“Moving On Up”
Sermon Transcript for November 13, 2005
By Rev. Mike Beck, Jon Winteregg, & Jay Goad
Rev. Mike Beck: You may not have realized it, but in this morning’s worship service, we want to give each of you a gift. That gift is this, and it’s a very real gift, it’s the gift of an opportunity to take a stand of faith. And when we receive that gift, God does three things: he causes our pain to grow; God turns around and ends up blessing us in return, and then, finally, through our step of faith the life of others are rich. I attended church several years ago at Frazier Memorial Church down in Montgomery, Alabama. And at the beginning of every one of their worship services they sing this song. The words go as follows: “Creation shows the power of God. There is glory all around. And those who see will stand in awe, for miracles abound. I believe in miracles. I’ve seen a soul suffering miraculous but changing one redeemed through Calvary. I’ve seen the lily push its way up through the sod. I believe in miracles for I believe in God.” Friends, God is in the miracle business. About a year ago we saw God do a miracle in our midst through this book. Jay Goad and Jon Winteregg come to share with us now about another miracle God is waiting to do in the coming days. God bless you men.
Jon Winteregg: Good morning. As I bring you this important update from Finance, I’d like to go back a year ago and revisit where we were, speak about where we are today, and share where we are going. Almost exactly one year ago I stood before you as the Chair of the subcommittee of Finance that had been asked to create a book of special gifts. If you remember, we were 18 months into the Imagine Grace Capital Campaign. Imagine Grace funds had been combined with money borrowed and there was just enough to construct a new education wing. After significant research and discussion, the Finance Committee prudently put a cap on additional borrowing. And I’d like to pause here to thank, on behalf of Finance, all of you who continue to fulfill your pledges and send in additional gifts to Imagine Grace. Every dollar received in Imagine Grace is just as important today as it was two years ago. The reason is, is every dollar is needed for and applied to the monthly mortgage payment. And many of you remember, well it’s probably been at least four years ago now, a fund called the Restoration Fund. And many of you participated because it is important for you personally to reduce debt within the church. If you mark anything right now with Imagine Grace or use Imagine Grace envelope, it will go dollar for dollar for that purpose again.
With the desire not to borrow additional funds, one year ago we find ourselves with a first floor Christian ministry center that would remain unfurnished and not become functional until additional special gifts would be received. At that time completion of the second story youth center was only a dream years into the future. Let’s also be honest with one another and remember one year ago we also sat here with some thoughts going through many of our minds such as, “Here they go again asking for money.” “I already give and now they are asking me again to get back into my checkbook, get into my savings account to give money again to the church.” “People are already tapped out.” “I’m not sure there is enough money to complete the expansion.” -- were feelings that were being felt. I shared with you at that time that I use to experience those same feelings as I sat in the pew until I came to understand that they were false and common deceptions used by Satan to distract me from the truth.
A year ago we paused to talk openly about the truth. The truth being that it isn’t our money. At times that is so hard to understand, isn’t it, since our name is on so many different things. But it is truly an illusion, isn’t it? For if we believe God is the Creator of all things, then we must accept the fact that we come into this world with nothing, we go out with nothing, leaving behind everything that appeared as though we owned. We take nothing with us. We keep only that which we make a decision to send on ahead. God simply puts us in charge of His assets while we are here living on earth. I’m glad the painting behind me is still here. It was left behind by the Jesus Painter. It’s a clear reminder of Christ on the cross that we don’t even own our own lives and that we were bought with a price, the ultimate special gift of grace. Something we can’t earn, something we don’t deserve, and something that our sin actually made necessary.
A year ago we attempted to stay focused on the truth which was God’s people were about to be presented with a book of special gifts that would give them the opportunity to respond to what they had been entrusted with and what they had received at the cross. Now, let me share with you what has happened. In the past year, over $310,000 has been received in special gifts. As a result, the Good News is being shared in a fully furnished Children’s Ministry Center. A beautiful courtyard is inviting. Our children have a fenced, safe place to play. New trees and shrubs beautify the grounds. And of that money $210,000 remains left over as seed money that will move upstairs to bring the second floor Schrader Youth Center closer to reality. Looking back now, we were part of a true loaves and fishes story. Mike and I had no idea what we were going to talk about. It is pure providence that Mike stands up here before us today and talks about miracles. What appeared to be about our money and a building wasn’t at all. It is about how God used very ordinary people just like a little child over six months to design a book of special gifts. He then placed it in the hands of His people whom He created, whom He bought with a price, and who He placed responsibility on for managing what He had given to them. Then Christ Himself as the Holy Spirit living within us touched hearts and many people responded building the Kingdom and changing lives forever.
As Coordinator of Special Gifts, I have been given a unique privilege to witness tears of joy in giving. I’d never witnessed that before. And I know for some here today, life will never be the same. I also realize that just like the little boy who gave loathes and fishes, we never really know the true impact of our gifts to God. I don’t have any idea who all the people are that the Lord called upon to create a path in advance that led me to Jesus Christ. And I am forever grateful to those faithful servants that He used. A lot has happened in the last year and the Lord is so worthy of our praise!
Finance was asked to form another Special Gifts Committee and challenged to create a second book called Special Gifts of Grace II which you will receive when you leave today. Many feel the book you are about to receive is better than the first. Jay Goad will follow with more details in a minute. I encourage you to take a quick walk following the service through the second story youth center. It is unbelievable what God has done with the gifts that He has been given. It is very important, listen to me here, it’s really important to understand how Special Gifts of Grace II is different than Special Gifts I. Since Finance capped church borrowing, unlike before, this time construction of the Schrader Youth Center will halt as you see it today when you walk through unless the funds are given through Special Gifts II and the Youth Center can be paid for in cash.
Like a year ago, we decided that it would be foolishness on our part to place a financial goal on what God was wanting to do through the hearts of His people. However, I am often asked, “What’s needed the most?” I stress that each and every gift, regardless of size, makes a difference. However, certain gifts, such as naming opportunities are undesignated gifts and they, therefore, can be used to pay for construction costs as opposed to the purchase of an individual item. We received twelve naming gifts for a total of over $225,000 in Special Gifts 1. And those naming gifts will be necessary again if we are to complete the Schrader Youth Center. So that’s where we are.
Where we are going begins today. We’ve made it really simple again to make a special gift to Grace. You can find me upstairs today in the worship Center. There is an order form again, many of you will recognize, in the middle along even with a self-addressed envelope. There must be a completed order form with every gift because it allows me to tract those gifts and the purchases to make sure the gift goes for its intended purpose. The form and the envelope can be dropped by the church office; it can be placed in your offering envelope. Remember that gifts are given on a first-given basis and some are one-of-a-kind. We have a few people the first time who did not get the gifts that they desired last year. So when your heart is touched as you are looking through the book, whatever time that is, act immediately. Due to the help of John Waggoner, this time you can view an updated catalog at the church web site to see which gifts have already been given and how many of certain gifts are remaining.
In the past year, so many of you have shared kind words about Special Gifts of Grace. Months and dozens of people have given an unknown number of hours working again to make Special Gifts of Grace II possible. And on behalf of every one involved, we thank you for your kind words but truly desire that the focus again remain not on us, the servants, but on the Master, Christ, whose made all of these things possible. In closing, I’ll leave you with the words of a donor that I will never forget who when making a gift, she looked up at me and she said, “If this leads only one person to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, it will have all been worth it.”
Jay Goad: Good morning! I can’t believe it’s been a year! I was reflecting this morning, you know, kind of in the shower, just kind of running through my speech a little in my head. And I was getting out and looked in the mirror and the other thing that dawned on me was that a year ago today I had a little more hair than I do today. But other than that, the past year has been a great year for us all here at Grace. To Jon’s point, we can not thank you enough. If you remember, a year ago today we took you on a tour through a dusty building. It was kind of drab. And today, if you have been in there recently, you find a very colorful and vibrant youth Christian center on our first floor. And to me that’s very exciting to see what all is going on here. I told John, halfway through the service today, “I think the kids up here ringing the bells probably will do a better job of salesmanship today than he and I can.” It’s really exciting to me because I talked with Stacey this morning and one of the benefits that we hoped that we obtained has started to happen. We are starting to see many more new young families coming into the congregation and bringing their children in here. As we’ve spoken before, these are our Sunday School teachers of the future; these are our church leaders of the future.
I don’t know if you remember this, but a year ago I told you how this personally meant a lot to me. The little town that I grew up in, several years ago the church that I went to unfortunately closed its doors a couple of years back. And it was just for the fact that there was nobody there anymore. They really hadn’t ran out of money, it just when I was in there was hardly any youth so naturally there was no legacy to carry those forward. I think you should be proud that you are concerned about your legacy and you want to continue our ministry here in the Franklin community.
As Jon stated, this campaign is a very prudent approach. We have come to a point where we think there are a lot more opportunities, but we have to make sure that we do it prudently. So I call today the book that you will receive and the tour is basically a book of opportunities of things of how we can carry our ministries forward. It’s designated for all of our ministries; ministries of all ages. Part of this will be completion. There are a few things on the first floor that we need to attend to. The big thing that you are going to see today is the expansion of the Schrader Youth Center on the second floor. When you get your book, it’s really interesting. There is a picture on the front—this is what it looked like a year ago when we first went up there. What’s interesting is today you at least are going to see the studs up on the wall and what opportunities are for us there.
What our hope is for this center is this is going to be a gathering place for our youth who are in the middle school and the high school. We want this to be a gathering place where they can have group fellowship and they can also have personal reflection. This is a place where we hope they will feel safe to come at any time. We hope it is a place that they will want to bring their friends as well. Our goal is to be open a couple of nights a week and hopefully for special events like after basketball games or football games we have a place for kids to come for good fellowship. In it we have a worship center, a café area where the kids can congregate. We have a prayer labyrinth that is an opportunity for our groups and our kids to have some time of reflection. We also have an Upper Room and, of course, we have some classrooms.
The construction also opened up more opportunities for all our facilities. We have some older kids that we are awful fond of as well. And for the past several years they have had a lot of their Sunday School classes and Christian Education classes in Price Hall around a coffee table. We are going to be able to take what used to be the Children’s wing over here and we are going to be able to redo it. We are going to have five classrooms and a parlor. The intent is to have a gathering area where we can come as a group or again as for personal reflection. It is also designed to be maybe a little relaxed atmosphere. Hopefully it will be a place where you can have your Christian fellowship but maybe in the setting like you are in somebody’s living room.
As for the book itself, Jon did a pretty good explanation,. It’s really a lot like last time. The ushers will be handing them out. We ask for right now that we have one per family just to make sure we have enough copies for those folks who were not able to attend today. The book is broken out into categories. It talks about the large classroom and the youth library. It talks about all the needs that we have in that area whether big or small. The one thing that we want to emphasize is there is opportunities here for everybody. All gifts are greatly appreciated.
What we’d like to do again today is we’d like to have a walking tour. We’d like for all of you to be able to see this facility. We are not able to have this building open all the time so we have special permission today to kind of give a once in a while look at it if you will. What we would like for you to do is to proceed down the hallway. I know the bulletin said the West end; we meant to say the East end so you can follow the hallway down and take the hallway in front of the kitchen and just go up the stairs. We will have some people there at the bottom of the stairs if anybody needs any assistance. Up there we have four or five people up there who will be glad to help you and answer any questions you might have. I want to thank Mickey Beck, Cindy Winteregg, Traci Nash and John Winteregg. They will be up there to answer any of your questions as well. The one thing I do want to remind everybody is that it is a construction area so we need to be careful. The construction people pushed back everything and we have things roped off. And like I said it is a little dusty, so we ask everybody just to be careful. If you have any children, please take them up but like I said, please try to keep them in the roped area.
Again, I can not thank you enough for all of the support you have given us. I agree with Jon’s point. I don’t fully think we will realize the seeds that the fruit will bear from these endeavors and we thank you again for your support. Thank you.
Reverend Mike Beck: On Sunday morning, I normally park over in front of Reverend Dan’s home. But this morning, I parked in the farthest spot at the northeast corner of the lot. I wanted to walk through the new building. And as I was walking across the parking lot looking at that building, I just gave thanks to God for you. I gave thanks to God for persons I never knew that had a dream for the future and moved to this site. I remembered back to a couple of years ago, out where that sidewalk was, where we gathered after church one Sunday morning and we wrote our names on rocks and those rocks are all they way around our new building. And then I walked up the youth stairwell and went through the Schrader Youth Center and thought of the thousands of kids whose lives would be touched there in the decades to come. And then when I came downstairs I went over to the nursery which is a very special room for us. I sat down in a rocking chair that we had purchased in memory of our first grandchild, Gavin. And I looked around the room. I realized that almost all of the furnishings there had been given by many of you in his memory. I looked out through the window, Jane, and I saw those two benches and I thought about Ruth Hughey and Zoe Prall. And then I looked up to the beautiful murals on the wall. They were there because of a $4,000 gift of a young couple new to Grace, new Christians, who had caught a vision of how paintings could make those rooms so special. And in the nursery there is the Good Shepherd carrying this one lamb in His arm and I was comforted to know God was carrying Gavin in His arm even today.
And when I woke up this morning, I realized what God was telling us to do. That in the coming year, our gift will be that $100 a month gift to be used wherever it is needed so that as we walk through the upstairs, and we’ll be doing that in celebration of a granddaughter that will becoming into this world by the end of the day tomorrow, and grandson that is on his way in April of next year. Jon and Jay last night said, you pray God will show you what in that book is for you. God answered that prayer for us in the middle of the night last night.
And as we close, I’ve been reflecting this week on Jesus’ miracles. And in almost every case, before the miracle took place, God asked the person to take a step of faith--to go down to the pool and wash. To the crippled man He said, “Rise up”. To the young boy who had the loaves and the fishes, He said, “Give them to me.” The boy could have said, “No, they are mine. That’s my lunch.” The miracle always happens. It starts with us. When we take the step of faith, then God’s power is unleashed. God’s been doing some miracles in my life in recent days and I’ve been learning again those miracles occur only when we let go of some things, some of which are very dear to us, and simply trust God that He holds our future securely in His hands. God, friends, has already provided the resources for Grace Church to finish the Schrader Youth Ministry Center. And there will be unleashed as you review this wonderful book and say to God, “Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I’ve heard you calling in the night.” If I can paraphrase, “I will give, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold the youth of Franklin now and for decades to come, I will hold them in my heart.” In response to all that God has done for us, let’s stand and sing these words of benediction.
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