I haven’t done this for some time, but today I want to provide a position statement for LifeResource Ministries, so everyone listening will know clearly what we are and what we aim to accomplish. Now, this may sound somewhat self-serving to some, but try to withhold judgment until you know the whole story. 

I have always been aware of the kids in my congregations – from the very first one I trained in to the most recent. I was trying to think back about why I was like that. I know other ministers – that none of them have that same orientation. Not that that’s a bad thing. I was just wondering about myself. 

Now, I grew up in a low to middle income family. And my father – though I think a bright man – had only an eighth-grade education. He grew up on a farm in Michigan and quit school to help with farm work when he was fourteen. That was 1916. (Yes, he was old enough to be my grandfather.) Well, they plowed with horses and mules back then. Farming was a lot of work. And he thought my grandpa needed help. My mother graduated from high school. I remember marveling are her vocabulary and expression and how well-read she was. And while they were both dedicated to their two boys, my parents struggled to make a living in what is now called the Silicon Valley. Even then in 1958, it was a place of substance educationally and financially. And I never felt like I quite fit in, given our family’s economic situation and the high level of intelligence in the student body at the school I went to. All the Stanford professors’ kids went to school there. So, we didn’t lack love or necessities, but there were very few material extras. We never went to a summer camp, for example, or to a lake on vacation like the other kids would talk about. I never had a pair of Converse All-stars. Back then, they called them tennis shoes – which were all the rage in the time I went to school. 

When I was twelve, I happened to hear a man on the radio talking about God. What he said made sense to me – unlike the things the priest at our Episcopalian congregation said. But I knew that I was too young to do much about it, so I put it aside. When I got older, I know the exact day – New Year’s Day, 1964 – my senior year of high school – I happened to hear this man again on the radio. I was seventeen and a senior at that time. This time I started to take him more seriously and I ordered some of his literature. It still sounded just as good to me as it did when I first heard it when I was much younger. Well, long story short, by late August that year – 1964 – I was attending Ambassador College and I was baptized on December 13 – at the end of my first semester. Looking back, I can see God’s hand in my life more that year than any year of my life. I was eighteen at the end of it – still a teenager. 

Now, in that year – from New Year’s until I left for college – there were many lonely days. I didn’t know anybody that believed like I did about the Bible. I had a hard time dealing with that for sure. But, during the last year of college, I met Elaine, who had transferred from Ambassador’s sister campus in England for her senior year. We got married five days after graduation and were sent to a congregation in the south to train for the ministry. 

I had never lived anywhere other than the Bay Area of California. So, a large southern city may as well have been the surface of the moon to me. I was out of my element. And I remember driving out into the delta – Mississippi Delta – to visit a prospective member. And when I arrived, the man’s sun was cleaning a bucket of pig intestines to make what they call chitlins. I didn’t even know what he was doing. I do know that he looked like he wasn’t having a good time though. I didn’t just get out of a car. I got out of a moon rover. I was totally out of my element. And the man and his son, I could tell by the looks on their faces, had the same thought. I mentioned already that I always thought of myself as not as well off as others, but when I was at my new assignment, I met some people who were very excited about God, but were truly disadvantaged financially. Though we were not far from that state ourselves on our ministerial trainee salary of $125 a week in 1968.

When we arrived, we had no money, no place to live, no car, no possessions, except for what we could put in a couple suitcases, and strangely, I felt at home. All that was normal to me. Don’t get me wrong, we never felt poor. We were thrilled to be involved in God’s work. The members of that congregation were so kind and loving to us. The thought of their many kindnesses and patience can still bring tears to my eyes. I’m not telling you this to gain pity, but so that we can be on the same page – so you can understand me better. 

Once I started working, I went with our pastor to visit a woman who lived in a rundown small house. I had never been in a house like that before. She was divorced, as I recall. She had four or five children. I doubt there was any way she could work with so many kids. And I could not tell if she was sixty or much younger, but just very worn out. I recall her oldest – a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl. I can only remember one image of her, even though I lived in that congregation for four years. She was walking by me, as I recall, but that’s all I have – no eye contact. I think she was trying to escape her room. The presence of the pastor and his new assistant were probably too much for her at that age. But this girl was not like any of the girls I had seen in my high school or college. She clearly didn’t know how to fix her hair. She looked a little rough around the edges, to put it kindly. She was wearing a cotton dress that was not tattered, but it didn’t look new either. And I had never seen a girl wear the kind of shoes she was wearing. I remember, as we sat in the home of this woman, that the mother seems resigned to her life. She didn’t seem the least excited to be a Christian or a mother or even alive. And I wondered what life was like for her daughter – more specifically how she felt about being in our church. At twenty-two years old, I was probably five or six years older than this girl. And I can still remember what it was like to go to church or school and feel like I didn’t quite fit in, didn’t have a stake and didn’t belong. I didn’t know what to call it then, but I think I was empathizing. I’m seventy-eight now, and, as you can tell, her presence and her situation left a powerful impression on me – and it’s still with me, fifty-six years later. And that’s why LifeResource Ministries exists. 

In 2004, thirty-four years after that event – working in congregations all that time – I found myself disconnected from that work, but with a license in counseling. And I thought, “What kind of program could we start to help the young people in our church develop a relationship with Jesus Christ?” Could we start a summer camp program? I’d already been involved in starting one of those before. Could we start a ministry of youth campaigns in our church? What could we do to help the church’s young people – like the one I met earlier – develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I became. It seemed that any program we might start could potentially be helpful, but since there were only two of us, we could only work with a few at a time. We wanted to help everybody. The answer came – not like being struck by lightning – you know, the lightning of God in a massive paradigm shift, like Paul on the Damascus Road – but one of a gradual acceptance of reality. We learned that we didn’t need to start any new programs. God already had one. It’s called the Church of God. All we needed to learn how to do was work it better. 

We see out of the scriptures that God is a family – that He’s our Father and we’re His children. Who, then, is our mother? Let’s look at two scriptures. One’s in Hebrews 12:22, beginning there.

Hebrews 12:22-23 – But you have come to Mount Zion – Paul told the church – and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven – so what’s that assembly? Well, yes, it’s the church that you’re a part of. Being a member of the church is not just potlucks, or making coffee, or services, or hearing sermons, and keeping your kids quiet during church, or these holy days that we’re observing even. With some of us, part of that is struggling to connect with services on the Internet. It’s about way more than that. Paul saw it. 

Okay, now I read you that scripture just to read you this one. It’s in Galatians 4:26 – Paul says:

Galatians 4:26 – But the Jerusalem above is free – he’s talked about that earlier, right? The Jerusalem above is free – the church is free. And he says then: and she is our mother. 

So, what does a mother do? Well, she’s a nurturer. She teaches. She’s a caregiver. She provides nourishment, first from the breast and then by fixing meals. She loves in a way that no one else can. We all came out of our mother’s body. There’s a bond there that’s never broken. It is interesting that, when we are baptized, we are baptized into the body of Christ. Every analogy breaks down some, but the idea is closeness, relatedness. All the people in a congregation are related by spiritual birth, born of the Spirit of God – God’s children now. It didn’t used to be, but something is changed. It’s in that way, through God our Father and the church our mother, that we are in a family of God. 

We can read in the scriptures about our spiritual mother and that we all have roles to play in the spiritual family, and they are assigned according to the gifts that God gives each one of us. God gives each one of us gifts that we can used to help the church, and have a place in the church that belongs to us. It’s our job to be a part of in that way. The one primary role – the one primary role that we all have to play to make church work – work the way God wants it to work – is that of a nurturer, like our mother. That is her identity. We come to God through her, drawn by the love that she has for us. 

Now, sometimes children are accidents – unplanned. God is not like that. If you’re in His church, it is by God’s plan. You are no accident. There’s a reason for you. In Christ, we are truly our mother’s children. As members of her body, we have the same spiritual genetic structure. And we are to express the same kind of love she loves us with to the others who are with us. That’s how she becomes our nurturer and how we learn things from her – from the other people who are also her children. We all work together and use the gifts God has given us to build up the church. The main job of the church is to nurture all of us into spiritual maturity. This is the fundamental reason you’re a part of the church, your mother. I mean, you might be a good speaker, you might be able to make coffee really well, organize different kinds of activities, or play an instrument or sing in church – those are gifts – but your primary – your primary – gift is the love of God. 

So, this makes some people uncomfortable. Those of you who are sitting there thinking, “Well, I can’t be this way,” or “I don’t know how,” God has given you the gift of the Holy Spirit. That means that He and Jesus live in you now. If you’ll just let them, they’ll do the work. So, don’t tell me you can’t. All you have to do is set your mind on how they would act and that will come to you. Did you know that? When was the last time you thought about yourself that way in the church – a transmitter of the love of God? Just start doing it. That’s what Paul called setting your mind on the things above, instead of on the things of the earth – instead of on, “I can’t,” or “I don’t know what to do.” 

As an example, let’s think about this girl I met. What could you possibly contribute to her spiritual connection to Jesus Christ? Wouldn’t you say, “That’s a pretty personal intimate thing? A personal relationship with Jesus Christ. What could you do? Well, first of all, you could notice her when you see her at church. You could become aware of her, instead of just looking past her to see in front your own friends. If you do that, an amazing thing will happen when you do. You will want to learn her name. What else could you do? Well, you could smile at her, and call her name each week – after, that is, you’ve taken the time to get to know her name. And of course, to be able to do that, you have to be at church before any of this can happen. Did you ever think of that? Before you can fulfill the fundamental reason for your calling – to be a transmitter of the love of God – to God’s people, you have to be at church to do that. You know, “It’s too far,” “I won’t get anything out of the sermon.” None of that changes anything. The good stuff can only happen when you are there. That’s why God called you – to be at church. And before you get to church, you must put your mind on the things above, as Paul said, rather than the things of the earth. 

A checklist helps. Get up, put your mind on the things of God, bathe the kids, dress the kids, feed the kids, drive to church, and then, before you walk in the door, put your mind on the things of Christ again. You’ll have to keep doing it over and over again. You must put out a positive vibe to the other people there. Refrain from complaining, from self-pitying and self-centered thinking. If that sounds phony to you, it is, but in reverse. You used to be self-centered, but now you are a new person. That’s what it says in the Bible about you. Is that true? You belong to Christ now and He lives in you. All you have to do is let Him go. He’ll take care of it. 

You could also – thinking about church again – gradually, gradually engage this girl in conversation once you know her name. Be socially interested in her in a very slow coincidental and low-key way at first. You could start with things you both see around at church. “Did you try the cookies today? Mrs. Smith made them. I like hers the best, especially the ones with the icing.” Anybody can say that, right? And you can also do this with all the other people at church that are her age, once you learn their names. So that while she knows you like her, she knows you also like all the others as well. She’s a part of something you like – the kids at church. Do not comment on her shoes, her hair, her clothes, her music, her attitude. You, despite your Worldwide Church of God judgmental attitude that we all seem to absorb, will drop that and will be friendly, interested and non-judgmental. And, as you get to know her and others, you can talk gradually more about school, and family, and church activities, and people, and her interests, and cookies – all the things she’s interested in at church. And, if you’re a woman – oh yes, did you know that men can be friendly too? – if you’re a woman, though, at some point, it might strike your mind to get with some of the younger adult women and have a style group for teenage girls, where things like fixing hair coincidentally, of course, can be not addressed, but modeled and processed by the group. It’s not a problem you’re trying to solve. It’s something done out of interest and love to help people learn how to fit into the world and church. I just use that as an example. 

What would help your guys and girls where you live? You might not know. Learn their names and get to know them and you’ll find out what they need. Each group is different. But you won’t know what to do to help until you get to know them. 

I knew a woman once in one of my congregations I pastored who played the flute well. One weekend, when our church’s ensemble was performing, there was another flutist up there with her – a fourteen-year-old girl. And before I knew it, there were more teen girls playing the flute than any other instrument. We were flute heavy. We loved it. The engagement snowball was starting to roll. This woman was using her gift to engage the young people of the church. And all of the girls who were up with the adults performing knew, in a slightly closer way, that they belonged to the church. So, this woman, using her gift – and God was using her to help the young ones feel a part of the congregation – to understand that they had a place that they were valued, they were loved, and they were getting that from their new spiritual mother, the church. And you can bet your boots that after music, I always gushed over how great our ensemble sounded and how wonderful it was to see so many new faces. Can you be good at gushing? Try it sometime. 

I recently watched the video of an old Billy Graham crusade. There were quite a few clips of the audience and all of the young people there were spellbound, just like the adults. Billy Graham crafted his sermons to be accessible at every level. You guy that speak at church, do you do that? I’m not talking about teen topics. There really are no such things. I’m talking about all godly topics delivered in language and with examples that everyone can understand. Or, does what you’re doing seem to be always dominated by what you’re going to say. If that’s the way you are, is creating a sermon so hard all you can think about is what you’re going to say, you’re breaking the first rule of public speaking. Do you guy know what that is? It’s consider you audience. If they won’t listen, what good is it to say it? All public speakers know this, but in Western culture – not every culture, but in Western culture, which we’re a part of – we really don’t consider younger people a part of us. When we prepare a sermon, they never cross our minds. When a young person can understand what the preacher is saying, it makes them feel a part of the congregation.

I once had a sixteen-year-old ask me why she could understand my sermons, and I told her it was because I was the world’s greatest public speaker. And she rolled her eyes and laughed at me. She knew I was messing with her head. Then I said it was because we both like Mrs. Smith’s cookies. We tend to listen to people whom we know and whom we know cares about us. 

See, when we’re focused on the right things – all the things above – it all starts working together. The snowball starts to roll downhill, instead of having to push it up. Many adults know that they should do more, but they feel frustrated about how to go about it. Everyone always wants to start a program or have an activity. Stop thinking that way! Think about getting to know everybody. Then you might know what they need. If you make an effort, you will be a leader by moral imperative, rather than ordination. Understand the difference? The person that knows the right thing to do and does it, those who want to do right see that, recognize it and will follow. They’ll join in. That’s how it works. One person can make a snowball start to roll, even in a dead congregation. It’ll bring people back to life. 

Don’t just do thing with the young ones. It’s good if kids know you like all the kids in the congregation, but to them it feels even more inclusive if you know and like everybody. God gave us a congregation to be our spiritual mother to spiritually nurture us. In her womb, we grow spiritually into a relationship with her. And she introduces us to our Father, who is God. Jesus says to all of us every day, “A new commandment I give you: that you love one another as I have loved you.” Don’t ask questions. Just do it. Watch what happens. Things will happen that you never imagined – good things that you never thought could happen. 

Perhaps the greatest gift God has given us is His love and the loving sacrifice of His Son. Each of us, when we come to church, is supposed to pass on our mother’s gift – that she gave to us – to everybody else, especially the kids. 

Okay. That’s all you really have to do. It’s not complicated. You don’t have to feed, dress, teach, correct, transport most of the time. Or, judge anybody. God has another program to take care of that. It’s called the family. All you have to do is play your role in God’s family – a converted, loving person who’s interested and who has the love of God shed abroad in in his/her heart – and God will take it from there. He will! He wouldn’t ask us to do things we can’t do. Our relationship with God is a mystery to everybody else. And everyone else’s relationship with God is a mystery to us. So, all we have to do is treat people the way God treated us and it’ll all be okay. 

If you listen to our material lately, you will hear me talk about The Chosen TV series about the life disciples and Jesus. In the very first episode, we are introduced to a woman who is poor, and alone, and who has given up on God, and who has been ensnared by evil spirits and alcohol. She’s in deep trouble. Everyone called her Lilleth, but that wasn’t her real name. In the scene, at the end of the very first episode of the seven-year-long series, she’s in a bar drinking, having narrowly escaped suicide and having just succumbed to a terrible experience with some evil spirits. And, as she reaches for another drink, a stranger reaches out and puts His hand hers and says, “That’s not for you.” And this frightens her, and she runs out of the bar, and He follows her, and He calls her by her real name. “Mary. Mary of Magdala.” And she turns in surprise and asks Him how He knew her name, and He quotes a scripture her father taught her as a child. Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. And then He lays His hands on her head and casts out her demon. From then on, for the rest of her life, she was His. That scripture is Isaiah 43:1, if you want to know. And she knew then that she had a place with and belonged to God. It all started when Jesus called her by name. And He gives all of us that same power to do the same thing. 

So, do you know the names of the children in your church? I think this is the reason so many people are drawn to this program – this TV program. It shows the way into belonging to God. Even the actress, who played the role of Mary Magdalene, Elizabeth Tabish, said, when she read the script for the first time, she cried her eyes out, because this program show how we are all affected by the kind of love Jesus expressed to people in His life – how powerful and how drawing He is for people of every age. 

So, that’s why, at LifeResource Ministries, everyone can find resources for the lived Christian life – nearly three hundred presentations on a wide variety of Christian living topics. And it helps all the children if it helps all the adults, because we adults tend to forget these things. It also helps if someone talks about it all the time. And that’s one of the roles we find ourselves in. 

Okay, so that’s the end of the sermon. Here comes the spiel I told you about at the beginning. One of the reasons we made this presentation is to strengthen you in the faith, not just for yourself, but so you can help the whole congregation, including its children, who are all a vital part of your spiritual family. And that’s why we, as youth advocates, talk about Christian living topics. We’re aiming to help everyone in the congregation, and that will eventually help all the children.