foreign happy Mother’s Day everybody I’m here with some of our team that grew up in
church and none of that would have been possible without the moms that led us so we’re gonna have some fun and uh we got some questions for some individuals I’m
gonna go over here to Kalin okay will you talk to us about your salvation history growing up in church
so um the church kids team had to talk to my parents because I raised my hand for salvation every single Sunday are we
talking preschool or like through Elementary I don’t want to answer that question will you talk to us about you had some fun stories here in this house talk to us about those
years I closet or like an office
or go hide in the car and just try to stay under the radar okay so you were uh you were trying to
avoid uh one of the earliest memories I have of John during service speaking of Adventures was uh it was a Wednesday
night service and right in the middle of pastor’s message seeing this head Peak up over the rail of the choir loft so
while service was going on the boys were doing some exploring and having a good time thank you for your grace pastor Kevin we
love you I think it’s cool that so many of us in this circle we grew up in this house or a church but now we’re having kids on
our own and we’re seeing our kids run to the church into the house Zach you guys got someone new coming into your family
soon yeah well church was a big deal in our household and and we were always we’re always there you know we’re always part of the church and now I’m excited
because yeah we are expecting in September we’re building our own family and I’m excited to bring them along with us that’s huge Jen you you were saying
you tried to avoid and hide and not show up but talk about your kids my kids there’s nowhere else they’d rather be they just want to be here all
the time every time every chance they get they want to be here with us and they love the house so much it’s so cool I think we could all agree that moms are
prayer warriors we could go around and share stories about how our moms prayed for us and all that but I know Crystal you have a really cool story when it
comes to that in your life yeah my my mom I don’t even know if she knew Jesus at the time but it was so important that we prayed for every single meal and at
night at bedtime and I didn’t set foot into a church until I was in fifth grade but I knew Jesus and I knew when I was going through the hard times that I had
somebody to talk to uh yeah I mean I can totally relate my I grew up without a dad so single mom but my mom also leaned
on the church to be that Gap filler that she didn’t have the church was all of that Gap filler [music] and she just knew that there were going to be men and
women that were going to raise me like the village and I genuinely don’t know where I would be if [music] my mom didn’t make Church a priority but
because of that that commitment to make Church a priority I’m standing here today and I’m just so grateful forever [music] for what my mom did and for the
church that I grew up in thank you [music]
foreign
on [music] Wednesday night Sunday morning [music]
it’s the church the
mother’s prayers still [singing]
in the air for the ones who and [music] the only thing that kept us
was God’s [singing] grace
waiting fast
us
God’s church is still alive
oh his power [music] and his presence is still here [music and singing]
so I’ll keep telling my [music] kids yeah there is healing in [music and singing]
these walls of Jesus there’s angels dancing down these
homes if [music]
it’s a Wednesday night [music] Sunday morning don’t need much cause Jesus
loves it and if you wanna know where [music] our history
began
and if you wanna know why
the [music and singing] way the way we are it’s [music]
the church that we are only
oh yes
come on wow wow
you may be seated wow I [music] don’t know if you all know but that was
the church and I was the little girl in [laughter] that picture singing in the choir
and uh that’s a church I I grew up in and when this song was given to us
a few months back I thought how cool would it be
if we could show you some church kids that were raised by
church kids and so you see coming behind me all these church kids
that were raised by church kids and from Bellevue to Yakima to Tacoma
to DuPont there’s something that we have here that
is just gold when I hear that song the way she sang it so heartfelt
Pastor Haley they’re at the DuPont location shout out there to the DuPont location pastors
Pastor Haley and Pastor John you could [music] tell when she’s saying that that it came from within here
because she she has stories to tell and so this good looking group behind me
here my my my I wanted to have about 150 of them to be sitting on the stage
because when you’ve been in this region like we have for over 37 years
you literally get the [music] privilege of seeing those that have been dedicated
and then they give birth to a child and now they’re raising church kids and I
just want to encourage many of you here today maybe you say well I haven’t maybe been in church that long and I haven’t
raised my kids in the right way I just wanted want [music] to just remind you
that it’s never too late it’s never too late
it’s very possible you have adult children and you’re going to hear some stories [music] today with adult children and how how to
handle that but I believe you heard you heard it even said today that it it one of the
comments I said that it takes a village to raise a church to raise a child I’d like to put it this way it really
doesn’t take a village it takes a family in a community of Believers that have the same value
to raise the child
we’re not going to just storm out to the Village we’re not just going to throw them out to schools we’re gonna find a
family to have the same values that we do and we’re going to help raise some church kids that we’re gonna hand the
Baton over
because I want you to know right now before I even get started I’ll try not to preach because I’m not here to preach I’m here to share and talk
but we have some values in our Christian world and in our walk that the Bible
gives us and if you have ever seen in the Olympic races
where a baton has been supposedly taken and passed over really easily possibly
but it dropped I think we need to decide on our time right now that
how you every biblical [music] value that we’re going to hold on to that baton we’re going to make sure it gets
into our [music] children’s hands and our children’s Children’s hand and no family values are [music] going to be
dropped I’ll tell you right now if you drop it it’s game over the church [music] will
die families will die but not on our time clock right Church we’re raising church kids that are gonna
race church kids okay I’m not preaching I’m talking to these people right here
so good to see all the moms and I hope hopefully you brought some children to church that maybe uh you said that’s the
best Mother’s Day gift that you can give me is to be at church I hope that you’re sitting right here in this place today
because there’s no place uh you should be or rather bees right here in the house of God I want to talk to you the
whole thing this would be grounded in good things grounded in good things we’re going to talk about three different things as we
talk to these behind us but the one scripture that I want to just well there’s a couple of scriptures
but in Colossians 1 and verse 23 says continue in your faith
being grounded and steadfast and not moved from the hope of the
Gospel which you have heard and everybody under the sound of my voice and looking online and [music] and
Yakima Bellevue Dupont you have heard the word of God and the bottom line is
is from here on out you’re gonna be steadfast and holding on to the truth that you have heard
in order to go forward in what God has called us to do and I love talking to church kids
I love I love I love kids I I actually thought I would have a house full of kids
and I had one which I’m so thankful that God blessed me with one blessed us with
one in fact I should say not only me but us because [music] it was kind of funny my husband would say my daughter and I
would say my you know my daughter and someone thought that you know maybe we had our own daughters so
and you say our daughter but uh so glad that God gave us a child but I
have a house full of kids I believe that God has given me in this Champion Center
there’s good things that happen in a family when they attend church and I believe the number one thing that I see a thread in all of these kids and
the children that go to our church and the adults now is that they have the number one priority of making church
every Sunday and every time the doors were open making church a priority in their life
and when you do that I believe in you I think you know too that there’s a spiritual growth that happens
you grow from Sunday after Sunday it’s like line upon line precept upon precept
scripture upon scripture message upon message you grow there’s that spiritual growth that happens when you come to
church and there’s relationships that’s formed which we’re going to talk you’re going to see in a minute there’s relationships there’s marriages that
happen because you come to a church like this setting you come to a youth camp you come to a conference you are able to
meet and you’re able to see people that are having your same values blessings will come when you’re faithful to church
an honor is talk when you’re coming to church the scripture talks about it right here
where it says not forsaking the gathering together with other believers you’re teaching your children hey we
believe the scripture where it says we’re to come together we’re to gather together and I want to ask of one of the
gals here that is sitting up here where’s Olivia at here’s Olivia now your mom and dad you were raised by
some church kids and now they’ve raised you and you have found your place but what did how did
Mom and Dad go about in making this a priority for you yeah and I feel like I just don’t remember a time where we weren’t plugged
into the church I’m just so thankful for that so whether it was you know service on Sunday or youth group on Wednesday Church camp I went to church camp with
some of the people on the stage growing up it was just such a huge part of our lives and I know I have seen the fruit
of that investment in my life and in my siblings life and I just couldn’t be more thankful that we’ve always been a part of the church so now that you’re
older you know your mom and dad your dad is where’s mom and dad at are they sitting right here y’all know they’re online
today you’re traveling but you know what you make it a priority Christine Kevin I love that I saw a text on my phone
you’re probably going to tell me that but now that you’re older now that you’re older what are the some
of the priorities that they put in an instill in you and your sister and your brother yeah so now that we are adults and our
starting families of our own one of the things that we’ve made a priority is having an annual family meeting and so
we come together once a year and spend a week together just reconnecting and praying and talking about our goals for
the next year and I just really know that my relationship with my siblings is stronger because of it our relationship
with the Lord is stronger because of it and again I just couldn’t be more thankful that my parents make sure we’re in church but always make sure that we
take that time to reconnect and Worship the Lord that’s once a year you have a yearly family meeting you guys come
together you’re married now you found your husband and yet still today your
mom and dad are instilling in you values I think that’s beautiful isn’t that a great idea
love that Siobhan Javon
you’re raised by a single mom and you didn’t have a father in your life
how did how did Mom you’re you’re bigger than mom even right now
how did a single mom prioritize and how did she get you to church
um she got me to church by this driving job and everything um she made it a very priority of like
she wanted me to be surrounded by Godly men because without them I wouldn’t be who I was today um
and she saw the fruits of it and she knew that she had a community that she can turn to here and help raise me so
it’s not just her it’s a lot of people what it is mainly my mom and I’m very thankful for she’s right over there thank [cheering]
you
so like if she was having a hard time with you and you weren’t obeying did she just like say we’re gonna go to
church yeah we’re gonna go find somebody to talk to you and they’re gonna they’re gonna like
knock some sense into you or they’re gonna drop [clears throat] you off you’re gonna you’re gonna find Truth at church
I remember hearing stories where Pastor John would tell us where uh mama mama would bring you and she’d make you
surround surround you with some youth men of God and uh Build You Up
tell you that you know you didn’t belong with the other group but you belonged in this group and then what happened now
you have a beautiful person sitting next to you where did you meet that person I met her here at church
that’s what we’re talking about great things happen in the house of God
I love how when moms feel like maybe they just can’t handle it or can’t move forward with being a single mom I love
how you literally your mom brought you to church to let the men of God surround you it’s so exciting when I still get
goosebumps when I think about it Pastor Haley and uh Chase oh right next to each other yeah
I don’t know if y’all don’t know Pastor Haley and Chase they are brothers and sisters that were I think that you might
have been delivered in church your mind you [clears throat] you lived here at church but tell us you
know how you leading a team here at at church kids you’re the children’s pastor
and uh how many has ever watched the church kids show where you see teacher teacher Charles
that’s just that uh that’s his stage name teacher Charles and uh the kids love teacher Charles but
Brayson uh looking around here and at church kids if church kids only came
on a Sunday and maybe once a month you know what happens in that situation I’m gonna let Chase speak to that
so with consistency I was a classroom teacher for three years and I had even some really promising students who would
come in and it was kind of a rough school on my my first year and I remember I had one student he was just really bright
um but he was there like maybe once or twice a week and I would you know communicate with family like man he’s struggling in this thing but he’s so you
know bright he’s totally got this but he wasn’t there and so he was struggling in a lot of different um subjects and then at other schools
similarly you know you got all these really strong wonderful kids who when they don’t show up they don’t learn and so I think it’s really similar in church
where especially with dealing with the Bible which is this really dense you know theological book like even as adults trying to read Romans I mean come
on like and so it’s so important that uh they’re getting their teaching in the classroom at church
um so consistency is huge if they’re not there they’re not they’re not going to learn it and um yeah we do have online and stuff but there’s a different connection and a
different level of learning when you get to have real teachers be in your life weekly who are waiting and greeting uh
you when you show up at the doors uh so I think consistency paired with uh partnership
uh with the parents so you can have someone show up to school but how many of you were you had great attendance but
still struggled in the subject at school so if the parents are on on uh on our side and partnering with us as the
teachers the kids ministry that’s a really potent combo for uh helping that child really understand who Jesus is and
why we worship Him foreign [applause] I just wanted to piggyback off what you
said I heard you say consistency parents mamas dads one of the greatest gifts that you can give your kids is to help
them develop a love for God’s house because that’s where the consistency is going to be rooted in and so that one
day hopefully in Jesus name there’s that magic moment for your child where it shifts from Mom and Dad’s Faith to their
faith from Mom and Dad’s Church to their church and and don’t underestimate age I
remember for me I was seven years old when I understood what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus and when I was
seven I would go to class and during worship I would get emotional because I knew at seven years old what it meant to feel God’s presence and so if you can
give them that gift of developing a love for God’s house regardless of their age that’s gonna set them up for the rest of
their life that [applause] we have a family over here this is literally church kids raising church
kids and uh this is Roger and Sarah for you that don’t know of me uh are our
lead team for celebrate recovery and uh yeah but not only that they serve on the
national team of celebrate recovery and they are just volunteers
they have thriving careers uh he oversees uh installing of parks in the
Pierce County area the beautiful Park that you see out there on uh Rustin way
I think it is that architect design that beautiful walkway area that’s our man
right here Roger Stanton yeah but [applause] uh Sarah has her own
counseling agency where she counsels and you’re raising church kids beautiful girls and they wanted to know
if I was going to talk to them they were kind of worried about that but I think the question I’d like to ask you is um how do you make Church a priority
with your your volunteers things that you do um your job your career your flipping
houses on the side uh you’re working hard at your marriage and uh you got three
teenage girls almost all three teenage how do you make this a priority getting them to church
well I it was modeled for us Sarah came Sarah was at the church when pastor Kevin showed up and Sarah’s mom
who’s in the crowd Karen uh brought Sarah to church every single week without fail to youth my parents are in
the building they would bring us kids we would go to these old Pentecostal services and sleep under the pews when it took too long and I mean we were
church kids we knew where the crackers were for communion when we got hungry right hey you live at the church you figure
some stuff out right and we had such a rich growing up that when we got together which we met here
at Champion Center when we got together we decided that this is a priority for us we’re going to have a big full life we’re going to have jobs and careers and
sports come into play and and all of a sudden and we just decided that this is what we do this is how we do our
family and one of the coolest things happened when our girls were old enough to understand where we were when we would slow down and turn into the
parking lot every single one of them would scream church out loud church like and so we wish that they would still do it they
don’t do it as much now but it’s all right uh but we they they now are the ones saying hey I’ll go hey I
gotta be at church for a run through at 8 15. you know can we come and they’ll get up on their own just to sit to sit right here while a run through is going
on because they want to be in this building all the time all the time
is Dave Dave heard that when she had her baby just a few weeks after she had her baby we had the launching of the celebrate
recovery and I heard that you were the baby rocker for the brand new baby can you imagine Dave Rich our Legacy Giver
rocking the baby so they could launch out Celebrate Recovery I thought I’d love to have a picture of that you know
what I I want to remind you prioritizing Church if you guys that when you prioritize Church
you’re showing your values you know Cody you know at a young age we’d say hey Cody your epidermis is
showing and you know you look down like I got a towel around me you know get out of the shower I’m not showing anything we’re like no your epidermis is showing
I’d like to look at some of y’all and say your values are showing when you’re not prior uh prior tourizing uh Church
in your life not making it whatever it takes to get to church your kids see what you value the most
and you have to be careful with how you go about your everyday thing and the second thing is cultivating a
life-giving atmosphere you prior to prioritize church and you cultivate a life-giving atmosphere I know in our
home that was one of the things that I always wanted to do I turn on the music I’d make it life-giving Jody tells me
this story and I gotta tell all these stories so fast it goes so fast Jody tells me this story and I don’t recall it but there was times when I couldn’t
find the radio because you know we didn’t have phones that had music on it that I would turn on the TV to like Denise Austin and then in the morning to
wake her up come on let’s go yeah yeah let’s go one two three you can do it and I’m like oh my goodness if I couldn’t find praise music I was lifting her up
you know trying to get her spirit up ready for school but that’s that’s that’s just what I believed in you know
Jesus said I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly we’ve got to cultivate that in our home and I
wanted to ask uh Pastor Haley well how did that go about in your home so we were constantly exposed to an
atmosphere of worship because it was in the center of our home in fact you said we may have been delivered here that could have been true because my mother right where you’re standing used to lead
worship with me when she was still pregnant with me so it started since the womb and you know I remember we would get drug out of bed Sunday morning 7 A.M
still in our PJs uh sponge rollers in our hair because we had choir practice at 7 A.M on Sundays and so we were being
exposed to church we were being exposed to worship at home my mom would sit down and play worship music she would songwrite sometimes and in the car there
was usually always a cassette tape of either darling check or Ron cannoli cassette tapes yes gen Z Google it
you’ll find out what it is but I love that my mom was so intentional about the little things
about celebrating Jesus celebrating worship you and you have two toddlers now so what are you doing yeah like I said we
just try to be intentional with those little moments for example every day we get in the car with our three-year-old Jax and we see Jax is such a nice day
goes yeah Mama it’s really nice I’m like you know Jack’s God made the sun he goes wow yeah can you say good job God good job
God like he doesn’t quite understand yet but it’s those little seeds at night we taught him a prayer that he used to
repeat after us and now we repeat after him because he knows it by heart and so just being intentional with those little
moments with your kids it plants seeds that lasts with you for the rest of your life
and then finally showing them the kingdom way so the three things that in raising church kids and you’ll see in
these church kids and then the church kids that are at all the other campuses and some of you online that it was a
priority coming to church and number two cultivating a life-giving spirit you don’t you aren’t dragging them to church
but you’re doing everything you can and you can still do that today given that life-giving feeling to those children
and thirdly is showing them the kingdom way of living so no matter what happens
parents you have to know what matters the most
yes a successful life is important academics is a good thing
and sports is a good thing financial success is a good thing but
the most important of all success is spiritual spiritual
spiritual success all of the other things will come with it all of the other things will come
with it but spiritual success should be the number one thing that you make matter in the lives of children and I
want to ask Christian Christian you were involved in sports and you got a scholarship how did Mom
Pastor Nicole these are pastors kids right here how did
she navigate a sports and Church Life yeah so from a very young age our
parents prioritize church over Sports every Sunday and I was only allowed to play on the city leagues so Metro Parks
from a young age and then whatever school I was at and [clears throat] I know today Sports looks a lot different than when I
was a kid there’s select teams there’s travel teams and oftentimes uh colleges will look at those teams now instead of
those City or even School leagues and I think it’s an important conversation to have um that when you prioritize the [music]
house of God over those that He will always honor that and those actions towards the church
thank [applause] you and I think if you’re a young adult student in the room and you have
aspirations to play in college or even professional like let God honor your dream by
honoring his house and and uh so when I went to college and became my own man and started to you know build my legacy
for myself it was easy for me to prioritize church when I had the option not to based off of the principles
instilled by my parents and so from a young age seeing them prioritize church it was easy for me to be able to go to
church we would get you know we’d play a game in Texas and we’d find a SeaTac at 2 A.M and by eight o’clock in the morning we were I was inviting buddies
every week and we were up heading to Yakima campus uh Sunday mornings and that leads me to my next point of you know when you’re planted in the house of
God you find community and college can be an extremely lonely time for young adults as they’re finding themselves and
so by us being planted in Yakima we were able to meet families like the Easters the Andersons the Rodriguez and Pastor
Donovan would invite me and five or six buddies over and he’d cook us food and that was our community when we were feeling lonely over in Ellensburg so I
love that I love that
I know I gotta close out I got it I just got it I I just gotta say Lily can you tell us what happened to you one day
being a preacher’s daughter I [laughter] hear my mom say no no over there um so there’s one afternoon this is just
a quick story uh it’s a Sunday afternoon and church is over and usually I mean this is just pastor’s kid you’re usually
the last one to leave and the Lobby’s all cleared out there’s a few people hanging out and I’m going around and I’m looking at the people and I’m like hey
does anyone know where my mom is and I think one of the security was like you know I think she left like 10 minutes ago
and I’m like well I’m still here and she’s my ride and so I call my mom and I’m like Mom are you gone and she’s like
oh my gosh I totally forgot like I’m turning around right now she’s like 10 minutes down the road so you know being a pastor’s kid it’s fine you get left
behind every once in a while
I I didn’t get to talk to everybody here and I want to finish with Jackson here on the last one but um you know I see these kids show up
you know an hour and a half two hours before service because Mom’s serving on the platform and that’s just what
happens but it’s it’s not going to harm them they’re going to turn out to be some beautiful young women of God uh Misha a
pastor’s kid and her mom and dad got a divorce and it was a hard situation her and her mom did not connect until just
recently her mom had come up here and visited with with her she’s got an amazing story I want to share some time
with with the church on that there’s so many stories EJ he was raised by a mom and his father served in prison all of
his life and EJ showed up here one Sunday one event and God has changed his
life it’s been amazing but [cheering]
foreign Center we believe that church kids raising
church kids is the way to go it’s the only way to go and Jackson is a pastor
Nicole and Eric’s son and he was raised the same way that Christian was raised
and Lily was raised but tell us what happened and feel free to read Because you what you wrote is just so amazing
and it has so much into it so tell us your story of being raised in church but you chose another path
yeah so some of my earliest memories are from kids church but back then it was called God’s gang shout out
um and just growing up I remember spending my Summers here at church for internship um really being able to grow a great community of friends and good influences
in my life um alongside that in the summertime we had Camp which I highly encourage any parents out there to get your kids
signed up for Camp it’s a great opportunity for your children to just have deeper [music] encounters with God and their peers so that was important
for me but as I kind of began to grow more independently and moved away for school I
started to uh prioritize Church Less in my life unfortunately and kind of what I wanted more and
in doing so I lost the life-giving influence of church and was impacted more by my peers and began to live for
kind of what the world could offer me as I was figuring myself out this kind of looked like coming home late choosing to
spend more time with friends instead of prioritizing family I struggled with daily marijuana use drinking on the
weekends seeking validation through relationships and women were all kind of ways that I tried to find fulfillment
and happiness outside of kind of how I was raised in church and so as the depression anxiety and overall
baggage of my poor choices uh bottled up I ultimately went through a pretty painful experience and ended up hitting
rock bottom in my life however God’s truth in the Holy Spirit never left my soul and I knew who to turn to
for Comfort peace and direction
and uh one verse that I kind of wanted to share was in Proverbs [music] 22 and it says train up a child in the ways
that he should go and when he is old he will not depart and my story is kind of uh the evidence of that scripture being
true that when those seeds are planted in your kid’s heart and you get them here to church that they’re always going [music] to have that truth inside of them and be able to revert back to that
and so I just want to finish off by saying I know my mom was praying for me throughout this whole kind of experience
of figuring myself out so I just want to encourage all the moms out there um to never underestimate the power of
continuing to pray for your kids um the [applause]
Lord I know he was he was hearing my mom’s prayers um and he answered them and I also just want to encourage parents out there of young adults right
now and tell you to please never give up on your sons or daughters and let them know uh oh excuse me never give up
on your sons and daughters and know that every unanswered text call or effort for closer relationship is stored in their
hearts I remember my Mom leaving me notes when she visited and loving messages that always hit me deep and
nurtured my soul even though I you know wasn’t really in a position of where I wanted to be and I’ll end with saying
that uh just love your kids where they’re at and trust [music] that God will bring them back home like only he can do and he will
I want to sing
everything [music] around me is shaking [music]
I’ve never been [singing] more glad I put my [music] faith in
Jesus he’s [music] never let me down he’s
faithful through generations [music] so I would [music and singing] feel
now he won’t
oh Christ is my firm [singing] foundation
when
everything around [music] me is shaking
he
won’t foreign
I believe that God is doing a work like never before working harder than ever
before to bring the prodigals back [music] into the house at all locations we’ve been praying and
we’ve been calling out names of people that belong in the house we began before Easter [music] and we’re
declaring that in the year of 2023 that there are children adult children
that are going to be returning back into the house back into [music] Yakima back
into Bellevue back into Dupont back into Tacoma back [music] online they’re
scattered even some of them are across and it possibly have moved to other states [music] but I’m believing that this is our season and holding on to
that word [music] that Jackson said Don’t Stop praying don’t stop calling
don’t [music] stop leaving the messages continue to speak into their life continue to believe that God is not
finished [music] yet father we bring it to you right now we’re declaring that the names that we have brought to you that [music] that
are represented even in this house in this uh Champion [music] Center family that they’re going to be brought back we
declare that parents will have the wisdom at the right time their parents will have the words at the
right time that when they gather together with the children when they speak to them that the words would be there that [music]
you’re going to draw them in that the spirit will draw them with the spirit of God would draw them like never before Holy Spirit would speak into them in the
Midnight Hour that as they lay they lay her head down at night they [music] would be miserable that that they would not have any peace within until they
walk in through the doors of the church until they turn on that online campus until they’re restored in their
faith we’re declaring it today in this Mother’s Day this is a memorial day that we’re putting our foot down we’re
declaring it we’re setting [music] it in concrete and we shall see them return we shall see them come forth in the name of
Jesus in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus
I want to take a moment and um I wanna say that if there’s anyone who has been
hurt by [music] the church there’s a phrase that is used commonly
right now called Church hurt and I want to just say that the church is [music] not perfect
and as long as people are at church and in [music] church
church will never be never be perfect but the church is chosen by God
even in its flaws I often think of the church as when we read the story of Noah and the
Ark in the Bible I think of it like that that the only thing that was saved from the flood was the people in the ark but
if you were in the ark there was all there were animals there was odor there was crap there was
all of the above in the ark and I’m just sorry for being blunt I just want you to understand that these these young people
and many like them and Sheila and I are a product of the church our life are generationally and it’s not because the
church was perfect it’s because we learn how to honor the church and do life within the imperfection of the church
that we found the life that we have and we’re living today
and I wanted to just like I wanted to hug everybody on this platform today and I know there’s I know many of the young
faces in other locations and thank you for the gift you’re giving back to us
there’s nothing we value and are thankful for like [music] this today and I’m grateful that Sheila and the team
found a way to communicate today [music] we’ve given ourselves now to the broader
Church Across the Nation and around the [music] world with what’s called team church we have an organization
this week we’ll be on our fourth [music] spring event road trip we call [music] it
and uh by the way you’re invited it’s the closest one we’re doing this year other than our big conference [music] here called team church but it’s in Coeur
d’Alene this Wednesday and Thursday you can come on the website or whatever and find out about it but all of you are invited I didn’t plan to
invite you today but you’re all invited because we’ve given our life to this [music] and and this is a small
token of why there’s nowhere else you can go and and experience [music] this
um just doesn’t happen at school this doesn’t happen in the athletic programs this doesn’t happen
in the neighborhood this doesn’t happen anywhere else this happens only in a place called Church
and I’m giving my appeal today that if you’ve been indifferent to the church if you’ve been hurt by the church
come back [music] come back because this is the plan that God has it’s plan a and there is no plan
B
and I want to pray a Prayer of Salvation with anyone today who needs a new beginning in your life needs a fresh
start and I’m going to ask you to all of our locations if God’s [music] tugging on your heart maybe you’ve been offended at God maybe you’ve been distant to God
maybe somebody just invited you today and brought you to church and you haven’t even been to church in a long time but today you sense and feel the
draw of the Holy Spirit on your life I want to urge you I [music] want to invite you I want to remind you that
just as you heard Jackson a while ago the Holy Spirit it doesn’t give up on us and the Holy Spirit is always ready to
bring us to God and to forgive you of all of your transgression and all of your sin
so so would you wherever you are if that’s you today and you need a fresh start you need to be in [music]
relationship with God and you know that that that’s what you want will you just join me in this prayer and join our old church families we say this together are
you ready let’s say it together say Lord Jesus thank you for your love for me and I ask you today
to come into my heart into my life forgive me of all my sin
and make me a new person I receive you now on this day as the leader
and the Lord of my life and I’ll never be the same again
in Jesus name welcome to the family of God welcome to a brand new beginning
how about how about how about hang on church is a church of honesty and openness and and boldness how about we start like this if you just
prayed that prayer and you just received a new beginning in your life will you raise a hand just raise a hand up in the air water both of them I want to welcome
you all over we welcome you we welcome you to the church we welcome you to the
family of God God bless you today