"What Are You Waiting For?" | Pastor Vicki Harrison

Alright. I think we should start with a word of prayer before we move on.

I do want you to keep in prayer the global methodist church in Nigeria yesterday there was an attack on a church there by an Islamic extremist group and 43,

People were killed mostly women and children inside the church and I thought,

Such an interesting weekend for this to happen because it's Memorial Day weekend,

And we are so blessed. That we can come and worship safely, right? Now,

We've had men and women over.

200 some other years. That have made that possible for us. Many people.

Have lost their lives to preserve our right to worship when we want how we want and was safety,

So, let's not forget that. So, as we go to prayer, I want to lift up everything going on in Nigeria and the people who've lost their lives, the people who've lost their homes, because they burn the village to the ground.

And then I also want us to at the same time just be incredibly grateful and thankful for those who've made it possible for us to be here right now. Worshiping.

The way we feel god calling us to worship. We stand on the shoulders of many men and women who've made that possible. So let's go to the lord and pray.

Oh lord Jesus we come to you today with heavy hearts.

Our brothers and sisters in Christ on the other side of the globe. Are hurting, are struggling.

Many of their loved ones have died. They've lost homes. And all they did lord was go to church.

Who just wanted to worship you and so I pray that we as the body of Christ can come alongside them with our prayers, with our resources.

To show them that we care and that we love them.

And that we value them and that we acknowledge their pain.

And we're grateful lord I mean as Americans we're so grateful we recognize that this freedom we have to worship you,

However we like that it came at a cost.

And many men and women have gone before us. They have lost their lives to fight for our freedoms. And this weekend we acknowledge that we acknowledge that this weekend is not just about barbecues and,

Sales in fact that's not what it's about at all it's about those people who have given everything,

To make sure that we can live freely. And that includes our worship. And how grateful we are.

And,

I also acknowledge all those men and women who right now are serving our nation. A great risk to themselves.

So Lord we give you thanks for their lives.

We give you thanks for that the fact that we can pray freely cry out to you freely,

Worship freely.

And we pray god that we do not take that for granted. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Okay. So, while I get started, I'm going to ask our panel guests to come forward.

We have the lanes and the stouts who are joining me up here today.

And while they do that I have a couple things that I wanted to mention next week is baptism Sunday so we're doing this twice a year now at New Hope,

Once usually in October and then in June so next week we're going after the service I'm going to preach on baptism and then after the service we're going to baptisms out in the courtyard,

Baptism is a sacrament so that means it's a visible intangible sign of an inward grace so what god is doing in us,

And when you're baptized, it's a sign of new life in Christ. It's also a sign of joining the covenant community, the church.

The old is gone the newest come and when you dip someone in the water it's just a sign of that cleansing it's such a beautiful picture of what Jesus does in our lives so if you've never been baptized,

Then don't wait. Next week is the time.

Now many of us were baptized as babies. I was baptized as a baby. That's a normal in our tradition and so wonderful thing that we do. Cuz we say it's an active god so it's not

That god is at work in that child's life before they even know it or can understand it. But,

For many of us there's a lot of history between the time we were baptized and right now,

And so maybe you've had a crisis of faith and you've come back to Jesus or maybe you've had a dark season and god has seen you through it. So, I would invite you if that's you to consider remembering your baptism.

So we know god did it right the first time but you remembering what he did and you're making this public affirmation Jesus I belong to you,

I belong to you. So if if that's you maybe there's some peace of you. You can feel that tug. I think god wants me to remember my baptism. I would encourage you to think about that. Pray about that.

If you'd like to talk to me afterwards or talk to Peyton who's in the back Peyton raise your hand I think everybody knows her.

Let us know. You can make a decision at the last minute next week. Just come dress appropriately.

I mean you can you can get your Sunday birth wet it's okay.

But just I would encourage you to do that. I think it's it's one of my favorite Sundays when we do these baptisms because we just see god at work and such extraordinary ways. Okay, that being said,

This whole month has been about leaving a legacy.

And if you think about a legacy as the enduring impact that we leave for the next generation then our spiritual legacy is what is most important right there our legacy of our faith in Jesus,

And so we've asked this question and I believe we have it on the screen. This is kind of been overarching question all month. And that is are we at New Hope?

Working intentionally to leave a legacy that honors god and makes an enduring spiritual imprint on the next generation.

And when we started this on May 4 I shared a couple different scripture verses from Deuteronomy I just want us to look at those really quickly and then we're going to introduce our guests.

Deuteronomy six. Verses four through nine. Here oh Israel. The lord our god the lord is one. That's the shama.

Love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments I give you today are to be put on your hearts.

Impress them on your children.

Impress them on your children can we say that as a group impress them on your children talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road when you lie down and when you get up

Tie them as symbols on your hands and buy them on your foreheads write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates and I love this because even in ancient Israel there was a very intentional focus,

On passing the faith to the next generation. Deuteronomy four nine, do I have that one as well?

I don't know if I have this one on the screen but you do a bible in front of you. Do it around me four nine. It's in the beginning of the book and there we have it. No, that's.

It's okay. You can look it up four nine. Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen.

Or let them fade from your heart as long as you live teach them to your children and to their children after them,

And then it's when we move to the new testament we can see

Jesus is in in god's kingdom he's making this point that that children in all generations have a place in god's kingdom in fact he talks about letting the parents bring the children to him right

And he said you actually have to become like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven.

That was pretty revolutionary then because children are very little value in that culture and you say nope,

In god's kingdom children are important every generation is important

And then in Paul's letters he continues to talk about the the early church including every generation

In the importance of the older generations supporting guiding and speaking into the lives of the younger generations.

Not just the moms and dads not just the grandparents but how every person every individual has a role in leaving a spiritual legacy,

So to help us come alongside our families with children. To be the kind of church who mentors, supports, advocates, and loves well.

We need to understand the needs of parents with children right now,

And what I can say is my kids are a three young adults almost 25 almost 22 you know they're almost just very important and 19,

And my experience raising them even though I don't think of them as being very old. My experience raising young kids is so different from your experience raising young kids because the world has changed.

And exchange quickly and so we want to a new help make sure that we are coming alongside our young families in doing whatever we can to support them and love them and speak into them,

And help them as they are teaching the faith to their children,

Cuz guess what? Your children are our children too. Cuz we're a family. Hey man. Alright.

I think I've spoken enough. It tells her.

Why don't you each take a moment and just introduce yourself then,

Say a little bit maybe like how long you've been here and tell us a little bit about your family. Maybe how long you've been walking with Jesus?

My name is Bobby. You might have seen me on the stage once or twice.

I'm going to just briefly sway from Vicky's question to say if you ever get the chance to be a part of a panel you should do it because

This is real comfortable.

I am sitting in front of a bunch of people. This is the most comfortable I've ever been in the church of my life.

But my name is Bobby Lane.

I have oh gosh how long we've been here is really complicated question for me Catherine grew up in this church I,

How long have I been here?

I mean we've we've been here actively participating since we've returned to New Hope for roughly 4 years I think. But I have I have leaned in and out of being a part of New Hope probably since I was 20.

Fish twenty-twoish so twentyish years and,

I know that Catherine talked now so I can go get my notes because I promise I wasn't playing Minecraft. I'm a iPad earlier. I was trying to log in to my email that I sent all my notes to and I could not acquire it on my iPad apparently. I'm not logged in.

Okay.

My name is Catherine Lane, formerly Uchimara. In case you didn't know that. Greg and Kim Uchimar are my parents. They,

Brought me here when i was one two. Very small. And I have been here ever since.

I'm Eric Stall most of you probably have seen me around with Ari I'm Ari's dad one of my two favorite titles now,

We've been going here since last fall and,

And my faith journey started when I was young at a baptist church in South Georgia so don't hold that against me.

My name is Catherine I so,

Bend back here since August but I come from the perspective of somebody who grew up in the church with a family who was very like

We went every Sunday. We went every Wednesday. We volunteered. I did VBS. I, you know, volunteered with a lot. And then, started asking some big questions in high school.

And walked away.

And then came back in August.

Am sorry I I have the postpartum weepy still.

But but came back in August and have very much rejoined and and been very excited for that and so kind of come from that perspective.

And then thank you guys. So I have a couple questions and they've seen these questions ahead of time. I'm not just bringing them on them. But I think these are really important questions for us to,

Listen to,

And begin to understand what their needs are so we can be the church that god has called us to be. So I'm going to start and by asking,

What are some of the challenges that you face as parents today that the church may not know or understand?

Who would like to take that?

It's the children. The children? Yeah.

The children are the biggest challenge. How are the children, the biggest challenge, Bobby?

No.

So when I I pondered these questions a lot and,

The the first thing that came to my mind was isolation even in the midst of being very active part of the church and,

We're we're very fortunate. We have family close by. We have a lot of really great friends. But it's it's so easy as,

Family that has four kids and has activities seven nights a week to just,

Withdraw into doing all of the things and I think part of the reason that we're so intentional about being as active in the church as we are.

Is what that happened?

Because we are,

God made us to be in community with other people. Yeah. This doesn't work unless you were actively pursuing him and your actively pursuing relationships with other believers.

In that pursuit and that so that that's that's that's the first thing that came up on my mind is that.

If you're not really intentional about that it's so easy to say.

We're not going to go to church this week. Oh, we're not going to go to church on Wednesday night or you know, it will do it next week or you know,

We've got too many other things going on and and so it's easy you know and then that once becomes twice becomes,

6 months becomes 5 years and and,

Yeah with so many of our pyramid we have so many we grow we both grew up in churches of you know youth groups of 30 40 50 people and,

Still friends with a lot of those people and so many of them,

Are not actively pursuing God it just if kind of it just kind of took a backseat to everything else it's happening in life that's good,

I think actually many people can relate to that. Isolation. Yeah. If you're not intentional. What about you guys?

Funny I actually had a thought along the exact same lines and I had kind of been thinking about,

And we had our daughter Ari who's three I'm sure many of you have seen the meme like it takes a village to raise a child so where is my village and that's exactly how we felt we had no family nearby,

The food going. We had no family nearby. We like we didn't have anybody and it was a really really hard transition and then we started coming here.

And when JD was born he's 6 weeks like the village showed up. We had so many people from the church who just they did so much.

That made everything a lot easier and it got me thinking about Eric had seen meme that was like

When church ends and it's this person just gets up and like bolts out the door and it it's

It's so obvious when I say it but it got me thinking about the fact that like oh we had that village and we had that community because we had gone and gotten involved in the community like we had the community because we had gotten involved in the community.

And it is so easy especially with young children and all the activities and all the things to be like will not tonight not today like not this thing so I would just say that if you,

Have been thinking about getting involved in something or doing something or

I would just encourage you to do that and and find a little bit of the time and find a little bit of a way to do it and maybe that's just staying for an extra 30 minutes and talking to people in the congregation after church maybe that's getting involved with a small group or or something like that but,

It was really amazing to have such a very different experience and to kind of come to that realization that it was there because we had gone and been a part of it,

That's good. Thank you. Anything else? Anybody else want to add? Alright.

Okay did it and I think that is,

Inner generational. Don't you? Like, if you only come to church and you stare at the back of somebody said,

Then when life happens because it's going to happen people aren't going to know,

You know, whereas if you have community here, if you do life with people, then you have a support system. That is going to walk alongside you.

That's the the one of the purposes of the body of Christ. For people to be Jesus for you.

Okay. So, we have we're concerned about three things. We're actually concerned about more than three things but I just some highlighting three things. Helping your family grow deep roots in Christ.

Helping your marriage stay strong.

And helping you personally grow as disciples. What are some ways that Jesus's church can come alongside you? What can other generations older and younger do to help make the road a little smoother?

He wants to take that one.

Something I thought about a lot again with with my background is.

It's not just about like me and my journey it's how do I have the language and the tools to then communicate this to my child and there's kind of two ways I've been thinking about this a lot.

One was when Easter came around and I was trying to figure out how I explained the resurrection and the importance of that and the significance and what happened to my 3 year old who doesn't know what death is yet?

And I like I just suddenly realize like I have no idea like I grew up in the church and I have no idea how to explain this to her.

And then again,

I went through the experience of having a lot of very big very hard questions and despite the fact that my family went to church all the you know was very involved in the church.

I don't think they knew how to talk to me about theology or how to answer these questions for me or work through them with me,

Because I did I go I went to them and asked and got what I felt like we're very poor answers and since coming back to the church have done a lot of research on my own and found what I felt like are very good answers so like they were out there they just didn't know them so I think okay,

Helping us to know how do we talk to our children and what are the words that we say and the things that we can talk about past the like very surface level you know for god so love the world so much like how do we go deeper than that

At different stages of development and I think that that is important not just for us, the parents, but everybody because my daughter may not come to me with those questions. She may come to somebody here in the congregation and I want them to also have those answers for her.

What do you think so you think looking back to those high school years for you,

If someone had taken you aside and really poured into you and,

Been able to tackle those questions because some of the questions don't have easy answers or answers at all. Do you think that would have made a difference? What do you think would have made the difference?

I think it would have. I think it was very kind of like written off. And the the big one that I remember is I went to my grandmother and I was asking her like what about the people who don't know about Jesus? Like what about the people that don't get reached?

And she was like, well, that's what missionaries are for everybody gets reached. And I just thought that was such a like.

Obviously not. We know that there are, you know, civilizations out there that don't have contact with the world. We know that there are, you know, babies that die and and all of these things. So, to me, it was such a shallow answer.

That I then started working through things myself and,

You know, just went down a whole different path. So, yeah, I think if somebody had been able to walk through some of that with me and even if some of that had been

You know I don't know that's hard you know we're still working through that like I'm working through that and not just kind of this very surface level like it'll all be fine. Yeah no that's good. That's really good.

What about you guys the lanes?

So I think I had a unique experience growing like in high school middle school because my mother was in seminary at the time so

She was also asking those big questions. And so that was not so much you know my issue but I and I will say,

Having been in a youth group that was super active, super involved, and everybody's lives and all that stuff. I I think it does make a difference. I think because,

I don't I don't,

Ever view my life as like before Jesus and after Jesus because I I don't know like I don't remember I can't I can't identify a time where I didn't believe in Jesus or I didn't know who he was or anything like that. I I do feel like it so.

Like closer farther thing for me it's like how far did I walk you know,

Along the tether. Sure. But I think the times when I felt the farthest were the times where,

You got busy or you stop talking to people you went to college and people stopped you know like you grow out of you go away from friendships that were really important in your life and so,

I think it even just like the communication and keeping in contact with people who go to college who have babies who because when you have a baby you like,

Drop off the face of the world. You don't know what day it is. You don't know what time it is. So.

I think just you know keeping those lines of communication open and just being like hey we miss you. We,

You know, where are you? Because I think it is easy to get in your head and be like, well, it doesn't matter if I'm there or not, you know. Like no one, no one will miss me or no one cares.

Yeah. Yeah, sure. I just want to tack on a couple of things as I was contemplating this question that I think that,

As a as a affirmation to the church.

We, you know, we have four kids and,

Where they're in Sunday school almost every week and their children's church and they are loved so well there and it's never a question you know they complain about coming to church on a regular basis because of children,

But I returned like I don't want to go to church anymore like yes you do every time we go to church like I know so stop complaining but there are love so well by the church and so,

If you volunteer thank you if you don't feel free to because you will get the energy run out of you and you will have lots of fun,

Another thing that just in terms of.

Drawing people in I love I love the the darting out of the church.

Comment that you made because i have to get dragged out of church every week and I think that's such a huge thing because it just just standing and talking you know whether it's someone a new face,

Is in the church or,

You know it's somebody that's been in the church forever that you don't know just having conversations and getting to know people's lives a little bit,

I know people that have left the church and I know people that are actively involved in the church because of other people.

Not necessarily because of big theology things not necessarily because of you know the music or the activities but it's because when they when they had AA crisis.

People said it's really hurtful things to them or when they were at a low point,

People came along side them and,

They carry them through those heavy times and just not like on a surface level helping to draw people in like

You know being out in the North X in the morning and just saying hi to people and

Learning someone's name and chatting for 2 minutes about whatever. As a new, you know, I haven't been a new person in a church and forever. But as a new person in the church, as someone who,

You know, is it sure if I want to be here or if I even want to be a part of a church, period, to have somebody, you know, just have a nice conversation and to show genuine interest in care,

Is going to it's going to say you know maybe I want to go back there again I I don't know what what exactly it was but,

You know the music was kind of good and the sermon was pretty decent but that guy was really nice to me and and I was just really nice to have somebody be nice to be and to be generally concerned.

I think that's a huge thing.

In in helping to bring people into the church. No, that's good and I think what you guys are talking about is being a family.

Like we are a family. So, in a family, every single family member has to make an effort, right?

To know people's well hopefully you know your family members things but look around you look around you and do you know all the names of all the people sitting around you,

That's that's really important to know people's names to know their stories

To know when they're struggling so you can come alongside. Cuz so often, you know, I've had people come to me and go, you weren't there for me when I had this and this and this happened and I said, I am so sorry. I didn't know.

Like every single person in here deserves to be known.

To really be known by somebody in the church because we're a family.

And so I think that's so important for every generation. Katherine is going to say something. I will say like having grown up in the church like

Where I mean there are people in this congregation who have no case since I was two. Lot of my Sunday school teachers are here. And I, I feel, we went, we moved to Hawaii. So, we got married, removed to Hawaii, and I, I felt it was, it was like,

I don't know traumatizing for me to be like the new person in the church because I've never been the new person in the church. I know how to like find a church. I never had to go. Sure. Like

Church shop or whatever like I and I don't like it. I have to say it. It's not my favorite. And so I feel like even when we moved home, we were kind of like

Well do we want to go somewhere else like we spend a lot of years also there was a pandemic so we spent a lot of years you know not in our house yeah we spend a lot of time,

Looking for a different church we started a new church with you know a couple of people that we knew and we ended up back here because I was like this is where,

My people are and you married me so you have to come. Hey, man. Good.

Well, thinking about that. I mean, what? What are some things that we as your church family? The new Hope Church family that we,

Are doing that's helping you or what are some things that we can do to help you more as we as you raise your children as you work on your marriages as you just do life.

It was just small questions. Alright, Eric. Yeah. So, I would just like to take a second and thank all the people like Bobby said who are involved with the children's ministries. They have been wonderful. My daughter,

Has learned VBS songs and knows the dances and loves all of that but every week she tells me I want to go see my girls.

That's the kind of relationship she has to people in this church. She doesn't know that I'm not related to every single one of you. She just has so much love for you because it's what she gets when she's here. So thank you.

It's awesome. And I think.

Past just the people who are specifically involved in the church. You know, children's ministry. I think part of,

Bringing children to church and and having them start that relationship not just coming to church but actual relationship with Christ is that it's kind of messy,

And so

I think something that I've seen done and and it's made a really big impact to me and I would just encourage it to continue to be done and be done more is when people are are kind about that we had we brought my daughter to the,

The church conference a couple weeks ago and they were we were worshiping at the beginning of it so my daughter's kind of dancing in the aisle she's.

Having fun but she wanted to sing along and she doesn't know the words and she can't read the words on the screen so she starts just kind of singing nonsense very loudly and it's kind of distracting and it's kind of

And I so I started going over to her like you can dance but don't sing and there were two women behind me who were like oh no like

Let her sing that's why she's here we're so glad you're bringing her and that kind of encouragement is just so nice when you're a mom or a dad and you're trying to figure out like what is the line right line to walk

Having your child here but keeping them quiet so they don't disturb anybody and so

That kind of incurt like I started crying that kind of encouragement was just so nice and so kind of realizing that that it's a little messy when you bring small children into it and kids into it.

And so when you can let us know that hey it's okay we like we're glad you're here we're glad you're bringing them that encouragement's really wonderful that's great yeah I always say the best sound in a church service is crying baby,

I'm like even in the middle of this sermon I don't care it's a sound of new life and having young families,

So from our perspective I love it.

I love it and I hope you guys do too.

Okay, so here's my last question for you guys.

We've talked a lot about how we're seeing a resurgence in generation Z coming to church. You know, we're seeing

Revivals and awakenings among people in their early to mid 20s that's my kids generation you know on college campuses across the country really across the world.

We're seeing people come to know Jesus and have all these amazing spiritual experiences. And,

I think what sad is your generation the millennials,

Have kind of been left out of the equation. They've kind of left church and droves.

And have not necessarily come back and I'm sure there are many people who are here that you have children who are millennials and that,

30 to 40 wouldn't you say age group late 20s to 40,

What can first of all what can we do as a church what can older generations do to welcome millennials back into the fold,

What do you think your generation needs most from the church?

I know that's a big question. Yeah, you do whatever you need to. JD, he's a cutie. So I know for us,

We both were raised in a religious households I think I was actually still holding closer to my faith and that was the time but was not a good place,

And what brought us back was we're so used to constant contact with everybody we grew up with and that's that type of relationship but we didn't have that sense of community and so we started hunting for you know churches and,

Cat did some research after looking at churches that were you know this size or that size and this nomination and that not after doing some research we came to visit here and just

From the time we walked in the door felt like we had really been welcomed in in that sense of community is what I think a lot of people from our generation

Like desperately we're so used to messaging a friend you know hey saw this thing and thought about you and that being your interaction for the day so,

Getting involved and having a place to come and actually talk face to face to people and and get that type of relationships been huge. So that welcome when you come in is silvery important. Yeah so finding way to to let people know that's here even. Yes. That's good. Good.

I do think I would say that like like my brother and sister are not so much into church. I don't think my brother's gone to church in,

A long time but have to get Michael a call.

At least I feel like,

A lot of them like Bob was saying we're injured by something that was said to them or something that happened or something something.

Give us more so for those who are sitting in the pews when you say injured,

Be more specific. I think people need to hear the specifics. They got their feelings hurt. Sure.

I don't know if I can even think of like a specific example but they feel they feel good. We're injured and but I do I think that it's not that they don't,

Have a commute have a community they made it somewhere else you know they made the church with other people yeah sure people who they felt weren't judging them

And they immediately with those people instead of seeking Jesus instead of staying in the church and you know rebuilding her,

Trying to heal those wounds,

I don't know how you fix that honestly. I don't I don't I don't know what the solution to that is because I especially for like my my personal relatives like it's not that they don't know.

That the church is here you know and it's not that they don't know that there are churches that would welcome them but they,

Don't want to. So they made the decision to not come back. Okay. Bobby, what are you going to say?

So one of my very best friends got pregnant when she was 17. And,

Some people in the church that we grew up in,

That people that I I love dearly and I'm still friends with,

All these years later said some really hurtful things were they true,

Okay. Yeah, baby. But,

You know admonishing someone with victory all when her wife has been completely turned upside down,

She couldn't have run away from the church any faster and and that's still I mean that's still a battle now.

I think it's I think it's an attitude with which you know,

We treat people we we're not all here because we're all perfect.

We're all here because we're broken. Hey, man. We came into this world with sin. We live with sin day in and day out. We all screw up.

When you see that the response is not to judge that's god's place.

Our responses to love our responses to try and draw people in to come alongside them to try to walk with them and work through whatever that may be.

And and I I have I was a handful of other friends similar situations.

But that's the one that stands out most notably,

I just going back to to what I mentioned earlier with,

Just being welcoming and you know, when you see someone, especially when you see young families with kids,

There are people a face that you don't recognize that that maybe new to the church just to go up and say hi you know,

That that little bit of of welcoming and showing someone hey we want you here. Like we're excited that you're here.

Bite me the difference from I'm never going back there again.

Or I can't wait to go back there because I just really felt something. Yeah. There.

You know I I have I have struggled with the this conversation of what happened because it's not it's not a new hope thing it is a,

I don't know if it's just an American church thing or if it's a wheelchair thing but for whatever reason,

The church did not great job of maintaining people in our generation after they aged out of high school. In the in the you know,

Early 2000's when we were coming out the high school program it was awesome but once you got to college age like,

You were just kind of part of the adult crowd now.

And there was I think it took way too long for us as as a church to recognize we're missing a big thing here and by that point there were so many people in our generation were so far gone at that point.

Trying to get them back in is how what that looks like and how that happens on a on a large scale I wish I had an answer.

Because I know that there's so many people, so many of our peers, friends, people that we know, acquaintances, people from the kids schools,

That are obviously hungry for real connection in deep relationship,

One thing I want to touch on just real quick because it

Is something that I think is very important is discipleship. Yeah. Because that's one thing that for me I think New Hope is doing a job of intentionally trying to build disciples.

You know,

We the the women have their programs that are happening the men have you know we had our men's conference and then we had a group of guys last year that did,

Radical mentoring program which is you know which I'm I'm doing now with with three of the other guys in the church and I'm so thankful that,

Scott call Scott call B out on that because it's something that,

I have been looking for for a long time. To you know.

Not just be at a surface level in relationship people. More fortunate. We both have good friends that,

We are very open with about good things, struggles, and you know, that we have strong Christian friendship.

But disciplining people and there's a reason that Jesus chose 12 dudes to spend all his time with in port all of his time and energy with,

Because it literally changed the course of history. Yes. And I think if we do the same thing.

We can change the course of history as well.

I love that. Thank you, Bobby. Thank you. Do you guys have any other things you would like to share? Kinda closing comments. See Catherine does.

I will just give a shameless plug to our small group. So, we are all part of the same small group. Shameless, come, be a part of it.

We're all it's what like

20 to 40 year olds or 30 to 40 year olds I remember with the 20 to 40 year old I don't know a lot of us have children young children but not all of us do we're very casual group we

Like again we all a lot of us have young children so we you know especially during the summer maybe everybody's traveling and so we don't need or we have a you know there's only a couple of us in there I know me.

You know Eric and I haven't been for several weeks now because there's a lot going on. But it is a really great group and and that's exactly what we're looking to do. Is is it a place that we can come alongside each other? Do you want to finish,

Yeah.

I think I think that you summed it up. Yeah.

Be there.

So come join their their small group. 11 o'clock North side of the children's building way at the back by the trailers. I would say it's about 26 to 27 years old to round 40.

Hey Anna and Javier what?

They're not here I think they're at the beach this young marines or just you like babies yeah love babies you're having a baby come hang out,

Anyway they are a great group they're a great group and so if you're in that age range please join them please join them,

For good solid community for people to hold you accountable and walk alongside you.

Life is hard. We need each other. Amen. We need each other. Any other kind of closing, thank you, Katherine, and Eric for that.

What else would you guys like to say to kind of close this out? This has been awesome. I thank you.

Hey I mean I appreciate the opportunity to to have a conversation like this okay may have been a lot of jumbled words and I'm not sure how much sense I made but Katherine made some really good points and Catherine made some really good points and Eric,

I think you made some really good points buddy but I just I would encourage.

Us as a church to just continue to be,

Welcoming to continue to be open to you know,

New things, different things, maybe old things. That are going to help to,

Draw our generation back in. Because I think that it's a necessary, it's a necessary part of,

The longevity and the continued growth of the church in the long absolutely. Absolutely. I think that's so wonderful. Okay. So, I didn't tell you guys I'm going to do this. So,

Yeah, the introverts are like, what are you going to do? Okay. No, you're not going to go hide. I'm going to invite anybody who is a millennial.

Do we I know we don't have a ton of them here but if you're a millennial or have younger youngest children?

I'm going to invite you to come forward and invite you guys to kind of just stand, come down, stand right here. We're going to pray over you guys and and your generation who you represent.

Okay I see millennials. You eh? Your ex.

I see like Lacy, David, you don't want to come for, okay, would you stand up where you are? Would you could just stand up where you are?

Jonathan.

Alright. Are you millennials?

Okay will you ever you have a little one story and invite you. You can if you'd like to just you could stand up where you are or you can come join oh good.

Alright. So, we have some more. So, for the people who are standing, oh yes, thank you for coming.

If the people around them can just lay hands on them lay hands on them and I'm going to invite some people especially if you are a parent of a millennial who maybe has walked away from church if you could come forward and we're going to just lay hands on

On the people here we want to pray for strong families we want to pray that we can be the church that we're called to be so y'all that means standing up and coming and laying hands on them,

Julie, if you payton, we're going to pray over you and we're going to pray for your family.

But we're also going to pray for your generation, right? And that and that we can be a church who welcomes your generation and we know like we don't have a good answer. Bobby's like, I don't know how you get him here.

I don't know what the solution is but god knows what the solution is, right? We serve a god where there is no problem that's too big. And we have a whole generation of people.

Need community who need the church and they don't some of them don't even know it.

So we could pray that we can be Jesus for them wherever we go. Wherever we are.

Lord Jesus.

We come to you with humility.

We come to you knowing that we have done this well.

And I pray for each family that's represented here. Each young family.

I pray for everyone who represents the millennial generation.

I pray lord that we can be the church that really cares for them well I pray that we can love them and that we can come alongside them without judgement and just,

Show them how much they matter and how much their children matter and,

I don't even have the right words but you do.

How do we?

How how can we be Jesus for them lord? I pray that,

That through our stumbling and through our brokenness and through all the ways we mess up that you will show up.

That you will show up lord. And that each of these families will just know how much you love them.

I pray lord that that you will help us open our doors.

And welcome people in a radical extraordinary way.

I pray that new hope will be the kind of place where where people of all generations will come and go. They love Jesus there.

The presence of god is there. And I pray that this will be a church that just comes alongside people and disciples.

And doesn't let them go away like they may drift but but we're going to go out and we're going to find them and pull them back in.

Lord, we thank you. I thank you for every life and every family that's represented here.

I pray annoying over everyone may they just feel your presence may they know that they know that they know that you love them,

And that you have called them to a bigger purpose. In your name. Amen.