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All right here we are Back for the attack Chris Martinez back for Attitude number 10 We build the next generation That's right Yes here on Midweek Motion If you're new to this we've been covering 12 attitudes that define Grace Avenue culture We've gone through all of these on Sundays We've talked about these through in our leadership pocket or our leadership to our Slack teams We've gotten these and then we're breaking these down conversationally here on Midweek Motion So we build the next generation An attitude that we carry it's a value It's very important to us always has been You should know this obviously you are part of the next generation You've been here since you were in college

Maybe I should quiz you this whole time maybe this should be about you The tables have turned Yeah No this honestly is probably one of my favorite If you've talked to me at all for any time you know that this is a passion of mine But it's also a gratitude that comes from it because if this attitude didn't exist at Grace Avenue I wouldn't be who I am If this attitude wasn't reflected and intentional then I wouldn't have met my wife who was also built Right Right And we wouldn't have the family we have We wouldn't be buying a house that we did a few months ago So there's just a lot of things in my life that wouldn't exist if this attitude wasn't in place and wasn't in your heart So I'm extremely grateful for that Extremely thankful just that this is who you are and you and Pastor

Janelle and who our church is So I love it Well that was modeled for us People were very much intentional about their investment into as I was growing up into kids ministry and even infants toddlers to kids teaching them about Jesus to children's church is what they used to call it to youth ministry to young adult ministry to college age ministry and various aspects of that 20 ish age group And there's a lot going on in life And when the church is intentional about those different age stages I think it's very beautiful I think it's very necessary

People have all kinds of pressures at different age stages in life and when they can find help and understanding and even healing it just makes all the difference It makes a big deal It changes everything when you're thinking generationally So let's jump into this We'll ask you a fun question at the end this time around But I want to jump into it because I want to know when did this become a revelation to you When did you begin to have a passion to building the next generation and how has this flowed out in your life and through your life I think in my late 20s when I started to get back involved in a serious form of you know when I left my job what I was doing and was entering into full time church

staff positions that was more of a kind of a baptizing into the reality of teenage life again You know it was hundreds of teenagers every week that I was pastoring and hundred something young adults And I didn't have kind of got thrown into that and I didn't have a lot of time to catch up on the last 15 years of what life had been like for teenagers I was immediately drowning and exposed to relational challenges emotional difficulties just all the stuff that people are going through I mean you're talking about that size of a ministry

responsibility Janelle and I both just leading people and trying to raise leaders who are young adult leaders to oversee youth And it's just a lot of work and a lot of education And so it was kind of just an immediate baptism into that and growing into it you know And then I mean I remembered stuff when I was a kid obviously I went to church camps and was part of youth groups and stuff when I was a kid and I understood and remembered certain things that happened certain values but I started growing up got married was working kind of on my own for about 10 years and then all of a sudden you're back in this entire world of teenage life daily

weekly year after year The drama Yeah And all that comes with it you know and fighting with parents and leaving home and you know breakups and you know kicked out of school and you know graduating and getting a college degree getting a scholarship losing your scholarship Going into the military Going into the military kids leaving youth group you know

you know going to clubs getting drunk getting arrested like just everything everything that makes up kind of like a city you know I mean the youth ministry I oversaw we attracted about 15 different school districts so that's what I knew of that I counted as I could tell by the clicks in the pockets and I would count them and so we'd do tournaments and all kinds of fun stuff but you know I saw a heart being stirred in me constantly and it really bothered me when people kind of would refer to them in church as the youth as if they're just kind of like not in a derogatory or demeaning term but almost an indifferent like oh that's the youth they're that Kind of written off Just kind of written off and I

think you're sealing the future of the church and canceling out its future when you begin to do that when you don't see that this is the future right here It is the future of the church right here that is making that mess on the floor as a six year old right Like that's the future so yeah That's big man When I came into Grace Avenue in 2011 I looked around and there was a lot of young families a lot of young marriages that had just started having kids and so to see the progression over the last 10 years some of those kids now being in AvenueX in our youth ministry

is so cool to see You know when I see Viv getting ready to graduate this year your daughter getting ready to graduate I'm just I'm blown away by how fast time goes and how much the next generation is here now not somewhere beyond where you can't see it or you know that time will come It's actually faster than you think and so it's cool to see now looking around you see families here that have kind of taken that next step But over the last 20 years of you and Pastor Janelle ministering to youth and young adults and building the next generation what have you seen What are some of the fruit that you've seen What are some of the amazing things that God has done some of the testimonies that you've

seen in what you've built the last 20 years And then what are some things you'd love to see in the next 20 years from now I mean as crazy as it sounds is that I think it's still too early to count what that is you know 20 years is not a long time It is a long time but it's not a long time You know you have to people I found this People have to get well you know 10 to 15 years out to almost feel appreciative of your investment so that's one way to look at it

I think that also people have to grow into their own adulthood Around early to mid 30s is when generally people start to wake up to the realities of the choices they've been making whether or not God is important whether or not church is important if they've gotten away from it all

And a lot of times the first place they look is the last place they were and so they start to track back on oh God this old guy Daniel's still around Oh wow he's still preaching Oh I might check out his church He's still wearing Air Force Ones Yes he is Actually he wasn't then But the reality of that is that you know people are awakening and God's stirring seeds that have been planted long ago and you get to re cultivate sometimes some of those things So we have people in our church now who I knew when they were thrown out of their house when they were teenagers who came from a very broken home

didn't have parents You kind of played the role of a spiritual dad and I was more like a spiritual mom Even if you weren't close people looked to the wisdom you were offering or whatever you could offer at that time And it helped them And they remember personal encounters and conversations and surprisingly messages People showed me notes and the stuff they wrote down Man that's a good message I need to preach that again I need to do that Send me a picture of that real quick I'll preach that again someday

But you know over the last 20 years I think we've seen foundation built into a lot of people solid foundation and I'm very grateful for that because people life is tough and people are walking through all kinds of various ups and downs in life getting curveballs thrown at them and so when they finally get to the place where they're building their young adulthood building their future building their finances building their family

you know laying the track the train tracks for where they want to go and they start getting hit by life and time issues and money issues and capacity issues and health stuff and just like whoa what's going on It's like yeah Yeah Wow This is us This is life Right Yeah So you've been blessed for a while but now this is it's time to stand firm in the foundation that you were trained for That's good So we get to see that We love to see that We love to see people who even five to seven years ago were in their early mid 20s and now they're like late 20s and they're solid standing taking ownership of their life and they're the next generation coming up Yeah I think it's one of the most powerful things about our church is that you look around on Sunday and you see people of all ages carrying weight and serving and building the kingdom together alongside of each other and it kind of ties into the last attitude right The diversity is divine I mean part of that is age Part of that is the different generations serving with each other and building alongside each other building again building together

I love seeing that What are two or three things that your prayer for the next generation that they would catch as we build the next generation What is two things that you've always seen a foundation that you want them to walk away with in terms of God Well I think what I'd love to see more than

I don't know if I would have said this in the past but I would certainly say this right now I feel like a greater conviction for holy living would be probably more important to me now than I would have known it's important 20 years ago and I probably would have preached that it was I probably did preach that it was important but I feel it's more important than ever because I think that it is so confusing out there for people who are supposed to be looking at salt and light and see no difference from the world And they see no difference from people's attitudes and language and behavior and mindsets and attitudes And there's supposed to be a marked difference about a Christian

We're supposed to carry Jesus well That's good We carry a spirit We're supposed to have the mind of Christ We're supposed to carry the heart of the Father These things should be evident when we not just some guy on a street corner waving a sign being the only one who oh that guy must be a Christian like yelling at people that they're going to hell I'm not talking about that I'm talking about a person being close enough to Jesus where like the Bible says we are the aroma of Christ to the world to those who are lost to those who are perishing I want to see that taken more seriously

People get themselves into a lot of trouble in life by their choices And when their choices don't line up with scripture and they're living for whatever lustful pleasures are present in the moment there's always a price that comes with that There's always a consequence Deadening your spirit to sin or just getting distracted from what you should be pursuing And it's never something you fall into It's something you were intentional about jumping into You were either ignorant to what God said about it or you just didn't care You just go for it whatever it is in life

And it could be from anything from sexual sin to just flat out just disobedience about love and life and generosity and prayer And just like I'm going to do this on my own I'm just going to be strong Okay well no we're supposed to be dependent on everything that God says not just our strength this week right So little things learning not to be so self dependent and trusting that dependency on God and that will sanctify people It'll make them more like Jesus So I think that's really important

Second thing would be a greater heart for the word of God the truth of God You know we're in the generation or the days of you know your truth is your truth my truth is my truth and whatever truth is his truth it's his truth Right You know Jesus says I am the truth And so you know you run out of steam eventually with that mentality that philosophy because it leads you to dead ends Right And it leads to more brokenness and it leads to more confusion It doesn't lead to clarity It actually leads to more deception So you have to if you're a Christian you have to get away from the net that's been thrown and caught you of you know your truth is more important than anything in this world

Because as much as we say we're not influenced by that we really are as a culture Yeah We're deeply entrenched in individualism and it affects everything It affects marriage it affects the way we raise our kids it affects how we get up in the morning and how we look at life So the word of God has to reshape I think a lot of people's hearts and minds for them to get healthy

There's a lot of unlearning that has to happen And God is in it Yeah But we've got to be aware of it Absolutely Just reminded of Romans 12 about being transformed by the renewing of your mind that we have to that has to take place And every generation has to understand that in a new way

That's so powerful I love those two things Conviction for the Holy Spirit and understanding of God's truth What are some stories that you can share of pastoring youth and young adults over the years And you can absolutely use all of my knucklehead stories if you want to But what are just some things that you've seen

that have been a battle As you build the next generation there's always a fight against the enemy to raise them into a godly way where the world and the enemy is coming at them There's stories of victory there's stories of disappointment Like one that just immediately comes to mind is I remember I was sitting at a light at a stoplight

And right next to me in the next car is this girl that I pastored for years She's probably like 17 And I pastored her for like four or five years And I knew her and her family and everything And she's high as a kite you know And she's smoking weed right there in the car And this boyfriend was a mess

absolute mess of a kid Her boyfriend he's driving and he's most certainly under the influence But she's so stoned out of her mind that she doesn't even see that I'm right next to her And it broke my heart but at the same time that was me Right And it was this weird moment of and she never saw me and I never let on that I saw her but she's literally like three feet away from me But I remember something weird was going on with me It was like this broken heart thing for her

anger for this guy that's leading her the wrong way But then the reality of well first of all I was her in the sense that I was that was me And then I was him in the sense that I was leading people into mess So there was this grace and judgment thing happening for me that I never forgot that you know And then I remember another story of this kid He's about 15 years old His grandfather came in and I knew him you know been his youth pastor for several years And he was just he was funny He came from a really broken home His mom was in jail

His grandparents were raising him And he'd been around two three years probably And then he's about 15 And his grandfather you know I didn't know him like personally A lot of these kids I would just know weekly I don't really know a whole lot about their life but I know who picks them up And we're talking literally like every week there's three to 400 kids bare minimum every week So you're almost like a high school principal at this point

It's a lot of oversight Faces they belong here they don't who are they Who's that crowd And security is big for you So that's a big deal Oh yeah we had cops we had security it was nuts But this grandfather booked an appointment with me I sat down with him and he says I just need to get your I don't really know him at all I don't know if he's safe I don't know anything about him He says I need to get your opinion on my grandson Do you know him I said yes I'm very familiar with who he is And he said yeah you know his mom's in jail and that was our daughter And he's been with us and he's just too wild And we just I need him gone So I just want to get your opinion on how do I go about doing that I was like what do you mean

He says well we just can't handle him anymore My wife we're fed up we're too old we're too tired And they were probably late 60s early 70s And you could tell they were tired he was tired And he says I just need him gone I said okay well what are you asking me You're asking me I can't get on that page with you The kid's not 18 he's 15

I can't say yes this is a good idea to throw out a 15 year old Well I know but he's just too much trouble and he won't listen to us And he does what he wants I said man I'm the wrong guy for this That's not what I do I'm here to try to save these kids and get them into stable places I could tell you how to try and love him I can tell you how to pray for him or to help him And I empathize with where you're at but he's only 15 If he was 18 that'd be different If he was 17 on his way to 18 where he can get a job No job no ID no life still going to school skipping school you gotta hang on for this ride somehow someway

He didn't about a year about nine months goes by and this kid shows back up and I hadn't seen him in nine months I'm like where you been He's oh my grandparents sent me to this I guess it was some sort of reform school or something But he was still getting high and lost and I didn't see him much longer after that see kids who go through stuff next generation and you were there to the degree that you could be there This is why we always raised up young adult leaders and we still do that We try to raise up people who are five seven 10 years older within that range to be present in people's lives when that kind of stuff goes down So somebody can say hey I

saw you high at the stoplight Let's talk Why are you dating him He's no good for you What is going on You know the truth This is not right But it takes intentional people to love people where they're at not to just judge where they are but love them towards where they could be So important

People did that for me People saw me in my knucklehead stages People saw me where I was at in my lostness my anger rebellion whatever was going on And people were there People have prophetic leanings towards he doesn't look like he's doing well They lean into that But they first have to care

They have to be aware Wouldn't be like oh that's the youth That's the little kids You gotta see them You gotta see them You gotta know their faces You gotta know when they haven't been here You gotta know how much they have been here and why they're not now what's going on here You know arms folded attitudes heads down's a good sign Like what's going on If they're just sitting like this the whole time they're shutting off they're shutting down they're shutting out Okay what's going on here Does anybody care Or do we see them as like oh that kid's got an attitude We don't hear like somebody's gotta care

So it's good When you look around on a Sunday or throughout the week different things happening here at Grace Avenue how encouraged are you by just seeing the generational aspect of our church I think it's a very visible thing at our church So I mean this has been your heart for years and Pastor Janelle's heart for years I mean how would you encourage the church or how would you encourage the people of Grace Avenue

Well I would say you know I would encourage them by saying look at the gift of all the differences around you You know if the church is just one age group it's a pooling of ignorance You know there's no other way to say it If it's all older people they're gonna lose the perspectives of younger people If it's all younger people they're not gonna have the perspectives of older people

You've got to have a good mixing intentionally of the community so people can learn from one another And sometimes you know the ages can be so different 18 to 21 is different than 21 to 25 25 to 35 is a whole different it's almost two or three different stages there for people

for a lot of people And then obviously 40 with kids without kids you know retired about to retire military non military It's just a lot of differences And so mixing with all the differences around and valuing the generational perspective is really important

I mean under 40 you can have three generations Right Crazy to think about but it's kind of true It's real So honoring that respecting that valuing that You know I was a kid and older people would always make space for me in church life from the time I was a little kid to whatever

parking lot tech you know like there was always something cool that a kid's looking at that he'd like to do And people made space for that adults that you know even when I was causing like like you know this is how old I am Like we had the overhead projector and I was responsible I can't believe they let me do this at 11 years old Big deal

People like you got it easy You got to type words and push a button and it comes up on the screen The words were handwritten by somebody And they're in this giant file You have to fight If the worship leader decides to take off into some song that's not on the set list you got to go find it Like an old library card you're digging through you find the song and no that's not it And some of the songs are named the same

Like this song's called Praise the Lord and this is We Will Praise the Lord So you pull out the wrong song and you put that down and it's shining Oh those are the wrong lyrics And you pull in that back But that's what I was responsible for at 11 years old and I couldn't believe they let me do it And I remember there were times I remember one time the words were upside down People were praising and worshiping you know and I had not caught it behind me that that was showing upside down And people were smiling and laughing and they just keep going on and worshiping And then you know finally I remember turning around and looking and being like oh shoot You know turning around But they didn't fire me you know But that was exciting

But you know making space and making room for younger people is just It's good It's so important for the future and the health of the church We should be encouraged when we see the next generation coming up We should be encouraged when we see kids serving young adults serving

you know We're not pushing that away We're fanning the flame It's good And we gotta do it If we want a future for the church we gotta do it That's right It's so good I love your heart on this I know we could talk for hours but I'm gonna wrap it up with a question because I you know gotta give people the fun question to ask you So the question is if you were to choose a decade of music right We're talking about generations So we're talking about 60s 70s 80s 2000s 90s Which one would be your playlist if you had to choose one for the rest of your life Which decade

Well because everybody now as always is looking to the past for inspiration and they're ripping off a lot of 80s right now Right today I'd go with the 80s The 80s Might change next week but today I'd go with the 80s because there's just so much in the 80s that happened and everybody's calling it original It's already been done in a new form but yeah I'll just leave it at that The 80s Graphic tees everything

Sounds production techniques choruses vibe Just yeah it's a lot of 80s influence in all the different genres of the music from the 80s that are being bled into newer songs Even shows even TV shows like Stranger Things I mean their whole soundtrack is like 80s songs I mean the whole theme is I mean that was my childhood If you look at that first season of Stranger Things that literally was me and my friends on our bikes No joke That's awesome Yeah little pack of kids getting into trouble running around like the Goonies doing all kinds of craziness It was a blast That's awesome Well thank you Pastor Dale We didn't see any monsters though Right yeah yeah yeah The thing's got for that no demons

Well thank you for breaking down the settings We were demons but we didn't see any demons We were them Well this has been good This has been really good We build the next generation This is who we are This is who you've been This is who our church is and will be And I'm very encouraged very excited for what God has for years and decades to come So thank you for your heart Yeah last story last story Yes all the stories

And this one's not an this one's not this is not an ego thing Please hear my heart on this But I remember it's I remember the way it affected me It actually kind of scared me There was this kid remember the days of MySpace Right Kids would add you know as their youth pastor they'd add their youth pastor to MySpace So you got like hundreds and hundreds of kids

And you know your MySpace is made up after five years of thousands of people who have heard you You don't know them but they knew But you would have I don't remember how it worked Kind of like a feed but you would see what people are writing You'd have a homepage But I remember someone I remember one of my kids she wrote Pastor Daniel is the greatest man

I've ever known Wow And I remember the way it made me feel was very scared Right So that honey you need to get out a bit more Right There's a lot of better people than me out there But it also made me feel very very responsible Like oh my God you know Like and she came from a pretty messed up home and she had a pack of friends They would all come together But seeing that and then reading that and hearing that it did something to me Not in the prideful sense of huh yeah I'm the greatest person It was more of a sheesh It was humbling Very humbling You know like this kid thinks that of you Right You know maybe their home life is jacked They don't see that in their immediate circle

So I wish more people would take that role of leadership because to someone in a generation that you mean something to people Wow Yeah That's good I mean we could take that a million different ways and talk about just that for a long time We need sports and historical figures And I mean we can talk about that for a long time People have made an impact on so many and a whole generation just by the lives that they lived Yeah So good or bad True

Well thank you We did it We did it All right Thank you guys We'll see you next time on Midweek Motion God bless That's it for today Until next time remember that the God we serve is greater than any of our failures He's more invested in us than any human on the planet You're a gift to this earth to this generation and maybe even the next So don't shortchange yourself Keep growing and live your life to honor Jesus and his purpose in you

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