Let's Get FOCUSED

19:33 I know this was something that was spoken what feels like so long ago and so quickly it has become upon us. We were just enjoying summertime shy and we got jackets on. Pray. Pray. We have KidZone this evening and we also have our Youth Wave ministry. so KidZone ages potty train three to fifth grade if you could stand our KidZone leaders are to my right your left and also our youth wave ministry sixth through twelfth grade will also can greet Pastor Jill on the left hand side of the sanctuary can we clap it up for our children And reminder to you, KidZone parents, there's a package for you to pick up after refuel. So when we're done, please go get your children.

20:34 Amen. I've got a couple announcements for us tonight. To those who are joining us on the virtual ship, you can access tonight's lessons by visiting fellowshipchicago.com and click the link that says Refuel Handouts so that you may follow along with us. Those of you who are in the sanctuary, I hope that as you walked in, you were able to get your handouts. There will be a quiz next week, so you're going to need those handouts. A few things to call our attention. Pastor Sharp and Lady Bree and their entire family, we want to keep them in prayer following the passing of Pastor Sharp's great aunt, Miss Carolyn Lemke. She was the last surviving sister of his paternal grandmother. We also want to be in prayer for Mrs. Kimberly Reed Burrell and the passing of her husband, Mr. Cary Burrell. Services for Mr. Cary Burrell will be here on Friday, October 16th. The wake is at 9 a.m. and the funeral is at 10 a.m.

21:34 Ladies, we invite you to Women's World Day of Prayer. that's taking place on Monday November 2nd visit fellowshipchicago.com for more information and to register we're also encouraging you to join our cancer support ministry in the fight or fight harder foundation for the making strides against breast cancer walk on this Saturday October 17th from 8 a.m to noon at Soldier Field you can scan the QR code or visit our website to participate or to donate. And then on Sunday, October 25th, join us for Colors of Hope, All Cancer and Domestic Violence Awareness Sunday. We're a color representing the cause closest to you. And then finally, our 2027 Wave Youth Ministry on the Yard HBCU College Tour for students in grades 10 through 12. We can clap it up for that. It will take place March 20th through the 26th, an all information meeting covering details will take place this Sunday at 1245 in the youth sanctuary are on zoom please register for the meeting on our website can the church say amen we thank God for God we thank God for Jesus and we thank God that we've had the opportunity to gather today for refuel continue to keep our pastor in prayer as he is studying, as he is studying. And while he is away, he thought it would be so kind that folks wanted to have refuel. And he said, let me find a substitute. We'll find out after the six weeks, if it was an acceptable substitute. And if folks have passed the refuel class, he gives out individual grades. I'm giving out collective grades for all of us. We've been having conversation over the last year or so about becoming a five star church and becoming a church of excellence. And so as we go over the past of the past next couple of weeks, we're not stopping our conversation there. As we head into the fourth quarter of the

23:45 year, we want to spend some time about getting focused about being a church that is fruitful and we want to multiply. It's important because we're multiplying something, whether we know it or not, or whether we acknowledge it or not. But we want to multiply the type of fruit that is not only viable, but that we are multiplying the type of fruit that is healthy. Not just for us, but those who come into these doors. And in order for us to be a five-star church, guess what, y'all? We have to have five-star members. We don't need no two and three stars in here bringing the average down. I'll take a 10, but not to bring up that two or three. Right? So I want us to start from what I think is foundational for us. You joined Fellowship Chicago, and whether you know it, this church has a vision statement.

24:40 We probably don't read it enough or even look at it enough, but I thought it was important that we centered ourselves. If we're talking about being a five-star church, what is our vision for this church? It should be at the top of your papers, and I want us to read it together. Count to three. Let's go. One, two, three. Fellowship Chicago is a historic, multi-generational church committed to sharing and showing the gospel of Jesus Christ through acts of love and generosity with a dedication to individual growth and social transformation through worship, arts, and intentional ministry. Y'all had that memorized, right? No, that's all right. By the time we enter this six weeks, you'll be close to having it committed to memory. I think there's some important things that we have to point out in this vision statement. There are a number of verbs in here that we are committed to church, a committed church.

25:36 We're sharing in a showing church of what the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we do that here at Fellowship Chicago through acts of love and generosity. There's a dedication to individual growth, right, and social transformation. And we do that through word and ministry. This we've shown up and are watching online is intentional ministry that we want to learn how to be better. We've talked a little bit about what it means to be a church of excellence in developing a five-star church. It doesn't start just because we say we want to be it. We have to study on how to be it. We have to learn how to be it. We have to be trained on how to be it. And then when we get done doing all those things, we actually have to be the thing we said we want to be. I can stand in a garage all day long, but I will never become a big body Benz. Let me tell you, it takes something, but I won't become that just because I wished it.

26:44 But we also want to talk about our mission statement. This is how we accomplish our vision. We accomplish through the acronym, which is the SHIP. The T stands for teaching. Multiple opportunities from the pastor, ministers, deacons. There's vitamin C, refuel, fellowship, Bible Academy. We also accomplish this through hospitality. And believe it or not, hospitality doesn't just belong to our ambassadors and our peacekeepers. Hospitality at this church is everyone's job and everyone's responsibility. Because if everyone else does what they need to do and then someone runs in to you. my lord all that work will be erased simply because one person has the has the ability to affect and impact the rest of what happens here we also do that through engagement we have a wonderful media ministry can we clap our hands for our media ministry folks who are serving day in and day out some we see and some we never see we also accomplish this through service these are all of our ministries and then we have the nerve to do it through holistic ministry only at fellowship chicago do they worry about your mind your body and the soul we have a jump rope ministry last week they had something up about a crochet ministry if you can find it we're doing it here over at the ship also i stands for innovation we had the nerve to have a juneteenth celebration with community black businesses.

28:21 We had something for everyone and we figured out how to pay for it as well through the donation and generous gifts of members of this church and other businesses who we thank God for. And there will probably be a Juneteenth in 2027. So we look forward to all of you getting your coins together to help us make that a possibility as we do what? Innovative ministry. And then we do that through praise and worship, my Lord, and our worship and arts ministry. The number of Sundays we are jumping and shouting and shouting and jumping. It's a wonder that the seats aren't bolted to the floor for what happens in here. So the SHIP, we'll be going over that every week. So we'll be looking to, that might be on the exam of committing that to memory from someone about what our acronym stands for and also our vision. Our vision and mission is what guides us as a congregation. And it's also the foundation for us.

29:16 So we all know that we're starting from the same place and launching out from there. I would wish that you all would know this. This is something I didn't realize, that there is something called a customer service week. And believe it or not, it takes place in the month of October. So our conversation today is very timely as we are looking at. I know that someone will say, well, we're not a business. I can tell you ComEd didn't turn these lights on because they love Jesus The air and the heat is not on because they love Jesus. There may be people there that love Jesus, but there are things around this. And so I want you to think about the things that we talk about today and the context of what happens in businesses. No, we are in the business of saving souls, business of changing lives.

30:13 When you think about, well, what's the product that we have for sale? It's actually not for sale. The price has already been paid. but there is something that we have to offer people. And you know, this people are all over all day long going to places where they experience hospitality and quality customer service and businesses that excel in it. So imagine when they come to our churches and they're like, all the stars drop off and what people feel like are crosses. that we put people on, right? There's no stars, right? That we don't think about how people are rating us. When I leave certain places, I know what type of service I'm going to get. In certain places, I don't shop at and I don't go to because I don't like the service. People should not feel that way about when they come into the house of the Lord because we become representatives of Christ in that. A couple truths around service. Believe it or not, the 2026 theme for customer service week this year was the extra mile. What would happen if every time we cross these doors on a Sunday morning, you thought, how can I go the extra mile? Not for myself, but maybe for my neighbor for somebody I don't know. I know for some of us we think, well, what does the extra mile look like? If you have to take a few more steps from that parking space, it won't hurt us.

31:50 If you have to give up your seat and go to the champion's room and overflow, the same spirit that is up here reverberating is also taking place downstairs. Ask me how I know, Why do people come up here and accept Christ from that room? People are doing it from online as well. And we should be mindful of what that is. So let's talk about the simple truth of service. Number one, every leader is telling a story about what he or she values. It shows up in your behavior. Number two, we judge ourselves based off of our, on our intentions, which is the invisible part that nobody knows. You actually have to tell people what your intentions are.

32:45 Three, others judge us based on our behaviors. So no one knew that you were meaning good and well intended when you did something. All they know is what the impact of what that behavior was. And then finally, it's easy to make decisions when you know the vision and the values. We just went over our vision statement. We went over our mission statement as well. And here at Fellowship Chicago, we've heard it said many times from our pastor that excellence is the floor.

33:19 And you know what's interesting about that? Some of us like to hang out in the basement. If excellence is the floor, that's the vision that's been given to us. Those are our values. And we should make our decisions based off the fact that we as a church said what? We are a historic, multi-generational church committed to sharing and showing the gospel of Jesus Christ through acts of love and generosity. acts of love and generosity that's why it can be easy to give up your parking space in your seat and it's easier to make decisions when you come back to the thing that we once started from so let's talk about the 10 truths of service from the book the simple truths of service which is inspired by johnny the bagger it's a book by ken blanchard and barbara glance it features the story of a grocery store bagger who had Down syndrome, and his name was Johnny.

34:25 And he decided that inside of every bag of groceries that he packed for people at the grocery store, that he would slip a piece of paper with a thought for the day. He took it upon himself to do so. And believe it or not, people would go to the grocery store, and his line was the longest line. Folks waited in line to get Johnny's thought for the day. And so they wrote a book around this about the 10 simple truths of service. Number one being one, great service inspires stories. It's the memorable services that get talked about. Memorable service gets talked about and it gets shared with others. If I've ever gone to a good hotel with great service, you know the kind when it's just like miss fluker i'm like yes ma'am we have this ready for you and if my room's not ready well we have a bellhop who's going to take your bags why thank you could we get you something to drink right and i tell the stories of the places i'm going back to but i also want you to know that when we don't have great service let me tell you we are on google letting the world know we're on social media tagging them letting them know we call it folks I can't believe they messed up my reservation they had it for next week and not today my room was dirty things of that nature but you think about the stories that we have the ability to inspire about what people will say about Fellowship Chicago because when they came into the sanctuary they came into the parking lot they came to our church there was something that someone did that was the extra mile that made the difference for them families having the opportunity to sit together and worship and not one on this side and one on the next side. You know, some of us fidgety babies come in and some of you are children whisperers.

36:20 You can figure out how to make them sit, be quiet, right? Like, can you imagine a mother coming in and struggling with all of those things and somebody stopped and helped her in the parking lot, helped her out of her car. You popped your umbrella to make sure someone else didn't get wet. Those types of things inspire stories from other people. Number two, great service uses outside-the-box thinking.

36:47 Creativity allows employees to stand out from standard practices. Just like Johnny, he found a place where he can insert his own personality, a piece of his own passion into the service that he was doing. We have to leave the room or the door open for people to do outside the box things and it doesn't have to be I know this is a historic multi-generational church. It remains multi-generational when we just don't rest on the history of what we've done before This is not the oldest living organization And it will remain living as we move along With the times we don't lose anything we gain by adding right so outside the box thinking I know we did message with the mimosa and people were like uh huh but they're, thank you. I don't know. Was the message that was nicer or the mimosas for folks, but we have folks who gave their life to Christ at a message of mimosa.

37:55 And we have to be mindful of things that we may have never seen before, but you have to be also mindful of their generations that are experiencing new things. So we have technology in this church. people are watching all over, all over. So some of our outside the box thinking has to be, how do we incorporate our virtual members? That they're not just on Sunday and on Tuesday when there's a broadcast, how do we keep people a part of the ministry and involved in it? Number three, great service is a choice. Every individual controls their attitude and how they interact in a moment. I am not a believer in this whole, like I just had an emotional moment and this is the outburst. No, whatever is in you is what's coming up out of you. If nasty words are in you, nasty words come out of you. If a bad attitude is deep down in the trenches on the inside of you, it's going to come out. And the place it will probably will come out the quickest is inside of a church. So for each of us, great service is a choice. You have to come in here and make a choice that I'm going to go the extra mile. I'm going to make a choice that I'm going to be loving. I'm going to be compassionate. I'm going to be kind. I'm going to be empathetic.

39:14 That's a choice you have to make. And sometimes the choice is for us as members in the body of Christ on some Sundays, you just need to sit down. that's the best choice we can make because every Sunday ain't your Sunday and some Sundays it's not that you need to serve some Sundays you need to be served Hmm? Because some of us, we know, we have the tendency, we wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Every side of the bed is the wrong side for you. You know you didn't get enough rest, and you're rushing to get to church, cutting people off in traffic. And I wonder if people followed you, how shocked they would be that you showed up here. And then the surprise that they're like, no, they're singing God will make a way somehow. I love the Lord, don't you?

40:17 So great service is a choice. We have to make a choice to show up. And then also recognizing who we're showing up for. Can you imagine? God said, I woke you up this morning, right? Got you started on your way. You said, I'm coming to serve you, Lord. And we serve it everything that's sour and nothing that's sweet. God forbid a great service is a choice. Number four, great service starts with a clear vision. A strong sense of purpose guides our daily actions. We said if excellence is the floor, it doesn't get much clearer than that. So even on our worst day, we excellent. And I know people think, oh, it can't be done. Oh yes, it can be done. I've traveled to places and I'm like, they're not having the best day, but they sure are making this thing work. And guess what?

41:15 They're not fueled by any spirit. Maybe the spirit of capitalism, but they're not fueled by the spirit they don't have something helping them but they are they are clear about what the bottom line is people need to return so they start with a clear vision and for us that's excellence is the floor number five great service requires that everyone catches the vision all team members must buy into the organizational mission When I leave Chick-fil-A and I say thank you, I expect my pleasure. And when I don't get it, I'm like, Bethany, what is going on? You owe me a my pleasure with that barbecue sauce. You owe me a my pleasure with that Polynesian sauce. These fries don't even taste the same because they didn't what?

42:12 Come with my pleasure. You got to catch the vision. I don't care where I go. I expect it at every Chick-fil-A. And how can I have that expectation of Chick-fil-A? Who feeds us food? It's good. Thank God for it. But Chick-fil-A is not responsible for my soul. After I've given them their money, they're like, they got what they needed. I got what I needed. Let's move on from here. Right? But that vision, you know, if you go in there and you're like, now wait one minute.

42:47 She didn't check this bag. There's no straw in here. We have to think about what that means for us, what it means for this entire house to catch the vision. And it also requires that leaders catch the vision. So if you were a leader and you haven't caught the vision that excellence is the floor, you're a cog in this wheel. You're clogging up our pipes over here. As pastor said, you are messing with the vibe. And you're messing with it real bad. Okay, we'll keep moving. Number six, grace service surprises people. Going beyond expectation creates delight. We have found this. you can shock a person just by being nice and offering great service. I promise you, give up your seat at the 1045 service next Sunday. You're going to shock some people. It might be a praise that erupts before the praise team even gets up.

43:42 We might see jumping and shouting and all kinds of things, right? It would surprise a person. Why? Because they don't expect it. And you know why? And even in this day and age, it surprises people because we don't get to experience it as often as we should. customer service has kind of gone out the window at times but it shouldn't be in here if people experience customer service nowhere else it should be in a church it should be in a church when people come in here they should be sad and go to the rest of the world and say you need to figure it out what the church has and what the church is doing that we can duplicate but I haven't seen companies come in here and ask churches to help us duplicate and replicate what you do because some of the things that we do from business standpoint we would have been out of business a long time ago we'll keep moving number seven great service begins with anyone any employee regardless of title can make a massive impact you don't need a title to lead you don't need a title to serve and you You don't need a title to practice good customer service.

44:53 For us, the business, we should be in the business of towels and not the business of titles. Because titles make us feel like, well, this person must have to do it and that person must need to do it. And there's the expectation of everybody where the title has to do something at a certain level. And everybody who we may perceive to be beneath them or leading next or beside them doesn't have to carry the same thing. as the leader. It makes no sense to have a nice sweet pastor and first lady.

45:27 And then we have leaders that are sour grapes. thank you deacon and lois i didn't want to sour grapes are still good but that's not what we should be i want us to be the sweet cotton candy seedless grapes people like those number eight great service goes the extra mile willingness to do more than require builds true loyalty why stop at the expected when you have the ability to go we we we get in here and we'll be jumping and shouting about God doing exceeding abundantly but then when it's our turn we'll be like I'm gonna do the bare minimum or below how does that match right you got excited about God doing above and beyond but we just want to give God the very least that we can. So we can be a church that goes the extra mile. Number nine, great service brings customers back. Repeat business is the direct reward of genuine care.

46:43 There are things that will bring people back to this church, and there are many things that will cause people to go on social media and talk about this church. and they're never coming back. And then the sad part is, is that for some of them, they're never coming back to another church. Not just this one, but in the other one.

47:05 Simply because something that happened. Because you believe it or not, people have an expectation when they come into churches. What should and should happen. And part of the expectation is built on some of the things that we say. You will find Jesus here. The Lord will meet your need. This is a place where you'll get the spiritual help that you need. But we don't tell people that they may run into other things. And so the expectation is what? I'm going to get all these wonderful things when I come here. And I forgot I'm going to run into some of us's on the way. People fight enough to get here. Chicago traffic is not for the faint of heart. I'm a small city girl and when I go home they're like you drive like you live in a big city and I do I've been fighting it but people go through a lot to get here on a Sunday morning on a Sunday afternoon and some people choose to come on Sunday afternoon at the 115 service so they don't have to fight some of the things that they find at the 1045 service Lord clean us up at 1045 it's that traditional church hour that sometime just is something in us it just comes out it's like Jurassic Park in here and I'm not talking about the running because of the Holy Ghost.

48:39 You're like, something's chasing me. Number 10, great service comes from the heart. True connection cannot be faked. It stems from authentic empathy. You know, what comes from the heart absolutely reaches the heart. There are some people in this church, I promise you, Their hugs, I don't know if they have touched the hem of the garment or not, but they have the type of hugs that will bring life back into you. You'd be like, whose grandma is this? Whose auntie is this? Sometimes a simple touch. And I am telling you, when Pastor Sharp says to grab your neighbor by the hand, I am like sister germaphobe. I'm like, I don't know where those fingers have been, Jesus. I love my neighbor, but I don't know what my neighbor brought in here. But when he says to grab your neighbor's hand, I keep plenty of hand sanitizer and wipes just for Sundays.

49:39 I do. I love y'all. We just have different practices. But when he says to grab your neighbor's hand, you know that there are people who have not felt positive human touch all week. we don't live well without being able to be connected when he say to hug your neighbor somebody needed that hug can you imagine sitting by somebody all sunday and the pastor says grab your neighbor hand talk to your neighbor and your neighbor is just statuesque Thank you. You're like, pick the wrong seat this Sunday.

50:16 The one place that there is communal love and appreciation for people's humanity and their dignity. And sometimes our neighbors are going to stumble in here and they're not going to smell like Bath and Body Works. Sometimes they're going to smell like 21st Liquors that's in Indianapolis. Right? And then some of our neighbors smell like a dispensary.

50:49 I don't know if it's yum, yum, gum, gum. I don't participate in those things. Y'all know that oo-wee. That neighbor deserves to be spoken to. That neighbor deserves to be hugged. That neighbor deserves to be loved.

51:11 Because sometimes we have to realize it's not for where they are. We can love them to where they need to be, where they don't need that. and imagine coming in here and they're like well they're not talking to these neighbors no everybody's a neighbor worthy of conversation and love here why because Matthew 28 18 through 20th we were given this assignment and it reads and Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,