When Following Jesus Alone Leaves You Empty (Why Christian Community Matters)

23 Nov

YouTube Video of the Church Service

When Following Jesus Alone Leaves You Feeling Empty

Do you ever do all the "right" Christian things - reading your Bible, praying, even serving at church - and still feeling like something's missing? Like you're somehow gasping for air even though your spiritual lungs should be working just fine?

This week at Crowd Church, Matt Edmundson tackled the topic of Koinonia - the Christian Community and asked, "What if the emptiness isn't a sign that we're doing faith wrong? What if it's actually pointing us toward something we've been designed for all along - something our hyper-individualistic world has quietly convinced us we don't really need?”

The Loneliness Epidemic

Social isolation increases your mortality risk by 29%. That's equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. We're more connected than ever - wifi beaming through the walls, social media at our fingertips, video calls on demand - yet somehow more isolated than any generation before us.

And this thinking has crept into the church, too.

We've become really good at focusing on our individual relationship with God. "It's me and Jesus" becomes the whole story. Personal quiet times. Personal devotions. Personal faith journey. And while that relationship matters - it's absolutely essential - Matt suggested that by being so one-sided, we may have learned to live with just one lung.

Which might explain why it sometimes feels like we're struggling to breathe.

The Two Lungs of Faith

Matt shared an analogy that really helps him. Back in Genesis, God breathed life into Adam's lungs. Now imagine that this divine life - life as God designed it - runs on a pair of lungs.

The first lung is your relationship with God. You are breathing in grace, forgiveness, and love from God through Christ. This lung is essential. When it's strong, you feel like you're breathing the very life of God. We talk about this a lot in church, and rightly so.

But there's a second lung. This one isn't directly about your relationship with God. It's about what the early church called koinonia - this divine fellowship, this community with others.

Both lungs are meant to work together. That's the design.

"My relationship with God and my relationship with the community are equally essential to living the abundant life Jesus calls us to."

When the second lung collapses - through wrong attitudes, approaching church like a consumer, past hurts, or pressure to perform - we can't expand and breathe as we should. But when we address those things, and both lungs start working? Life functions as it was always meant to.

What the Early Church Actually Did

Let's rewind to Jerusalem, about 50 days after Jesus's resurrection. Three thousand people have just been baptised. The city is packed with Jews from all over the Roman Empire - different languages, cultures, economic backgrounds - now all following Jesus, who was executed just weeks earlier.

Acts 2:42-47 tells us they devoted themselves to four things:

the apostles' teaching,
fellowship,
breaking bread, and
prayer.

But don’t see this as a religious checklist; see it as a story.

A wealthy widow from Ethiopia sits in a small Jerusalem home, sharing a meal with a struggling Galilean fisherman's family. She's just sold a piece of property and given half the proceeds to cover their rent for the year. Not because she had to. Not because anyone asked. Because they're family now.

Across the street, a tax collector - the kind of person everyone despises - is teaching teenagers about what Jesus said. His home is open. There's bread on the table. Anyone can come in.

Down the road, believers are praying for a sick child. Some are wealthy merchants, some are day labourers, some are slaves. But they're all on their knees because one of their tribe is hurting.

And the Bible tells us that they did all this "with glad and sincere hearts." They genuinely loved it.

That's koinonia. Not just hanging out. But a shared participation in divine life. Becoming family with people who are nothing like you because you all share in something bigger than yourselves.

Why Christian Community Is Different

So what's wrong with gym classes or book clubs? Honestly, nothing. If you've got friends who show up for you, that's brilliant. Plenty of people outside the church have deep, meaningful friendships.

But the Christian community has a different foundation.

Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: "Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people. In his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us."

All those barriers that separate humans - ethnicity, class, past, political opinions - the cross has demolished them. There's now one new humanity.

The Ethiopian widow and the Galilean fisherman would, under normal circumstances, never share a meal. Different countries, different social classes, different everything. But Jesus adopted them both into the same family. When the widow sold her property to help the fisherman, she wasn't earning God's favour. She was living from the overflow of favour she'd already been given.

That's what makes koinonia - the Christian Community - audaciously different.

When Church Has Hurt You

Of course, churches fail at this—all the time. Maybe you've experienced it and left because it was toxic, judgmental, or cliquey. That's real. Some churches have turned community into a place of performance or judgment rather than one of grace and belonging.

Matt shared his own experience of wanting to leave the church and feeling rejected, hurt, and angry. His instinct was to protect himself by withdrawing - build walls, do life alone where it's safe.

"I didn't want to need anyone. I didn't want to be vulnerable. I didn't want to risk being hurt again. Independence felt like strength."

But he also realised he'd be taking the hurt with him. And wondered whether the next church would be any better when he hadn't dealt with what was happening in his heart in this one.

The failure of churches around community doesn't invalidate God's design. It means we need to fight for what koinonia is intended to be. And the good news and bad news wrapped into one? That's our responsibility - yours and ours - to make it happen.

Conversation Street

How do we actually do community in a digital age?

Anna observed that our modern world keeps us digitally connected but physically separate. We tend to live as single people, small friend groups, or nuclear families - quite different from the extended households of Jesus's day. Building community takes intentional effort now because our culture isn't set up for it.

Sharon and Matt shared how they've had lodgers for almost their entire 27-year marriage, opening their home as a way of life. But they emphasised that this isn't for everyone. The key is knowing yourself, your boundaries, whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, and finding what works for you.

What if nobody invites me?

Matt talked about how, quite often, people don't know how to build community. So the default is waiting for someone else to make the first move. When no one does, the church becomes the loneliest place - because you expect that somebody should be talking to you.

Rather than waiting, you can start it yourself. It doesn't have to be complicated.

He shared his football example when Liverpool play on TV, he texts a WhatsApp group of mates and they come round to watch on his 75-inch screen. The guys bring crisps and Maltesers. 90% of the conversation is football. But 10% isn't. And that wouldn't be happening if he hadn't started the group himself.

How do we take relationships deeper?

Anna highlighted the difference between breadth and depth. It's easy to know lots of people quite superficially - neighbours, work colleagues, people you chat to on Facebook but rarely see in real life. The challenge is deepening some relationships.

Her advice? Start small. Ask one or two people for a coffee. It doesn't matter if you don't click, and it doesn't go anywhere. But you might find the start of something that draws others in. Take the pressure off - not every coffee has to become a lifelong friendship. Most of the time, when you take that risk and invite someone, they're delighted to say yes.

What Real Community Looks Like

Matt shared three moments when both lungs worked for him:

When he became a Christian at 18, he had grown up in a single-parent home without seeing what a healthy family or good marriage looked like. Church families invited him for Sunday dinner. No one sat him down with 14 scriptures to study. He just experienced a healthy community - and it transformed how he understood relationships.

Years later, a significant accident landed him in the hospital for five days. He had a toddler and a newborn. The community sprang into action - bringing food, even giving financial assistance, because his business would be affected. They were, in effect, breathing for him.

This year, when Sharon was diagnosed with cancer, the community showed up again. Not with grand gestures necessarily, but with lots of small things - prayers, text messages, flowers, phone calls, just showing up.

Both lungs were strong and working. And God gave the miracles they needed.

Your Next Step This Week

You don't have to wait for the significant life events for the church family to show up. Koinoniais what happens Monday through Sunday:

Invite 2-3 people to watch Crowd with you. Make it about the meal and hanging out, not the livestream. Keep it low pressure.
Model vulnerability. If you never talk about what's going on in your life, nobody else will either.
Ask someone, "How are you doing?" and actually want to know the answer. When they give the standard "I'm alright," ask again.
Start something small. A WhatsApp group. A coffee invite. A play date. It won't always work out, and that's fine.
Give yourself permission to mess up. If it's awkward, that's okay. You're not teaching - you're just sharing life.

The Question Worth Sitting With

What would change if you stopped trying to do faith with just one lung?

The early church grew explosively, not because it had better programmes. They grew because when plagues hit, the Christians stayed and cared for the sick - including the non-Christians - whilst everyone else fled.

Koinonia isn't a checklist. It's a lifestyle. The way you do it will look different from everyone else because we're all wired differently. But it should be part of life, just like breathing.

And maybe - just maybe - if that second lung starts to expand, you'll finally stop gasping for air.

# When Following Jesus Alone Leaves You Feeling Empty
[00:00:00]
## Welcome to Crowd Church
Matt Edmundson: Hello and welcome to Crowd Church coming to you live from Liverpool this Sunday night. My name is Matt Edmundson, and whether this is your first time or whether you've been part of our journey since the beginning, it's brilliant to be with you. We are a community of people figuring out what it means to follow Jesus.
In real life, not the polished, perfect version, but you know, the messy, genuine, brilliant reality of this whole thing called Christianity. So let me give you a little roadmap of what's gonna be happening over the next hour. We'll have a talk, lasts about 20 minutes looking at the topic of relationships, which is the section of our series becoming whole, that we are looking at exploring how Christ makes us whole across every domain of life.
After the talk, we've got conversation [00:01:00] streets. Oh yes. This is where we dig into what you've just heard, and you get to be part of that discussion. So if you're with us live, jump into the comments, share your questions, your thoughts, and your stories. And of course, if you are watching on Catchup or listening to the podcast, then thanks for being part of the Crowd too.
Right? Let's meet your hosts and let's get started.
## Introduction of Hosts
Sharon Edmundson: Hello everybody and welcome to Crowd Church. My name's Sharon, and I'm hosting tonight alongside the fabulous Anna.
Anna Kettle: Hi everyone. It's lovely to be here tonight. I'm, uh, yeah, excited.
Sharon Edmundson: So what, Anna, what have we got going on tonight?
## Exploring the Concept of Community
Anna Kettle: So tonight we're carrying on a series, um, about wholeness and we are talking about the subject of community tonight.
So we've got Matt, your wonderful husband talking to us in a minute about that. So I'm looking forward to getting into the subject. Actually, I feel like it's something you and Matt are quite good at, [00:02:00] so I'm kind of excited to.
Sharon Edmundson: Hear what he's gotta say in a minute. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So after Matt's finished speaking, uh, we are gonna come back again and join Matt and have a conversation about what he's talked about.
So, uh, it'd be great if you could join in, in the comments, uh, put your questions, any comments, any of your own experiences. It's always great to hear from you. Can I just say, I've got a really squeaky stool tonight, so if you hear weird noises. It's my stall. Okay. It's just the stall. It really is. Okay. I think we will get straight into Matt's talk, so I'll see you in a bit.
Matt Edmundson: Okay. Well, great to be with you Crowd Church. Uh, yeah, I get to do the talk tonight. So looking forward to this, we are talking like, say about community.
## Biblical Foundations of Community
Matt Edmundson: So let me take you to Jerusalem. Uh, about 50 days after Jesus's resurrection. Okay. Uh, and we are gonna get there. 3000 people have just been [00:03:00] baptized. Okay?
So this is the scene. There's a lot of people, the city's packed with Jews from all over the Roman Empire. Different languages, different cultures, different economic backgrounds. And now they're all followers of this chat called Jesus who was executed just a few weeks ago. By the Romans. So what actually happened next?
What did they do next? Well, the Bible tells us that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread, uh, and to Prayer. Four things that happened. Uh, and these scriptures are gonna come up on screen, aren't they? Dan?
Do you remember that bit? Dan?
Anna Kettle: Dan?
Matt Edmundson: He's got the technical stuff these days.
Excellent. Uh, Dan's trying to be ambidextrous tonight. [00:04:00] And so, um, anyway, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the break of bread and to Prayer. And everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common.
They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need, and every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Uh, and the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved.
Okay, great.
## The Importance of Fellowship
Matt Edmundson: So they devoted themselves to four things. The apostles teaching to fellowship, to breaking bread in homes with glad and sincere hearts and to Prayer, four things that they devoted [00:05:00] themselves to. Okay. But I wanna look at this again. Not this time as a list, but more as a story. So let's picture what's going on here.
Let's imagine it's a Tuesday afternoon, right? And a wealthy widow from Ethiopia is sitting in a small home in Jerusalem, sharing a meal with a struggling fisherman's family from g. She has just gone and sold a piece of property and given half of the proceeds to cover the rent for the year. Not because she had to, not because anyone asked her to, but because, well, they're family now.
But ACO across, across the street, uh, is a tax collector. The kind of person everyone despises, if I'm honest with you. Um, but he is teaching a group of teenagers about what Jesus said. His home is open. There's bread on the table, and anyone can come in. Down the road is a group of [00:06:00] believers. They are praying for a sick child.
Some of them are wealthy merchants, some of them are day laborers, some of them are slaves, but all of them are on their knees. They're all praying together because one of their tribe is hurting. Every single day, right? This is happening in homes all around Jerusalem, that they are open, their homes are open, resources are being shared, people are being taught, prayers are being prayed, and meals are being eaten together.
And none of this is done out of duty or because it's on some kind of to-do list, they are doing this. The Bible tells us with glad and sincere hearts, they are genuinely loving it, which is just fantastic. Right now this is what, uh, Luke calls in the Book of Acts Fellowship. They devoted themselves to fellowship.
The Greek word [00:07:00] here. 'cause you know we all have a little bit of Greek, don't we? The Greek word is coin only, and it means so much more than just kind of hanging out together, which is maybe what we think fellowship means these days. It actually means a shared participation. In divine life, it means becoming family with people who are nothing like you because you all share in something bigger than yourselves.
And I think that is what church, especially this church should be known for. So Jesus put it this way, um, to look at this in a slightly different way in John's gospel, he said, so now I'm giving you a new commandment, okay? Love each other. Just as I have loved you. You should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.[00:08:00]
Great. So Coin Onia, right? Is this love, this divine love in action and right there, right at the sort of the dawn of church at that point in time, that's what we see. We are seeing Coin Onia, the and the world. We're seeing this sort of fellowship, this community. And how they loved each other and how this love was in action, even though they didn't really know each other that well, and everybody wanted in and thousands were coming to Christ as a result.
So this idea of coin onia is fascinating.
## Analogy of the Two Lungs
Matt Edmundson: So let me illustrate it to you the importance of this with basic human biology. Uh, and well, I honest with you a very. Clean and simple analogy that really helps me to understand it. We know right back at the dawn of time, uh, Genesis talks about how God breathed life into Adam's lung.
Genesis [00:09:00] two, seven, right? Talks about God breathing life into Adam. He breathed life into his lungs. And I want you to imagine, right, that this life, this Christian life, this divine life, life as God would have it. Is based on a pair of lungs. Okay. So the first lung is all about your relationship with God.
It's you and it is God, right? You are breathing in grace. You are breathing in forgiveness and love from God through Christ. This lung is. Absolutely essential for living, right? We talk about this a lot in church and quite rightly so. You know your relationship with God, how's it going? How are you and God doing?
And when it's strong, you feel like you are breathing the very life of God, and it's awesome and it's fantastic. And it just empowers your life in so many ways because [00:10:00] it's how it's supposed to be. It's natural. It's just the way that God has it. But there is this second learn and it is a little bit different.
Okay. This one isn't about your relationship with God. I think this lung is all about coin. Onia, this divine fellowship, this community with others. And it's the two things together. My relationship with God and my relationship with the community that are equally essential to living the abundant life Jesus calls us to.
Both lungs are meant to work together. That is the design, you know, and it's also what God breathes into. God breathes into our relationship with us, and he also breathes into us through this community, through this fellowship.
## Challenges in Modern Society
Matt Edmundson: The problem with this, of course, there's quite a lot of problems with this, [00:11:00] but the problem with this idea is we live, I think, in quite an hyper individualistic world, don't we?
Um, we're living through a loneliness epidemic at the moment. Apparently, according to the stats, social isolation increases your mortality risk by 29%. Doesn't mean a whole great deal, but it just doesn't sound good, but. It's actually the same as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, which I find the most extraordinary step.
We're more connected than ever. We've got wifi, we're beaming shoes through the waves. We've got social media, we've got video calls, we've got FaceTime. Yet, despite all of this, we're more isolated than we ever have been, and I think something is fundamentally broken in our society as a result. And I wonder.
I just wonder if that thinking that worldview has also crept into the church a little bit. And I don't think, as the church we've helped ourselves, [00:12:00] because quite often we focus more on our individual relationship with. God, my relationship with Christ and I get it right because it's important. I mean, it's crazy important, but I do wonder if by being so one sided, that we have learned to live with that metaphorical just one lung, right?
Because it's my relationship with God. It's about me and Jesus. And as long as that's okay, then I think we we're good. But it also might explain why it feels a little bit sometimes like we're gasping for air, you know, feeling like it's hard to breathe, even though, you know, we do our daily devotions and we pray one lung seems to be working, but the other might feel like it's collapsed a little bit, which is called, by the way, a pneumothorax just sort of throw that in there.
Uh, a collapsed lung is a pneumothorax, and what happens is. Um, [00:13:00] in essence, when your lung collapses, it collapses or shrinks because something else is in the space where the lung should be okay, but the lung can't work as it's as it's supposed to because there's something there blocking it from expanding.
So things like, uh, wrong attitudes or maybe approach in church like a consumer, you know, with that consumer mindset past hurts, um, or even pre pressure to sort of perform. They can all stop that, uh, second lung expanding. But when we get rid of them, when we get rid of these things that cause us to have this, in effect, this compressed lung things that cause us to not experience this coin, onia.
When we get rid of those and the lung expands. Let me tell you, you feel like you can breathe properly again and life is functioning as it should. And I'm hoping this analogy makes sense 'cause it, like I say, [00:14:00] it works really, really well for me. Both lungs are fundamental, right? We need both of them. Our relationship with God and our relationship with each other at Nia, to breathe in all that God has for us and to experience life as we should, we need.
Both. So that leads you to an interesting question, I think why Christian community? What's wrong with gym classes or go into a book club? Honestly, nothing's wrong with them. Oh, I guess it depends on what book you're reading. Uh, but if you've got friends who show up for you, well that's brilliant, right?
That matters. That's important. And I think plenty of non-Christians and people outside the church have deep and meaningful friendships. But Christian coin only a Christian community, I think has a very different foundation. And lemme show you what I mean. Paul went right into the church at Ephesus. Uh, he put it like this.
He [00:15:00] said Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people in his own body. On the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. That's a really interesting and powerful verse. Like, God takes these two opposing people groups and creates He, he sort of breaks down this dividing wall of hostility, which is.
Totally what our society needs right now. Let's just break down these dividing walls of hostility 'cause there's a fair few up and all those barriers that separate humans from each other, whether it's ethnicity or class or a past or our political opinions, whatever it is, the cross has demolished them and as a result, there is now one new humanity.
Which is awesome. So the Ethiopian widow, uh, and the Galilean fishermen in my stories from earlier would, under [00:16:00] normal circumstances, never share a meal. They're different countries, different social classes, different cultures, different everything. But Jesus adopted them both into the same family. And when the widow sold her property to help the fishermen, she wasn't doing it to earn God's favor, but she was doing it 'cause she was living from the overflow of the favor she'd already been given.
She was participating in the reality that Christ had created. The walls had come down and they were family. Now that's coin only. And it's not that I, that, that people are better. It's not that Christians are better at all. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is the foundation is different. And I think the foundation changes how the whole thing actually works.
And before you think, Matt, this is great, but I feel like you might be missing something really obvious. You know the big elephant in the [00:17:00] room. Yes. Churches fail at this or. The time you may have experienced that if you left church because it was toxic or judgmental or cliquey. I get it. I think that's real.
I think churches have made, not all churches, but some churches definitely have made this idea of coin only a place of performance or a place of judgment instead of grace and belonging. But that doesn't change the design. The design I think is still the two lungs, and I appreciate that many churches, you know, may have collapsed that second lung through legalism, exclusion and control.
My observation is that people who leave the church rarely maintain a healthy spiritual life. It's just one of the things I've noticed over the years. Now, I'm not saying that you are weak for leaving or thinking about leaving because churches can fail [00:18:00] at being a safe place. So you want out. I've been there myself, right?
I've talked about this at Crowd before. There was a time, more than one time I wanted to leave church. One time. I remember I was so angry. I felt rejected and hurt. And my instinct was to protect myself by withdrawing, right? Build walls, do life alone, uh, where it's safe. In fact, I remember telling God that I was leaving.
Imagine that telling God it doesn't go down too well. When you tell God things just wanna say that. Uh, you know, it takes you a while to learn these lessons, but it's in that moment, what I felt was quite real. I didn't want to need anyone. I didn't want to be vulnerable. I didn't wanna risk being hurt again, and independence then felt like strength.
But if I'm honest, it also felt like personal protection, like that's what I had to do to protect me. And yes, I could have left, but I also realized that I would be taking the hurt with me and is the next church actually gonna be [00:19:00] any better for me when I've not dealt with what's happening in my heart in this one?
I don't know. I dunno. Your story, I dunno the answer and, and it's definitely not me saying it's right or wrong, but what I do want you to hear. Because it's what I needed to hear, right? The failure of churches around this idea of community does not invalidate God's design. It means I think we just need to fight for what coin onia or community is meant to be, and the good news and the bad news all rolled up in one is that is your responsibility and it's my responsibility to make sure that that happens.
So what should it be like? How do you breathe, uh, when both of these lungs are functioning correctly?
## Personal Experiences and Testimonies
Matt Edmundson: You know, when I grew up, um, and again, I mentioned this at Crowd before, but when I grew up, it was mainly in a single parent home. I saw my mom and my dad saw my mom more than I saw my dad. [00:20:00] But it was pretty much in a single parent home, right?
I'd never really seen what a healthy family or good marriage looked like. But when I became a Christian, uh, when I was 18, 19 years old, um, my in effect, think about the lungs. My first lungs started to inflate. My relationship with God started to grow and it started to form, but also. People from my church started to do things like invite me around for Sunday dinner.
And so my second loan started to inflate just families opening their homes, opening their doors to me, and I got to see what a healthy family looked like and what a good marriage looked like. No one taught me, no one sat me down and said, read these 14 scriptures. I did do that. Don't get me wrong, and I did study the Bible, but just experiencing it and being among it and being in that community was life changing.
Both lungs were starting to work for me. I started to [00:21:00] breathe this divine life, and God started to transform my life, not just from reading scripture, but from hanging out with people who could explain what the scripture meant and do in life with them. So, so critical. A few years later, I had a significant accent when I was in the hospital for five days and we had a, you corrected me earlier, what was it?
A two and a bit year, something like that. Son. I don't know. Josh was a few years old. Uh, and Zach had just been born. We had a newborn few weeks old and the community sort of sprang into action, uh, and, you know, started bringing around food and even gave us money. Bringing that sort of financial assistance because, you know, I ran my own business and it was gonna have an impact.
They were in effect, breathing for us this year. Sharon got diagnosed with cancer. Something again, we've talked about on Crowd. Um, and the community again got around us not with grand gestures necessarily. But with lots of small [00:22:00] things, which were amazing, you know, prayers and text messages and flowers and phone calls just showing up.
Um, both lungs were strong and working and God gaves the miracles that we needed. And it's not just, you don't have to wait for the big life events either. Do you, um, for the church family to show up, it's also what happens on Monday, Tuesday, all the way through Sunday, right. It. It's sending encouraging text messages.
It's asking for Prayer when you need it. It's dropping by a friend's house just to say hi with no agenda. It's inviting people for a meal and being okay when an extra five or six or 10 or have a many show up, right? Coin only is opening your home, and there will be. I'm guessing more than likely food involved when you do it because there's something significant about food and meals in scripture, and an open table really matters.[00:23:00]
But just to be clear, coin only is not a checklist. I didn't want to give you a checklist of things that you have to do. It's not a to-do list, right? It's actually a lifestyle. It should be part of everyday life. The way you do it. The way I would do Cornelia is gonna be different because with different personalities, with different things going on.
But it should be part of us just like breathing. It should be connected to everything and I think this is actually what makes corn. Audaciously different, which I think is such a great phrase. Uh, it makes it audaciously different. The early church grew explosively, not because it had better church programs.
They, they grew because when the plagues hit, the Christians stayed and cared for the sick, including the non-Christians, whilst everyone else fled. So let me close by telling you what I would love to see here at Crowd Church.
## Practical Steps for Building Community
Matt Edmundson: How I would love to [00:24:00] see Coin only a working because it's one of the big questions in my head, right?
How do we do this? At Crowd, we, as you know, um, if you've been around, um, are an online church, which makes community in some respects a little bit trickier. It just means we have to think a little bit differently. It's not so easy to say, oh, just, you know, come on round for a meal the same way. It's not straightforward.
You know, if you're feeling unwell for me to bring a, a, a, a stew or something round when you live in another country in a different time zone, and I get it right. It's just, it's just the way it is with digital. But we still need coin only. We still need that second lung. You need it. I need it. We all need it.
And so here's what I think, here's what I'm asking you to think about, especially if you're a regular Crowd. Why not invite two or three people to watch Crowd with you? So next time you're out with your mates, you know, at the pub, at the gym, wherever, just say to them, [00:25:00] listen, I watch this online church thing.
Usually depending on who's speaking, it's pretty interesting. Want to come over Sunday evening? I'll make some burgers. We can watch it together and see what you think. Right? It's just a simple thing, but make it about the meal, about hanging out, not the live stream. Keep it low pressure. And if they say, I dunno, what's it all about?
Just answer them honestly. Just, you know, some guys in Liverpool, uh, talking about life and faith and some of it really resonates and it might be fun to just watch it and discuss it. That's it. That's it, right? You're not selling anything, you're just inviting someone into your home. 'cause we, I can't invite them necessarily into this building, but you can invite 'em into your home.
And you're starting to explore maybe some of the things of got together, give yourself permission to mess up. I would. 'cause it's not gonna go right all the time. If it's awkward, that's fine. If you dunno the answer to any questions they arise. Um, especially if they're not Christians coming around to your [00:26:00] house to say, I don't know.
What do you think? You're not teaching here. You're not, needs to be some kind of crazy apologist. You're just sharing a meal. You're building coin onia. You are opening in your home, and I guarantee you that will speak louder than any sermon I or the team may or may not give that Sunday. I reckon you should invite Christians and non-Christians, sorted people and messy people, believers and skeptics don't make it perfect.
All you gotta do is just make it happen. Right? And I think if you see yourself as an important part of this community, this church community. Because you're not a consumer. You are a lung in the body just like everybody else. You bring something every week, whether it's comments in the YouTube, whether it's prayers, whether it's the messages you send during the week because you've caught it on catch up, whatever it is, right?
We want to make the community aspect. A bigger part of what we're doing here at Crowd.
## Engaging with Crowd Church
Matt Edmundson: And so one of the ways that we're [00:27:00] gonna, we started to do that, is at the end of the service, we do this thing on Google meets. Come meet us on Google meets. We're gonna do the same tonight. We're gonna put the link in the comments.
Um, maybe Dan, you could put it in now. Um. Go dot Crowd Church slash meet, MEET. If you are live, if you're listening on catch, that link won't work. Um, it only works like a very specific time on a Sunday. Um, but if you are up for it, come say, how's it come? Hang out with us. Come do community with us. It'll be great to meet you.
It really, really would. And we're gonna start pushing that more and more. But what are your ideas? We would love to hear from you. How can we as church, do community? Well, how do we do coin only? Well, especially in the digital space because let me tell you, these sort of little groups of people meeting in houses, praying for loads of those, these sort of hybrid communities.
And if I'm honest with you, I care more about that than the perfect social media feed. Um, because I think community is real. I think Nia is real. It's [00:28:00] where God knits us together. It's where we grow, it's where we transform. It's where I think we become family and that's what will win people over. People outside the church.
I genuinely think love how the church on the whole does community, especially when we do it right, and I think it's what's gonna distinguish Christianity in the world going forward, where everyone, everyone seems to just be giving you the benefit of their opinion. Right. That's your opinion. That's awesome.
Invite me around for a meal and let's see what happens. Preaching is a good thing. You know, they were devoted to the Apostles teaching. That's what it said in Acts, but it's only one part of it. And Coin Onia is what I would love, love, love for Crowd Church to be known for. So like I say, we're gonna be working on that over the coming months, but that's it from me.
I'm gonna go get a drink of water and I'm gonna go hand back to these beautiful ladies here.
Sharon Edmundson: Well, thank you for that and thanks for everybody [00:29:00] who's commented. I've enjoyed seeing the comments and some of people's experiences. Um, just to start us off, I wanna pick up on one comment from Heather who's saying, at 63 I started to feel I needed more, I needed connection, something I never admitted to ever needing.
And I think that's a really. Interesting point in that actually we are create, we, we've all got that need, haven't we? It's a legitimate need for connection and if we don't find it in our God-given way, we will tend to try and find it in ways that are not God-given. Um, yeah. Okay, Anna, uh, so is there anything in particular that you'd like to start us off with?
## Challenges of Building Community in a Digital Age
Anna Kettle: Yeah, I mean there's so much in that talk. I, one thing that really struck me as Mike was talking was just how it's difficult in our culture, isn't it, to do community? Well, I, I think, you know, generally we live, because we live in, it's [00:30:00] ironic we're digital now, but 'cause we live in a digital age, we're not necessarily as deeply connected as like perhaps the early church where when you look at, you know, 2000 years ago, like.
At the beginning of the church in, in Jesus' days. Um. Like life was very different. And he had this idea of kind of extended households that lived together. So you'd have large families. Wasn't much birth control going on back there, I don't think. Um, and so you'd have these big families, you'd have extended families, grandparents, different generations, all under one roof.
Um, and I think our modern world, the way we are, we're like digitally connected, but actually physically quite separate, aren't we? And we tend to like. Live as either single people or people with a couple of friends, or maybe in our very nuclear families, like, you know, parent and children or child and yeah.
And I, it just makes me think we have to work quite hard at this now 'cause it's not [00:31:00] something that. Are coaches necessarily good at or set up to do well? Um, so yeah, I think it takes some thinking about how do we do community? Um, and I, I think you, you guys did it really well actually. Um, you know, just getting people around the meal table, having people over opening your home lots.
I think that that's really good and it's something. Me and my husband Andy, tried to do as well, but I, yeah, I don't think it's easy and I think there's a lot of loneliness and I think it's probably got harder since COVID. I mean, if you're on the feed, let us know what you think as well. But I think it's challenging.
Yeah.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah. I think that's picking up on whole culture.
## Creating Deeper Connections Beyond Surface Level
Sharon Edmundson: It's that with our Christian faith, it's meant to be, um, obviously our relationship with God first and that flowing out to affect the way we live rather than being, um, molded by the culture. But of course, we do live within our culture, so it's working out.
Um, [00:32:00] so Anna, what sort of things do you do to actually. Try to live that out in your life?
Anna Kettle: Um, I think that's a good question. I think we try and have people over quite a lot. We, obviously, we come to a church service, but I mean. Actually more important for me is being part of a small group of Christians.
You know, I'm, I'm a group. I have a group of about five or six girlfriends, and we meet together and pray once every few weeks together and just talk, chat about life over a cup of coffee and pray for each other and just talk about life really, and share life together and the ups and downs. And for me, that's actually more important than going to a church service.
I mean, we do quite often go. To a church service as well. We take a little boy. But I think those kind of connection points where it goes a bit deeper is really important for me. I feel like. Quite often it's easy to settle for lots of connections [00:33:00] like knowing lots of people, but quite surface level. Like I, I know a lot of people like, you know, people can say hi to in the street, your neighbors, the, you know, work colleagues, but you can know a lot of people quite superficially, can't you?
Or chat to a lot of people digitally online, like you see them on Facebook, but you don't really see them in real life that often. Or like you say, mate in the gym or, and I think those connections are great. But for me, the challenge is always how do you take some relationships deeper and get that depth as well as just not like, just a breadth of how many people can, you know, but actually a depth of, are there a few key people in your life that know you really well?
And I think we all need that. 'cause that's really what anchors you. And I, I found that to be true when I was single and I still find it to be true now that I'm married. Um, I, for me, that's, that's really key. Mm-hmm.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah.
## Intentional Community Building and Personal Experiences
Sharon Edmundson: I think there are different levels of relationship aren't there? So there are those.
Like core groups that you want to have those deeper relationships with. And you can't have those with everybody because they take time, they [00:34:00] take effort, and also they take trust. And um, yeah, not everyone is appropriate to have that with, but then you've got kind of different levels going out from that.
People that you might know reasonably well or people are acquaintances. Um, but I think with the thing with the. Christian faith as well. It's always about inviting other people into that. Um, Ephesians talks about Ephesians one talks about how when we, um, make that decision to accept Jesus in our life, that we become adopted in his family.
So we then automatically become part of a family. Just like any family that takes a bit of working out,
Anna Kettle: and I think that's come across really clearly in the, you know, just even a bit of chat that I've seen while we were listening to Matt's talk. You know, a couple of people have said that they've struggled to connect in church or they've found somewhere to connect now, but it's not been easy and it's hard to find that right fit.
I think that's okay. I think that's why it's [00:35:00] great. There's the breadth of different church communities. Like not every church looks the same, and not every church space or faith space will be the right fit. And I think you just need to find that those few people don't you or that small church community that works for you, you know?
And. That's why it's great. We've got so many different expressions of how to do church and it's great if people are watching this and you're thinking, well, this is my main connection right now, that this is a great place to start as well. And like you say, mark, it would be great to hear if people have got ideas of how we make this connection deeper as well with the So yeah.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah, I think, um, so we're kind of sort of talking on two levels here. In a sense we're talking about, um, the community with the Christian community within those that we physically see, but then also because we are a digital church, how does that translate? Into the digital space. Um, yeah, so we've got those kind of two things going on at the same time.
Um, [00:36:00] and in terms of, um, the physically the people that you see, just amongst people that you know, what other ways have you seen where people are doing this maybe in a different way to you? Putting you on the spot a bit here.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, yeah. You are. Um, I mean. Yeah, some people are great at having lodges or just having people over for food.
Um, I went, this doesn't fit my life stage now 'cause I've got a, a little boy. But when I was younger and I was single, I lived in a shared house with eight other adults. There was like nine of us in this big shed house. Um, and we built community as eight. Single adults in my twenties. And I think being single for a long time in your twenties could be quite a lonely stage of life.
But it never felt lonely 'cause there was always people around and um, yeah. [00:37:00] And we used to have lots of social stuff there and yeah, just built, you know, not everyone was there all the time, but we ate together quite often and, you know, everyone was working, had different sorts. Yeah, patterns of when they were coming and going, but we built a sense of community and kind of drew other people into it as well.
And so. I think you can do it very intentionally like that as well. If you are, um, if you've got time. And yeah, sometimes you can think, oh, well I'm not part of family. It's harder for me. But actually I found if you can find a few of the people who are on the same page, it's a great, you know, I've seen people do community really well where they're just like, let's share our lives.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah.
## Practical Tips for Starting and Maintaining Community
Sharon Edmundson: I think for us, like we've said before, we've, since we were married for about 10 months, we've had lodges. Almost all of our married life and I think, is it 27 years We've been married now, so that, that's 27. Making yourself sound
Matt Edmundson: very good. Yeah. First years of my life. [00:38:00] Yeah, so,
Sharon Edmundson: so we've had some lodges that have come and gone.
Some have like stuck with us, not. Necessarily physically in the house but have stayed connected. And we've got, um, a WhatsApp group now of all of those who've kind of stayed connected, some have not actually ever lived with us, but many people have keys or come and help themselves to our food in our fridge.
Um. And sometimes the clothes in our wardrobe, um, which is quite amusing, seeing different people. Like, isn't that belong? No. Yeah. Um, and there are many fabulous things to that. That's definitely not for everybody. And I think the thing about that is with any of these things is. Not comparing ourselves, isn't it?
And um, Matt at the beginning mentioned that this is just not just another thing to do or something on the list, but it's to come out of that heart place of knowing God who's adopted us into his family and like, like, just letting that love. Flow out of us and just saying to him, God, [00:39:00] how can I do this in my life in who you've made me as a character and, um, my life stage, the size of my house or not?
Maybe you've just got a room, but it's possible for every single person.
## Balancing Social Interactions with Personal Boundaries
Sharon Edmundson: No matter what stage you are in, um, or whether you are an extrovert or an introvert, I'm actually an introvert. So, um, I was saying to Anna earlier, um, there was one year when I'd done far too many social things in December and January.
I was like, I just need to close the house for a week. So we actually closed our house to all visitors for a week and just had those that lived there, and it was like, oh, I really needed that. Um, but yeah.
Anna Kettle: But that's really important to say though, actually, Sharon, isn't it? Like, I know we're sort of laughing about it, but it's really, it's actually really important to know yourself, know your, um, own boundaries, whether you're an introvert, extrovert, what energizes you?
Like, we're not saying just keep hanging out with people to the point that you're burnt out and you know you've got nothing left for [00:40:00] yourself or, yeah, it's, it's finding what works for you, isn't it? And that's quite a personal thing, and we're all designed a bit different, so it's like. Yeah. Build community where you are in the way that works for you, I think is the key.
Matt Edmundson: I think it's really important to say that, um, quite often people dunno how to go about doing that. Mm-hmm. Right? Um, and so the default then is to, I'm gonna go to the church service. I'm gonna wait for somebody to invite me for something. Right. Can you invite me out? Can you do this? Mm-hmm. Um, and when no one does, we, we.
I think one of the loneliest places to be is actually in a church where no one's talking to you because your expectation is somebody should be talking to me. And I think this is where we get down to the nitty gritty of it in terms of actually in situations like this.
## Encouragement to Take Initiative in Community Building
Matt Edmundson: Rather than waiting for [00:41:00] somebody to do something, you can do it right.
You can go off and you can start it yourself. Um, and it can be just the simplest thing. It does not have to be complicated. I talk, I think, again, I've talked about this some, sorry for repeating stories, but we do this thing in our house. Say we, you, you, sometimes you get involved, sometimes you don't, but, um.
If Liverpool are playing right and they're showing it on tv, I've got a big 75 inch tv. It's a long story. I won't tell you why I've got a 75 inch tv, but I've got a seven five inch TV in the house, and so there's a bunch of guys. Who love to watch football, right? And we're all in a WhatsApp group, and so they're all Liverpool fans.
I'm just like, right, I'm showing the game come round. Now, occasionally I'll do food, not all the time. Most of the time the guys just bring Chris and Malteses and all kinds of stuff, which you just would not wanna feed your kids. But it's great for a football match, and it's really simple and it's really easy.
And 90% of the time the conversation is just about football, but 10% of it isn't. Mm. Um, and that, that's a really good ratio, [00:42:00] I think. 'cause it doesn't always, you know, when you get together with people, it doesn't always have to be deep and intense and, you know, we're going to dive into what God has said to you the last three days.
It can just be hanging out. Mm-hmm. Um, but that would not be happening if I didn't start that on WhatsApp and do that. Right. He might go, well, that's easy for you Matt. You know, you are, you, are you. And I'm like. You still gotta get out there and do it right. Um, and I think be intentional, being consistent.
Don't make it a big deal, but just doing something, even inviting people around to watch Crowd at your house doesn't have to be a big deal. Just get a slice of cake, you know, and a beer or whatever. Um. And I think you can really make a difference, right? Mm-hmm.
Sharon Edmundson: Funny story about the football group is that there was one time the football was on and we were actually gonna be away somewhere, I can't remember, but our daughter was gonna be in.
So, um, that was like, oh, could you let the guys in? And, and these are not strangers, these are people we trust. Um, and she was like, sure, but they need to bring me like treats. Um, half joking, maybe not. She
Matt Edmundson: was not joking. [00:43:00] Okay. She wasn't joking. Yeah.
Sharon Edmundson: Uh, and they actually did bring her treats and I think one person.
Turned up and didn't have any, and then, uh, felt guilty. So at halftime, went down the shop and got her some, so, works well. Yeah. Yeah.
Anna Kettle: That's brilliant. I, but the, the other thing I was gonna say is I think it's, it's really, it's, it's good to like kind of just start small as well. Like, like Matt was saying, like if there isn't a community or don't feel like anyone's.
Like reaching out to you, be that person. Like I think sometimes communities that I'm part of, and these aren't just necessarily faith ones, but the principal's the same, but it's like just grown from getting to just asking one or two, two school mums like. Do you wanna hang out and go for a coffee? Like it's not big.
And it doesn't matter if you don't really click and it doesn't go anywhere, but you might just find the start of connection that draws an, you know, or a small group of people that draw more people [00:44:00] in. Like I, I have a friend who. Did that with a book club. She was just like, I really love books. And she invited me and a couple of other friends to do it.
And it's just grown into like a really vibrant group of women. And we meet every six weeks and we read books and we have a WhatsApp group and they're just fab women and we have like a digital space and we have an in-person space. Um, but yeah, I just think sometimes it's just taking that risk and it won't always work out.
And I think we sort of need to take the pressure off a bit and be like, it's all right. Like not. Everybody that you kind of invite for a coffee or say, do you wanna catch up or do you, do you wanna go for a bit of food? Or do you just wanna do a play date with the kids? Or whatever it is like. They don't all have to be lifelong friendships, but actually sometimes that might spark, but I think it would just take the pressure off it as well.
And it's like, it doesn't have to be everything, but sometimes those things just grow out of nowhere when you take that risk and think we can be quite [00:45:00] scared, you know, like of rejection. I like, I think I'm like this sometimes and like, oh. Like, I assume everyone's busy. I assume no one's got time. Assume they've already got friends, they don't wanna do it.
But actually most of the time when I say, oh, do you wanna do this? Or do you wanna go there? Or do you wanna get a coffee? Most of the time people are delighted and say Yes, and that's been my experience and I, yeah. So I just encourage people to be brave with it as well.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, that's such a good point. Yeah, such a good point.
I think with the football, if I use that as an example, it's a bunch of guys. You don't wanna go in that room afterwards 'cause it stinks. Right. But, um, it's just a bunch of guys. Now I have to do two things at that game. Right? Or three things I suppose. One, I have to be intentionally invite people around.
Two, I have to model vulnerability if I didn't. Talk about anything that was going on in my life, nobody else would. Mm-hmm. Right. So you've gotta model that. That doesn't mean as soon as people walking, oh my life's rubbish. Help me. That's not what I'm saying. Um, but just being honest and [00:46:00] vulnerable where it makes sense, I think changes the dynamic massively.
And the third thing, and this is such an important thing when you see people, um, we're gonna talk a little bit about this next week. I, this is, I was planning next week to talk this afternoon, and this is all fresh in my head. Um. Just asking somebody, how are you doing? But actually wanting to know the answer to that question, that's a really, really important thing to be able to do in these communities.
So when they go, are you doing, mate? I'm all right. It's a standard answer in the uk you go, no, no. How are you doing? How are you doing? Um, and I'm, I'm, I'm wanting to hear the answer. I think changes the dynamic massively. Uh. And that's as, that's as complicated as it needs to be right now. I think the, the other thing to say here.
## Opportunities for Digital and In-Person Community Engagement
Matt Edmundson: At Crowd, we currently run communities on a Wednesday night, um, where you can join us either on Zoom, um, if you are [00:47:00] outside of Liverpool, or you can come around to our house where we run them. If you are in person, we have one community which you run, which is a ladies only. Um, we've got another community, which is like a.
Mixed community, um, which is just super, super cool. And so we, if you want to get involved in those things, you're more than welcome to come join us. Um, Sharon, one's one, I run the other. Um, and then, like I say, after these services, we're gonna, we do the come meets on Google Meet, so there's also times to come interact with us.
If nothing else is going on. Sorry. Thought I'd do a quick plug. You girls, Terry.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah, and we can also create more communities if we've got loads of people that are interested. 'cause obviously it gets to a certain size and then especially online, it's really difficult if you've got too big a group for everyone to connect.
So yeah, we can create stuff if
Anna Kettle: you, I, I also think. I think Matt touched on this, but if people have other ideas, you know, if you're listening to it and like, I wish I do that, or try this or that, kind of, you know, some like if you've got any ideas at all about how we can do this better [00:48:00] or do something that would fit you better, let us know because Yeah, we'd love to hear, we're like really open to ideas.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah,
Anna Kettle: and we
Sharon Edmundson: have also in the past collected connected people to local churches so they could actually physically. You know, go and be with people as well. Yes. Which I do think there is a lot to be said for being able to physically gather with people, even though we are a digital church,
Matt Edmundson: people that get involved with Crowd.
Not everybody, but quite a few of the people that get involved with Crowd do both. Yeah. Right. You see it in the comments now. Like I go to this church community, I come to this once is kind of cool. I appreciate some people actually online community is the only community they can get. Um. And, and that's fine too.
You know, we've connected loads of people to in-person church, what we call in-person church around the country, somewhere around the world actually. And it's great just to hear their stories. So yeah, come get involved I think would be the, the, uh, the thing there with the communities after the church service in the comments.
Love you guys commenting. It's great. So, yeah.
Sharon Edmundson: Yeah.
## Concluding Thoughts and Upcoming Topics
Sharon Edmundson: I think I [00:49:00] just wanna pick up again on the whole, just listening to the Holy Spirit. It's, it's an adventure, I think, with God just to be able to go, okay, God, this is where I'm at, this is how I'm feeling about it. What do you wanna show me and what do you want me to do?
And like just allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us to people, to lead us to ideas. Because after all, he knows everything and he knows. Yeah, he just knows.
Anna Kettle: Yeah, I think that's absolutely right and I'd say if you are struggling or you've had difficult experiences in the past with relationships like in or outside of the church, if you are like, I kind of hear what you're saying, but I dunno where to begin, or, this hasn't worked out in the past for me, I just think a great place to start is just praying like, God, I want, I want a few Christians I can connect with either in my real life or online.
And just start asking him about it. Like, how, how do I go about this? Could you just bring some people into my life? I [00:50:00] think, I think God loves that Prayer. I think like as Matt said at the start of your talk, it, this is kind of, it's so kind of central to the Christian faith that. I think God's delighted by that request.
You know, like when we like God, I want to be more connected with other people, help help me to do that, help me find those people. That is a great place
Sharon Edmundson: to start. And I think it helps to prevent us from getting into that tick list mentality of, oh, I'm meant to be doing all these things. 'cause then we. Just into that, um, oh, what's the word?
Where it's not gracious, but it, it becomes that, that tick list. And I have to, and we can lose all the joy out of it, but if we're just going, okay, holy Spirit, what do you wanna say to me today? Who do you want me to connect with today? It becomes more of an adventure and more of a joy, and it's not got that heaviness about it.
Um, I said before about not comparing. It's like I think when we compare as well, like, [00:51:00] oh, that person's doing this, this, and this, but I can't do that. You don't have to do that. You can be you with God inside you and do what, whatever he's leading to you to do at that point, without comparing to anybody else.
Uh, back up. Yeah. Okay. I was just gonna say, has anyone got anything else to say? I think I've, I just suddenly run out of all my comments. Um,
Anna Kettle: I feel like we've just kind of exhausted this subject, haven't we really? Yeah. But
Matt Edmundson: yeah, it's been good scratching the surface. Yeah. Okay. So Matt, that's
Anna Kettle: always got more to say
Sharon Edmundson: though.
That's the thing.
Matt Edmundson: Way too much. That's Matt's fundamental problem. Yeah.
Sharon Edmundson: Okay. So, um, yeah. Thank you for everybody who's commented today. Like we said, we are gonna meet now. At Google meets you said? Um, yeah. So do you try and connect with us there, Matt? What you talking about? Next week we've got you again, haven't we?
Delight?
Matt Edmundson: We have. And can I just say it's really unusual when my wife calls me by my first name? Uh, I know. Don't what, does she
Anna Kettle: normally call you or should we not ask? [00:52:00] Say
Sharon Edmundson: it live on air. It's not. We normally just call each other babe. Okay. So if we use our actual
Matt Edmundson: names, it always feels a bit strange. It does when you're doing a live stream.
But, but so when you're coming out, I'm like, am I in trouble? But I get why you have to do it when we're we're live on that it's appropriate. It's appropriate. So next week we are looking at this topic of spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers, which sounds a bit odd and I get it, but there's a scripture where Paul, when he is writing into the Corinthians, says, you've got 10,000 guides in Christ, but what you really need.
Is a father, a spiritual father. So we're gonna get into what that means, what it means for us as church. 'cause in the context of all of this is, is wholeness. We're looking at how to have whole relationships. So today we've looked at community. We're gonna look a little bit at this sort of spiritual father.
Side of things, um, next week, which kind of carries on a little bit from what Mark was talking about [00:53:00] with discipleship last week. Um, so we're gonna get into that, which I'm really excited about. It's one of my favorite topics. This is one of my fa they're all my favorite topics. Um,
Sharon Edmundson: I thought you were gonna launch into the whole thing then.
Yeah. Like you're gonna save anything for next week. But any, uh, parting thoughts, Anna?
Anna Kettle: No, I don't think so. Just, you know, start where you are and just have a go. I think that that's my advice. Yeah. Cool.
Sharon Edmundson: Well thanks for joining us tonight and, uh, we hope to see you either just after the meeting, uh, after the live stream or in one of the groups midweek or maybe next week.
So yeah. Goodbye. Thanks for joining [00:54:00] us.