Hey everyone, this month we're hosting a very special all-church event called the Return Gathering.

We believe that this gathering based on Joel II is an important moment for our church as we boldly and prayerfully step into a new season.

Ahead of the Return Gathering, Pastor Andy is bringing a seven-part podcast mini-series,

sharing different conversations with guests that you will find helpful and encouraging as we

prepare for this historic gathering at Saddleback. Let's dive in to today's conversation.

Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to the very first episode of a podcast that we're doing called the

Return podcast. This is an idea actually that just came together four days ago, right?

Yeah, something like that.

In our living room, as we were talking about how do we prepare for a sacred assembly

that we're calling the return with our church family here at Saddleback and talking about

what can we really do over the next four to six weeks that would help people's

hearts and their minds prepare for what we believe God is leading us into as a church.

Now, also, this podcast, we hope can live on beyond just the gathering.

So we're doing some conversations that take us all on a journey with a goal of wholehearted returning to God out of all of our lives.

So I'm here with two good friends.

One of them, I'm married to.

I'm a friend. I'm glad I'm still your friend.

Yes, I wanted to see what you'd do with that.

So I'm here with my bride, Stacey. Hey, hey. And our good friend, Kendall,

Hibiski. Hello. And we're going to have a great conversation. We've had a lot of these

conversations together about what God is doing in our hearts and even the journey that we've all

been on. We've all three known each other for a really long period of time.

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