2020 Year in Review

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Well, welcome to a very special uh awakening service.

In fact, we've never done this ever in the history of our church.

Uh, this is the day after Christmas Eve, and we have never had a service the day after Christmas Eve.

Normally we've been meeting, we've been working, uh, pulled off a Christmas Eve service all in person.

And so all our teams and volunteers that set up and tear down, we want to give them a break off.

Well, we've had a break off for a while, and so we're providing a very special awakening service right now because it's not been a normal, usual year either, has it?

This has been a strange year.

And so we want to spend some time.

And what I want to do is just take a moment and um, you know, think about 2020 in review.

And maybe for some, you think about it.

The way I think about it is like, thank God 2020 is in the rear view.

I can't wait to step into 2021.

But if we step into that without looking back, I think we'll miss some things that God has for us and wanted us to see and learn from this past year.

Well, you know, I always ask this question at the end of the year, beginning of the new year.

I spend time personally just wrestling with this and journaling about it.

And then uh we ask it as a church, and oftentimes our groups sit at the beginning of the year and ask these two questions.

The first is, what one word would you use to describe the last year?

Like, what one word would you use to describe the last year?

Now it almost feels like this is an unfair question this year, doesn't it?

It's like, what one?

Are you kidding me?

Let's not even go there.

In fact, Ryan, I can't even say that word in front of you.

You're my pastor.

That's not okay, right?

What one word?

Well, maybe it would be awful, maybe it'd be terrible, maybe it'd be just disruptive or broken or painful.

I don't know what one word.

I was talking to a friend and she was telling me that the word of the year is dumpster fire.

Maybe that's yours.

It's kind of cheating.

It's two words, but I think this year you can cheat a little bit on this and maybe have two words or a hyphen with it.

But what one word would you use to describe this last year as we look back at 2020 and when we think about that, and we think through the last year, it's been a year, hasn't it?

You know, in 2020, we saw a global pandemic bringing the world to a standstill.

I still remember March 17th and us being, you know, and all of a sudden under shelter in place, something never experienced ever.

And the fear and the uncertainty overnight, we're trying to figure out how do we provide and care and minister for God's church when we can't gather together.

And we were navigating this and trying to figure it out.

And then and then as we're starting to go, okay, maybe we're able to regather or not, or summer's happening, we're not really sure.

It felt like another wave hit us and a racial justice movement uh rivaling the civil rights movement of the 1960s in June with the tragic death of George Floyd.

And there's an awakening in our country of the reality of some injustices that many of us have been blind to with our black and brown brothers and sisters.

And and there was a reckoning and a repentance of the church and things of where we're realizing, oh no, we got to restore and make some things right.

And it was deep and it was heavy, and they're sitting in the sorrow of it.

And then, and then there was a contentious presidential election revealing just a deeply divided nation.

It just was this moment of an awareness as we looked across the country that we are so polarized from one another.

And social media hasn't helped, has it?

It's only added fuel to the fire over the season.

And I really believe because we've been in a pandemic and because we've been disconnected, that the polarization and the angst and just the overall sense of just heat that people have because we're not in relationship, not able to see each other and talk.

And so it just becomes shouting matches online, and we realize wow, we're really deeply, deeply divided.

It's been a yeah, hasn't it?

It's been a hard year, it's been a tough year.

It's been a year that none of us wanted, expected, or anticipated.

And yet, and and yet, actually, what I want to help us see is that's not the whole story of this year.

And as you look back on 2020, those three monumental events I just described often will be the landmark ways that we think about 2020.

But it's not all that happened.

And as we ask that question, what one word would you use to describe this last year?

I'd ask you to lean in and think about it more deeply and to look at the spaces where God worked and moved in the midst of all of the turbulent seas that we navigated.

You see, for awakening, it's been a year where God's actually been on the move as well, where we've seen Him show up and work and bring life and purpose and things that we never dreamed of.

I mean, what I want to spend a few moments is just stop and tell you all of the things God has done this year in our community, in our church, through us collectively together, even though we couldn't gather together.

How amazing is that?

Think about this.

It's been a year.

It's actually been a year of impact.

You're like, wait a second, a year of impact.

We haven't been together.

What do you mean?

Well, you know that we're a church about awakening this generation, and college campuses have been closed, but our college ministry partners have not.

You know, um, next slide, right there.

College ministry.

We are called up team and crew.

They've been engaging in digital ways and ministering to students, even though they're not on campus through Zoom and phone calls and relationships.

And God's working and moving through those ministries that we support and that are those are in our community.

Whitney Elliott at Called Up and Crew, homeless outreach team.

This team started right before the pandemic began to reach and serve the needy and vulnerable of those who are living out on the streets.

And what's incredible is the team has grown over the pandemic and has ministered consistently to those who are super vulnerable in light of the COVID crisis.

How amazing is that?

It's been a year of impact.

It's been a year of impact where we saw a brand new team, foster the bay, arise.

We've partnered with them financially, and now we're getting our hands dirty together.

When we think about some of the big areas of bringing about justice in our country and in our society, it actually begins in the foster care system.

If we want to see racial equality and justice, if we want to uh uh do make an impact in human trafficking, if we want to make an impact in the homeless um uh issues of our day, it actually begins all the way back here in the foster care system.

And we had over 18 people who are interested in serving and getting involved in this way.

And we have an incredible team of people who are serving here.

Uh, just love it.

Robbie, Jane, and Leela, they're and um Andrew and Bianca, they're leading this team here.

Another team that we have is the Racial Justice and Reconciliation Team.

In response, as we as a church begin to recognize our own shortcomings and areas we want to grow and be part of the solution, uh, we're looking to build a team and growing, and Amy and Eric Frampton are leading that team for us.

It's really exciting to think about that there's actually new ministry that has begun that's making an impact when we were not able to gather in such a turbulent year.

And then think about this Del Mar High School, Del Mar High, where we've met for eight and a half years.

Well, I guess that's not exactly true because we didn't meet the last eight months.

I won't do the math.

But we met the entire time, and you would think since you can't gather there, you probably aren't gonna have a big impact there.

And the reality is we've had more of an influence and impact while we're not able to gather there than we were even when we were.

Why?

Because of the crisis of vulnerable families, families that are under resourced and in need, it's only it uh exponentially grown their need.

And so our partnership and relationship with the school was so strong that they came to us to ask, could you be a part of the solution?

And we've gotten to be a part of that solution all year long.

Which brings me to the next thing that it's been a year about.

It's not just been a year of impact, it's been a year of generosity for us as a church.

Now, the way we say it here is we believe that the church should lead the way in unleashing extravagant generosity to a hurting and broken world.

Why?

Because we have an extravagantly generous God.

Now, when the pandemic hit and the economic uncertainty that we all faced, and we're worried, okay, will we be even able to, you know, uh pay our staff and some of these sort of things?

And by God's grace, we've done great, you know, wise financial stewardship.

So we weren't in a crisis, but we didn't know whether giving would remain.

We made a commitment ahead of that time.

We made a commitment ahead of before we knew, saying, we're going to err on the side of generosity.

We're gonna lean in and leverage what God has given us for the good of others, trusting that our God will supply our needs, because our God is big enough and you can't outgive God even in a pandemic.

And so this is amazing.

I can't wait to share this with you.

This is what God has allowed us that we've gotten to be a part of because we trusted him, because we took him at his word, because we leaned in and said, Okay, you are gonna give us what we need as we steward what you've given us for the good of others.

And so listen to this.

Here's the year of impact.

Think about this.

We've been able right at the beginning to support our first responders, and we didn't know even what to do.

We just wanted to do something.

We knew we had nurses and doctors and uh different people in our church that were responding to this.

And so we just came up with a list of everyone that we knew and were asking people, okay, who's responding?

We wrote cards and did encouragements and gave just little encouragement gifts.

I remember even Felicia Larson uh was like um sewing a face mask for people, and then you know, we provided meals just for them to encourage them.

It's just just one small way.

We said, we we see you, we're behind you, we're proud of you, we know you're stepping out in significant and some scary ways, and your church family is behind you.

The second thing that is just really unbelievable is we completed our above and beyond campaign, raised more than we set out or was pledged,$1.4 million during a pandemic.

And here's one of the cool stories on this.

A year ago, so that's 2019, we were in negotiation with the building we thought was the building, and we're trying to get all our ducks in order and you know, finance and um uh architecture plans and cost, and in the process, someone swooped in and got the building.

It was so discouraging.

I mean, we just were like deflated.

Now, here's what I've found over years of ministry is that the delay of God is often his blessing in disguise.

And we think it's his delay that he hasn't given us a building yet.

And when we look back to 2019 and go, God, why did that fall through?

It was his blessing in disguise.

How awesome to go into this year not having the weight of a major lease of a building we couldn't even use yet.

It's his blessing.

And so he has protected us and our prayer in this season as he set us up where we have finances and we're in negotiations and working on a building right now.

And I don't know if that'll go through, but we just see God, you're providing a place and you're providing a way for us and you provided the funds for us in a year where it doesn't make sense for that to work out.

The third thing is uh the fire relief.

I don't know if you remember this.

This feels like forever ago, but that was just this fall when he had these devastating fires.

And as I shared this with our staff, uh, most of them didn't even know we had done this.

So I want to share this with you.

We partnered with Twin Lakes Church over in Santa Cruz, who was a first responding church, opened up their campus uh to be a place for people to shelter.

They got hookups for all the camper stuff on their, and so they're they're still responding, and we were able to give$20,000 to help in the fire relief.

Well, you're probably going, Ryan, you talked about impact and Del Mar, and you said it's been a year of generosity.

Well, get to Del Mar.

Okay, well, Del Mar, let me tell you about Del Mar.

I I just added the total up with how we've served them, and it's pretty remarkable.

Uh, Del Mar High School, we've actually supported them this year over$80,000 worth of uh worth of the way we've uh been able to engage with them.

And what I wanted you to see is it all on one kind of slide.

So it's going to be a little busy, but I just wanted you to be able to kind of take it in because we see this in pieces, but I wanted you to see the whole picture of this year.

And this probably doesn't represent the whole picture.

This is just all I could remember of this year.

And so Del Mar support, right at the beginning of the pandemic, we said, okay, there's there's under-resourced families that are in need that they just need food.

And the school said, okay, what would be most helpful?

Gift cards, grocery gift cards.

Fantastic.

We just started every uh couple weeks giving, you know,$3,000 gift, you know, chunks of sums for grocery gift cards.

And so$16,000 or$4,000, that that actually adds up.

$4,000.

So$16,000 worth of grocery gift cards.

Something we've done since the beginning is we throw the teachers a lunch every single uh at the end of every single semester.

So uh we couldn't meet in person, our team.

Oh, they were so creative.

They said, well, why don't we, instead of you know, doing bringing in a taco truck like we normally would, why don't we hand them, you know, Chipotle gift cards with a note from awakening?

I gotta tell you, the amount of thank you cards that I got uh from Del Mar, um, the principal and teachers, just from that one small gift of feeling seen and feeling love was overwhelming.

It was outstanding, it was amazing.

And they, yeah, and so we did that in August and we did that in December.

We did a teacher encouragement at the beginning of September.

Our care team worked so hard on that of how we encouraged and came alongside and provided different resources for them there.

We actually, over the course of this year, built a new outdoor classroom over the COVID thing.

A handful of people within our church gathered together, dreamed it up, planned it out, uh, built this outdoor classroom.

We have been supporting consistently families in need.

And this is amazing.

The principal of Del Mar will email us and say, Hey, we found out about a family, uh, they're not doing well, there's some issues.

Is there any way that you could help them?

And we recognize that as we come out of COVID, we're actually gonna have a poverty pandemic with people who have lost their jobs, who are back on rent, and when the moratorium of um you know evictions goes away, we're gonna have some other big issues we're gonna be confronted with.

Well, we've wanted to be on the front end of how do we solve that, not on just the back end of reacting.

We want to respond.

So we've been helping people with their rent who could not pay their rent, helping people buy food and groceries, put on the, you know, keep the lights on, uh, and phone and all those issues or areas and things.

It's absolutely amazing.

We have gotten to be a part of this.

And in fact, we did fire relief for teachers.

There were some teachers who lost some homes, unfortunately, in the Santa Cruz fires that we came around and supported.

Uh, avid student college applications.

So these are students who otherwise couldn't afford to even pay for the application fee to get into college.

And we said, we're gonna pay for those for you.

It ended up being about$7,000 of where we're helping kids go to college from Del Mar High School.

You're a part of that.

Your giving has given to that.

Isn't it incredible?

Thanksgiving food drive uh we just had back in November, and where we helped families with, you know, having a Thanksgiving meal over the course of that Thanksgiving week.

And then we just did the Christmas tree, uh giving tree, and where we provided gifts for families who who wouldn't otherwise have a Christmas or gift.

And in fact, a few Delmar families, they had some family parents who died actually from COVID, that we got to come around and support and provide just love and some care in the name of Jesus.

It has been a year of generosity when others have been shrinking back by God's grace.

We have leaned in and your generosity and been able to say, no, we're gonna be able to be generous to those around us.

The final area that I wrote down is the area of Haiti.

It's been a year of generosity, and this is really amazing.

So in January, through our above and beyond campaign, that 1.4 million means that we've given$280,000 outside our doors over the last two years.

That's a number that's above and beyond what we regularly give every year, which we always give at least 10% of our regular budget outside our doors.

And so to Haiti, last January, we wrote a check for$80,000 to support our ministry partners in Haiti at UCI, Jean-Jean and Christy Montpreere.

This is helping kids who couldn't go to school go to school.

This is helping college students get trained and raise up the next generation of leaders.

This is providing not only just education, but necessary food and resources and homes and training and agriculture and giving people the gospel in the midst of all of this.

I mean, they're just incredible partners.

In fact, we had a team ready to go to Haiti back in March.

Yeah, that's right, back in March.

And so we couldn't go.

I mean, they raised the sport, they were ready to go, and we were hoping, praying, and obviously it didn't work out.

And then we tried to plan it for the fall, thinking maybe surely this thing will be over by then.

Not anywhere close.

And so we're gonna take a team to Haiti as soon as we can, but it didn't mean we're stopping our support of our team members and ministry partners in Haiti.

And just this December, by God's grace, we're able to write another$80,000 check to support them.

I don't know.

I'm just getting teary-eyed about like how we've gotten to be like the church, even though we can't gather together as a church, even though we're not getting to experience all the parts of the church that are so meaningful and important, the church didn't stop.

It wasn't on pause, it wasn't like, oh man, 2020 was a waste.

That's not a waste.

It's been a year of impact.

It's been a year.

Year of generosity.

And finally, the one thing that I want you to think about with 2020 is it's actually been a year of growth.

Said it this way: that we long to be a worshiping community, a worshiping community of passionate Jesus followers who walk by faith, are a voice of hope, and who are known by love.

Friends, just the things I've shared about, I think we're doing that this year.

I think we've grown in that.

You know, I want to encourage you that it's actually in these seasons that God is growing the roots of our faith deeper and more sturdily into Him.

And often these storms and they're hard and they shake us, but they often shake off.

And a lot of the things that we realize aren't important or aren't about Jesus, or the stuff that that that gets us all tangled up.

It's been a year of growth as we saw church online and church with friends.

I mean, this is kind of wild.

We have people from all over the country tuning into Awakening and even all over the world.

And we have people in groups that are from different states.

And I just heard about someone from a different country that's a part of our mama's group.

It's like we've grown in ways that we would never have anticipated or been able to the way we used to do ministry.

Now we want to get back to in person, but it's been an amazing thing to see.

We've actually seen our groups and our school of faith grow this year.

The consistency of our groups is awesome.

I know everyone's got Zoom fatigue, but because you locked in, we've seen 215 people uh in groups.

That represents, that's adults, reps represents uh not quite half of our church.

I would love to see that number go up, but that's a great number of people engaging in our groups.

We saw tons of school of faith.

We wanted to equip and grow you from our summer to our fall.

We did kids' school of faith, parents' school of faith.

It's been a year where we said we're gonna go deeper in our family ministry.

You're like, well, families have needed ministering to right now.

I mean, amen.

You're just like going, our kids are in our house, and now with the rainy season, now they can't go outside of the house, and I don't want them tracking the mud in the house.

And they're doing school and seeing, you know, we hired a brand new family pastor.

She's never done like a normal Sunday with us yet.

But she's done an awesome job leading in this season, equipping parents, engaging with our kids.

We've seen our youth jump to it and uh do creative stuff like, you know, escape room zoom things and and different parties, and they've done in-person things all in COVID-safe way that have just encouraged our kids and our students and been a resource.

Our care team.

This is a team that started a few years ago, and by a gal named Annie, who just had this heart of like, I want to come around the vision that God's given you, Ryan, of awakening this generation to new life and provide care for people.

And I mean, the way they've done this, and this team continues to grow, is incredible.

I mean, it's just, I'm gonna write down, I'm just gonna list a few things.

Our Mother's and Father's Day events that we had, they organized and orchestrated a lot of that.

They prayed consistently for our community.

When we celebrated our college grads and got gifts for them, they encouraged our leaders, they encouraged our staff, they they provided mill trains for families in need, and that's just a small part of what they've done this year.

Our protege, by the way, because of COVID.

Think about this was the largest protege class we've had to date.

18 proteges.

And it was made possible because of some people who would have loved to have been a part, but during normal circumstances, they would actually have had to go into work and they're able to engage and be a part in this unique season.

And so we're raising up the next generation of world changers, even in this.

And so we saw special events take place from Easter and Mother's Day and Father's Day.

Our birthday was so fun, finally getting to see people in person, our awakening Christmas uh drive-thru party, which was probably one of the highlights of the year for me.

And what's what's so amazing is in all these events, guess what?

I met new people.

I continue to meet new people, new person after new family after new person after new family that started coming to awakening when?

Over COVID.

God is growing his church.

Jesus said, I will build my church, not us, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.

Certainly then, COVID and a 2020 year cannot overcome it.

And we've gotten to see people come to know Christ.

We had baptisms this year.

It was a powerful year.

And so I know when we ask this question, what one word would you use to describe this last year?

Certainly.

Global pandemic, racial justice movement, contentious election, that will be the predominant thing that comes to our minds when we think about 2020.

But that's not all that 2020 had to offer.

In fact, I want to invite you to ask that question afresh.

Just invite you to wrestle with it just a little bit deeper and get below just the quick surface answer of horrible dumpster fire.

Words that I can't say in front of Brian.

And take some time and review, God, what were you doing in my life and working and shaping and forming?

Oh, I said there were two words, and I only gave you one word.

The second one is this word.

What one word do you want to describe, 2021?

And so this one causes us to look forward.

And as you look back and you begin to go, okay, this word described this last season.

What is the word that I hope will begin to describe the season ahead?

And I've spent a lot of time thinking and praying about that for us as a church.

As I have wrestled and prayed, the word that kept coming to mind was the word reset.

As I believe, as a church, as a community, and often for many for us personally, what we need in 2021 is a reset, or rather, a fresh start to a new year.

You need a reset spiritually.

Perhaps this year has pulled you in some directions where you just went down some roads that you go, I need a reset.

Maybe reset relationally with your marriage, with your kids, with your friendships.

Maybe just a reset emotionally as you feel so frayed and tired and anxious.

We're actually going to spend the first three weeks in January talking about reset.

This is such a powerful uh series, and I'm really excited about it.

And we have a prayer journal that is 21 days of prayer.

I want you to take this seriously and go, okay, our word for the year is reset.

We're leaning in.

God, you want to reset some things in my life.

You want to actually give us a fresh start to a new year.

How do we do that?

Well, it begins with you getting with God.

And the first Sunday of the new year, we're kicking off this series, and I want you to join us next week for reset as we begin to look at, okay, God, how do you begin to form and make me the person you designed me to be in this new year?

And I think one of the things as I was looking at it for our church is I felt like we needed a reset on mission, a reset for us around the vision.

You know, God called us, you know, Jenny and I eight and a half years ago to start a church to awaken this generation to new life in Jesus Christ.

And if I'm honest, my vision began to get smaller through the course of the year.

Because it wasn't like awakened the generation like this big global expansive.

It's just like get through 2020.

And I realized I needed a reset around our mission.

And I, you know, every year we're our Jenny and I get a little staff gift for our team, and we do different things.

And this year, we just, with the year and the usualness, we did something we've never done before.

We wanted to be personal, and we just got them a picture with a frame.

And it was actually the picture of San Jose as this one is framed, and it just had the city of San Jose framed and zoomed out, and and wanted this to be a reset of mission.

I thought as I close, I would just read to you the letter that I that I wrote our team.

And may it be, I believe, the words for God to you too, as we reset on mission together as a church in 2021.

At the top of it, it says, in San Jose, as it is in heaven, or in Silicon Valley, as it is in heaven.

When Jenny and I were called to plant Awakening Church, we said, if just one person came to Christ, it would all be worth it.

And we really meant it.

Over the course of a year that was filled with uncertainty, constant setbacks and trials around every corner, causing us to reimagine how we even do church.

One thought kept us pressing forward.

If just one person comes to know Jesus, then it will all be worth it.

As we finish a turbulent 2020 year, we wanted our Christmas gift to you to be something that's personal and meaningful from us.

It's what fuels our passion no matter what season we're in.

This picture of San Jose brings Jenny and I back to why we started awakening in the first place.

It represents about one million people who do not know Jesus and will spend eternity apart from him.

We live in one of the least reached places in the United States.

For us, this picture zooms out our perspective from the problems around us and refocuses our hearts on his purpose and calling on our lives.

Ministry looks different, but our mission has not changed.

May this picture be a reminder to you of the good work you are giving your life to.

May it zoom out your perspective, fuel your passion, and inflame your prayers.

Thank you for joining our team, serving so faithfully.

Thank you for leaning in this in this season to lead people into new life in Jesus.

We're so humbled by the people God has brought around us to fulfill the calling He's placed on our lives all those years ago.

And so I close with Paul's doxology over our church and his words for us for 2021.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that's at work within us.

To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.