Some of you may have heard of a man by the name of Ole Kirk Christianson. Ole Kirk Christianson lived in Denmark in the 1920s. He was a carpenter; he had a small carpentry shop where he would make various wooden products. Life got pretty difficult around 1932 for Ole Kirk Christianson. His wife passed away very suddenly, leaving him as a widower with four sons to raise. Not only that, the Great Depression hits and so his wooden products weren’t selling very well and business was really tough.
So he started to launch into making wooden toys. He started making wooden yoyos and wooden animals and wooden vehicles. Business went pretty well. Even during the Great Depression, children would buy toys for their kids. Fast forward about a decade and around 1942 another tragedy hit Ole Kirk Christianson’s life. His factory burnt to the ground. He had to lay off a bunch of his employees and business was very, very tough. In fact, as the years went on, WWII came and wood was very expensive and so everything was so difficult in his small carpentry business.
There was something emerging around that time called plastic. And Ole Kirk took a risk. He was the first Danish toymaker to buy an injection-molding machine. And so he got this machine into his factory and he started playing with plastic. And in 1947, Ole Kirk Christianson made something new. He called it Lego. Anyone heard of Lego?
Lego today is one of the top 50 brands in the world. It’s a household name. It’s actually a word in the dictionary; you can check it out. In fact, there’s been a movie recently called The Lego Movie. Every person should see The Lego Movie; it’s a lot of fun for kids of all ages. And there’s probably not a person here today that hasn’t had or doesn’t have right now some Lego blocks somewhere in a box in the corner somewhere. Lego, it’s become a timeless toy for people of all ages.
What’s interesting about Ole Kirk Christianson is he had a strong Christian faith. He was a believer in Jesus. He also had a church that he called home. If you read his story, he would credit his faith in Jesus and his connection to a home church that helped him endure all of that adversity, all of those difficulties, and inspired him to create a Lego block that’s brought a lot of joy to peoples’ lives. It’s a great story. It’s an inspiring story.
I wonder if today there’s some insights that God can bring to you and to me from the simple Lego block. What can we learn from Lego? Have a think about that question and we’ll come back to it a little later in our message.
I now want to go a little further back to the first century and talk about a man named the Apostle Paul. A well-known person; a builder of the Church of Jesus Christ. In the first century, at this time, he was in prison. He had been sharing his faith, and he had been persecuted and put in prison. And in prison, the Holy Spirit inspired him to write some letters to some churches that he had planted and been involved with.
I want to read a couple of words from Adhesions Chapter 2 this morning, if you’ve got a bible. Adhesions 2, 19 to 22, I’m going to read from the Message Bible. These are some words that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write. That’s plan enough, isn’t it? You are no longer wandering exiles. This Kingdom of faith is now your home country.
Everyone say: home.
Audience: Home
Everyone say: home.
Audience Home
This Kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers. You belong here. I love that word belong. You belong here with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building you a –
Audience: Home
Home. He’s using all of us, irrespective of how we got here in what he is building. He is the Apostles and Prophets for the foundation. Now He is using you. Would you turn to your neighbor and say, He’s using you.
Audience: He is using you.
Up in the balcony, turn to your neighbor, He is using you. He is using you, fitting you in brick by brick. There’s a prophecy to Lego, right there in Adhesions 2. The Holy Spirit was anointing Paul and he was looking through the car doors of time. He’s appointing you brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all of the parts taking shape. You see it taking shape, day after day, a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it. A temple in which God is right at home.
Well, if you haven’t been coming for the last few weeks, we are doing a series called Home. Church is not to be an event you go to, a hotel where you check in for a service on a Sunday morning. It’s to be a family that you are a part of. A home; a spiritual home. Where you find a home in God, who fulfills our deep longings and a home of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so we’ve been talking about the type of home God wants your life to be. A place of welcome, a place of community, a place mission and any of the great messages of last week about expectation and how easily we can become familiar with our home and take it for granted and thereby limit what God can do when we gather.
And so Paul here is talking about that concept of church being a home. In fact, in this verse he uses a variety of metaphors to describe the good news of what Jesus has done for us. He says, first of all, you used to be foreigners or strangers or aliens; now you’re citizens of the Kingdom of God. What an amazing change of position from being outside to now being central to what God’s doing. You’re now members of the family of God. God’s your Father and you’re part of his family. So, citizenship in a Kingdom and now members of a family. And then he says you are also being built together, brick by brick, stone by stone, to become a temple, a holy place for God to dwell. God wants to make his home in you and I, as his people.
This is amazing good news. What an incredible change of position. Now because of Jesus, we’re citizens of God’s kingdom. We’re members of God’s family, and we are part of this temple, this church, that God is building on the earth. And Paul goes on and says what do we do in response to all of that? Jesus did all of that for free; it’s all because of grace. Well, we should be thankful, Amen.
Audience: Amen.
You should be grateful when someone does something great for you. We should be grateful but then we should also endeavor to respond to our responsibilities. To be the best citizens we can in the kingdom, to be the best family members we can and to be part of this church that Jesus is building.
You know, in the New Testament, this connection with God and people was just a core to what a Christian was. It was like this Lego block. Lego blocks are designed to connect. A block by itself really doesn’t accomplish anything. These blocks are designed to connect upwards and in the same way you and I are designed to connect with God, to have a connection with God.
But you can also connect downward, down here on earth. We can connect with one another and be in relationships with each other. You were designed to connect; to connect with God and to connect with people and be a part of his church. In fact, in the New Testament, when people were water baptized, they were baptized into Christ and into the body of Christ. It was a dual transaction. You were connecting with God and connecting with His church as family. In the New Testament, there’s no such thing as a lone ranger Christian, a Crocodile Dundee single hero that’s doing it all by himself.
Yes, the individual’s important. Yes, the individual faith’s important. But you were designed to connect, to connect with God and to connect with peop;le. That’s what it’s all about. In fact, if you think about God himself, about the God we sang about this morning, it’s not just a singular God. It’s God 3-in-1: God, Sun and the Holy Spirit, in relationship with each other. And so Lego actually illustrates that to us. In fact, if you see The Lego Movie there’s a song in it that goes like this, “Everything is awesome when you’re part of a team; everything is awesome.” I know you weren’t that impressed but I was giving it my best shot.
What The Lego Movie illustrates is true. If you’re just by yourself, life’s not much fun. But when you actually get connected, when you’re part of a team, everything really is awesome when you’re part of something that’s bigger than yourself. That’s what Paul is saying si that we’re being built together as the people of God.
One of the things I love about our church, and I’ve gorwn up in this church, I was in Sunday School as a kid, and as I look back through the history of CityLife Church, one of the things about our church is we’ve never really been a bunch of blocks alone. We’ve been a church where we connect with each other, relationships are formed and our people contribute to something bigger than themselves.
It’s been there right from the beginning. I’ll never forget. Back in the early years when we bought this block of land, these 9 acres we bought here in 1981, for the huge price of $205,000. But we’re now wishing we bought a lot more land. Because it was just a farm out here with a little sign out there saying future home of the freeway – it took them 30 years to build it but… We landed out here and we need to build a shed; my dad used to call it a sheep shed, a place for the sheep to gather.
I remember at the first stage of our building we weren’t sure what to do. Pierre Vaneton who is in our first service today, he built a few houses, he said yeah I’ll help out and so Pierre became our foreman. We had about 250 volunteers that would rock up regularly. About 30 tradespeople who used their gifts. One of my mates, David Crofty, he was 21, he laid 20,000 bricks during that first stage; 20,000 bricks, all by himself. Richard Holland, our pastor, he had to lay the last brick, just for the photo moment.
David using his gift, Pierre as the foreman; he worked for 2 years for $2. $2, that’s what he charged us to put all of that together. And it was just as time where if you’re part of the church you connect and you contribute. If Pierre needed something done, he would just call the working bee. We once had a shed that was kind of in the wrong place, we wanted it moved we’d call the working bee. Here’s the photo to prove it. I was there; I was one of the people pushing on that day. In that day there was nothing called occupational health and safety; it wasn’t even in the dictionary. And some of our staff wish those days would come back again because there’s so many rules and regulations.
But that’s the church. You just connect, contribute. Everybody helps out. You need to move this; come on, everybody’s in. that’s the church as God intended it to be. And it’s been part of our DNA right from the beginning. Eventually we put another stage on and the stage that you see now of the balcony and all of the glass and the foyer and upgraded some of our toilets and when we got to this stage building regulations had changed. You couldn’t just bring your spade and your hammer and let’s see what we can do. We had to contract out a builder to complete that beautiful side of the building there. But that cost $7 million.
And the state government didn’t give us any money toward that. I’ve let the politicians know that in the previous meeting. Didn’t get a dollar from the government. There was no one rich person in the church who wrote a big check for 7 million dollars. No, you know who funded that? Single mothers in the church, teenagers who went and mowed lawns a few extra times to make some money, young married couples, seniors. It was just common people that gave of their money. And together we did that incredible extension 7 million dollars we did it totally debt free. How did we do that? Because we’ve been a church where you connect and contribute and as we all do what we can something amazing happens.
Now I know there’s a heap of you here today that has become a part of the church in the last 10 years, since that building happened. And so for you I know that many of you feel terrible that you walk into a building that’s already paid for. You’re sitting in a balcony that someone else put in for. you’re sitting in seats, you’re using carpets. For you that have arrived in the last 10 years everything was paid by other people for you. And I know every week you come and you just feel bad about that and because I love you so much we’ve decided to give you an opportunity.
We’ve got another extension coming. A new community center. We’re updating our children’s’ facilities because we love children. We’ve got some new car parks we’re about to release; not yet but they’re coming. And so we’re doing that just for the people who missed out on an opportunity. In fact, we know that you’re so biting at the bit that we’ve even made the project a bit more. It’s 11 million dollars. And we’ve done it just for you.
Smile, you’re on Candid Camera. Our church has just always had this heart to connect and contribute. And it’s not just about buildings. The church is about people. Another thing that I love about our church is it’s not just a crowd on the weekend. We actually do life together throughout the week. In the first church in Acts 2 they met in the church, thousands of people, but they met in their homes.
And every week did you know there’s as many people in small groups, life groups, as there are on the weekends attending? I love that. We’ve got a picture of the life group coming up right now with Terry Kirchy one of our pastors posing nicely there. And I love this because church is where you connect, where you contribute. I’ve got a life group of a bunch of business guys meeting in another week’s time. We get together for breakfast and we share how’s life, how’s business, how’s family, how can I pray for you? Our church has always had this sense of connecting and contributing.
And it’s not just internally kind of a social club where we help one another. We also have this heart to connect externally. There’s lots of needs in this local community. We got together with the principal of Baronia Heights Elementary School where we do some work every week and they have some huge needs on their campus. And so we decided to put on a working for free for them. Back in March, we had 365 citylifers rock up on a Saturday to do a makeover on the school. I’ve got a couple of photos coming up now. Some workers, some managing directors, standing there organizing the workers, and a few people looking at the wheelbarrow, wondering what they’ll put in there. But everyone was contributing. 365 people walking up saying, what can I do? Give me a shovel. Give me a paintbrush.
And then we just did another one a couple of months ago in Scoresby. 205 people. This has been the heart of our church since the beginning. I don’t have time to talk about world impact and those of you who pray for our mission workers every week. No one sees but God sees. Many of you have been on a short-term team where you funded your own airfare. You took annual leave. God sees that contribution and sacrifice you’ve made.
We’re a church of around 10,000 people who call CityLife Church their home. It’s not the numbers or about the size of the church. It’s about the heart and the quality of the church. One of my favorite statistics is right now we have 2, 615 people who volunteer regularly in a ministry in the church. That deserves a clap this morning. That deserves a clap this morning. 1900 volunteers here in Knox, 246 at Casey, 265 at Manningham, 108 over at Whittlesee, 96 in our Chinese church. These are people that come and help in the car park; they’re out there in hail, rain or shine, telling you where to go with a smile. These are our audio/media people, our singers and musicians, most of them volunteers. You may not be aware but every weekend in all of our congregations we have a 1,000 primary children who we minister to. That’s a huge group of kids and we have people that volunteer to be out of the entire meeting, missing messages like this morning, to be out of an entire meeting not just to babysit but to actually pour into the lives of the next generation. Hundreds and hundreds of volunteers. And I love that about our church.
And this afternoon, I’ve been doing this about 15 years, we’re going to put on a party for all of our volunteers from 4-6. There’s a big carnival, petting zoo, stuff for the kids, and then about ½ hour of some formal presentations. And every volunteer, please come. We’d like to honor you today. If you’re not volunteering, you can sign up today and we might let you come later today. But what are we going to do?
We’re going to gather all of those people thank you so much for connecting and contributing; our church would not be what it is without you. We appreciate you and place sign up for another year. That’ll be the message this afternoon. We’ll be inducting some people into what we call the Van Hall of Fame. The Van Hall of Fame is more important than the Grammys and the Oscars. This is so important. This is the people who’ve had a legacy of serving year in and year out, who have actually set the standard for what it means to be a servant in God’s house, in God’s home. We have a photo of our current Van Hall of Famers coming up now.
Some of them are up in heaven, enjoying their reward now. But Richard Holland was our first volunteer. Stan and Vivian Austen, Doug and Gene Denehie, Max and Judy Fischer, Mopsy Eldridge, Pierre and Hilary Vaneton, Whyhem Hockney over here this morning, John and Shirly Neeland Dor, John and Emmy, Emmy down in the front here, Keith and Olive, Graham and Angela Jones, Donald and Bera Forbes, Kevin and Irene Connor, Stan and Carl, Ron and Faith, Carolyn, Pete and Liz Green, Robert Hallworth, David Hale. Over at Casey, Keith and Trish Bailey, Malcolm and Rudy. Last year, Abe and Ester Tan, Wolfgang and Monica Miller. These are the real heroes of our church. Come on, give them a clap today. They are the heros of our church who serve so faithfully, year in and year out. We want to be honoring them and we have a couple of new people to induct into the hall of fame later today.
What insights can we learn from a humble, simple Lego block that could reinforce the teaching we’ve just read from Paul about God building us into a home? Think about it, talk about it over lunch. Let me give you one. You are a part of the church Jesus is building. I’m not calling you a blockhead or a brick. You are part of the church that Jesus is building. If you are Christian today, the question is not whether you are a part of the church but the question is do you recognize that you are a part of the church that Jesus is building? Every Christian – there’s no such thing as a little box of unwanted Lego pieces that aren’t needed that don’t fit over in the corner. God doesn’t waste anything or any person. When you become a follower of Christ and connect to God, He also calls you to be a part of the church He’s building. That’s a fact; that’s a theological truth. Whether we recognize it or not is the question.
We talk about volunteerism and sometimes when we volunteer we kind of feel good about ourselves. I volunteered. And we like to think, thank you for volunteering. But actually it’s not really a theological concept. In the kingdom, you are called. The question is not, are you called? It’s, have you responded to the call? It’s like being in a family. If you’re called into a family and you’re a teenager you don’t volunteer to clean your room. You are called to clean your room. Come on parents give me a little help here. You are called to clean your room. The question is not, are you called? The question is, have your responded to the call to clean your room? It’s just part of being in the family. It’s not uh oh I’m going to volunteer to clean my room. Well good on you, you want a trophy or something? No. you are called to contribute. The question is, are you contributing?
And in the church the question is not, do you have a ministry, do you have a calling? You do. You are a part of the church of Jesus Christ. Do you see it? Do you see it? What are you doing? Are you sitting at the side, not connected, and not contributing? You are a part of the church that Jesus is building.
Sometimes we look at a simple block like this and go, what can I do? I’m just one person. We can miss the amazing potential of one block. One block by itself is 8 knobs. It doesn’t seem like it can do much but when you start connecting with other people there’s an exponential impact. For those of you who love mathematics, I’m told there’s 8 connecting points at the top, 8 on the bottom. You take two 8-knob bricks and the potential of ways to connect numbers 24. If you take three 8-knob bricks, those potential ways of connecting jumps to 1,060 ways of connecting. If you add six 8-block bricks, that number jumps to over 100 million different combinations.
What is that saying? You by yourself saying what can I do? Well everything is awesome when you’re part of a team and you start to connect with other people. You become a part of something much bigger than yourself. So you are a part of the church Jesus is building.
Number two, you have a unique contribution to make. Every Lego block has a different color, has a different size, and has a different shape. They’re all made different. And every one of us has a unique contribution to make. So once you realize you’re a part of the church, the next question is, what’s my shape? How has God shaped me? Rick Warren uses the word Shape as an acronym. S is spiritual gifts. Every one of you has one or more spiritual gifts. Do you know what your spiritual gifts are, in order? If not, how can you ever live the kind of life God has for you? H is for heart. We all have a heart, a passion, for different things. Some of you love people, some of you love things. Some of you like to think, some of you like to talk. Some of us like little people, some of us like older people. We all have a passion for different things. Do you know what your heart is? A is for abilities. What abilities have you developed? P is your personality. What is your personality? Extrovert or introvert? What is your personality? E is your experience. What have you gone through in life? What have you learned? What pains have you gone through? Sometimes your pain actually has a purpose. Because when you’ve had pain, you’re able to help other people who are going through the same pain.
So, what is your heart, your spiritual gifts, your abilities, your personality, your experience? Do you know your shape and the contribution that you can make? You are a part and you have a unique contribution to make.
Number three, the third insight from Lego, and from the teaching of scripture, is that the church is missing something when you’re not involved. The church is incomplete without your involvement. Anyone ever done a jigsaw puzzle and got right to the end and there’s one piece missing? How annoying is that? It’s only one piece but it’s just incomplete. You may have gotten a Lego kit and you put it all together and there’s one piece missing. It could be a small piece but it’s incomplete. And the church is the same without your involvement. It’s incomplete. And that doesn’t mean that all of us will be prominent but all of us are called to be significant. We have a role to play. Sometimes we just need to see our role a little bit differently.
I’ve told this story before about some men on a building site with some wheelbarrows. And they’re filling their wheelbarrows with bricks and they’re moving their bricks from one side of the building site to the other side. One guy says, what are you doing? We’re just moving bricks from here to there. That’s what we do all day; not very inspiring. Another man’s doing the same job and someone says hey what are you doing? He goes, we’re building a cathedral. What’s the difference? Same job, different perspective. And sometimes we need to lift the perspective on what we’re doing. There are many jobs in the church that seem quite menial.
There’s some guys up there today that when I started speaking they hit record; hopefully they did. And when I’m done, they’ll hit stop. And on Tuesday we’ll put a podcast of this audio and this video up on our website and on our phone app so that people who were away or in other places can listen to it. Just hitting record and hitting stop; it just seems a menial thing but if we can just lift our eyes to see the potential impact of that small task. If we can just move oru perspective from moving bricks to knowing you join with other people and when you contribute we’re building the kingdom of God, which has an eternal impact. You can at least start to see what you’re doing a little bit differently. The church is incomplete without your contribution.
In business management, there’s many business people here today, there’s something called the pareto principle, which is the 80/20 principle. And often that 20 percent of your products will give you 80 percent of your return. If you’ve got 10 priorities, if you do the top 2, they’ll probably have 80 percent of the impact. You’ve got lunch with people today? 20 percent of the people will eat 80 percent of the food. And you know who you are. I am one of you.
There’s another statistic that says 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. Pretty true. But it shouldn’t be true in the church. In the kingdom. Unless you’re injured or in-between roles. 100 percent need to realize I’m a part of the church, I have a unuqie contribution to make; if I’m not serving and making a contribution then the church is incomplete without my involvement.
Number four, my fourth reflection, and you may have some others, is you will be rewarded for the work that you do. Jesus once said you can’t give a cup of water in my name without the Father seeing it and rewarding it. We know there’s an internal reward when your life is over. You’ll be asked two questions, what did you do with Jesus – that’s a salvation question- and, number two, what did you do with your life? And I pray when you hear that question you won’t go well I had a lot of fun, it was pretty cool, I went to CityLife a couple of times. I pray that’s not what you say because you’ve been given time, you’ve been given opportunities and Jesus is looking for a return on his investment in you. God’s gift to you is your potential; your gift back to Him is what you do with it. So there’s a reward internally when we serve, when we use our gifts, but there’s a reward, right here, right now.
Did you know that we benefit when we serve? I’ve been volunteering for many years. I’ve worked for a variety of careers and ministries. As I look back I can honestly say I’ve received more than I’ve ever given. I’ve grown; I’ve become a better person. I’ve matured. I’ve developed some character. I’m still developing more character. I’ve had the privilege of helping other people. I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve found the fulfilment, the joy, of seeing others’ health. You get so much when you serve. There’s a reward to it, not only in eternity but in this life, right here, right now.
Lynne Baracy gave a great message on serving. She quoted an article in Psychology Today and not by a Christian but by someone doing research on the benefits of volunteering. It was by a woman named Dawn Carr. And she gave 5 benefits that have been discovered just by people who volunteer. Number one, volunteers live longer and are healthier. Listen to it. Volunteers are healthier and happier. In fact, during later life, volunteering is even more beneficial for your health than exercising and eating well. That’s pretty amazing. Just think about it. Stop exercising. Don’t worry what you eat. Just volunteer. This could sell. This could go. Here’s a doctor. I don’t know him; he’s smarter than me. Dr. Alan Lucs: Volunteering offers long-term health benefits including relief from back pains, headaches, lowered blood pressure and cholesterol, curbed overeating and alcohol and drug abuse. That’s amazing. You’ve got back pain? Instead of praying for you, we’ll get you to volunteer. Volunteering benefits you personally in the area of health.
Number two, volunteering establishes long relationships. We’re living in a world where we’re more connected on the internet than ever before but we have less friends than ever before. We’re experiencing crowded loneliness. Lots of people around, lots of friends on Facebook but feeling very much alone. When you begin to serve, when you begin to get involved and you begin to contribute, you actually start to form some relationships. Some of my best friends I’ve developed while serving and volunteering in the church. Dodge Gill, Peter Lee, we’ve been working together for 20 years now. That’s a miracle. When you do life with others, when you do life in the community, you make some great friendships. That’s what they discovered.
Number three, volunteering is good for your career. I’ve talked to so many people that have served in church that have learned conflict resolution, that have learned organizing skills, learned to relate to people, to communicate. It’s helped them in their career, in the marketplace. And number four this study revealed that volunteering is good for society. The government can’t do everything. Where would we be without volunteer organizations like the church? Do you know that there’s 60,000 CFA volunteers in Victoria? 60,000. That’s amazing. Volunteering is good for society. And, number five, volunteering gives you a sense of purpose for your life; a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to be alive.
That simply confirms everything that’s taught in the Scriptures. Church is to be a home, a place where everyone connects and everyone contributes. And so I pray today that you will think about your life and what your next step will be. Maybe you say I’m here, I’m contributing, and I say, fantastic. That’s a great place to be.
Maybe seeing what you’re doing with a new perspective is your response today. Or maybe you’re here today to be honest and say well I’m here but I’m not really connected. You know, we’re a big church and it’s easy to come in the front door and, before long, you kind of head out the back door and out to another church. We’ve discovered that if people step off of that conveyor belt into a relationship or into a serving team, there’s a strength to their life and a connection that really makes a difference. So maybe to you today you’re standing alone; maybe your response when this meeting’s done is – instead of rushing off – is saying to someone hey what’s your name? I’ve seen you here a few times.
I remember years ago we were meeting in a gymnasium and I was sitting over there, the meeting finished and I stood up, I’m tall, I’ve got a good view up here, and I saw another tall guy over across the building. And I walked across to the other side of the building and I said what’s your name? Peter. Oh hi Peter my name’s Mark. Little did I know he would become my best friend? We’d be best men at each other’s wedding and work together for years. Now I’m not saying that’s going to happen today to someone you say hello to. But I had to walk across the room and say hi what’s your name? It’s a little awkward at first.
So maybe your response today is to go and chat to someone or to turn to your neighbor and say hey I see you here most Sunday mornings, haven’t really talked, do you want to do lunch today? You know, you just come in and out, that lone brick, unless you make an effort to connect and say can we have a coffee? And you’ve suddenly got a friend. Next week, hey how are you doing? Or maybe it’s getting off of that conveyor belt and getting onto a serving team. It’s easy to go wow everything’s running well, they don’t really need me here. There are so many opportunities to serve.
Maybe your step is to say yeah I think I can help here. I think I can get involved. Maybe that’s your response. Or maybe you’re the ones connected and contributing like this but you’re in a season now when you’re back alone again. The great thing about Lego is you can connect them and then if they get disconnected you can connect them again. It’s really deep. It took a lot of prayer to come up with that one. Maybe you were connected and there was an offense. The great thing about Christ is we can forgive one another and we can reconnect. Maybe you were contributing and connecting but you’re in a new season and it’s time to connect again. Or maybe you’re here today and maybe you have so many connections, you know, we only have limited capacity, you’ve got so many friends you don’t want to meet another person. You’ve got too many. Well that’s okay, maybe you become a connector for someone else. You may have heaps of friends but there’s probably someone here today who has nobody. You might meet somebody and you can’t take them on but you say John this is Bill over here; maybe you connect one person to another person.