Jan 29 2017 - Building a Church for Future Generations

Lord, we pray You would give us grace to lay our hearts before You as a church community that You might speak into our hearts and that You would give us clarity and understanding how to live as Your followers. I ask for grace in our lives that we can know Your love for us and this world – to have an understanding of the times that it might transform who we are that we might be different each moment – to fulfill what You have called us to – Your mission for our lives. In Your name.

We have been going through the vision of our church over the past several months. Starting next week, we will move on from this – but today, we will be talking about thirty years from now, when we are no longer here – we hope that this church would be doing more for God than we are now and that it would be passed on to the next generation.

Building a church for future generations

You remember Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life - It’s not about you. I’m going to paraphrase that for our church: It is not just about us. It is not just about what WE like in church. That is important. But it is just as important that create a church that reaches future generations – not just the next one – but hundreds of years from now – if the Lord tarries that long, as they used to say. We want to build a community that will last.

I DO NOT MEAN THIS: that we become a church that drives out anyone over the age of 50.

Really – I think this is Biblical: Churches need to be multigenerational. We need to have all generations going on. There are all kinds of advantages to that. At this point – our church’s weakness is the younger generation – so we need to make that a focus. This refers to young adults and young families. The term given to this generation is Millennial. They are the least-churched people in our country – ages 16-35 or so – half as many as those go to church as those over the age of 50.

It is around 20%. That means 80% do not. There are variances in the studies that show that. Most churches struggle to reach young adults. Part of the problem is young adults don’t like to go to church!

People ask – can we do this? Are we cool and hip enough? Especially the pastor! He knows and admits that!

There was a study by Fuller Seminary – Fuller Youth Institute – and they went to 259 of the churches that are having the most growth in this age group – 10000 interviews – to find out what was happening that made it work.

The biggest thing is probably what they did not find – the thing that struck them the most: “Reaching young people had nothing to do with being cool or hip.”

It might be easy for us to think we can’t minister to young people – we are not cool and hip. But that is not true. They go through ten myths. I won’t go through that. But 6 things these churches did:

First: Instead of centralizing authority – they empowered others – especially young people. Empowering people for ministry.

Second: Instead of judging or criticizing – they step into the shoes of this generation. They empathize.

3^rd: They take Jesus’ message seriously – instead of asserting formulaic gospel claims – it is about making Jesus a way of life – not just saying a prayer but becoming followers of Christ wholly – what it looks like to be an actual follower – not just knowing the right stuff to say – but living the right stuff.

4) they fuel a warm community. Instead of focusing on programs – they focus on warm peer and intergenerational friendships. Prioritizing young people and families everywhere – ways to support and resource them. “Warm” is the new cool, she said.

5) Be the best neighbors. Instead of condemning those outside your walls, teach people to neighbor well.

6) story.

There was a church in PA where they asked, “What got you involved?” People kept mentioning ‘Bill’ – they went and visited all these churches – and they couldn’t wait to meet Bill. They thought he must be a cool youth worker – Bill was 75 years old. They asked him what he did, and he said this: “When I was a kid, no one came to my sports or concerts – and I just decided to start going to all the kids’ games and stuff.”

We have many qualities that can lead us to build a church for future generations. What’s in it for you? As we focus on this along the way – we will have a great time! Here is what I mean by that: We will experience God in our lives – His presence and activity in our church and community in ways we could never imagine – and that will be a lot of fun. Next – we will be rewarded by being able to pass our faith on to others. I am a grandparent – and it is such a reward to pass on to grandchildren! We will have the opportunity to mentor young people – single moms – single adults – a chance to have a legacy – What an opportunity! We will have the opportunity to be part of an intergenerational church.

I go to visit Joe and Gigi – Joe is not able to make the steps anymore – and I’ll get to that in a bit – but occasionally Joe and Gigi watch the Jundi children. Every time I go over there – little one year old Evan climbs all over Joe and he loves it!

Do you know the children in our church? What a blessing it is!

We’ll be able to use our gifts and wisdom to pass on the kingdom – so that the kingdom will be served 50 years from now. There is a lot of wisdom in this church. It is amazing – the families that have come out of this church – the families that have been raised up are incredible – so there is a lot of wisdom to be passed on. Many of you could make your own parenting videos!

Luke 10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

I think the key for us – is to pray for workers for the harvest – and especially this – that God would give us some young followers of Christ who could help lead us into doing this – to teach us how to reach the next generation. Their generation. Not a lot of us are experts on this – we could read books and that won’t make us experts.

I’ll set that aside – that is one issue in re-envisioning our church.

Over the years – it has been apparent – as much as we appreciate this building – I’ll tell you how we ended up here.

We talked about at our church dinner in October that we would need to do a building fund starting in January – so I will talk about that in a little bit. This whole idea of re-envisioning our church is a faith process. This requires faith – not just popping out a new technique.

This church is the culmination of two campus ministries – in 1989 – we were meeting at the Quirk cultural center.

In 92 or so, we met at Kids Play – and in 95 – its bubble burst.

That spring, we met here on Saturday nights - the people who were meeting here Sundays appreciated our rent but we sort of had different ministry philosophies. We did meet together with them that Easter Sunday.

So we met at this church that summer…

During that time, we went through Experiencing God and afterward had a time of prayer and fasting. About ten days later, the pastor of the church where we had met on Saturday nights called us and asked if we were interested in merging. The rest is history.

God brought us into this building together with them –in November of 1996. We were going from paycheck to paycheck – and had no way of getting into a building – and God did a miracle and made it happen. We need something similar now. It requires faith.

This church has two significant downsides to it – nothing new – first – space is limited. This has always been the number one issue. Until about 7 years ago – all we had for parking was back here and the street. Back here – legally – can hold 12-13 parking spaces – but we packed in a lot more.

Kids’ rooms – we use every nook and cranny.

The second issue is accessibility. It has hindered our church. As a temporary solution – we have a room downstairs – and for those who can’t get upstairs – this is a limitation.

We are also landlocked – there are rules and regulations that limit what we can do here.

Several times – we have looked for other places. There was a church building for sale – it was 5 times the size of this building. We also looked at some other buildings – and we have talked with realtors and bankers. The simple reality is this – We are not financially prepared to do something. What has become clear – what they have shared with us – before we can do anything – we must do a building campaign. We need to know where we stand – so that when we go and look at something we can know if we can afford what it is we are looking at! It is not complex – we all do that when we buy a house.

Our monthly income cannot change anything. Based on our yearly offerings – we cannot change anything that we know. We have been frugal and out of debt for a long time.

I want to give you a brief biblical background on giving.

2 Corinthians 8:3 3 For I testify, they gave according to their means and beyond their means. They did so voluntarily, 4 begging us with great earnestness for the blessing and fellowship of helping the saints. 5 And they did this not just as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

First thing we see – giving is a sacrifice – it is hard to do for all of us. It is hard to go into your checkbook – and give. I just want to acknowledge that.

Second – we see that giving is first about giving ourselves to Jesus – they gave themselves first to the Lord.

2 Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

When you give – it is really important – whatever you are giving to – a missionary – a church – a building campaign – to determine before God what He would have you give. Place your commitment before God. We have talked and we have decided that we will not use any manipulation techniques. That will just not happen. I have read a lot of books on building campaigns – and it is sad that this happens – there are things that I see that aren’t right. It may raise more money – but I don’t think it should be done that way. But we trust God – and we trust you. We also see that giving should be voluntary and joyful.

2 Corinthians 9:8 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: "They have scattered abroad their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever." 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

Fifth - Giving is good for the person who gives. When you give – it is good for you. It is a blessing for you to give.

The next thing we see – giving materially opens up spiritual ministry.

Our goal – for having a building situation that has more space and is accessible is so that we can minister to more people – not just to be bigger.

Seventh: Giving has this multiplying effect. As you give – God gives you the ability to give in more ways – He increases your ability to give in other situations. God doesn’t need money because He has it all – but He needs us to be fully His in every way. That is what God needs – because that is something we have to choose. God could MAKE US all – but He doesn’t. He wants us to say – I am Yours – fully and wholly.

We have some pledge cards – one per couple –

Building for the next generation – 3 year pledge. That is typical for a building fund. What our goal is – our minimal goal – if we are to do anything – would like to raise an extra 150,000 beyond our normal tithes and offerings. We have been faithful financially over the years – we have saved 150,000. We have never done a building/capital campaign like this. Some people say you should do one every five years. I guess one every 25 years is okay.

Here is what I want you to do – take this home – and pray about it – and have them returned by February 19 – and beginning of March – we’ll have envelopes for pledges.

Put the total amount in the first line – and let us know whether you plan to give weekly, monthly, yearly – or all at once.

It is not hard. Even with this – I believe it is still a faith process and God will have to act on our behalf. We want to believe God together to act on our behalf with this. Getting into a new building does not mean that we will leave this one. We may. We may not. We may have two sites. Lots of churches do that. This building has some good things about it. We are leaving that to God, but the reality is – until we know where we are – we can’t do anything. We can only stay – and not change anything – until we know where we are.

Feel free to ask any questions if you would like.

Lord – You have given us much. As we move forward with this – we ask for what You would want – not for what we want. It is easy to think about what we want – but we want what You want – not our will, but Yours. May we put our own hopes and dreams on the altar – to lay them down and to be willing to accept what You call us to do.

11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.