What's Next? : Taking the Torch | Matt Roden | Part 2 of 4

Uh join me as we welcome everybody who's jumping in online and on demand.

Thanks for being here.

I'm telling you, if you're just watching online, you really are missing out on some of the antics we do in person.

And uh there's some good stuff that we just wrapped up.

But um, hey, before we get started, I want to let you guys know our next series after this one in a few weeks is called QA.

And here's how this is gonna work.

You submit your questions, and we make our best attempts at answering them about it could be about faith, God, life, whatever you want to ask about.

And for those online or for those in person, if you will scan that QR code or just kind of if you don't know how to do that, the person next to you can show you how to do that.

But just scan that in and feel free to submit uh any questions that you have, or or maybe just kind of bookmark this on your phone and as you think of questions throughout the week, throw some in.

The more questions, the better.

We're gonna take your top five or six questions, answer those in the series, and then we may even do a thing after uh a service one week where we have lunch and kind of do all the rest of them that we can.

But that's gonna be a really fun time.

I don't know why, again, you guys play the beach ball game, and then I'm out of breath, and I don't understand.

I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know.

Someone's gonna have to explain that one to me.

Anyway, I do have a whiteboard here though, ladies and gentlemen.

Let me bring this a little bit more into play here, and um want to ask a question, and then we're gonna take your answers.

Uh, and and this is a little bit, you may not feel comfortable answering this question, that's okay, but I really want to hear your raw, honest answers on this because this this is kind of an interesting conversation we'll start.

And here's the question, okay?

And I'll say it twice in case you missed, you know, you're like, what?

Why do you think it's so hard to talk about money or giving in church?

Okay, I'll ask again, why do you think it's so hard to talk about money or giving in church?

Okay, so throw some answers.

Self-conscious, okay?

All right.

Let me bring this in a little bit more.

Is that good?

So there we go.

All right, self-conscious, yep, spelling, triple spelling B champion.

You're welcome.

Anyway, all right, what else?

Who else got yeah?

Yep, greedy church.

Yep.

Culture and beliefs.

Yep.

There you go.

All right, man, these are coming quick.

All right, hang on.

Uh not I think there's no other way to put it uh than what you said.

That's pretty good.

Not knowing where it goes.

Okay, go ahead.

Econom okay, the economy, that's a big one.

All right, what else?

Expectations.

All right, I like that.

This is good.

Expectations.

All right.

Fear of the unknown.

That's good.

What else?

We'll do that for money.

Anything else?

Last uh last huh?

Yeah, you want my money.

Right, yeah.

You want my money.

You dirty pastor, that's all you want.

You nasty.

All right, that's pretty good.

That's a pretty good start.

All right, so now there's a lot of good reasons here on this board, and I believe that really uh when you say not having enough economy, I think stretched, being stretched thin is definitely a big reason that that's hard to talk about.

And what's interesting is in the time that we live in, when the economy's in a toilet, like it's harder to talk about, you know, like and than it is in times where things are going a little bit better, right?

And uh I mentioned last week we did a round table service last fall, and where we had kind of everybody group up together and we asked them, you know, what's the most pressing issues that you or your community are facing?

And people said, like the two reactions that people said was they were starving for connection and stretched thin.

Uh, rent, groceries, gas, living paycheck to paycheck, and all that um makes talking about giving really super tough.

Uh, can we turn on the air a little bit?

Is it just I don't know what is wrong?

I think I'm having a stroke on life.

I don't know, it's it's the whiteboarding.

I don't just kidding.

Anyway, here's the thing.

Oh, you guys are hot too?

Okay, good, okay, good.

All right, it's not just me.

All right.

Um, I always think it's me.

And anyway, whatever.

Um, when the economy goes down, giving goes down.

That's just a fact of life.

Everybody knows that, right?

That's not news to you.

The other aspect I think is interesting about you want my money, or uh, you know, what's the purpose, or greedy church, that's a big one, is that I don't know why, but Christians are just weird about money.

Especially pastors.

Like I remember the story in 1987, uh, televangelist Orl Roberts, famous of Oral Roberts University, uh, famously told people that God told him that if he doesn't raise$8 million in three months, that God would take his life.

So he put that out there, and then he went and like secluded himself away in this kind of like prayer tower where he just fasted and prayed for the funds over the next few months, and in the end, thanks to a last-minute gift, he raised nine million dollars.

Now, I don't know about you, okay, and maybe it's just me, but that feels a bit much.

Uh, I may be old-fashioned, but I feel like if I tell people, if you don't give, I will die, and then I go live in a tower like Rapunzel, that feels a little manipulative, okay?

Like I don't, I don't, but those are things that have really happened that people can point to and go, yeah, that's that's why, right?

I don't want to be a part of that.

Now, knowing all these things behind me, here at Santa Cruz Bible Church is church leadership.

We said there's a couple things that we always want to do anytime you talk about things that are really sensitive or hard for people, and one is just really to be have honest and helpful conversations.

Oh, thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Well, Tatiana, thank you so much.

She's so sweet.

Thanks.

I mean, I must really be going through it up here.

I don't know.

People are bringing me water.

I think someone's already called an ambulance.

Like, I mean, it's really gonna be something.

Thank you so much.

Um, but in all honesty, it a lot of these reasons behind me, we said, let's have honest, helpful conversations whenever you do talk about money and giving, because you can't really read scripture long without running into some type of generosity challenge in it.

And we said, okay, well, let's do fine with that, but let's take all the guilt and the weirdness out of it, okay, as much as possible.

And then, secondly, we said, let's just be transparent, like you said, with what we do and talk about that every once in a while, and bring that up and show people things and that kind of stuff just to keep it transparent.

And over time, that has made it a lot easier to have these conversations or talk about money or giving or challenge people in a in a good way.

Because I hope people know that regardless of their resources, that we hope you feel respected wherever you are for whatever reason.

There's a lot of takes on this, okay?

And we want to respect those takes coming in the door and yet gently challenge you and always kind of keep that out in front.

And part of why I'm bringing this up is we're in a series we've been in called What's Next, where we've been talking about steps that anybody can take when your spiritual life feels stuck or stale or you're just starting out.

And these are steps that help you get closer to really the me that you want to be in a lot of ways.

And um, my goal for this series is that you take one of these steps.

But while some of these steps could be unusual or uncomfortable, I don't think any of them are steps that you regret taking.

And last week we talked about being involved in the good that God is doing in the world.

And this week we're talking about being invested in the good that God is doing in the world.

And let me just put this out here if you're watching online or you're in this room, if you feel uncomfortable, there's no need to be.

Okay, there really isn't.

Um, you may feel a little challenged, and that's okay.

That's not a bad thing to feel challenged, right?

But you're gonna be respected again no matter where you're coming from or however you feel about this today.

So, now one of the fun parts of my job as a pastor, and why this comes up every now and then, is I have things I have to remind people of from time to time that the Bible literally tells you remind people of.

And this is one of them.

The apostle Paul instructed a pastor, a pastor in 1 Timothy 6.

He said this He said, Tell them to use their money to do good.

They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.

And by doing this, they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.

In other words, Paul says, Listen, tell them to use what they have to do good while they can, because one day they're gonna be gone and they're gonna look back and wish they had done more with what they have.

And I I really think the essence of this is when you when you hear something like this, I don't think most people hear a passage like that and go, you know, bah humbug, racist, right?

But right?

No, it's mine, mine, mine.

I don't I don't think people have that attitude.

Most people want to be generous.

I really believe that.

Most people say, like, I really wish I could be more generous than I am, because we all know and have all grown up that it's blessed to give up, to give to others.

I mean, we know the statement, it's more blessed to what?

Give than to receive, right?

Someone reminds you of that every every Christmas, right?

You know, and it's more blessed to give than to receive.

We know that.

We grew up with that.

Fun fact where does that come from?

Jesus said this in Luke 6.

He said, give to others and you will receive.

You'll be given much.

It will be poured into your hands, more than you can hold.

You'll be given so much that it will spill into your lap.

And the way that you give to others is the way God will give to you.

And how does that all start?

Giving to others, right?

We get that.

Most people would agree and say, listen, I no one's arguing with you, Matt, that generosity is a great way to live your life.

And if you're a lot like me, sometimes you think one day when I have money, I will, right?

Because that's how we view generosity.

Like it's a really good thing, really impacts a lot of people.

And when I win the lottery, I will be generous, right?

You know, like that's what I promise I'll do.

When something happens that completely shifts the financial landscape for me, that's when I'm gonna do good with what I have, right?

But we also live in these things behind me where the tension is really like I want to do these things, but here's the reasons that I can't do what I wish I could.

And what's cool about the Bible is it's so helpful because it understands all of this, and it talks about that tension between wishing you could be more generous or wishing you could be generous at all, and the issues that we face that constantly keep us from being generous people.

And this is some of what it tells us.

Like 2 Corinthians 9.

Paul says, You must each decide in your heart how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure.

For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.

And I love that Paul says this that, like, listen, don't respond if you're reluctant, don't respond if you feel pressure.

This is something that you want to do.

Just like last week, we talked about when you decide to give your time to help others, that's a personal decision that you made because you wanted to make it.

And it's very much the same with your resources.

When you decide to regularly give of resources to help other people, that's a personal decision that you chose because you wanted to, you didn't do it because someone forced you to, you didn't do it reluctantly.

You know, really, in all essence, I what I believe is that we bless others because we want to bless others, not because someone forced us to.

The apostle Paul also wrote this in 2 Corinthians 8.

Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly, and give according to what you have, not what you don't have.

And I want to talk about this one for a second because it's a myth.

When you talk about giving, and here's the truth, and here's kind of where I'm going here, everyone's gonna have to wrestle with the whole money and God thing.

You can outrun it for a long time, but at some point you got to come to square with the tension between all these things about generosity and the scripture, and you can only skip so many of them until it starts to bother you, and you start going, like, I don't know that I'm doing these things that it's telling me to do repeatedly.

So I think there's a tension there, but I want to lay out some realities for you that kind of are true no matter what you believe.

And one of the myths about giving that I hear all the time is that most people give from a surplus.

That if you're generous or you're benevolent in that way, it's because you have like a lot of money coming in.

And that is absolutely, without a doubt, not true.

Most people give from what they have.

I mean, here's the the reality of the can't the reality is that, for example, the campus that you're on right now, the service that you're in is provided for all of us, not by a few wealthy people.

It's really provided.

I mean, the people who keep the lights on, let's be real, are the people sitting around you.

And it's normal folks, all going through a crappy economy together.

That's just the truth of the matter, right?

And here's the thing that I want to make sure you know about a reality about giving is that people, most people are doing what they can with what they have.

Some people get really fixated on certain amounts and tithe and all that kind of stuff.

And that's and that's understandable if that's something that you're a goal that you're wanting to do or a place you want to be.

But I think sometimes you can get too hung up on that.

It's really about doing what you can with what you have.

And because people do that, that's why we're here.

And I just want to say this I am really, really grateful for every single person that has been generous in difficult times these last few years.

It has not been easy to give at all.

And I'm thanking all of you, and here's why, because I have no idea who gives what.

I mean, I mean, I'm just being real.

I want to be able to minister to everyone the same.

I don't want to be more of a pastor to people who just have more money.

I don't think that's how it works, right?

And I don't think that's how you'd want me to do it, right?

But my point is, is we talk about this, another reality to really get into the reality is though, how much we give often sometimes determines how much good we can do.

Let me say that in a way that's in English.

How much we give often determines how much good we can do, right?

Another way to put it is resources often define your reach.

I mean, you know this in business.

If you have business and you want to reach certain customers, it's hard to do that for free, right?

There's certain things you have to do to try to figure out, and the more resources you have, the more people you can reach.

And that's kind of true in a church life.

There's a lot of things you can do for free, and we will do those things, but the other things is there's some that you can't.

So the tension is this is where it gets real, is that as a church, sometimes the things on this whiteboard can be a wall between where we are now and the good that we can do.

And it's a wall that I'm always trying to, you know, knock down in some sort of way to try to push down or push back so that we can do more things as a church.

For example, you know this, uh, if you've been coming here for a while, one of the weird things about this building that you're in is that we're a small church that meets on a former mega church campus.

So that's that's weird, right?

And you know, it this this room fits okay, but it's a little big, and we have a chapel and we can move over to there, but then another church was in need and didn't have a place to go, so we leased the chapel to them.

So, like, no, you guys can have that.

We'll stay in the big, you know, Thunderdome, right?

That was built 30 years ago for a totally different era that we don't live in anymore, but we'll meet in here and do that, right?

And and because that's how we work.

Because we get questions about that all the time.

They're like, why do you guys have all these buildings and stuff?

And you know that.

So we said, well, these things were built 30 years ago in a totally different time.

We're lucky enough to still have them, but if we want to still have any of the buildings, which by the way, the mission of the church is not the buildings, okay?

But if we want to keep a resource to try to serve the community, then we got to put these things to work.

Because in this very building that you're in and the surrounding buildings, we host city and county meetings, canine training for the police, right?

So if you're up there and you open a closet and a dog got lost, if one busts out on you, just let it go, right?

You know what I mean?

So um don't yell anything in German either.

Anyway, so but uh the thing is uh we have events where we help foster kids in the area, provide Christmas for them.

Same for refugee families, same for we have literacy tutoring that happens here.

Interfaith gatherings.

We're all we're one of the only places where a lot of them meet.

Like the interfaith groups come, all these different people come and they come and work together to figure out ways we can serve Santa Cruz together.

Bread and Roses in this kitchen behind this door feeds unhoused people twice a week from our kitchen and our food pantry on the opposite side of the campus last year served 3,690 people a month.

And can I tell you it's gotten worse, right?

It's like there's more people.

There's more people.

And I mean, the thing is, and it's the second largest place to get food in Santa Cruz County, our food distribution center is right there, the food pantry, right?

Um, we also lease space to Acton Academy, Little Charmers Preschool, our friends over there at Redeemer Anglican Church.

Um, and here's the thing, the reason why I bring this up is I say, look, our campus makes uh around about$225,000 a year in revenue, which it used to make$2,000.

And so I feel like that's a bit of a jump, right?

I feel like we were done some good work there.

But and you may go, well, that just sounds like a lot.

I bet we're just swimming in coins like Scrooge McDuck.

No, because I don't know if you know how much it costs to keep these buildings here in our lovely Santa Cruz County with our wonderful utility provider, PG and E.

You can well, I'm just gonna tell you, our campus costs$300.

I'll throw it up there, it's about$305,000 a year.

Just to pay the the bills.

That's that's utilities maintenance, random repairs.

And I don't know, I don't know how things are going at your house, but ain't nothing getting cheaper here.

Okay, and so that's the reality of it.

So we have busted our butts to keep the resource and do the things, but we're still not even paying for what we have to pay out, right?

Now, people love this resource and they love these buildings and and all this stuff, and they're great and they're wonderful to have.

But and you may be shocked, but I don't know if you know this, but when they train you to be a pastor, they don't have a section on being a landlord.

So that's something we've had to learn how to do and go, like, okay, well, this is a little different, but hey, this is what the church needs us to do.

This is part of doing this.

So we're gonna learn how to do it, right?

And I'm part of my job is always fighting to keep staff and resources for as long as we can.

And just like your house, we have to make the numbers magically work every year, right?

And figure out how do we do this, right?

You know, and that type of stuff.

And that's a challenge, uh, you know.

But like I said, the reason why I'm bringing all this up, I'm just giving you an example.

How much we can do is usually determined by the resources we have.

Now, let me tell you something that's true for our church, but it's also true for every church.

I would say in America, but I'll be honest, probably in the world.

The potential of impact of every church lies in the hearts and the resources of the people that sit in the seats.

It's not necessarily now.

I'm gonna tell you did I five years ago move my family across the entire country in the pandemic to come and try to stabilize and galvanize a church in.

Santa Cruz, a place I'd never been, and the only thing I'd ever heard of was the logo on the shirt, right?

Yes.

And did I do that?

Did we hope that this church will be a place that people can find Christ and be a place of hope for everyone?

Yes.

But here's what I've learned over time.

This is not something that's up to me, no matter what I do.

It is up to us.

Because no matter how much I jump up and down up here or say these things or try everything we can to be super responsible with the things that we're called to do, it's up to us.

The church lies in the hearts and the resources of the people that sit in the seats.

And that's just a reality.

Now, and that's true for our Anglican friends over there in the chapel.

That's true for our Catholic friends down the street.

This is true every single place you go.

Now, let me talk about this in a different way.

Let me switch gears.

I want to talk about this in a little bit of a different way because there's something else I want you to see that I think is super, super interesting.

And if you've been working on stuff, I've been talking about this a lot.

Like I just, you'll walk in my office and I'm just like, and I'll just talk about this because it's so interesting to me, but it may not be interesting to you, and that's okay.

Now, when I talk about baby boomers, generation X, millennials, I'm gonna ask you just real quick, shout out loud, what generation are you?

Okay, go.

Hey, boomers, millennials, X, here by a lot of boomers, right?

Now, if you're not sure, because I know some of you are like, you're like me, you're born on the line a little bit, you're right there.

Here's the generations by year of birth.

So you have the silent builder generation, the baby boomers, X, Millennials, Z, and Alpha.

So that's the year of birth, and that should tell you like where you fit on that question.

Okay, so now let me focus though on the ones in the middle, the baby boomers, Generation X, uh, and millennials.

Uh, but I want everyone to listen in, no matter what generation you're from, because this is pretty interesting.

Now, I don't know if you know this.

There are millions, and I mean millions and millions more baby boomers than any generation before or after them.

Way more, okay?

And baby boomers are currently 62 to 80 years old.

Currently, right?

They alone did two things that are important when you talk about church.

They alone caused the suburban boom of the 80s and 90s and caused the rise of large churches or megachurches.

I mean, you think about when these buildings were built 30 years ago, everything kind of lines up, you think about it.

They alone caused that movement in America, and they, even if you're not a large church, they also overwhelmingly are most givers and volunteers in every church in America, large or small.

And they may be 62 to 80 years old, but they still own half of all money in the United States, one out of every two dollars, is owned by a baby boomer.

Now, I bring this up because think about that for a second.

They're probably a lot of the giving population when you look at churches nationwide, right?

That would make a lot of sense.

And here's the data we have as of today.

The national average is that baby boomers are 42% of the giving population.

Gen X is 19%, and millennials are 7%.

Now, those numbers are kind of changing all the time.

And I know some of you are like, oh, now you're losing me, stats and butt, but just hold on, hold on, okay.

Because think about this they are 62 to 80 years old, and when they, as they are moving out and moving along in the future years, there's not enough Gen X or millennials to replace them.

So, and uh you've probably heard about this if you've read anything about that, but there it's gonna be a massive fallout when it comes to not just church, but commerce and business, because they're and they're predicting that one-third of all churches in the United States will close in the next 20 years due to the fallout of the baby boomers, right?

And it's not, it's just because there were so many of them.

And there's other reasons which we've talked about in the past, but that that's an interesting thing.

So it makes you wonder if you're a church leader, man, how much is your church, your community of faith, leaning on baby boomers?

And I can tell you already, they're overwhelmingly the majority of volunteers we have here at the church.

But I asked the staff who do look at this stuff, because I don't want to look at it, I said, pull together, you know, what the giving that we have this year, try to find out what you can and do the best you can, and just give me like a ballpark.

And I have to say, nine to ten percent of them, we couldn't, we have no idea what age these folks are or what age group they might be in, right?

But what we did find out is here at Santa Cruz Bible Church, the baby boomers are 66% of the giving population, up against the national 42%.

So that means that two out of every three bucks that we get is from a baby boomer.

And then we took all the giving from everyone under 62 years old.

All of it.

And it's 25% of the giving that we take in.

So that's actually consistent.

If you add up to X and millennials on that last deal, it's about 26, 25%.

So that's kind of right on.

But then we said, okay, this is the Rebecca was nice enough to pull this up.

It was basically the the baby boomers, there's younger baby boomers, they're like 62 to 69, right?

And then there's the older baby boomers, they're 70 plus.

And we said, and I'm sorry if you're an older baby boomer.

I didn't mean to describe it so crudely.

Don't go home and be like, he thinks I'm old.

No, I'm not, I'm just using numbers, okay?

Like, I'm not, I don't think you're old.

I'm just saying this is stats, okay?

We said, how many people are 70 plus?

Like the older baby boomers.

There's a reason why I looked this up, and I'll tell you why.

But 70 plus is 38% of the giving that we take in.

So most of the baby boomers giving are 70 plus is about almost 40% of what we take in.

And the reason why that's important is folks over 70 are either heading toward or already adjusted into what?

Fixed incomes, right?

So they can't do more at some point than they'd like to do, right?

Unless it's a trust or something, right?

It's just one of those things.

So it's and and you may hear that and go, well, that is not, I don't, I don't like that.

Like that doesn't sound good.

This is consistent almost in every church in America, what I just showed you.

And I would say even here in Santa Cruz, there's some that are way, way higher.

And that the the the the disp the what do you call it?

Disparity is way bigger.

And so the reason why we looked at this is because, hey, listen, I am one of the youngest in Generation X.

Okay, I'm right on that line.

And I'm just gonna say this, please don't be offended, okay?

If you are, then maybe you can come, I don't know, punch me after the service or something.

I don't care.

But here's the thing I feel like as a person who's in a Gen X, we have to stop relying on the older generation to keep the lights on.

At some point, if you're a Gen X or a millennial or Gen Z person, you have to make a decision that this is my church too, that this isn't their church that I go to.

This is my church.

And lay claim to what you believe is a church that is needed.

Because what a decision that they made that I think other generations need to make is they said, listen, I want a thriving church for me, my kids, and my grandkids.

And it's probably not going to be my style of preaching anymore, and it's probably not gonna be my favorite music anymore.

But if if my kids and grandkids will come on a Sunday and grow spiritually, it's worth it for me.

And I just think that some of us youngers need to think like that and go, no, there has to be a place of hope for everyone in this town.

There has to be.

But it doesn't magically exist.

It's intentionally, it's intentionally exist because we intentionally make it exist, right?

We build a church for the future.

I mean, if you think about this, folks in the baby boomer age group have really invested in us a gift.

And I'm not just talking about the buildings.

The buildings may come, the buildings may go, but the thing is it's a community of faith that they want to give to Santa Cruz.

And they even hired a younger pastor that's not in their generation to help say, listen, we want to transition this gift over because we're still involved, we're still engaged, but hey, 15, 20 years, I may not be as involved, I may not be as engaged.

And I just want to know that the community of faith that we've worked so hard to develop and worked so hard to build is still gonna be around for next generations.

But that is not a call I make.

That is a direction that we decide together.

Because it doesn't matter what I say or do, I can try my best.

But it's if it's not something that's in the hearts and in the resources and in the minds of the people, it doesn't matter what you do.

And that's just the truth about things like this just don't magically exist.

It's intentionality every week, every month that people put in that allows us to have what we have, right?

So let me just sum it up because I kind of went, I wanted to just talk about that because I thought that was interesting.

But every follower of Christ is called to be generous and do good in the world, to try to do what they can wherever they are.

Yes, it's still more blessed to give to receive.

It's true.

And and I want to remind us of what Paul's words are because I just believe that we have to all ask what good can we do with what we have?

And is church something I come to, or is it something I'm a part of?

So let me just read this again.

1 Timothy 6.

Again, that reminder that we always have.

Tell them to use their money to do good.

They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others, and by doing this, they will be storing up their treasure as, and boy, these words mean a lot now, a good foundation for the future, so that they may experience true life.

Then 2 Corinthians 9.

You must each decide in your heart how much to give, but don't give reluctantly in response to pressure, for God loves a person who gives cheerfully.

Now, let's let me just wrap this up by saying this.

Are we gonna take a big guilt offering and play cry music?

No, we're not gonna do anything like that.

I'm not even expecting you to do anything today.

I'm not gonna give you some cheap emotional sales pitch.

You know, for a dollar a day, you can spend like I'm not gonna do any of that.

Okay, but what I am gonna say is this I'm gonna ask you to do two things, and this is kind of the two things I feel like we've just been talking about the whole time, right?

One is I want you to genuinely wrestle with what generosity looks like in your life right now, not later when you have more, not later.

I'm talking about right now in this crap economy.

What does that look like for us?

To just wrestle with that.

Two, is to think about what I showed you just a little bit ago.

And if you're younger than 62 years old, even if you're 62, if you're on that line, I say you're in.

Anyway, here's the thing think about this question.

Is this your church?

How do churches exist?

Should I be a part of one versus just kind of attending one, right?

I feel like it's time for some of us to claim and make sure that there is a place of hope for everyone.

To make sure there's that, like Paul said, a good foundation for the future of Santa Cruz.

And I want to thank all those in the baby boomer generation who have continued to support what God's doing in the church.

And if you're a baby boomer and you haven't been on that train, we invite you on that train.

Right?

I really do because and I hope that you see me sliding a hymn in every now and then.

Okay, I don't pick the music, but I know a lot of people like hymns that are baby because it's a different time.

And so we slide those in every once in a while as a little shout out.

And I know a lot of different generations like them, but I hope you see us doing things like that to just let you know, hey, we love you, care for you.

And the thing is, I hope that you see that every Sunday, that for me as a pastor in our team, that we're swinging for the fences every week to try to lead and do well, that every week when I show up, that we want to honor the gift that we've been given and to create a church for the future.

Most of all, I want to honor the Savior that we serve, which has driven every single thing of what we've tried to do.

I mean, the reason why we believe in hope for everyone is we believe that's why Christ died for everyone.

That they could know that hope.

That there's hope beyond just the things of this life.

There's stuff beyond us.

And it's the hope found in Jesus.

Now, the truth is, I've I make mistakes, I will make mistakes.

I am the type of guy who throws a beach ball into the audience during a church service, okay?

So I can't, that is what it is, okay?

You can talk to the Lord about why he sent me here, okay?

But let me just say, I know that I'd love to say that I'm gonna take this torch and keep running with it, but it's not a torch that's passed to me.

It is a torch that's passed to us.

And it's really what we decide to do with it.

So I ask you to consider that we can be a generous church for the next generation.

That we can do so much good in our community that people can't help but find Jesus.

That the love and grace of Christ is experienced in our community by loving and gracious people who just simply put aside some resources every once in a while or every whatever, just to make sure that people are getting what they need.

And that's not a statement that I just say and we all go, yeah.

And then we leave and we do nothing.

If it's not an action we take, then it doesn't matter.

The church is all of us together, and that determines what the church will be.

Let's pray together, Father.

We just come to you and thank you for this challenging message.

It's not comfortable giving it, I'll tell you, but I do think it's something that we have to be reminded of, especially in the times right now where it's not convenient for anybody.

I I'm up here as a person who wishes they could be more generous than they are.

And I and I am constantly being stretched in the areas of being generous and trying to manage the life and the craziness and the cost and the this and the that and the bills and all the stuff I I understand.

So, Father, I just pray that you help mobilize your people.

That people who hear my voice right now, whether they're online or whether they're in this room, feel a call to take ownership in their church.

To not just be a spectator, to be a contributor to keeping things going for our community.

And Father, we know that it's scary to give, but we know that we receive a lot when we do give.

We get to see sometimes the results of what we put aside, of what we gave out.

So, Father, I pray that you help us all to trust you in some of the ways that we really deeply struggle.

To just not guilt ourselves, to not feel pressure, to not feel anxiety, but just to ask you, Lord, what can I trust you with?

And can you help me to trust you?

Help us all to be the church together.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.