Dream Builders III, How To Share A Dream

My name is Cindy, for those of you that don't know me. And anybody that does know me knows that I like to have fun. I'm very creative and wacky, and I like to do things, actually I'll do pretty much anything to get the kids to come in here so they can hear the gospel. A few weeks ago at the birthday bash, anybody that was there and witnessed me, my appearance on the dunking tank will attest to how crazy I am. My main passion for the North Way kids, though, is not to have fun, it's to bring them in here and teach them about Jesus and how he wants to save them, and then to mature them and grow them up and send them out. All of the North Way kids' ministry programs are based upon the Bible. We teach them very creatively, and then we help the kids understand how they can apply the lesson to their own lives to make it very relevant. This past fall, one of our elementary girls, who attends a public grade school, was asked at Halloween to participate in her school's Halloween party, and the teacher asked her to wear either a ghost costume or a witch costume on Halloween. And this young girl said to her teacher, I think Rachel's about nine, she said to her teacher, you know, we just don't celebrate Halloween in that way, and I'd rather not do that. And she went on and took that opportunity to witness to her teacher, and that elementary teacher received Jesus as her Savior that day. And that's just what North Way kids' ministry is all about. I'm here today to tell you about what my dream is for the kids, and if you walk around the campus on the weekend, at any given time, like Pastor Jay referenced, you'll see about 500 kids, but that does not tell the true picture. The true story is on August 15th in this past fall, we cleared our database, and we made every kid who wanted to call North Way home register. Since August 15th of 2000, just a few months ago, we have 1,100 kids from nursery to fifth grade who have called North Way their home. If they would all show up at once, we'd have a problem, but that's why we have three services. May 6th, just for you so you don't freak out where we're going to put them, we have the sanctuary where you guys are up there, so thank you. That'll be fun. One thing as I was preparing this, it struck me, and this will be the third time I've made this statement, and every time I say it, it really tears my heart out more and more. There are churches out there, and there are churches in Pittsburgh, that will only accept so many kids into their program, and then they put them on a waiting list. That just blows my mind. Jesus never said, I only want 50 kids in this class this week. We'll never turn kids away here. Our desire is to continue to reach them. That's why our dreams are so important. As I think of my dreams, there's actually two areas I want to concentrate on to talk to you about today. The first thing is what we need to do at Kids Ministries is create environments where the kids can come in, unchurched kids as well, and feel extremely comfortable. Real similar to what we've done in what used to be known as 105, now known as the Jungle Room, we'd like to create every Kids Ministry classroom in similar ways as that. Very creative, wacky ideas. I mean, anything totally out-of-the-box ideas. We feel if we can create those environments that kids can relate to, we can better reach them. The second thing we want to do is to be able to teach kids creatively, and by having the space available to create environments, we'll be able then to go forth and develop creative teaching methods that we've never been able to use before, because we'll have more room to move around. Think with me when you're in second grade. Jay just talked about when he attended Sunday school at second grade. Think back with me when you first heard the story of Adam and Eve. Now, the church you were at, Jay, I'm really not sure how they would have told the story, but maybe they would have read it out of the Bible. Maybe they would have had an apple. If the teacher was good, she probably would have had an apple and maybe a snake and kind of told the story. Kids nowadays don't relate to that. They need something more. We need to talk to them in their language. We need to meet them and reach them in ways that they experience day to day. So think with me if we can dream to expand our space and our creativity that we could teach the same lesson, maybe like this. God's Story, Scene 1. The Genesis. Or, tell God we messed up already. God created the man and the woman, everything, and gave them everything they needed, and they were in relationship with him, just as he planned, until one day. Hey, girlfriend. Who, me? No, I'm talking to the other only woman on the whole planet. Yes, you. Well, what's up? Well, I was just wondering. You and that dude you hang out with seem to have it pretty good around here, but I noticed that you don't eat from this one tree. What's up with that? Well, God has told us that we can't eat from that one tree. He says that if we do, then we'll die. Oh, please. For eating a piece of fruit, you won't die. Are you telling me that you got the run of the entire world here, but you're scared to eat from this one little tree? Okay, I'm not scared. I am not. Well, prove me. What? So prove it. Don't. Hey, Eve, what's going on? Man, I am starving. You got any food around here? Oh. Don't. Well, that clip is very humorous. The Bible is never compromised once. And that is something, as we continue to dream, that we hope to be able to do with our kids, is to incorporate a lot, like I said, a lot of different teaching techniques. Now, the real important piece to the kids' ministry dream is to continue our small group ministries. We begin small groups with our preschoolers, and we put them in groups of 10 to 12 each week and try to help them understand how the lesson applies to them. We run these groups clear through fifth grade. Then it continues on as they move up into middle school and high school. But if you notice, our elementary kids have to go to the gym because we don't have room for them for small groups, and it's very hard to hear in the gym because the sound just bounces everywhere. Our fourth and fifth graders are pretty much anywhere. You can find them pretty much anywhere. As you walk around, you'll find them because there's just no space for them. So as we continue on with our dream, we hope to be able to do that. One thing that you've heard me say over and over already is there's not enough space. And because of that, Dream Builders is real important. We want to be able to do all these new things, but we're limited right now because of space. Our dreams are also to continue partnering with parents to help them teach their children and help the parents continue their children's walk with the Lord. We offer different programs during the week, like WOW Women's Groups, MOPs, Promise Keepers Men's Groups, and other Bible studies and parent studies that help people do that. The parents do that with their kids. A lot of people think that Kids Ministries Sunday morning, Saturday night only. We're very diversified. We run a scouting program on Wednesday nights, which just ended this past week for this season. We have various camps through the summer. More camps are going to be ran this summer than ever before. Information will be being released about those real soon. But we do everything we can to get the kids in here. We have a lot of outreach events throughout the year, including Bible Man coming up. As I want to close now, I just want you to think with me. If anybody looked at the census studies that were recently reported, you probably noticed that Cranberry, Seven Fields, Pine Township, and several other local communities experienced extreme growth. The projected growth is just as much. My question to you is, if we don't reach those kids, who will? There's a recent study, a research group named Barna Research, who's very known for his research and very valid research, who says that 85% of people who accept the Lord as their Savior will do so between the ages of 4 and 14. As we sit here and represent that age group, it's real important to us that we reach these kids now. And it's real cool at North Way that once they leave my ministry, I'm sorry, I have real ownership there, kids ministry, that I can pass them right on to another wonderful ministry that we can offer to our middle school ministry, and John will tell you a little bit about that. Good morning. Good morning. Before I share my dream for the middle school students, I'd like to share a little bit about a dream that I believe started 10 years ago with Pastor Jay and how I got to be where I am today. 14 years ago, my twin sister attended a service here at North Way, and Pastor Jay extended an invitation for the people in the congregation to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. My sister took that step of faith that day and a year later led me to the Lord. And I believe that I'm here today as fruit of Pastor Jay's labor and the church here at North Way. In the past four seasons, I've been working with the junior high students as a volunteer leader and then recently became the middle school director. But it's been exciting to see the growth and the change in these students. I firmly believe that the middle school years, and if you have middle school students, you'll testify to this, that these are the hardest years of their developmental lives, their stages that they will go through. They're trying to figure out who they are, where they fit in, and who will accept them. I've had the privilege, two of the guys up here in the band, I've had the privilege to have in my small group and to disciple them over the past few years, and now it's an honor for them on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. They faithfully commit to leading our junior high students in worship. Our middle school students here at North Way are not just involved in our middle school ministry, but they're also involved in many other ministries, such as Cindy's, the children's ministry. Many of them work in the nursery. Many of them work with the younger, the elementary kids. Also, this past year we had 35 junior high students participate in our Easter drama. Also, we had 22 response cards from the Easter presentation from junior high students who either accepted Christ as their Lord or wanted more information about North Way and the middle school program. We live in a day and age where our students are enticed by many different things. I recently read an article stating that Nickelodeon and MTV spend millions of dollars a year just on researching on what will attract students and young adults. Robert Pittman, the founder of MTV, stated this, we don't just influence junior high students, we own them. We don't just influence junior high students, we own them. This is why I firmly believe that North Way needs to continue our strong investment and commitment in the lives of our junior high students. This past week in the local news, six students from a local middle school were expelled from school for being sexually involved in activity during class. Another middle school student was suspended for getting access to the school's website, where he then wrote violent thoughts, obscene language, and sexual references about teachers and administrators. These are hurting students in our community, and there are 10,207 students within a 4 to 15 mile radius from our community here at North Way. We need to continue to share and reach these students with the gospel. The Bible says the truth will set a man free. I firmly believe that we need to continue our investment in this process to reach and extend and draw these kids in to the church here. In Mark 2.17, Jesus stated, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do. I've come to call sinners, not those who think they're already good enough. My dream is to see this building filled with students who feel safe and cared for while discovering God's purpose and plan for their lives. Let me close with this. Students long to have authentic relationships. The student ministry team here is committed to investing in the lives of your children in order for them to walk out their faith, feel connected, and loved. We are also committed to equipping and supporting parents as these children become the next generation to share the gospel to this community they live in. I truly believe that in order to see our dreams fulfilled, we need to share these dreams to the future generation of North Way students. Thank you. I just want to jump up and say one thing about all of these kids. We're talking about 700 or so kids in this age group. The one dependence they have upon you that you may just not recognize is they need you to do one thing that the older kids are able to do on their own, and that is to get themselves here. A while back, I asked Cindy's team, what can we do to help you be more effective? I thought they were going to say, well, we need more room and more equipment and so on. They said, you know, the most important thing is consistency. We have way too many parents who come one week or two weeks, and then they miss a week or two, and we can't build a bond with the kids. We can't develop the kind of relationship that helps the kids receive what we want to share with them. So parents, please hear this. If for no other reason than the well-being of your kid, be faithful. Be consistent, because over time, that consistency builds a bond of trust and enables kids to embrace the message and the relationships that we want to build with the kids. So then John hands them off to Aaron, and especially the young ladies have an incredible opportunity to benefit from Aaron's experience. It's hard for me to believe that it's been over 10 years since I first came to North Way while I was a college student at Penn State. Soon after graduation, I moved to Pittsburgh to become a permanent member of North Way and soon began working with middle school students. It didn't take long for me to realize that there were many obstacles to recognizing and meeting the needs and hurts of a young teenager. When you attempt to explain to a 13-year-old girl that she needs Christ in her life infinitely more than the Backstreet Boys tickets she and her parents are fighting over, you are faced with wide eyes and a bewildered look. What does infinitely mean? As that group of girls got older, and I had hoped wiser, I followed them out of middle school into the high school ministry. God had put a call on my life to walk with these girls through the trials and joys of their life. Over and over again, God showed me that my compassion and pain for these young women's lives was nothing compared to his. After seven years learning and growing in ministry as a volunteer, Pastor Jay offered me the opportunity to invest myself in student ministries full-time. Never before had North Way been able to establish a woman as a director in student ministry, but because of your sacrificial giving through SOAR, for the past three years I have been able to be a voice and a resource for young women during this most difficult stage in their life. Most of the time when you see teenagers in this building, you see them in packs. Sitting over there in the service. Hi! You guys are so quiet. From events like Strike Force, to Sonic Flood, to Summer's Best Two Weeks, shooting baskets in the gym, or as a group of dancers in an Easter performance. But although we often identify them as a group, Jesus sees them as an individual life. Jesus sees the heart that's broken from being ridiculed day in and day out by his peers. He sees the soul forgotten by busy but well-meaning parents. He sees the young mind that's confused over whether they even have a purpose to be on this earth. The love of Jesus is not surprised by teenagers' awkwardness bumping into alongside their arrogance. He's not alarmed by the student who in Mexico would give the shoes off their feet to a poor village child, and then comes home and throws a fit because they can't have the Abercrombie sweater they feel they deserve. He weeps over the teenage girl who sincerely signed the True Love Waits pledge, and three weeks later at a party, makes the very mistake she promised she never would. He sees each one when we see the crowd. Mark and John and I are in agreement. Programs alone will not meet the needs of a teenager. However, we have offered events from hoedowns and swing dancing to all-nighters called Jolt and Barf, and retreats from Michigan to North Carolina. We've even had a fall kickoff where we let the middle schoolers hurl potatoes downhill at Mark. I'd love to do that again. Students love to be together and they love to have fun, and it's so important to bring them together. But we do not coordinate these events simply to entertain them, but to create an environment where they can feel safe and meet the love of the one who has given everything for them. We create these environments so that while a student is sitting on a hay bale in the gym, watching pumpkins being launched over their head, a leader can sit down beside them and say, How are you doing? That while standing in line at the speed slide at Sandcastle, a female leader can have the freedom to discuss the importance of modesty and dignity in a godly woman's life. North Way is a community that provides us the resources to offer a range of events and small groups so that through us, Christ can meet the needs of the individual life. Unlike many of us as adults, when a teenager meets God, they refuse to settle for a lukewarm, pew-sitting Christianity. One of my favorite spiritual authors, Brendan Manning, recounts the story of a faithful, church-going man whose spirit is awakened to the repulsive nature of his own Christianity during a Sunday school class studying the story of Abraham and Isaac. This is what he says, When I look at that God, the God of Abraham, I feel like I'm near a real God, not the sort of dignified, business-like Rotary Club God we chatter about here on Sunday mornings. Abraham's God could blow a man to bits, give, and then take a child, ask for everything from a person, and then want more. I want to know that God. This is the God we want our students to know, the God that would give everything to them and requires everything from them. Recently, Mark and I spent the weekend with students who placed themselves before the living God and said, I will. I will because without you, I cannot make it one more day. We watched in awe as God met them in their broken and authentic reality. We as leaders stood back and declared, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy of the honor of being part of the mystery of a God touching a life striving to be wholly devoted to Him. If your general impression of teenagers is shaving cream and lock-ins, I challenge you to take a deeper look into their hearts. They're excited about worship. They pray for each other. They pray for me. They want their friends to know that there is a Savior. They desperately need our church body to care for them. They need to know that in a world that more often than not has told them, you are forgotten. You don't count. You don't even have a purpose to be on this earth. They need to know that there is a God that says this to them. Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palm of my hands. And we really want you to hear now from Mark and his vision for the future of our ministry. Thank you. I promise it's on. Oh, now it's working. I have to admit that potato thing was one of the most painful things in my life. I still haven't gotten over it. Well, I get to wrap up what three other people have really shared very eloquently. And there's a quote that sits on my desk that says this. All that we are will pass on to our children, our loves, our hopes, our dreams, our character. Therefore, let your thoughts be planted in rich soil. Let your actions stand tall in a child's eyes. Just as fruit does not fall far from the tree, children do not stray far from their heroes. I think the most exciting thing about Dream Builders for me is that we have a chance to dream for a generation of students looking for their purpose in life. We're the ones who have the opportunity to stand up and be heroes, to reach out to a generation, to build into their life, to live a dream, to dream for them. We can be the ones to help them find God's dream for their lives. Sadly, though, most students will never find God's dream for their life in America. Most high school students in America will never ever live out the dream that God has for them because they don't know this God. And not only do they not know this God, but they have an incredibly bad impression of this place called church. You should hear the responses that our kids get when they invite their friends to come to this place. Even though I think this is a great place for students to come, the responses are anything but positive. You know, a sad statistic that around about 20,000 high school kids, we've already heard John talk about middle school, that around 20,000 high school kids in about a 10-mile radius of North Way Christian community, maybe 1,000 of them are involved in a vibrant evangelical youth ministry. Maybe 1,000 out of 20. What will happen to this generation? What will happen to these students? Well, ultimately, folks, they'll live a life apart from God. And I don't think I'm being overdramatic when I say, you know what, if we lose this generation of students and the next generation, then we're going to lose America. Then we're going to lose Christianity in America. It's going to die because we haven't reached out to a generation of people looking for their purpose. That's what's so exciting about Dream Builders. We have the opportunity to be Dream Builders, to help a generation of kids and students find God's dream for their life, to change the tide right here in our own community. We have to be dreamers. I mean, think about it this way. If a church like North Way, with all of our resources and all the things that God has blessed us with, if we can't dream, who can? Who can? If a church like this, our church, if we can't dream, who can? If a church like ours doesn't reach out to the high school and middle school students of our community, who will? A church with 50 people struggling to keep the doors open? Or a church like ours, who will really reach out to this generation? Somebody has to set a new standard. You know, some of my dreams for the high school ministries are kind of big, but I feel really exciting. I mean, if this Dream Builders thing really happened, we could renovate this building and make it a place where high school students would be drawn to. Some examples, we could make this place into like a coffee house or put climbing walls on the walls and make it an adventure place where kids could come and do incredible stuff or a combination of two or three things. Put things outdoors that they could do. Make this a place where students would want to be. That this place would reek of the words, we care about you. In fact, you're important enough for us to invest this much in you. A place where our students would say, hey, would you like to come with me to my church? And I'd be like, oh, I've heard about that place. I want to go with you and check that out. To be a place where we could on a regular basis do events like we did a couple weeks ago, the Sonic Flood concert, and share the gospel in exciting ways. And just like Aaron said, be a place where we could care personally and staff for all that God will send us because of our dream. To care for them individually the way Jesus does. You know, there's a young man in our ministry right now. His name's Alex. He's a totally non-church kid. Came from a non-church background. Knew nothing about the Bible. Knew nothing about Jesus Christ. And he started coming to our small group that we meet out in Mars and home. And Alex came because his friend Matt invited him. His friend Matt, who became a Christian, wanted to invite Alex. And Alex came and started to listen and hear. And he went to our fall retreat, our Laurelville retreat. On that retreat, Alex gave his life to Christ. And Alex was kind of shy, kind of a withdrawn kid. Didn't have any friends except Matt. And Alex never prayed in our small group. He would never pray. And this one, a couple months after Laurelville, we're praying and we had just got done talking about witnessing to your friends and sharing your faith with your friends. And we started to pray. And we left some time for open prayer. And all of a sudden, I hear this voice. And it's Alex's voice and he says this. He says, Lord, I don't know how to do this. I just kind of got to know you. He says, Lord, I don't really have any friends. He said, Lord, if you would just give me one friend, I would reach him for you. If you would give me one person, I would reach him for you. And half the people in our group are crying. Here's a heart that's been changed. Here's a life of a student that if somebody didn't reach him, would have lived apart from God. You know the cool thing about that story? All of you are responsible for that. You helped that happen. Through your commitment, through your giving, through your time, you made that story possible. Wouldn't it be cool to take that story and multiply it by a thousand? Wouldn't that be awesome? To take that story and just keep multiplying and multiplying it. It would be incredible. His life has been changed and we can live that story over and over and over again. You know, in some ways, this Dream Builders thing is much bigger than me. When I look at the numbers and I look at the things, I'm like, whoa. I grew up in a small church my whole life, worked in a small church before I came here. This is like out of my league. I mean, the numbers are huge. I mean, I have trouble when I go to Giant Eagle checking myself out. You know, let alone figuring all this out and how it all works. I don't have a clue. But I do think I have the answer. I think I have an answer to how this will happen. And it's in this little bag right here. No, it's not a check for $10 million. I could write you a check for $10 million, but it wouldn't do you any good. Can we have the lights? But I really think in this bag is the key to what it's going to take to live out this dream. To live out Dream Builders. It's right here. In order for Dream Builders to happen, in order for us to dream a dream this big, it's going to take some fools. It's going to take some fools for Christ. Who are foolish enough to believe that God can do the impossible. Amen? It's going to take some people who are foolish enough to believe this. It's going to take somebody. What's your name? Doris. Hi, Doris. This is the first woman I've given this to yet. It's going to take people like Doris who believe that God can do the impossible. Who are fools for Christ. Who believe that Jesus Christ can reach this generation if we just take a few steps and believe. That's what it's going to take. We're going to sing a song together. There's a song in our youth ministry that we do. It's called One Name. You know, we've talked a lot about our generation and the student's generation. But you know what? All the generations in this room, we come together under one name. Under the name of Jesus Christ. We come together under one name. And the end of this song says, God's going to move this place. God is going to move this place. So I ask you to stand and sing with us One Name. There's one name which the generations come together. Sing the One Name. One Name under heaven. Whereby we must be saved. Sing the One Name. One Name under heaven. Whereby we must be saved. Forgiven of my sin. Forgiven of my sin. Baptized in the water. Filled with the Holy Ghost. And washed in the blood. Let's sing that again. Forgiven of my sin. Forgiven of my sin. Baptized in the water. Filled with the Holy Ghost. And washed in the blood of the Lamb. Free, really free, my friend. Free by the blood of the Lamb. Sing it free. Free, really free, my friend. Free by the blood of the Lamb. God's going to move this place. God's going to move this place. God's going to turn this world upside down. God's going to move this place. And God's gonna prove His faith And God's gonna turn His world Upside down Sing it in one name In one name Under heaven Whereby we must be saved Sing it in one name In one name Under heaven Whereby we must be saved Forgiven of my sin Forgiven of my sin Baptized in the water Baptized in the water Filled with the Holy Ghost Washed in the blood of the Lamb Forgiven of my sin Baptized in the water Filled with the Holy Ghost Washed in the blood of God Given His grace God's gonna prove His faith God's gonna prove His faith God's gonna turn His world Upside down God's gonna prove His faith God's gonna prove His faith God's gonna turn His world Upside down God's gonna prove His faith God's gonna prove His faith God's gonna turn His world Upside down God's gonna turn His world Upside down God's gonna prove His faith God's gonna prove His faith God's gonna turn His world Upside down God's gonna prove His faith And I will say this, whatever Jesus asks me to do, I'm going to do, and if it means being a fool for Him, no problem, alright? Hallelujah. You know, that song is a scripture. When the disciples were taking the word out, and they were upsetting the churches, there's literally a scripture in the book of Acts that says, the people that turned the world upside down are coming here. Well, that's what God wants to do. He wants to invert the world and its values, because He is the way, the truth, and the life. I want to ask you just to indulge us in one more communication. If you'll be seated, please. How many of you, to this day, today, 22nd of April, have not yet seen the Dream Builders video? Would you put your hand up real quick? I have not seen the video. Real quick, put your hand up. Alright, it may be the majority of the people in this, I think it is clear the majority of the people here in this service. I know that means that some of you have seen this, but I'm going to ask you all to be just a little patient with those of us who have not seen it, because it does capture, and here's the really important thing, some of the ways outside the box that we're going to be thinking as we go forward. And we need you to engage this information before it's too late. May the 6th, we're going to make our commitments. We're going to step out. But if you'll watch this next few minutes of video, it will give you a very clear, concise picture of what we see happening as we move forward together. Alright, let's show the video, please. So what does it mean to give God your best? To give God your best. Now I've said for 20 years there are two things that matter in life. Two things. God, the Savior you serve, and people, the lives you touch. Everything else, it's all going to pass away. One day God will be there to receive us, and I hope to hear the words, as I believe you do, well done, good and faithful servant, from my Savior. And I'm also looking forward to seeing many, many people that along with you I've had the opportunity to influence for Christ and who will share heaven with me. I don't know what else there is to live for. I don't know what else is worthy of giving my best to, if not that. So that's the opportunity that we have. That's the passion that drives me. That's the reason why I'm willing at this point in my life to say once again, Lord, you're worthy of my best for nothing at all. Let's stand. Lord, in this moment I know that many of us are going to rethink what we're doing and see where our priorities truly lie. I pray, Lord, that we would with Paul, the great apostle, count all things as loss compared to the overwhelming gain of knowing you. And I pray, Lord, that the legacy that we would leave as a church would be a legacy of lives from students and children to neighbors and friends and to the lost around the world, where even this day North Way missionaries labor. Lord, I thank you that we're part of a movement that will in fact change the shape, the spiritual destiny of this world. And I bless you, Lord, for allowing us to be part of it. In Jesus' name.