, but sermonettes, I believe, and I don't mean to be critical, should not be given by someone that just has been in the church for a short time if it comes up by a new member wanting to do this.

But I believe the ministry would do a good job in evaluating the situation. Great, great comment. And let me give you a little history, because perhaps the person who made this comment doesn't understand our kind of recent church history. When I became the pastor of this congregation, everyone else, speakers, everyone else except the late Tim Swope and I left.

They went somewhere else. So I basically had to carry the ball. And so at that time, I decided to virtually open it up, and anyone who wanted to give a sermonette would be allowed to give a sermonette, knowing that some would work, some would pan out, and some would not pan out.

But we needed speakers, and we needed speakers desperately. And over the years, we've pretty well settled on a core group of individuals who I think, overall, do a really good job. Another thing I want to make regarding speakers, and you may not understand this if you're not a speaker, it takes 20 to 30 years to become a very polished and excellent speaker.

Here's the difficulty with speaking. There are two dynamics with really being a great speaker. Dynamic number one is your presentation skills, the way your words flow, your vocal variety, all the gestures you have, and all of the ways of presenting a message. The other way is how rich your content is.

Is the content thought-provoking? Is it encouraging? Is it inspiring? Does it make people think? There are a lot of speakers who are gifted and charismatic, but their messages consistently shallow and not very rich. They're not the best speakers. On the other hand, there are speakers who have incredibly rich messages, well thought out, well prepared, biblically oriented, but because they lack presentation skills, much of that message is lost in the delivery. It takes a long time for a person to develop both sides, both of those dimensions, and to be able to be a very good speaker. And usually that means you have to begin on the younger side. It's best if you begin in your 20s and 30s, because it's going to take you a long time to get really good, especially if you're only speaking once every four to six weeks giving a sermonette.

So most of the men that we have now either grew up in the church, and you've got to give them credit for that. That might be in their 20s, but they grew up in the faith. They're faithful, and they're coming along fine. And then I would say probably the average sermonette speaker we have has probably been baptized 10 years or more. We have some that have been baptized for 30 years.

So I appreciate what was said, but I did want to give you a little bit of a history, and I think we pretty well settled into a group of individuals who overall do a fine job for us, and we're encouraging them to continue to grow more and more. Alright, some other comments. I enjoy the interactive studies.

We have booklets not too fond of Zoom, and I know that listening and watching online can be a little bit challenging, so I get that. Overall, they're very good, instructive and uplifting. At times, they can be, in my opinion, too general or repetitive about basic Christian living principles, which is, of course, very important, but not the only subject or genre. So again, a really good comment, and for all of us who are in a speaking role, it's really important to mix it up. We had a former president of the UCG many years ago who used to say that ministers really only have one sermon.

And each week, they just change the words and they throw in new scriptures, but it's always the same theme and the same message. And I hope that isn't true of me, but I can understand where those comments came from. So it is important to mix it up. You know, to have a healthy diet, you can't have dessert all. You can't just talk about prophecy all the time. You can't only have dessert. You have to have fruits and you have to have vegetables and you have to have meat and it has to be timed for meat in the right season, like if the Holy Days are coming up or something's going on.

So again, appreciate the point that was made. And we will try to mix it up and have things less repetitive about some of the basics. Quote, depends on who's giving them. Wow! Ouch! Ranged from really good to really poor. Ouch! I told you I wasn't going to pull any punches here. The sermonettes usually run too long, especially when the topics are not easily addressed in the time allotted. And again, that's an excellent point.

And we've had sermonette classes and maybe we should have them again in the future. But the best sermonette is where you take something that's very, very small and you magnify it and you pull out of it details and understanding that most people don't have the time or inclination on their own Bible study to reveal.

Those are the best sermonettes. Where most people go wrong, are they take something that's too big and they try to cram it into a 12-minute sermonette. And you have huge gaps of missing knowledge. Remember I was talking about the importance of rational and logical thinking so that people can come to a conclusion?

If the topic's too big and you only have 12 minutes to talk about it, you're leaving huge gaps of knowledge and understanding. You're not using a building block principle and you're missing the mark by speaking on a subject that's far too broad. All right, enough said on that. Continuing. Good not always to the point, or they get sign-tracked, which detracts from the message. The quality of the sermons and Bible studies are excellent. We are consistently provided with good spiritual meat and providing us with biblical scriptures as well as providing us with good balance on Christian living.

Another comment, great. I have been learning a lot. Let's see here. It says, Wonderful. The monthly Bible studies on Zoom are very insightful, including the PowerPoint presentations. Mr. Lee does Bible studies after Sabbath services, and we enjoy the interactions and sharing with the brethren. Another comment, the quality is excellent for both Bible studies and sermons. Our church has been blessed with many good speakers and a variety of approaches to God's Word. We would like to hear more on prophecy in the last days.

The final remark I will make on this is, please remember that when you hear someone, your impression of that person is subjective. It's like music. You play a song, and some people say, Oh, I really, I'm into that. I like that. It's cool. And the other person says, That song stinks. That's terrible. And I know I've heard sermons that I thought, I mean, I wanted to be spiritually fed, and I thought the sermons, I've heard some that I thought were like two-day old manna.

They stank and bred worms. But I'd be in a conversation with someone later on. I didn't state my opinion, thankfully, because my feet are not made of peppermint. Didn't state my opinion, and a person would say, Oh, that sermon was really good, and the point that he brought out about such and such, and then his third point on such and such was so powerful and effective.

And it helped me to realize that people's impression of how good a speaker is is very subjective. So that's always a difficult thing when you're asking about quality. All right, number four. Do you feel your pastor involves many others in the local work of the church and provides opportunities for people to serve? Out of 24 people who took the survey, 22 said yes, 0% said no, and two chose not to answer it. One comment was made our pastor also expresses a cheerful thank you when we help out.

And I just as a pastor, I believe that one of my roles is to encourage all of you to develop your own particular talents, whatever they are, to help you with that, to encourage you to do that, and open doors of opportunity for you to do that.

So again, I appreciate the high marks on that particular question. Number five, how do you feel about the local church leadership and how well it serves you? Here are some comments. It is excellent. Thank you very much. Well, there are others who deserve more recognition, and I agree with that 100%. The leadership is very outgoing and inclusive. They do a tremendous job leading by example and serving and not viewing any active service as beneath them, which is due much recognition and respect for that approach, as it is, has not always been that way in the Church of God.

And that statement is very true, so appreciate the compliment. Another one, I believe we have strong local church leadership. The leadership is very diversified in talents and personalities, and they truly seek to serve the brethren and try not to let any person go unnoticed.

I believe they're a great team of servants. I think that kind of hits the mark on that. Obviously, that was a very highly rated, so I won't compliment any more on that. Number six, how accessible do you feel your pastor is to you and everyone else? Well, the weighted response out of a scale of 1 to 10 was 9.18. There were two 7s, 5 8s, 2 9s, and 13 10s. So, thank you for the compliment. Again, I'll just remind all of you that I'm only a phone call, an email, or a text away if you need and feel you would like to get a hold of me.

I will always make myself available. Yes. I do have other work, and most likely I will not be able to pick up that phone call immediately or respond to your email in a matter of a few minutes. I probably won't be able to do that. But I do promise you that whether you give me a phone call, an email, or a text, I will be back to you as soon as possible and willing to help in any way that I can. Alright, number 7. Please provide one suggestion to make our congregation spiritually stronger. Here's one statement. Keep reminding us that we are one, not liberal versus conservative, not vaccine versus no vaccine, etc.

And that's a very important and powerful statement. I spoke a little bit earlier about Jesus condemning his followers who focused too much on the physical. Politics is of the physical. Politics is not a spiritual quality. Our health, as much as we should want to take care of it and do what we can to remain healthy, is still a physical thing. I've got some terrible news for all of us. Someday we're all going to die.

I've stunned Vicki with that comment. So yes, we should take care of ourselves. As Martin Luther King said once, longevity has its place. We all want to live a long time and we should take care of this temple God has given us. But what's more important than the news of the day and the debates that we're pulled into because of our dysfunctional culture, what's most important is that we are one.

And we are one spiritually and we are connected together by the Spirit of God. So that was, I think, a very, very good point. Okay, let's see what else we had. I think we're doing well. Just pray for everyone and that certainly we should do that. Another one was more Bible studies. And again, we have a certain amount of time and the ability. And again, I'll just throw my cards in the table.

But when I put eight hours of research and PowerPoint and everything into giving a Bible study and few people connect, of all things on an evening, don't have to drive anywhere and few people connect. It's not exactly inspiring for me, so it's kind of a two-way street. And if we want more Bible studies, we really need to appreciate and participate in the Bible studies that we already have. Another comment here. Avoiding partisan and biased politics. Let me read that again. Avoiding partisan and biased politics. Guiding one's interpretation of the Bible and world events and not assuming everyone in the church is of the same political belief.

And they put down, for example, capitalism or being a Republican, as they do. Focusing on the freedom that comes from knowing God's way and His coming kingdom. And we don't have to live in fear that certain politicians get in or that certain policies are passed. Being thoughtful not to be offensive in sharing one's beliefs, but concurrently being careful not to be easily offended if someone shares a belief that is different than theirs. So we do have to be tolerant of one another. We are a very diverse congregation. We're diverse racially.

We are diverse politically. We come from different cultural backgrounds and different mindsets. And it's not good to put labels on people. When I look at myself, when I judge myself as concerned for the poor and the elderly, I probably would be considered a progressive. Because I have progressive views on helping the poor, the handicapped, and the elderly far, far more than we do in the American culture. Frankly, I think they're abused. So from that perspective, I would be considered a progressive. Morally, I would be considered a conservative person. So we have to be very careful not to put ourselves in these little boxes.

Oh, conservative. Oh, progressive or liberal or this or that. We have to be very careful to realize that we are one church led by the Spirit of God. And all of those physical things will fade away. All of those physical things ultimately are unimportant. Politicians come and go. Philosophies and policies come and go. But dysfunction remains forever in this physical world. So when we understand that and appreciate that, maybe we won't get so wrapped up into the latest political news of the day.

All right, let's see a few more comments here. A community service project or something to bring people together to work on. We could do more of those. We've probably been averaging maybe once every three, four months. Maybe not even that often. For some community project, we could do better on that. Thank you for that suggestion. Small group discussion. Short message before having everyone break up and talk together about the topic in small groups.

I'll talk to the church leadership about that and see if that's something that would be good for us to do. Quote, I think we need to be better listeners to the fine messages and examples of the leadership. End of quote. When we have new people, ask them if they would like to help out cleaning or help out in other areas to get them involved. And again, we've got to have balance there. It's a little difficult to say, oh, well, Tim, welcome.

It's so great to have you in our congregation. Will you clean the hall on Friday? So you have to kind of ease. You've got to ease them into that a little bit. But saying that, we have an open invitation for anyone, young or old, new, whatever. We have all kinds of opportunities to serve, and we would appreciate your level of service. All right, more participation by the brethren for our Bible study on Zoom. I've already commented on that, so I won't belabor that.

More prayers together as a congregation. I will also talk to the leadership about that. Obviously, as far as services go, I have a format that is prescribed by the home office. I'm a man under authority. So we have an opening prayer. We have a closing prayer. Occasionally, I will have an additional prayer for someone's health during the announcements. But again, I'll talk specifically with our leadership about that.

I feel, before baptism, the person should know more about the background of the church. Again, I appreciate that comment, but if you mean the background in the book of Acts, I agree with that. But the Bible itself does not give a prescription that you have to know about the worldwide Church of God in the 1960s, or when United was founded, or any of those things. So that's something that I just assumed that through conversations, new people before or after baptism will learn more and more about our history as a church.

We should get to know each other better. I would agree with that. Here's another comment. Everyone should make a habit to greet each other on the Sabbath. Some never speak. And I know that's difficult. I don't perceive that we're a church of cliques. I attended congregations in which every Sabbath there were a whole bunch of pods of people who basically hung out with each other and ignored everyone else. And I would always encourage you, if there's someone that you don't know well, walk up to them, give them a big smile, throw your hand out, and say hi, and ask them a question.

Ask them an open-ended question. It's like you're teenagers. Never ask your teenager a yes or no question, because they'll give you one word and to them the conversation's ended. It's done. But if you ask them an open-ended question, right, what was the best thing you learned in school today? They can't answer that with yes or no. Aha! They actually have to say a few words. And that's the same with a conversation with one of the brethren. Someone that you don't know, ask them questions about themselves.

People usually like to talk about themselves. How did you come to an understanding of the faith? Maybe they grew up in the church. Maybe they were called while they were in prison. Who knows? But you'll find out some interesting things about them if you ask questions and get to know them.

Field trips. More time spent together and activities. Maybe that's something we could... not actually in the past. We've had some midweek field trips in which we would go to Amish country or something and see something. So maybe that's something we can talk about doing. Question number eight. Not including the ordained ministry, deacon or deaconesses. Please list the names of brethren who you feel will serve others faithfully or quietly.

Now, here's the good news. At least once, I'd say virtually everyone in the congregation was mentioned. At least 95%. And that's really a good thing. As I've mentioned before, we're not like the Pareto Rule. We're not the 20-80-20% to 80% of all the work, right? We're far more balanced than that. And thank all of you for your service and for what you do. One person even said, I pass in this because there are too many to mention, and I agree with that comment.

So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to mention a few names at the risk of offending everyone else, and I don't mean to be offensive. These were folks who were mentioned numerous times, so I think it's only fair to thank them for their service. First, some individual names, Glenn Butram, Walt Duncan, Art Bleakey, Jordan Black, Vicki, Diane Weber-Lowis. And then there were couples, the Mangos, the Hawaniacs, the Rebar, the Hortons. So I'd like to thank all of you, and again, many of you may not have been mentioned numerous times, but you are recognized and appreciated for whatever it is that you do.

There are many others who serve in important ways. Thank you for any way that you serve the congregation. There are some of you who serve very quietly out of the limelight, like Mr. Weber, Gene Weber. You know, when you're the church treasurer, you don't get a day off. The utility bill shows up every month, and a check has to be cut. And people send in receipts for things that are being purchased, and he just does it quietly, and he doesn't expect a spotlight on himself.

He doesn't want a new Mercedes Benz, maybe a Tesla, but he doesn't want a new Mercedes Benz. He does it quietly, and he does it out of having a big heart and wanting to serve God's people. And I know there are a number of you who do that, and thank you very much. God knows who you are, and God knows what you do to serve His people, even if someone doesn't recognize it. That's not why we do it anyway, for recognition. It's good to be recognized, but that's not why we do it. All right, number nine. What one upgrade or improvement would you personally like to see in the church building in Grafton, Ohio?

All right, here are some of them. Not practical, but full house air conditioning. And it can be done, but it would be very, very expensive. And at this time, we just have some other things we think are more important that we would enjoy all year rather than air conditioning, which frankly we use two to three months out of the year, and then we don't need it. But something may be considered in the future.

Silence the women's bathroom. Now, we could tell the women to stop talking when they go in there. We could do that. That's not what they meant. When you flush the toilet, you can hear it through the wall. And that's not a good thing. It's because there's no insulation. And I'm happy to say that someone gave a very, very generous offering for us to update the bathroom.

And we had a contractor, another contractor, out last week to look at reconfiguring the bathroom and reinforcing the wall and adding more insulation and stuff. So we're working on it. That's something that we're working on in parallel with what we're about to do here very shortly.

All right, a door that can be locked in the men's bathroom in the toilet section. Good comment. Something we need to finish. Muffling the echoing in the social hall. And we know, we just discovered by accident, that if the chairs are configured one way, there isn't a lot of muffling. But if you configure the tables and chairs in another way, it's almost deafening to be in there.

It's very hard to talk to someone and be able to concentrate. So that's something else that we've given thought to. Appreciate that. Morning coffee. Done! So starting last week, we now have morning coffee. Sorry, it took me so long. All right, air conditioning throughout the building. Finished men's bathroom. Carpet. New carpet, new chairs. There's a sample chair that is very plush and comfortable.

It's kind of like a salesman here. This would be my vote. They have support for your back. The pews do not provide. They also have a built-in shelf under your seat for our hymn books. New flooring in the social hall is what someone else put. Sound absorbers in the social hall. That ties in with a comment made earlier about muffling the sound.

Floor and social hall needs replaced. If not, in budget, maybe have them stripped and waxed. That's something that we can consider doing. Better women's bathroom. Again, we're already working on doing an upgrade there. Doors on bathroom stalls. At least one door to the toilet and ladies' restroom, if possible, to install one. Another comment is carpet. So those were the comments. We're parallel. We're already working on most of those things. We'll put the others on the list and eventually get to them. The final question. We're considering the replacement of some or all of our pews in the worship hall.

What is your opinion on this change? We have a sample chair at the building for you to test. That sample is in the back there. Here are the results. 50% said I preferred that all pews are replaced with chairs. 21% said I prefer that all of the pews remain. 25% said I prefer that some of the pews remain and that we replace some of the chairs. So it's actually a total of 75% were in favor of new chairs for either all or part of the hall. So we'll have a discussion on this, but I think it's leaning towards replacing all of the pews.

Maybe for historical reasons, keeping the one that Walt's sitting on now in that far back or something like that. But it looks like at this point that we're probably going to replace them with chairs. I hope you'll continue to attend and that doesn't disappoint some of you too badly. There were comments that were made. Someone said handicap section. Well, maybe there's no reason we couldn't have a section, maybe a widened row for people in wheelchairs or mobility issues or something like that. That's a good point. Thank you for that. I personally think we will regret it long-term if we do not replace the pews with chairs completely, not a hybrid, which is the worst option and would not look good aesthetically.

Going fully to the chairs would grant us flexibility to alter the setup at any time as needed, such as adding or taking out rows, changing the depth of the aisles, taking out chairs or entire row for those in a wheelchair, and so on. End of quote. Someone else said, I prefer the chairs because they think they're extremely comfortable and much better on your back. The pews do not provide good back support for sitting one to two hours at a time. I do not like how the pews stick to men's shirts and suit coats. And on a hot, muggy day, they do. It's happened to me a number of times. I just considered it pressing.

Pressing my suit, but it does. They do do that. I think putting holes in the carpet to replace the pews limits us from doing any upgrading in the future, which is not a good thing. Another one, if you need to replace, oh, if you replace with all chairs, are you going to have some chairs with arms? Us old people need arms on the chairs. And yes, George, we are going to have arms on some of the chairs.

She had told me that verbally earlier. I just guessed it might have been him saying that. So those basically are the results of our survey. Again, I just want to thank you for communicating with me and giving me the ability to know what's on your mind and to know your thought process.

And they are a very important form of communication. Thank you for helping make our congregation stronger spiritually and make our congregation healthier spiritually and also physically with the upgrading of this hall. The dictionary definition of a survey is to look over the parts, features, and contents of something and view it broadly and to look at or examine carefully and appraise.

So your input is very important, and we do appreciate that. And finally, the only thing that I want to say is I want all of you to know that aside from a survey, I am always open to suggestions and ideas. And some will be able to do. We've made a lot of changes with simple comments made to be the last 10 years. If I can do it and it's reasonable and makes sense, doesn't harm anybody, will give a strong consideration. However, I am a man under authority.

And the church pretty well has some structures as far as how services go and what's done during our religious services. So realize that I have to balance all of those things, but I want you to know that I'm always open to your input and your ideas and your suggestions because they're very important to me and they're important to the health of our congregation. All right. I'm done. End of survey. Have a wonderful Sabbath.