Seeing With The Eyes Of Faith Meeting I

Welcome, and I'd like to ask us all to stand for a moment and join hands with the person next to you, even if you have to stretch just a bit, and we're going to pray. Pastor Scott has just entered the building. It's time to pray. Lord, how we rejoice tonight in the reality of the cross and the calling that has come invading into our lives and redeemed us from darkness and death and brought us into light and life. And Lord, we pray tonight that as we ponder and contemplate and dream and investigate, Lord, that we have a clarity about your purpose, Lord, and about your will for this church. I thank you, Lord, that your word is the assurance upon which we stand tonight, that you, Jesus, will build your church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Lord, whatever gates, whatever places of authority those gates represent, whatever is positioned against your church being established tonight, we bind it up in Jesus' name. Lord, we bind up fear and intimidation. We bind up gossip and slander. We bind up unforgiveness and bitterness. We bind up fear and scarcity, Lord, and we allow Holy Spirit, your presence, to build your church. And so, Jesus, we pray that as we deliberate tonight, just bring, Lord, if I could pray for one thing, I'd just pray for clarity, Lord, for clarity to see just with vision, Lord, as if you're tuning in the eyes of our heart to see the heart of God tonight, Lord, and that we could see the heart of God for this community and this people and this city. Lord, we love you and we thank you. I thank you for every person here, Lord, because I know they've come tonight out of love for you and out of a desire for your best. I thank you for the many years of partnership that we've shared with most of these people. In some cases, Lord, it's just been some months, but in all, Lord, what a blessing, what a journey, what a joy to walk with you and with each other. And so, we pray for wisdom, Lord, not to run out ahead of you and get all caught up in our own dreams, but neither to stay behind you and miss the incredible blessing of being an obedient child. So, we ask now, Lord, that you'd be pleased in Jesus' name, and everyone said, amen. All right, thank you. Let's grab a seat. Might say grab a paid-for seat. Amen. Seats are paid for. It's about the only thing that is, but that's good. Well, it was three weeks ago that, not even three weeks ago, it's amazing. It's been less than three weeks that I sit up here and shared the emergence of this really unexpected opportunity that's opened before us just to the north. And if you missed the meeting on June 28th, I understand that Pastor Scott has profusely encouraged you to pick up the tape and get the little map that describes this opportunity and the tape of the meeting of the 28th, which I thought was an exceptional meeting. And I've had some weeks now, a couple of weeks to pray about this, to pray about your response to that meeting, which I might tell you, for those of you who are interested, we had a few people express some very wise caution, appropriate caution, but almost everybody, I took up on my study break a stack of response cards like this, well, like this, and did not have a single negative response. Of the 125 or so responses, I had about three that had, I think, what I would call appropriate caution. I received a couple letters articulating those cautions a little more thoroughly, and I would agree with them. Things about due diligence and appropriate projections and not getting overhead and so on. But most of you said after the meeting, folks, it was rather overwhelming to be honest. Most of you were saying, we need to press on to the next level. And every one of the folks that indicated that said you'd pray about it for the next weeks and some of you would fast. And a number of you, I would say about 80% of you said that you were already willing to commit, considering your resources as part of the solution to that. Now, as we've been praying, I don't know what you've been hearing, but I want to share with you a little bit about what I've been hearing. I have to tell you, going away on this study time, my goal is twofold, to primarily just sit before the Lord and listen to the condition of my own life. I wish I could laugh about that. Don't you know God loves you just the way you are, even when you get just kind of messed up sometimes? I don't have any big sin to confess. But you get still and sometimes you realize God's just not all that impressed with how much we're doing for him. And he reminded me of that in the last couple of weeks. I mean, the angels out there just haven't gotten in line to say, wow, have you just seen Jay? And what a great, Lord's very pleased when we just kind of quiet ourselves and worship him and give him due time. Now, smack right into that has been this event. And I'm just getting, you know, getting into the groove of enjoying God and I'll get my cell phone, which I know I can turn off and should, or I have now, by the miracle of modern technology, email bombardment. And it's not been an easy disengagement, but I suppose in some senses that's been good because it's really driven me to God. Because the second thing I do when I'm up there is part of I listen for my own life and try to be still and just take an assessment of things. The second thing I do is to seek God for vision. And this has really given me a focus to seek God about, because this is like a compelling thing. This is not a little deal. I think the future of our ministry to some degree hinges on this decision. Now, I will tell you, if we said, God bless you, we're not doing this, have a great night, we're moving forward, it's not going to stop Norfolk Christian community in any respect. But it will affect our future. And that's why we really need to hear from the Lord tonight. And I have come to one conclusion in my two weeks. We can't do it. It's too big. We cannot do it. Look around here. This is a good turnout, but this isn't enough horsepower to make this happen. And I also have to say that the timing of this thing, with the elders again tonight, we've kind of looked at each other in the Lord and said, why now? Why when things are really lifting off in many respects in some of our ministries? Why now that we're starting to see the very, you know, I think there's a light at the end of that tunnel that we've had called debt for the last years. And I see the light and it looks kind of nice to say it's conceivable in a year and a half or so we won't have any debt. And that would be an incredible place to be. You know, why now? Why didn't you just let that thing stay green for two more years and then open it up? So I said, why? Why are we considering this? And I reminded God, by the way, that he gave us this piece of land that we're on. And I say gave, how many of you helped him to give it to us? However that works. I mean, the Lord didn't just plop the deed in our hand. We had to sacrifice to get it, but he's provided it for us. And we do have some room to expand. There is no question about that. And if you missed the meeting a couple weeks ago, we talked about the fact that we can push out these walls a little bit and we can, we have eight acres behind us that we can build some ancillary kinds of buildings on offices and classrooms and so on. And so I said, I went through a period of saying, do we really need to go after this? I really have. Because the prospect of being debt free, and I know that is a, that's music to some of your ears to just say, I want to be debt free. And you're going to quote to me, Ron blue or who's that other guy that I knew that. And, um, all the guys that are very, very, very, very cautious about debt, which I think is a wise position. How many of you have mortgages? Sinners. Look at you all. Well, it's an appreciating asset pastor today. And Larry Burkett think it's okay for that. I know that's we're going to talk about tonight. Let me share with you. What I've been able to ascertain is sort of the core of the matter about why I think we need to look at this at the next step, next level of seriousness. Okay. And it has to do with things that we can't see. So what I can see right now would tell me, let the bulldozers go, let them build the Wendy's. What I can see tells me we're fine. It has to do with what you can't see. I want you to say a word with me. Um, because this is the word that the Lord has sort of birthed in my spirit over these last weeks. And it's not a particularly spiritual word, but it is a word that has made a lot of sense to me. Uh, it's the word potential. Would you say it with me? Potential. Now say future potential. See, future potential is greater than the potential that you have now. Potential future potential is the potential you have as a consequence of increased fulfillment of current potential. In other words, is the current potential that's before us unfolds future potential is going to grow. So my hunch is that as I shared a few weeks ago, I believe that North Way, um, is on a road of increased future potential. And how we see ourselves, how we see the things that we can't see is critical. I'm going to share a number of things with you. And I opted out of the outline. I wanted you to know I'm so free in my study break that you have no outline to give you, but there will be one that you can pick up on your way out that's filled out for you because I know you'll forget these things, but I don't want, you don't have to write them down. I think we do have them to throw up here on the board so you can see it. All right. So here's the first one. Why here's why I think God's exhorting me and hopefully all of us will look at this with all seriousness. Number one, we have the potential if we see with the eye of faith to grow very quickly. I want to take you back. Watch now three and a half years ago. What did you see when you drove up here three and a half years ago? Bob, you drove up here. When you came up here, what did you see? You saw a forest. You saw Paul Riker with his deer rifle walking around out there, right? There was no traffic light. There was nothing but forest and green and stuff. How long? Three and a half years ago. You drive up here today. I mean, so I'm astonished that once things get moving, folks, they can take off with incredible speed and the level of development. We're talking about density and we're talking about, you know, not just the, remember what was the initial thing that tried to go in over here? Who remembers? What was, who really wanted that property next to us real badly? Fun for all. I thought the staff was so into that. Could you, could you imagine having, you know, golf and go-karts and speed boats and right there? I mean, who cares about ministry? And off we go. And the neighbors shot that down. I think probably today much to their chagrin, but they shot that down. And look at the incredible density that's happening. And I met with, I think I told you this, I met with the officials of Pine Township just before our last meeting to, to, to gain a sense of their ownership of the, of our potential vision, which was the, the folks that I met with who are on the, the administrative payroll over there told me that Pine Township is at 50% of its population density. So they're only half full as it were. And at the growth rate that they're going, they consider that they'll probably in the next 15 to 20 years max out. So I, I see this potential curve continuing pretty much unabated in the years ahead. I've done a lot of studying the demographics. How many of you live north of this site? North? Would you put your hand way up so the folks who live south, the three of them can see it. Okay. When we first moved here, 30% of the church came from north. Now 70% of the church comes from the north and the north. Where's the growth? And the growth is just, it's all just north of us and somewhat west. And I bless those of you who come from the east. You're the pilgrims. You're the wise people that journey from the east to see the star. There's just a handful of you, but you are faithful. Now. So number one, rapid growth is a very high potential and you have to see it. What I'm saying is that curve that we've been experiencing can do this is what I'm saying. That's what it's, it's been doing this. I believe it's going to do this. And I want to remind you that the 360 units you see here are going to be mirrored across the road by Oxford. Just, just as, and there's another new development just right around the corner. I mean, and on and on it goes. Number two, future potential is to be able to see that we can release, I'm sorry, it's different than on mine, that we can control our boundaries. Let me talk about that for just a second. In the scripture, and I won't take the time to go into the old Testament, but how many times does God talk about establishing the boundaries? Many, many times, right? He talks about walking on the boundaries. He talks about putting up walls to protect and so forth. Why? Because there is wisdom in controlling what is surrounding you because you're going to be influenced by it. Now, I don't consider this a particularly positive one, but I think it's a significant one. And, and it isn't to say that we can't get along with the people around us. In some cases, we don't have any choice. But I will tell you that given the opportunity to control our future neighbors, or at least influence that greatly, how many of you would agree that's wisdom? It's wisdom to us because otherwise, we could get, I mean, if you, how many folks were with us when we had HOP lumber as our neighbor? And not that they were wonderful folks, but it was not a very attractive nor a very ministry friendly environment. So I think that's a significant one that, to me, I know some of you are very motivated to see that, that we're not defined by the people that surround us exclusively. Okay, next, please. Our future potential is to offer numerous specialized ministries. We're moving into a day when ministry is increasingly specialized, just like medicine is increasingly specialized, just like so many other disciplines that used to be rather general have become very focused now. North Way has done a pretty credible job in offering people opportunities that heretofore, they haven't seen all that much. But the likelihood of things growing, let me give you an illustration. There's so much addiction in our community. And our pastoral team and some of our counselors, our lay counselors, hear of this a lot. Some of you may not be aware how riddled our community is with addictive problems. And these are desperate people in many cases and very wonderful people in some cases that have just fallen into really difficult times. North Way has some ministry going there, but we have, again, future potential to have an incredible ministry to people in addiction. It's not what I see now. Now I see a handful of people being helped. I can see with the eyes of faith, hundreds of people filling this room on a weekly basis, recovering from their addictions. How many think that'd be a blessing? I think that would be the heart of God. He came to set the prisoners free. And we have to create. And you say, well, how does the property affect that? Well, we'll see that in just a second. There's many others I could go down. Those of us who've crossed the 50-year mark know that there's lots of us asking the question, what about the rest of our lives? What about the next 20, 30, 40 years of our lives? And one of the passions that a few people have is to see a, I don't know what you want to call it, but a second half ministry center evolved at North Way where we can have, you know, the top of the line people raised up in our body and then bring in outside folks as well to help men and women who are going through that incredible life stage change, redirect all their gifts and their passions to serve the kingdom of God in a different way than they've ever known. You know, no one in Pittsburgh is doing that. Not many people in this part of the country are doing that. We can do that here. Think of the future potential of hundreds of people knowing their giftedness and passion and being free because they've been wise stewards of their funds and free to serve God and not have to feel like they have to go on a mission trip to serve God. I mean, I love mission trips, but that's not the only place you can serve God. I could go on. I mean, there's counseling. There's many others that I want to talk about, but let me just move on. Future potential to offer high quality presentations to greater numbers of unchurched and unsaved people. How many of you came to Christmas, Eve, or Easter? How many of you brought somebody? How many remember we did six Christmas Eve services and four Easter presentations? Okay, think three years from now. Honey, it's December the third. Are you going to go to the Christmas Eve service tonight? What are we going to do? It means you just, and I believe, and you've heard the testimonies of people. You've heard them time after time. Their first exposure to Northwave was when you brought them to one of those events and numerous others. I said this last time, we don't need a nicer place than this or a bigger place than this. We're fine here. I'm happy, but if we're to touch the increasing numbers of unchurched and unsaved people, what are we going to do? Next, our future potential is to become an identifiable, widely recognized teaching church. Let this one set for just a moment because this is one that I don't know if all of us understand how important this is. Who knows the name Peter Wagner? C. Peter Wagner was my first missions professor in seminary. That's old I. That was when he had been 12 years in Brazil, had come back, gotten his PhD in psychology from Southern California University, USC. He was quickly becoming one of the national experts in church growth and missions. Peter is a very personable guy. For a brilliant guy, he's a really nice guy. I can't help it. I try to be nice. There's so many times that Peter Wagner has influenced my thinking because he thinks globally. He said something in the last three years that affected me. He said, more men and women are being prepared for ministry effectively in local churches now than in the seminaries of the world. Now, I'm going to tell you something. When it comes time to train our staff, when it comes time to train some of you in ministries that we have not yet been able to really launch at North Way, we don't send you to seminaries. We don't send you to Pittsburgh Seminary. No offenses, please. Turn off the tape. We'll send you where? We'll send you to the great churches of America that have learned how to do ministry under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and learn from them. Now, listen, this is a true statement. There are very few of those churches east of the Mississippi. Now, don't ask me why that is. Why is the Holy Spirit hovering in the sundial? Is He along the western coast? I don't know. But I have a vision. Our future potential is to be a place where other people will come to learn how to plant, establish, and grow churches. And I think that would be a wonderful blessing. Something that humbled me, I don't know if we can put that graphic up of that letter. I didn't tell you where it went, but this is where it goes. We have a letter here. And I'll have to wait for you for the graphic because I think I gave you the copy of it. It's somewhere. Oh, terrific. Well, it's a letter on focus on the family letterhead from H.B. London. Name familiar to you? He's James Dobson's former pastor. He says, I just got this letter a couple weeks ago. He says, it's a joy to see your community so engaged in kingdom business. God has seemed fit to bless you in a unique way not generally seen in the northeast. Now, that's right lifted out of the letter. I understand why you couldn't quite get the resolution. We need for you to see the whole letter. That came from H.B. London just about two weeks ago when he visited here. And he's saying to us something I think we need to get a hold of guys and gals, brothers and sisters, that we can be a beacon to a lot of other churches. Our future potential is to become a teaching church, to raise up men and women for ministry. And that really excites me. And I know if you're thinking that spreads our influence far beyond our immediate little boundaries right here. Another one is that our future potential is very strong to become a leadership training center for world missions and many other disciplines. I'm sorry I missed our missions week, but I understand from a number of folks it was a terrific time. How many of you were able to be here on Sunday and celebrate with our missionaries? And I couldn't be more humbled and biblically proud of a group of people and our missionaries. Now, I will tell you that Charlie Beck and a number of folks, Mark Gephardt has written me from wherever he is in Tibet. He's in some kind of monastery. What? Some kind of trouble in Tibet. But he found a way to get through on his computer and emailed me from Tibet saying, buy the land. I'm telling you, because he believes that we're supposed to have a future where we're raising up a missions work here at North Way. And I will tell you this also, and I ought to really defer, but I won't take the time to bring Scott up here. But Scott has been working with a number of folks, some of you here tonight, to create a leadership development center here at North Way in other disciplines as well. For those of you who are in the business world or those of you who are in some of the arts and so where you can be equipped again, because folks aren't going out into the places, they're coming in here. And we could be that kind of place. And that has a tremendous attraction to me because it influences the world with salt and with light. Our future potential next is, I love this one, to become or create a state-of-the-art learning center for kids. Now we're on our way. A state-of-the-art center starts with good people. We're on our way. We've got some good, great people. But folks, I want to say this with just a measure of caution. I think we're losing the battle right now with kids. I praise God for our younger kids' ministry. And I want to say just a word of encouragement. If you have a little one, don't ever miss the opportunity to bring them every Sunday to get their training and then learn as a parent how to give them training at home. Don't miss that. But then there's those tough years, those turbulent years. How many of you went to the NSYNC concert last night? Come on, come on, come on. No hipsters here? You tried. You tried. Couldn't get a ticket. You know how many young people were there? Over 50,000 of them. And many got turned away. And we're losing a generation there. I tell you, it's a burden to me. I want to see a whole lot more resource going into reaching kids. And we've got the potential to do that big time. State of the art. We don't win kids these days by putting on, you know, eight-track stereo and letting them just like... I mean, it just doesn't work. Kids are savvy. They need to be reached in creative ways. Our future potential is to harness the information and technology resources that are being directed in Pittsburgh in the next 10 years. I'm not an expert in this. I'm really not. I'm lucky if I get my computer on and get working. But I did read in a pretty reliable source that Pittsburgh's one of the top five technology, least technology targeted markets in the country. Some of you bite heads, would you agree with that? I mean, I know the Silicon Valley in Northern Virginia and Dallas and... But Pittsburgh's up in there. CMU and some of our... We are bringing a lot of high-tech people and most of you know what's going... And you know what? The church of the future, the future potential church is going to harness technology to win people for Christ and train them up as disciples. The churches that are on the very leading edge, folks, the ones that are out there ahead of us a few leaps, are already using the internet extremely effectively to get resources into their people's homes on a fresh basis every single day. And we have the latent potential to do that. Our future potential to do that is incredible. We just need to get some folks going and we need to get them tapped in and we need to create the vision to let that happen. Wouldn't it be incredible if we could be a place where it's just flowing through us because we've figured out how to open the gates to let all that wisdom just channel right on out to people using the latest technology to do so? Wouldn't it be great to have me in your home every Wednesday night on DVD? I'm gonna flip in the DVD player and there I am with the teachings. Your worst nightmare. You can at least turn real families off. Okay, finally, our future potential is to be able, and I love this, to maximize this current investment while creating an unlimited expansion possibility. One of the things that I wrestle with, and some of you fall with me on this, if we say no to this, just categorically no, and what if everything else I said happens? What if ministry moves forward like shot out of a can and in three years from now we're maxed out? A couple of you wrote me notes and said, well then, Pastor Jay, God will just supply more opportunity somewhere else, and I will tell you that the cost of moving this ministry somewhere else in three years would be astronomical compared to what the opportunity is before us. It would be at least four or five times what it is to be able to expand where we are. Again, I wanted three and a half years. What was out here? Nothing. I'm just projecting. I'm trying to see three, four years down the road, and what's great is we can use this facility. It can be refurbished. It won't be all gutted. I mean, it can be used and modified to accommodate a whole lot of ministry in different ways. Perhaps we'll keep the auditorium the way it is, but maybe we'll change it. We can fill this in and make it level. Did you know that? It would be perfectly level. We'll just trace it back in that truck and just start dumping dirt in here and put some cement in it. But this can be used while we expand, and we have the opportunity, and if you didn't see the drawing, we have the opportunity to build at least 80,000 square feet of multi-purpose office type space and a worship center large enough to accommodate some of my numbers, and I'm not sure about some of your numbers, but somewhere between three and five thousand people. Okay, so those are ten reasons why I believe the Lord has impressed me that we need to go on with this, and I've left a lot out that probably some of you said, well, you didn't mention this, you didn't mention that, but these are the ones that really found their way into my spirit. Now, what do we do? What do all these have to do with the land and the buildings? Well, let me just kind of bring this around, and Bill's going to come up. Someone, at least a couple of you, are thinking right now, well, you know what? Other than maybe that one about the Christmas and Easter thing, I think we can do all the rest of them right here. It's debatable, but here's what's been coming up in my heart. There is something about the power of faith that gets cranking in us when we start believing God for something. What did I say about this property? We can't do it, but there's something about the power of faith that gets loosed in us, and it spills into everything else, and stuff that's been stuck gets loosed, because faith is moving in God's people, because we've come into agreement about something. That's why someone like Pat Robertson, in the middle of the depression, or recession, probably better said, in the 80s, went to his staff and said, we're going to build buildings, and they looked at him and said, you're nuts. He said, no, we're going to build buildings, because when we believe God for something that's bigger than us, God builds our faith, and things happen, and I'll be darned if he wasn't right. And he also sold his network for $150 million a little bit later, just to prove the point, and to his credit, you know, continues to train people up, and so on. See, I believe God's plan A is still the local church. He still wants to use his body, and he still wants to see all these things happen, and faith is what it's going to take. Faith is God's way of getting it done, and folks, I've come to this conclusion, we cannot do it, but the Lord can do it. He is able, we are not. So, what are we going to do? Well, we need a plan. We're going to present you with a plan tonight, and this is, in fairness, I'm going to ask you for some grace here, because it's kind of tough. This has been happening very fast, and, you know, most of the people that are cranking through this stuff, have, you know, they've gotten their priorities confused, and have real jobs, and so they're having to, they're having to, as Bill Callahan says, he's, you know, my other boss is on the line when I'm talking to him, who's the vice chairman, I think, of PNC Bank, so, you know, I said, well, get rid of him, and get back to this important stuff, is what I try to do. We're going to talk about this, and I think you're going to see a way it can be done, and I'd like you to stand, because I'm going to read some scripture. What is the biblical basis one should ask for what is about to be presented? Well, here's what I want to share with you. Just stretch a little bit, because you've been sitting for a while, and just enjoy this. This is the Word of God, and again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants, and entrusted his property to them, to when he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability, and then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once, and put his money to work, and gained five more, so also the one with two talents gained two more, but the man who'd received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. Well, after a long time, the master of those servants returned, and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents, brought the other five. Master, he said, you entrusted me with five talents, see I've gained five more. His master replied, this you hear quoted so many different times in the context of living a faithful life, but listen, he just says to the five talent man, who invested the five, and doubled his return, he said, well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful in a few things, I'll put you in charge of many things, come and share your master's happiness. The man with two talents also came. Master, he said, you entrust me with two talents, I've gained two more. His master replied, well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, come and share your master's happiness, and then the man who received the one talent came. Master, he said, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you've not sown, and gathering where you've not scattered seed, so I was afraid, and went out, and hid your talent in the ground, see here's what belongs to you. His master replied, you wicked lazy servant, so you knew that I harvest where I've not sown, and gather where I've not scattered seed, well then you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, no real allusion there to their, his feeling about it, but uses the word, so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest. Now take the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents. Notice he started with five, now he has ten. For everyone who has will be given more, I want to say that again, for everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Now throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. What kind of talents do we have in this church? I'm gonna let Bill come and talk to us about that, because this is the word of the Lord to us tonight. Bill, come on up, go ahead and be seated. Thanks, Jay. Can everybody hear me? Well, it's always tough to follow Pastor Jay, and I learned in public speaking, maybe the best way is to do a little humor. I would tell you