Welcome to the Jesus Image Podcast.

I want to read some of these statistics.

I think I've read them at Jesus School, maybe here,

but I'd like you to hear some of this because it's just speaks to why we're doing this

and why it's so vital that that we do this. Let me see if I can just find this. As you know,

Jess and I are in seminary right now, finishing our masters,

and we're actually using this children's ministry as our final research project.

And we were asked to do that, which is a real testament to the leadership of Esther

and the amazing, amazing kids in that group.

They're taking my children's curriculum that the Lord asked me to write, and they're using

that, I'm using that, as the research material, which is really cool.

Let me just find this real quick.

It should be from yesterday. Here we go. Okay.

So as part of our master's track, Jess and I had to take two classes on spiritual formation,

which is basically the process of the Holy Spirit conforming you into the image of Jesus, which is the great victory of the Christian

life. It's more important than big crowds. It's more important than events. It's more important

than songwriting. It's being like Jesus is the point. Everything else I just listed is a part of that

journey. If God asks you to do it, if he doesn't, it actually contradicts and obstructs the journey.

Okay. So we were taking this class and we had an amazing, amazing professor, I love her name,

Mara, Dr. Mara Crabtree. It's the kind of person

for sure Emma would hang out with. Very like, you know, Mara Crabtree. Absolutely. She wore a scarf.

You know, you could just see her sipping tea out of proper china probably from Scotland if i had to guess

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