God's Ever Present Hand

Shirley Howard

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

One of the pastors of this uh incredible church, and we're so grateful that you're here. Uh love you, yeah. Thanks, thanks so much. Uh our creed, so it's our confession of faith. We recite it often. Uh, if you don't know the words, they're on the screen. Invite you to read along with us. Here we go. I am deeply loved and graced by God. His life is a gift to me. My life, well lived, is my gift to him. I am determined to live the life I could never deserve from the place of his grace. My faith is audacious, my spirit relentless. I will not be deterred. I will not quit until Jesus is fully honored and a hurting world has heard the good news. If not me, then who? If not here, then where? If not now, then when? I am deeply loved and graced by God. Can you give God some praise for his grace? Yeah. Amen. Well, thanks for being here. You guys can uh turn to a few neighbors. Welcome to church, and you can take your seat. Um, and we're really uh excited. And I did want to say before we get into what we're gonna talk about this morning, that if you're new, this is kind of an insider week a little bit. So we're gonna be talking about some house stuff, but we think it's a great week for you to come. We believe it's gonna stir something uh in your spirit um as well as we kind of pull back the curtain and talk about where the church is, uh where the church has been, and where we believe the church is going. I don't want to say this that if you know my story, I'll tell you this that um most of you know this, but I've been coming to this church since my mom was pregnant with me. So um they started attending way back buildings ago, decades ago. And so I've never known a church other than this church. This is I've only been a member of one church my entire life, and that's this church right here. And my amazing wife, uh, if you probably know this, she's the youngest daughter of our founding pastors, and so she was also born into this church. So one thing that my wife and I share is that we both attended this church in utero. And because of that, uh, we were in nursery together before we could talk. We were in nursery together, we ran around the halls of this church together, we went to BC Kids, it wasn't called that. Uh what was it called? Children's Church, way back in the day. Uh, we went there together, we were in youth group together, and then we started dating uh after I had graduated from Bible college. But uh, and now what we're doing, amazingly, you probably know this, is that we're raising our incredible daughter at this church. We've got an eight-year-old, she just lost her second tooth just now. Like about uh her second front tooth. It's like it's like number four or something like that. So she uh so she's jazzed, so if you see her after service, make sure to have her give you a smile. Um but I want you to know that, and the reason that I tell you that if you don't already know that, is that this church is in my blood. Um I I have we you know, my wife and I share this, that we have met all of our best friends at this church. Um, we gave our life to Christ both at this church. We were both baptized through this church, we were both called into ministry at this church, all of our best friends. We got married at this church, and now we're leading the church, which is pretty amazing. But uh so 43 years, and so I just want you to know this that outside of my relationship with God Himself and my family, there is nothing that I take more seriously than this. I know I like to joke, and I and I do like to joke and I like to have fun, but just know this that I take this dead seriously. There is nothing outside of compromising those things that I won't do for the health and the vitality and the fruitfulness of this church. I have literally, and we have both literally given our lives to this church. And so just when we're talking about some things that we're gonna be changing, some things that we're gonna be doing, I hope that you can, I hope that you can be confident in the fact of this is that we take what we do here dead serious. And nothing that we do is outside of prayer, outside of wise counsel. And um, so we're just really excited to uh to tell you kind of where we're going uh next. Before we do that, I want to spend just a minute and tell you, I think, where the church has been. If you if you know this, we have we did our transition, I think we did it um, is this right, September of 2024. So uh my wife and I, we've been the lead pastors of this church for about 18 months uh now. And when we took over uh from our the amazing founding pastors, the advice that we got and the counsel that we got from our trusted people was to give the church a year to get used to the idea of you being the pastor of the church that they still recognize. Are you with me? That was a long sentence. The idea is this give people a year to become okay because changing the leadership of the church is enough change in and of itself. But it's important that they come here and they still recognize this place as the church that they've come to know and love. In fact, there's a there's a book, I'm trying to remember exactly the name of it, but it's something like How to Destroy a Church in 18 Months. That's the name of the book. And the idea that the guy's writing about his experience, and he's basically at another church, he's basically the me. And so he he grows up in the church, and but then as soon as transition hits for them, he's like, pull out the bulldozers, let's change everything. We're changing down to the studs. And the church didn't get on board, and people left, and the top givers left, and attendance was down because he just blew up everything. And so you go to the end of the book, and the the church had to close its doors and it's not here anymore. And so we're grateful to say that we have not done that, but we just to let you know that we said we're gonna spend a year just taking a year, listening, learning, trying to love you guys well, and trying to build. And so it wasn't a year that was wasted, but it was a year that might have, to some people, looked a little bit quiet. And that wasn't because we didn't have ideas, and it wasn't because we didn't have ambitions and and dreams about what the church could be. It was just the counsel that we had received of give people a year to get used to the new structure. And so it looked quiet, but we've actually accomplished a lot. In fact, I just made a list for you. This is not exhaustive, this is literally just what I came up with on Thursday. So of some things that we uh did. So I'm I've got them on the screen. So here's some things that we did over this past year. And it's not uh it's not um it's not exhaustive. We relaunched recurring communion, baptism, and baby dedication. We reorganized our staff, we filled these positions the community director, next gen pastor, next-gen assistant, youth coordinator, creative, and creative assistant, all while reducing payroll. Um so it was something that we were really proud of. We relaunched membership classes, we relaunched Love ABQ so that we could serve our city. We started serve team gatherings, a lot of you uh were part of those. We added free coffee, you're welcome. Uh we we started monthly chapel, we hosted a 45-year celebration conference, we launched small groups, we launched our recovery ministry, and our volunteer for the year, our volunteer base has grown by 30%, and we've had the highest attended services in over 10 years. So it was a cool year. It was a cool year. We we did a lot, we weren't coasting, we were building a foundation. And so I just want you to let you know for like a a little bit of a status update. What is what does it call it? A State of the Union is this is that our church is healthy, our church is growing, God's been faithful. Amen. And not to badmouth or talk ill of any other churches, but that has not been the case of lots of other churches who have done transition. Some churches that you know, great friends of ours, they've gone through transitions and it has not gone well. And the numbers are down, attendance is down, giving is way down, so they're having to make some hard decisions, and so we're praying and believing nothing but the best for all of those churches, but we haven't we haven't gone through any of that. Our church has grown and our church is healthy, and so we're really grateful to God. So that's year one. It's kind of where we uh spent our time, but I want you to hear me that that is not how we're spending year two. Year one was about relaunching and getting healthy. Year two, listen to me, is about gaining new ground. Gaining new ground. And I've got a uh story um from the Bible that I think God gave us uh for today. So if you have your Bibles, this is just gonna be brief. You can turn with me to Nehemiah chapter two, if you can find it. It's right after Esther. It's probably doesn't help. Okay, Nehemiah chapter 2. Here's the context of the um biblical passage. Nehemiah tells the story of a man named, unsurprisingly, Nehemiah. He's a man living in Persia. You've probably heard it a lot in the news lately of the Persian Gulf. Have y'all ever heard that? The Persian Gulf. Well, that entire region gets its name from the Persian Empire. And that's where Nehemiah was living. He had a good job, so he's called the cupbearer for the king. What does that mean? He just means he's a trusted advisor of the king. And so he's comfortable. Nehemiah is secure, he's got it's cush, it's easy, it's lavish, everything's going good. But then Nehemiah, he gets word that Jerusalem, which is his home, is in ruins. And so the walls are broken down and the gates are burned, and he's devastated by that. And so he does something really important, and it's this is that Nehemiah does not just cry, even though he does cry, and he doesn't just pray, even though he does in fact pray. But what he does is he makes a plan. I'm gonna tell you this a couple times today, but did you know that a vision and a plan are not the same thing? Right? A dream and a plan are not the same thing. Because you can dream yourself to death and get nothing accomplished. And so he he has a plan, though. So he goes to the king, which is his boss, and he's like, Look, I need to go home. My hometown is a wreck, it's in ruins, and I need to rebuild. And so the king, he's a good king for the most part, and so he agrees, he lets him go, he says yes, he even gives Nehemiah letters of support, he gives him resources, and he also gives him protection for his journey. And that leads us to chapter uh two. By that time, Nehemiah he shows up in Jerusalem. And look what he says, verse 11. I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days, I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. So did you catch that? That he doesn't call a town meeting, right? He doesn't announce what he's doing. What he does is he spends some time and he inspects the walls. He walks the perimeter of Jerusalem and he's identifying what's broken, what needs work, and he's doing it quietly before he does anything publicly. And I can um identify with this a lot, as can Jordan, because for the past year we've been walking the walls of the church. And looking at the church and praying about the church and learning all we can, and so, and not just the building, you know, because the building's nice. Not just the building, but the ministry, the culture, the community of this church. What here needs attention? What here is strong, what here needs to be rebuilt. And we didn't rush it. We prayed, we planned, we did our homework, we've got so much counsel about what the right strategy is. Well, eventually, uh Nehemiah, um, he's finally ready. Verse 17, and look at what he says this. And I said to them, You see the trouble we're in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. Okay, so notice what he says to the people. He says this come, let us rebuild. He didn't say, I'm gonna rebuild, and you watch. Nor did he say, I've got a I've I got a little advisory board, we're gonna do it, so we've got it taken care of. No, he says this let us rebuild. And so what he's providing the people is an invitation to rebuild together. Let's do this together. And God, as is always the case, God is already working behind the scenes. Look at this, verse 18. I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. So he tells them that God has already been moving. Like the backing is already in place, the resources have already been secured. It's not just a dream, it's a plan. It's not just a dream, it's a plan. And look at how the people respond, verse 18. They replied, let us start rebuilding. So they began this good work. Just notice this let us start rebuilding. And they got to work. And so Nehemiah, he didn't ask the people to dream, although dreaming's good. He didn't ask them to, he didn't do it, man. Wouldn't it be cool if someday pastors do this all the time? Wouldn't it be cool if we could do this and this? And there's a place for that, for sure. But if but if the dream never becomes a plan, it never becomes real. So it's gotta, at some point, it starts in your heart if you're a pastor with your time with God, but then at some point you have to do the work of turning the dream into a plan. And so that's what Nehemiah does. He shows up with a plan, he shows up with backing, and he shows up with a clear invitation. And the people say yes. Okay, Believer Center 2026. Jordan and I have been walking the walls, we've been doing our homework, and we want you to know also that God has been working behind the scenes in ways that we can't wait to tell you about. But we have the backing in place, we have the plan ready, and just like Nehemiah said in Jerusalem, I want to say to you, church, let's rebuild. Let's do it. Let's rebuild. And we're calling it, we're calling this vision and this plan BC 2026. It's got three different parts in BC 2026. And before me and Jordan uh come to talk about it, we've got a special video from our incredible founding pastors. Here we go.

SPEAKER_05 15:09

We're sorry to miss Vision Sunday. We had the opportunity to get away for a couple of weeks and enjoy Maui. And so uh I don't I hope you don't mind. We're enjoying ourselves. But uh you've got a great morning that has been planned for you, Pastor David Jordan. Have been planning and praying and have some important things that we share with you today concerning BC 2026.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

We're very excited about what's coming, what's in our future. We've laid a great foundation. We've always had a wonderful church family that worked together, prayed together, made great contributions so that we can become the church that God always desired for us to be. So we're very excited about what is out ahead of all of us, and we get to do it together.

SPEAKER_05 16:01

So have a great morning. We'll see you when we get back.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

Yeah!

SPEAKER_05 16:07

Good morning, church fan.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

Oh he had one more thing to say. I'm just kidding. Okay. Uh everyone, can you help me welcome my incredible wife, Jordan, if you don't know her?

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Good morning, everyone.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

Uh so we're gonna talk a little bit about what we see. Again, this is kind of just like inside baseball, a little bit um, on our plan for the church uh going forward. And I've told you this like so many times, you're probably super sick of it, but I've told you this that for me and for us, the way that we measure the success of a church is like how we measure the success of almost anything, and that's fruitfulness. Right. So you might think like, well, what was fruit what fruitfulness fruit? What does that mean? Fruitfulness fruitfulness is just what something produces. Right, right. And so like you can judge the fruit of your life by what your life produces. You can judge the fruit of your marriage by what your marriage produces. You can judge the fruit of it's like okay, okay, you got you got super rich. Cool. What's the fruit of that? And so it's it's all about fruitfulness. And for a church, what's fruitfulness for a church? Well, a church, a church fruitfulness is this people coming to Christ, right? Discipleship happening, people advancing their walks with Christ. It's um raising kids up in the way of the Lord, right? So kids come up believing in God and are committed to his kingdom. That's fruitfulness. Fruitfulness is making a positive impact on your city, right? But all of that's not just like looking cool, having big nuts. It's not, it's not any of that kind of stuff. It's what the church is producing. So, like you're here, I'm here, we've got a limited time, I'm gonna be 44 this year. Marshall and City know they know this. That I'm not I'm not looking to pastor a church until I'm in my 70s. It's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Stop, stop saying what age you're gonna be.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

Oh, I am 43. I always say I'm gonna be 44.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

He ages himself.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

Yeah, he's um so by you know, it's like by the time I'm 70, I'm looking to sit on my porch and drink tea. And some of y'all, some of y'all might be uncomfortable with that, but it's like that's just clarity for me. I just understand. I understand my assignment and I understand my time. And so I just want you to know this that I am not in a season of my life where I'm looking to dilly-dally and just take it easy and just do the because it's like, for me, this is our time. This is my time, this is Jordan's time, and this is our time. And so the question is like, what does it look like to be more fruitful in a church like ours? And I'm just gonna tell you this right off the bat, um, because you're my friends. In order for this church to be more fruitful, this church has to grow. Oh, you're all about numbers. No, no, no, we're not about numbers, we're about fruitfulness. Right? And and and just understand understand this, that that when you talk about numbers when it comes to a church, uh, numbers matter because each number represents a person. Right.

unknown 19:11

Right?

SPEAKER_04 19:11

And so and so it's like you you know, and people like to people like to think, oh, you're all about numbers. It's like, look, you can you can poo-poo on numbers all you want until like you're standing in front of a burning building and there's ten kids in there, then all of a sudden it's exactly about numbers. Yeah. Right? It's about ten. It matters. Not because you can brag that you got all ten, but because each child is precious. And that's true for this city. Right? And so so for us, it's it's it's not about like how many people are in this room, it's about how many people aren't in this room.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

Right.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

And need an encounter with Jesus. And so we've got we've got what we have believed, we've we've um prayed, we've talked, we've planned. None of this is just like from the seed of our pants. We've known this stuff for a long time. I'm almost sick of it already. I've known it for so long. But this is the season where we're bringing y'all in on um the plan. Okay, so we're gonna talk about three things that we believe are gonna position our church for the next season of fruitfulness and the next season of growth. And I want to start with something that's simple and important. Are y'all okay? Okay, here we go. So the first one, it's simple. We're starting here because we know everyone's gonna um agree with this. Number one, are you ready? Restrooms. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Thank you, Lebby.

SPEAKER_04 20:32

Um and let me just say this that as we make improvements, let me just say this, that that y'all in this room are not my primary concern. You might think, What? Like, look, if you've been following Jesus for 30 years, you can pee in an old bathroom. Get over it. You know what I mean? Like the first generation, they were being boiled alive. You know what I mean? It's like, you're doing all right. So it's not, it's not app it's actually not primarily about you. It's just understanding this that that like first-time guests notice everything. Yeah. And so they notice the foyer, they've noticed the auditorium, they notice the smiles, they notice the frowns, they notice everything, and they notice the restrooms. And I I like to say it like this is like almost everyone that comes to a church passes through the bathroom. Y'all do. We that's just that's just how it works. It's like it's like the Strait of Hormuz. You know what I mean? If that's bad, nobody's getting nothing. Everybody sees the bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

Right? And and like and like let me be honest with you, okay? Can I be honest? The quality of our bathrooms, and by that I mean our main bathrooms, our main men's, women's, and kids' bathrooms, don't match the quality of the rest of our campus. They just don't they're old, they're outdated, they stink. Anybody? Yeah. Someone was probably in the bathroom and said amen because they can hear me now. Amen. It does things. They need work. Okay, so we're starting simple. So part of BC 2026 is we are doing a complete remodel of the restrooms. We've got some uh pictures for you. These are just like little mock-ups that we have um worked with a design company. These are gonna be, let me just say this, they're gonna be nice. These are gonna be nice bathrooms. They're they're gonna, it's like new everything. I think the only thing that we're keeping are we like repurposing and reprocessing the toilets. Apparently, toilets are very expensive. Those types of suction toilets. I thought a toilet was a hundred bucks. Apparently not. Those are very expensive toilets. But besides that, we are ripping out like literally everything. New everything. And you might be thinking, like, well, that's not very exciting. Look, excellence matters. Yeah. Excellence matters. Someone comes into this property, uh, every part of the property has to say, you're welcome here.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:03

We're expecting you here. We care about your experience, and that includes the restrooms. Like, um, if I go to a restaurant and their bathrooms are gross, their food better be unbelievable. Because I know that how their bathrooms look, their kitchen looks, and probably worse. I just understand people are also making those judgments about a church. Yeah. Like, if this bathroom stinks, this church might stink. Right? If this, if this, if these bathrooms are old and outdated, this church might be old and outdated. So we're going to fix them. You can talk now.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Thank you. Take a breath.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Almost forgot you were here.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Take a breath. For many of you, you know this about this house, but excellence is a core value here. And it always has been, and it always will be. And part of the reason that we find ourselves in a position like this is because we've been in this building almost 30 years. So understand that this isn't out of not caring. This is out of the reality that, like David said, bathrooms get used every week. We have rooms in this building that don't get used every week, but that's a space that gets used every week. And so it's just time. It's not lack of care before now. It's not lack of awareness before now. It's just the reality of where we are now. It's just time. And it's not for lack of people coming. We have people who volunteer to come and clean and work tirelessly in those spaces to make them clean for us every week. But there's only so much you can do at a certain point. And so we're just now at that point. But excellence is always who we are and who we always will be. And this is just a way for us to step into excellence in an area of our building that now needs it. It's not out of like, oh, we just didn't care before we did. It was top of the line when the building was built. We're just 30 years down the road, and now it's time.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Yep. Very good. Okay, so so that's uh so women's, men's, and kids' bathrooms, full remodel. They're going to look and smell fantastic. Okay? That's it. I go in there, I'll clap. Okay. Okay, number two, we're we were starting, we were starting simple. We knew you would all just be on board with that one. Number two is this, what we're calling the BC Courtyard. Let me tell you what this is. And so um, the reality is this a church has changed.

unknown 25:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:42

Uh people don't, you don't have to come to church anymore to hear a great sermon. You know where you go when you want to hear a great sermon? YouTube. Uh Stephen Furtick, y'all probably know Steven Furtick. He his sermons, he's got a number of streaming platforms. When you put them all together, Steven Furtick's sermons get over a million views every weekend. A million. You know how many people of uh what percentage of those people go to his church? Less than two percent.

unknown 26:09

Right?

SPEAKER_04 26:09

And so so so like preaching a great sermon and building a great church are just not the same thing anymore. Sermons matter.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Right? If your sermons are terrible, that's that's a problem.

SPEAKER_03 26:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

But but like it's not the thing that grows churches. There, there, can I just bluntly say this? Like, I I don't mean there are people who um have worse preaching than this church and are ten times bigger. Like it's so it's it's not that the thing that makes church sticky in 2026. I don't know if you know this, is relationships. Yeah, right? The thing that keeps people coming to a church after they visit is the relationships, the vibes they get from people, and the relationships that they build. And so um community though, let me just say it like this community happens not during a service. I mean, you got the hey, welcome to church. But besides that, it you're not building relationships. You're listening to me, you're praising God during music, you're watching a video. You're not building relationships in the same way. So community happens during like downtime. Right.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 27:17

You understand what I'm saying? So before service, after service, when there's special things. I remember when we were in youth, uh, we used to go to a youth camp called Youth America. Youth America. Libby was there.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Okay, but at Youth America.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Yeah, I mean and so like we went a number of years, and I'm just gonna confess something to you, and it's this I don't remember a single thing they taught us. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

Not a thing.

SPEAKER_04 27:43

I could not tell you if there were I'm sure there were probably sermons, I'm sure there were multiple calls. I have no idea about any of that. The thing that I remember about Youth America, tell me if I'm right, Jesse, were the bus rides.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

That's what I remembered. Stinky bus rides where all the youth were in there. We were driving all the way to Oklahoma, flipped on the floor. In the aisle. Yeah, I remember I remember like hanging out, me and Jesse, our friend Danny Randall, we'd hang out, we'd like to walk around, fart on the girls, you know what I mean? Like, it was just fun. It was like a slumber party, it was the best.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

You never slept ever.

SPEAKER_04 28:23

Yeah. Um, but but during those times, that's the time that my life changed. Yeah. Service, probably some in some way, I'm I'm assuming. It probably like sowed seeds of faith. But the thing that changed my life, the things that made this church sticky for me over 43 years, is not was not those sermons, it was the relationships that I built. Jesse McDermott, we were we became friends at in these exact times. I was his best man, he was my best man. Now we're here we are over 30 years later, after Youth America, still best buddies. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 28:55

Right?

SPEAKER_04 28:55

And so it's it's relationships. That's how lifelong friendships are formed, not in service, but in the in-between moments.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

I just think it's funny to think that that's even where we started getting to know each other better was Youth America.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Like it was the bus ride, it was the free time that we had at camp. You were, I mean, you were trapped for four days at this awful place that I am being totally honest, I would never go to now in a million years. But but those relationships were formed. And it was the time that we had together. Learning about Jesus, that was a piece of it. But it was just knowing that when we got home, that those people were gonna also be there. And it was those people who were gonna be at church the next Sunday and the next Tuesday. So they're just it's that time, and we we can't discount or ignore that that's when relationships really get built, is in those moments.

SPEAKER_04 29:55

Absolutely. Yeah, and and so what we need as a church is we need to create spaces for those moments to happen. We don't currently have great spaces for that kind of stuff. Um I this this is probably like too insider church culture for you, but I can walk into a church and I can tell when the church was built based on how much emphasis a service has versus community. And so, like, this church was built in a time when what churches wanted was just a big area to have big church services. And that's super cool and that's super important. But if you go to any church that's been built in the last 10 years, it's different. Now, more is built around community because they understand that's the thing that makes church sticky, that's the thing that makes church impactful, that's the thing that can really change people's lives. If the service is a huge part of it, services will always be always be central to what we do in this church, but just understand this that the community piece needs to happen and our facility, we need to make some changes in order for that to happen. So here's what we're gonna do we're gonna do what we're calling the BC courtyard, and you guys can go ahead and start uh the video, and I'm just gonna talk over the video. So, this is going to happen. So, if you can picture that big lot right there, it's on the other side of this wall. Can you picture this? Right over there, and so it's gonna be like this amazing outdoor, indoor space. It's gonna have grass, it's gonna have covered seating areas, it's gonna have a covered meeting space, it's gonna have pickleball, it's gonna have like basketball, combo court, it's gonna have volleyball, it's gonna have great sound. And if you don't know this, when you walk out there, you can see it has it's not shown in the video, an incredible view right there through it's it's all you can see all the four hills, hills right there. It's the best view on the entire property, and we don't use it um at all. Um, but you're probably like trying to talk listen to me and watch the video. But you can see, um, let's see, what else?

SPEAKER_01 31:49

This is how you would walk out to it. Yeah, so if you can picture the doors right here, yeah. You walk out right into this with grass and things to do. It will also connect on that longer side, it will connect to the kids' playground. So the kids will be able to come out of their playground gate into a secure area that will lengthen the amount of space they will have to play as well. So they would have access to that during services. But currently, that's not fenced off. It will now be fenced off. So kids, families, you we will feel safe that that area is secure. Um and you can see at the end of kind of the property there, there'll be two large gates that open really wide that will allow for us to wheel to have food trucks drive back there that will allow people to, like when we do kids con, have the big blow ups go out on the back property. There's gonna be ways for them to have acts for us to have access so that those areas can be fully utilized. Um, the grass will allow for a lot of that, just lots of different places and spaces for community to happen. And it will be available to you pre-service, post-service, Tuesday nights, those kinds of things. It'll be an area where you can come and gather with the people that you want to get to know, invite your friends, take them right out there. There's the possibilities of that space are really endless.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Yep, you bet. And so if you can picture, like, for example, this past 4th of July, we had a 4th of July picnic. Y'all remember that? So um we we flyered all these neighborhoods. There's like, I don't know if you know this, there's so many people, the like walking distance from this church that don't come here. And that's not cool. We're gonna fix it. Um so we we flyed all the neighborhoods, free food, barbecue, come hang out, and like hundreds of people came from the neighborhood onto the property. So much so we ran out of food. We had to go steal we had to steal hot dogs and hamburgers from the youth ministry that happened to have some so that we could keep feeding all of these people. It was it was incredible. We had way more people than we were expecting. The problem is it was still just out here, it was still just sitting on a lawn chair on concrete. And so it was it was fine and it was great, and it was an incredible success, and we were grateful to God for what it happened. But just imagine that same event happening here.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

Right? Imagine people coming that haven't been to the church, but now all of a sudden, oh, we got a couple hundred people coming from the neighborhoods, and they come out, and it's like this incredible place, an amazing experience for them to come. Uh, and and just imagine what it could be. Imagine um like Fallpalooza happening out there. Because we do Fallpalooza, it's cool. We decorate the the classrooms, it's cool. We do what we can do with our facility, but just imagine that happening out here. Imagine small groups meeting out here. Yeah, right? Small groups are meeting all throughout the all throughout the week. They meet in different parts of the of the church, you know, they meet in a little multi-purpose room, they meet in blah, blah, blah, blah. Imagine like a recovery group. People who are celebrating recovery come and it's beautiful, and it's covered outside, and they can play games, and it's it's just it's just the the space is um going to make relationship building infinitely easier for us. And the idea is like, and Jay, our facility guy, he already knows this. So this place just has to be nice all the time.

SPEAKER_03 35:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 35:02

Right? And so at a moment's notice, we go out there before service. We go out there, after service, you go out there. People visiting the church, they come out and they hang out, and their kids can go play pickleball. It's just it's just a um a really great experience specifically for relationship building.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Yeah, and I I want to speak to next gen parents in the room who have kids. What this can do for our next gen ministries is huge. Every Tuesday, I don't know if you know this, our youth stay after service for a very long time. Longer than I was ever allowed as a teenager to be out of my house. I had a very strange curfew. But they do that because they want to be together. The reason they stay is not because they have a million things to do, even though they work really hard and do things for us in this building, it's because they want to stay and hang out together. And this is a safe place. And we love that they want to be here hanging out together in a safe place. Imagine that they can go do that out on the courtyard. Kids come this past year. We had almost 200 kids in this building, and that's incredible. But we don't have the space to do some of the things we want to do outside with them. We will have that space now for it to grow, for it to thrive. This goes beyond just what happens week to week, the things we can do for next gen. If you get the youth and young adults, the young adults meet on Thursday nights, they can have their services out there, they can have community nights out there, they go play volleyball, they go do these things. Instead of having to go somewhere else in the city, they can invite their friends here. Right. And we hope that you can see how far this can go in bringing people into this house to meet Jesus because that's where it will start.

SPEAKER_04 36:52

Yep. Yeah, another thing, and and uh just to let you know, after service, we're all gonna go out there if you have a few minutes. We've staked it, we've we've painted it, and we put stakes so you can walk out and you can really have a visual. We've already done a lot of the groundwork, so just so you know, this is not a theoretical dream. This is a concrete plan, and we'll tell you about it. Um but another thing we want to do out there is outdoor weddings. I don't know if you know this, but um kids don't want to get married in churches anymore. I did a ton of weddings this past year. You know how many I did in uh a church? One.

unknown 37:21

Right?

SPEAKER_04 37:22

What they want is they want the the kiss shot with the out with the mountains behind them and the sky, and that that's what they pay the big bucks for. And so they're paying all of these different wedding venues thousands of dollars for like an empty field just because they want that shot. And also the thing that happens is that a lot of times they get rained out. I have done so many weddings in just some foyer of some business just yelling, I know for that you know, because there's no sound, there's no lights or everything, so they have this great dream. Um and kids don't get married in churches anymore. Well, this is gonna be an incredible place uh to get married. And what's amazing about it too is that if you're out there and like, oh my gosh, the thunder's crackling and it starts raining, in five minutes' notice, we can come in here, great sound, great lights, great projectors. It's like ready at any given time. And it's not because we're turning into a wedding venue, we're not, that's not the purpose. But you just have to understand that weddings are an incredible outreach tool.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 38:18

What's a wedding? A wedding is 200 people that don't come to church coming in and saying, dang, this place is nice. Yeah. And saying, and you know what, that pastor's kind of funny, and I kind of like him. What time's your guys' services?

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 38:34

Right? And it's it's just it's just like it opportunities because a lot of people don't want to just come to a church service. You know what I mean? Like this is insider, this is insider stuff that happens in this room, and it's super cool. But just having these transitional spaces are it's just important because it's one of the ways that we get new people, new families. That we we retain, just to let you know, we retain people at this church very well.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

Right? Like we're not losing people. Churches have like 10% turnover every year, statistically, we have less than that. Because people, once they come to this church, they tend to be very sticky. We're not we're not bad at losing people. What we don't have enough of is first-time guests. Right. And I can give you all kinds of numbers, but we don't have enough first-time people coming to check out this church. And so uh this is one of the ways that we fix that. Okay, okay, uh, the courtyard.

SPEAKER_03 39:19

Courtyard.

SPEAKER_04 39:19

Good, okay. Number three, brace yourselves. Number three is our identity. So this one is big and it's um personal uh to me.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

It's gonna be personal for most people in the room.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Just as a preview, I guess. We're making them all nervous, huh? A little bit.

SPEAKER_04 39:42

Uh so for 45 years, this church has been known as Believers Center. It carries history. That name carries wait, my my family's story is in that name. I found Christ in a church called Believers Center. It it it matters um deeply to me. But the reality is um in the eighties, when this church was named, um, church was a lot more prevalent in our cities than it is now. It was just super and and in the 80s the thing to do was to say they didn't want it to be called a church because they want it to be non-religious, so they said center. So that was the thing. And so if you if you go and you look at a you look at a church and so it's called like Odessa Christian Faith Center, Abundant Living Faith Center, Believer's Center, you can tell, you can be pretty confident that that church was founded in the early 80s. That's just the way that they named churches. Things have changed.

SPEAKER_03 40:41

Right.

SPEAKER_04 40:42

And so now we're not a church society like we were before. And so when someone sees something that's just called Believer's Center, they're not sure it's like, well, maybe that's like a community center, maybe it's a conference center, maybe it's a yoga studio. Like what is what is a center? And I'm confident that there's people that have been driving by this facility for 30 years that do not realize that believers center is a church. Having church in your name matters.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Okay, wait, before you go too far, I just want to give a little bit of history.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

Oh, good, good.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Um I I just think it's helpful to, as we go into this, to recognize that the the church has had several changes throughout the 45 years in its name. You know, um it's it started in one place and it's ended up where we are now, but you know, many of you started coming when it was believer center of Albuquerque. That's that was its full name. BCA. BCA. The old timers still say BCA. That's what we were known as. And that we were well known in the city as Believer Center of Albuquerque, BCA. And I don't know, maybe a decade or so ago, we s we shortened it and became Believer Center. And over time with that, BC became a part of our identity. So we've got BC Youth, we've got BC young adults, we've got BC kids, we've got BC Coffee. You see BC everywhere we go. Um and that became a big part of who we are, is believer center to be C. And so where we're going, you if you look, we've had changes. It's not, it's not that this is a first-time change that we're making here. This is we've had several along the journey of 45 years.

SPEAKER_04 42:28

Yep. Very good. Uh so having church in your name matters now. So uh Abundant Living Faith Center, that was uh our parent church. It was Charles Neiman and Jared Neiman's church, Abundant Living Faith Center. When do you think that church was planted? Early 80s, yeah. Abundant Living Faith Center, right? Uh so that was their name. And then they changed it too long. I joke with Jared. Jared was like, I don't know why back in the 80s they wanted to have the entire New Testament in the name of the church. Um just the era. Uh and so they shortened it, then they shortened it to abundant living, and so now they changed it to abundant church. Abundant church, that's what it's called. Abundant church. So you can have a big shirt that just says abundant. What? It says abundant church. So having uh church in your name matters. Sagebrush church, legacy church, Calvary Church, citizen church. And so having church in the name matters. Uh, and because when you hear it, you know exactly what it is. So for us, like if we wanted to do a billboard right now, we would have to say Believers Center, a Christian family church, and you're already two sentences in before anybody realizes that what we're talking about here is a church. So it just don't work anymore in 2026 the way that it is. And so part of 2026 is that we are going to be refreshing our name to Believer Church. Believer church. You can say believers if you want to, but it's believer. Believer church. Um, and we've got lots of Of because because church is important and the word believer, this is my opinion. I think the word believer is very cool. I've always I've identified with it, it's part of my history, and I think we live in a world that is full of skeptics.

SPEAKER_03 44:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:13

Non-believers. Non-believing skepticism is everywhere. And so I want believe believer is part of who we are, but a believer is part of who I am too.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Right.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

Right? That I'm not going to let the cynicism and the negativity and the jaded nature of the world. In fact, like I want I want to believe in God and I want to believe that there's a future. I want to believe that there's hope for me. I believe that there's uh there's promises for my family. And so because uh because I am a believer. And so if you would put like a let's say you get a hoodie and it says believer on it, I'll wear that 365 days a year. Right? Because because it's it's something about our church, but it's also saying something about me. I'm a believer.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 44:54

And so believer is is the word. It's a promo of the church, but it's also a confession of who we are. Same heart, same mission, same Jesus, but a name and an identity that tells our city exactly who we are and invites them in.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

Absolutely. And one thing that for you to know, like we didn't come to it, come to this place lightly. It was, if we're honest, for David and I, it was probably years of praying and seeking God and really processing and thinking through what was right. But this came to a place where it was so right for us because it's still part of our history. It's rooted in who we are. The believer is rooted in our history, and it's still who we are, and that's where this really came from for us is that it's a confession, it's an identity, it's a wonderful thing for us moving forward into the future.

SPEAKER_04 45:56

Yeah, that's right. And so BC still works for everything. So it's still gonna be BC coffee, BC Recovery, BC Kids, BC Youth, BC young adults, BC small groups, it's still BC everything. But the BC, and we've started we've started saying believer center church, which is really dumb. Uh doesn't make any sense, but because we know church was just needed. And so it's still BC, but we're just reassigning the C from center to church. Okay. Not just a logo change, it's stepping into who God is calling us to be for the next season. And I want you to know this, and I hope you can um appreciate and understand this, that twenty years ago, um people in this city knew about this church. And people don't people don't know we exist the way that they used to in this city, right? So, like if we were to go to uh let's say you go out to lunch after service and you stand up and you say, Excuse me. Don't do this.

SPEAKER_01 46:51

Don't do this.

SPEAKER_04 46:56

Yeah. You say this. How many of y'all are familiar with Calvary Church? How many of you think, well, raise their hand? 95? 95%? How many of y'all are familiar with Legacy Church? Probably 80%. How many of y'all are familiar with Sagebrush Church? Maybe 85, 80, something like that. How many of y'all are familiar with citizen? Uh you know what I mean? How many of y'all are familiar with Believer's Center of Albuquerque? You'll be lucky if there's one person in that place that knows this church. That wasn't the case 25 years ago, 30 years ago. It's just not the case. And I think our location has something to do with it, but the real reason is that other churches have done a better job at getting in the collective imagination and mind of the city. Right? And so we know that we wanted to do that. But at the same time, we knew we wanted to update the name, and so we didn't want to buy a billboard just to change the name of the church. And so once we complete this, what it's gonna let us do is operation infiltrate Albuquerque. Right? We're going gorilla. Because and there's like different kinds of advertising, my great friend David Goldman. But what our church needs is not for people to change their opinion about uh believer center, what they need is to raise awareness. So we need to do awareness advertising. So people just know that this is a church, this is where we are, this is what we stand for, and so they just know about us. Getting the name back in the city.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

And I think um it's just helpful to know, like for you all to know. Can you go to that picture that the name's all over the building? Um I think that it's so important that you understand that where we're located, you can see the top of our building from all kinds of places from the highway. But right now, you don't know what this building is, you will. That's part of it. Like you will see it and you will know that we are here and you will be interested to come. And so just know that this is all part of this plan is that by the time we we are working to get our name, not just in the city, but on the building, because even maybe people in the neighborhood know who we are. But it's like that's part of this plan, that's part of this process. Um, you will see that name as you drive onto the property. You will see that name on the highway, and it will be something that really does, we believe, start bringing people who need to know Jesus. Because that's the goal. Please don't forget that that's the goal here is we want people to come into this house and meet Jesus. That's the goal, and we believe this is a step towards that.

SPEAKER_04 49:38

Yeah, you bet. Okay, so those are the three things restrooms, courtyard, identity. Restrooms, courtyard, identity. That's the vision. That's the dream. Now let me tell you the plan. Okay? All these business people are like, yeah, but are we gonna really do it? All right, here's here's the plan. Nehemiah, he didn't just cast vision, he had a plan, and so do we. I'll just tell you this. The total estimated cost of BC 2026 is $250,000. And some of y'all are thinking, like, that's it? And some of y'all have like, I've never even seen that many zeros on a s on a screen before. Um now let me tell you what God has already done is that we have already secured dollar-for-dollar matching for the entire project. Amen. Yeah, and so what we have to raise as a church family is a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Um, and every dollar that you give to BC2026 is automatically doubled. So if you give $10, it's $20 out there. If you give $1,000, it's $2,000 out there. And so the match has already been committed, it's already there. That's just the favor of God on this house. Um, and what I want you to know about the projects that we're doing is that everything, and I'm I'm committing to this, everything that we do is going to be incredible quality. It's gonna be, listen to me, it's gonna be nice.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

Super nice.

SPEAKER_04 51:04

It's all gonna be nice. Right? There's no there's no duct tape involved in any of these projects. It's gonna be nice, but what we're doing, we're doing at a very inexpensive level in a very expensive way. Um and so just just know this that we're not reckless with your generosity. We could be spending on these projects easily three times. In fact, in fact, uh a landscaper told us, he said, you could spend three-quarters of a million dollars out on this area. I said, Oh, cool, cool. Budgets 140. But so what what we're doing is what we have what we've done, and we've been working, this is what I've been working on for the last five, six months, is we've lined up companies, we're calling them project partners. And so these are companies that are we've got all kinds of materials and parts donated, we've got lots of things that are gonna be done at cost. We've evaluated things that we're able to do in-house, we do in-house, but we've got people, we've got companies, and we've got contractors all lined up, and they're giving us incredible discounts and deals because they see the vision. Just to let you know, all the architectural work uh on the back. Uh normally, if we just paid off the rack, it would cost like about 30 grand. We got all of that, all the 3D renderings, all of those plans for 3,000 bucks. A 10. And that we've got those kinds of deals everywhere to make this kind of project happen at that. And once we're once we're done, we believe that we will look back and we will have spent one third of what we could have spent if we just would have hired a contractor uh to do it. But it's all gonna be exceptional quality. All the materials, super nice. All every everything is going to be incredible, but we're just doing it and using the favor that God has put on this house and the mission of this house to let us do more with the money uh that we're bringing in. Okay, so timeline. So timeline, so the campaign, so like the fundraising campaign starts today and it's going through September. So it's like about five months that we have here. The grand opening, we believe, for all of this stuff and the completion of the switchover is going to be this September, five months from now. Right? So just know this is not like, hey, thanks for the money, and then it's like, what happened to the that's not happening. We're we're already working. We already have we already have materials. The groundwork has already been done. Like uh skid steers show up this week. It's like it's like we're moving on it. But uh grand opening in September, so the courtyard, the bathrooms, the name, the look, and we'll keep you updated uh on all the projects. But know that you're gonna also see the projects. So if you ever want to walk out there, you can see with that. There's gonna be times where I'm gonna have to get real creative with bathrooms. You know what I mean? You're just gonna have to hold it.

unknown 53:43

No.

SPEAKER_01 53:44

That's definitely not true with David in the room.

SPEAKER_04 53:47

No, we've got a whole plan. Yeah, I can I can hold it. No, we've got a whole plan for that. But but today is um your first opportunity to give to the project. It's not gonna be your last. Again, it's like a five, four or five month campaign. This is day one. Um, and you might be thinking, like, you're kind of springing it on me. It'd be nice. I need to talk to my husband. I need to talk in, I need to move some money from the savings to the checking and the checking to the blah blah. It's like that's totally fine. It's not about this offering specifically today. It's gonna be like a four-month campaign, maybe even a five-month campaign. And we want you to know this that that our heart, when we've talked to other people, when we've prayed about it, it's not about one big check from one person. That's that's not what is it's about all of us doing our part. And like, even if you can only give 50 bucks three months from now, that's fantastic. But we what we want is for when you walk on this property and you see all these new people that are coming, they're already coming, they're trickling in, but they're gonna be coming, that you have some ownership in that. Right? Because it's not it's not just us doing it, it's all of us doing it together. Exodus chapter 36, you may be familiar with the story. Moses receives an offering for the tabernacle. It's like God's first house. Um, and and people gave so generously that Moses had to say, Stop, we've got enough money. But every person brought what they had. Some people brought gold, some people brought cloth, some people brought oil, but everyone brought something. And because everyone did their part, every need was met. That's what we're believing for for this project, not one hero.

SPEAKER_03 55:19

Right.

SPEAKER_04 55:20

I mean, you want to write a big channel, that's fine, but it's not about one big hero, it's about everyone doing their part. And I I want to say this that for me this project, and and for us, this project is an opportunity for us to build some trust with you when it comes to the business side of leading a church. Because like we you know, we've got a big budget here, we've got you know, there's a lot of things, and there's a lot of things that we oversee, and it's important that in our relationship that I and we can trust you and that you can trust us. Right? Because everything that we do as a church is um done through a partnership between kings and priests. Kings and priests, what in the world does that mean? Well, it's this biblical idea from Revelation uh chapter one, where God says he God made us the church into kings and priests. So think about that. Kings, okay, I understand what a king is, and priests. And so priests are the people who carry the vision. And so that's us. It's not just us, it's the whole pastoral team, but it's our job to carry the vision, and so we have to pray, we have to seek God, we have to seek wise counsel, and we have to we have to like bring to you the direction that we see God leading the church, that that's our job as the priests. But then kings aren't the people that carry the vision, the kings are the people that resource the vision. Right. What in the world does that mean? So that's that's most of you. It's not all of you, it's most of you. Most of you are in the kings and priests division, most of you are kings. And what what that what does that mean? It means that you you go to work Monday through Friday, you build businesses, you earn a living. And the Bible says what's amazing is the Bible says that's a spiritual act.

unknown 57:11

Right.

SPEAKER_04 57:12

That what you do Monday through Friday is a spiritual act because it directly affects what God can do through this church on a Sunday. And so just understand this that that like when we bring you a project like this, it's not like, hey, can y'all do us a favor? You like me, right? Can you can you help me on my project? It's it's it's not it's not it's not that, it's it's us doing our part so that you can do your part. And it's how God designed the church to work. God gave us a vision for the church, that's our job to carry the vision. But listen to this: you determine the speed of the vision, right? So we develop the vision, you develop the speed of the vision. That that's how that's why that's why churches sit on plans for 20 years and never build nothing. I can just say, for us, that's not gonna be the case, right? Look, we want you to give, but I'm letting you know this thing's happening. It's happening. We're we're building it starting yesterday. It's already so it's not it is a vision, it is a dream, but it's more than that. And so, and also I just want to say this to let you know, we're not asking you to do anything that we're not also doing, right? That that we're priests in the vision, we're also kings because we also have income. So we're also giving of our own money to the project. Yes, right? Because because we believe, it's not just like, oh, I know I'm supposed to, it's because we believe that this church has done so much, but there's something more for us to do. It's not just about looking in the rearview mirror and appreciating all that God has done up to this point, it's about looking forward and say, God, maybe you can do more here. Yes, God, maybe you can still do something fresh here. God, maybe you can use this structure, this congregation right now to reach a whole new group of people. This church over the last 47 years has reached thousands of people. Thousands of people have given their life to Christ through this church. I believe that thousands more are gonna give their life to Christ in this church. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 59:20

I think it's just an encouragement that I want to give to you that if even a small piece of what we shared this morning, you grabbed hold of that vision, this is your opportunity to trust God. To say, God, I think you can do something bigger than I can even imagine. Do you do you believe, like I believe this, that this is a step that God has for us? But He can do more than even what we've dreamed and even the vision we've brought before you. But that's because we need you to jump on board with the vision too. We need you to say, God, I'm gonna trust you with this and I'm gonna give to it because I believe in it, because I believe you can do something through my giving that goes way farther than I could ever imagine. But the other piece is it makes it puts you in a place of investing into seeing God change lives. It's you taking a step, saying, It's not just up to the people on the platform, it's up to me. Because I can give no matter the amount. It's a seed, it's a seed in the ground that can grow, that can turn into more. But you've got to grab hold of the vision and then make a choice within yourself to say, I want to be a part of making it happen. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:49

About a month ago, we had uh uh an event here, uh Force for Good Women's Event. We had a speaker, Dr. uh Donna Paizani. Thank you. It's a tough one. And she stayed over and she spoke also that Sunday morning. I know a lot of you guys were here, but um, she was preaching up here and she stopped mid-sermon and she said, I have a word for your church. Y'all remember that? And then she read from Isaiah chapter 54, she said this. This is the word for your church. She said this, enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your curtains wide, do not hold back, lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. And she told us that that you have to strengthen your stakes because um when a storm comes, if the stakes aren't strengthened, the house falls. Right? And so, and I uh we were just there. We you know, we we knew we were doing this like a month later. It was like, I didn't give her sermon notes, I didn't we didn't tell her what to say or anything. She didn't know about BC2026. It was just something that God dropped in the room, and then she spoke directly to Jordan and me. Um, but I think it applies to me and you, uh, Jordan, but I think it applies to all of us. Right. I think this is a word for all of us, and this is exactly what uh Donna said. She said, The Lord spoke to me and said, This is the beginning of it. There's a new season opening. Things are gonna begin turning and opening up for both of you. I would say for all of you. Over the next five years, floodgates are opening. There are hundreds and hundreds of young people, Gen Zers, teenagers, college-age kids that are gonna begin coming to this church. They've only started to trickle in right now, but the floodgates are coming. And it's nothing that you perform, nothing that you do. There's a move of the Holy Spirit. It's so heavy on you. So this is why BC 2026 to work. This is why BC 2026 exists because more people are coming. And we have to be ready for them. BC 2026 is one of the ways that we enlarge our town. So the bathrooms, the courtyard, the name, it's not to make us comfortable. Like I said, I'm not that concerned with you. I think you're good. I it's about reaching more people. You know what I mean? At a certain point, I feel like, you know, we want we want to be fed the word of God, fed the word of God. But at some point, you're just like a fat guy. You know what I mean? So spiritually, all you do is eat and you never go do anything. At a certain point, like, can we just admit, like, I'm good. I'm gonna follow Jesus the rest of my life, and I can receive from God. I've got a relationship, so let's do something about it. Let's actually go and reach some people. And so I hope it's not like I don't really care about the bathrooms. It's not about you caring about the bathrooms. It's about us reaching more people for Jesus and doing what we can do to have encounters, opportunities for people to receive Christ. And so it's it's it's not for us, it's for the next family that's gonna come through those doors, it's the next young person, it's it's coming for the next generation that's gonna be shaped in this house, and so we're not maintaining. I hope you can hear that hard. Like, I love I love what this church is. I am not here to maintain this, right? I'm here to build on this. I want to grow this, I want to do something new with this. And it's and it's something that you and me and Jordan and you, it's like, it's like we have to trust each other. Right? Because you need us and we need you. Yeah. That we provide the vision, and then we have to know. This is what we have to know. We have to know that you're behind us when we take a step of faith. Just like just like how just like how you feel like we're behind you when you take a step of faith, what we're asking is that you get behind this step of faith that we're all doing together. Amen. And so I was just I was just thinking about I was thinking about me, and I was thinking about like who the people are that I'm as I give to BC 2026, and I'm gonna give multiple times, but as I give to BC 2026, the people that I'm giving for, I was thinking, man, I'm I'm giving for the next Noah. But Noah's not even in here right now, but I'm giving the next he's leading mid school right now. He's a man that over the last two years God pulled out of the kingdom of the world and put into the kingdom of God and even into ministry. Yeah, I'm given for the next Preston who found freedom from addiction at this church. God put their family back together at this church. But I'm given for that. I'm gonna I'm given for the next David Eifert, right? Who's born into this church, who never for a single day questioned whether or not God loved me, whether or not God had a plan for me, right? And I and I've always I've always recognized the voice of the enemy because I've always known the voice of the Father. Yes, I've always known it. Yes, right? And I was a stupid teenager, blah blah blah, I have never departed the faith. And there's so many trials and so much pain and so much. Suffering that other people that I didn't have to endure. Why? Because I was raised, I was brought up in the ways of the Lord at this church. There's people, there's people in here. I just learned yesterday, another couple that's expecting another kid. And I'm like, yep, that's who I'm giving for. It's not about me having a nicer place to pee. It's about making a place for people to encounter Christ. People who will give their life to Christ at this church. I'm giving for the next 45 years. Amen. Amen. So in a minute, you notice, I'm sure you notice we uh are we moved the offering to the end, not because this is like, you know, legacy offering and you got your all these friends. We know that's not gonna be the case. Y'all gotta talk. That's cool. But um what we're gonna do, we're gonna do it, and so we need to let you know that if you want to give to BC2026, you have to designate that gift. Because these offerings are also for people who just give their regular tithes and offerings. And so you can designate that in like a lot of different ways. Of course, if you're like, if you're uh if you're writing a check, you're a check person, you can write BC2026 um on the memo line. Uh if you're giving cash, you can raise your hand. Our host team will find their way to you. We've got very few people that's still giving cash, but there's some people that still give cash. Um or if you give online, you can designate it. There's a drop-down and you can uh make it to BC2026 um there too.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:29

Host team, you can um come with the envelopes. Um if you need one, you can raise your hand. Um but this is just a reminder, just similar to what we do at Legacy each year, and if you've been here for any amount of time, you know this. When Legacy offering comes around, we we say that that offering is over and above. It's over and above what we normally give. And this is the same. This campaign, we're asking that it be over and above the tithes and offerings that you give. Because this is um this campaign is an addition to what we have to do weekly. Weekly services are still happening, they're not stopping, and many of you know that just comes with expenses, and that's our reality. And so today, this is the day that we're we're bringing this to you. Like David said, there's no pressure. But just in your mind and in your heart as you're preparing, just keep in mind that this is something extra. This is something more than what we normally do. Um, and we don't do this often and we won't do this often. And this is just what we believe is is for this uh season and this time. Um but just know that it's trustworthy what we're doing here. Um God's hand is on it, and we believe that. We believe everything that we presented this morning um came from God. Um and we just want you to know that we will be wise with everything that comes in.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:58

And just and this is this is my commitment to you, this is our commitment to you, is that if you designate a gift to BC 2026, there is not a single penny of that that will go to anything other than these projects. This is every and and and just like I'm telling you, that this for me is it is a trust thing, it's a trust builder because I I don't want to spoil it for you. This ain't gonna be the last time we raise money for something, right? We got lots of stuff in our future, but but but we need to establish trust. And so I was telling Art, my kind of my business mentor, I was telling him that this is an opportunity for me to build trust. That when I say something's gonna happen, I'll follow through. And I just want you to know, I will, I will stay up all night, I will, I will kill myself making this project happen. Everything it's it's going to happen, and I'll do my best to have it be right on budget, right on schedule. And so I hopefully a year from now you'll be able to be like, yeah, that last time they raised money, though, they were good, they were good for it. They said this is exactly what's gonna happen, and they happened, and it happened. So just know that. BC 2026, if you want to give to it, it's separate and you've got to designate it. The harvest is what I said at conference. The harvest of tomorrow comes from the seeds we sow today. The harvest of tomorrow comes from the seeds we sow today. Also, if you're here for the first time and you're thinking, like, God, this church talks about money a lot, don't feel any pressure. This is this is this is house business, but if you call this place home, this is your chance to be a part of what God is doing next. And if you're just let me say this, if if you're wondering whether or not you should give, I'm gonna say this. God's never gonna tell you to not give, and the devil's never gonna tell you to give. So, so just keep that in mind. And so, what we're gonna do is we're gonna pray over the offering, and then um we'll give you some instructions for what we're gonna do after service. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, you are so amazing. And when we think about this church and we think about the this the house of miracles that you have built and that you've maintained and that you've sustained over 45 years, we first off come from a heart of gratitude for what you have done. And Lord, we would continue to pray that you give us direction, that you give us clarity, you give us wisdom for this next season. We we don't want to labor on our own in our own power. We don't want to labor in vain. We want we want to be um doing our part, faithful stewards of the talents and the gifts that you've given us, Lord. And so we pray over BC 2026 all the different pieces, all the construction pieces, all the fundraising pieces, all the identity pieces, all the marketing pieces. Father, we believe that your favor goes before us, that you give us wisdom and you give us open doors. Because we know what this city needs, we're confident, is relationship with you. We know that. And so we want to make ourselves available to partner with you in doing that. We believe that as we as you go before us, as we follow you, every need is met. That we don't we don't come from a place of desperate need, we come from a place of abundance and favor. And we believe that the things that we need to raise so that we can do what you've put in our hearts to do, um, it's just gonna be above and beyond. Every need will be taken care of. And Father, we pray that even now you're preparing this city to encounter you in an amazing way. Divine ideas, supernatural strategies are gonna continue to come as we reach this city for you. We say thank you, Lord. It's in your sins, let me pray. Amen. Amen. That shows you can go ahead and serve the people.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:23

Something really powerful. It's time to do there is real that I never know how to