Pator Wayne Cordeiro and Pastor Jon Burgess
September 11, 2016 - W1637

Pastor Wayne Cordeiro:

What a joy it is to stand with you on this Twenty-First Anniversary. God’s grace is why we are here, and signifies all the things that we have come through. I want to thank Jesus for His grace and I also want to thank all of the people who have kept their eyes on Jesus, while they stuck it out through thick and thin and put their hands to the plow.

Around 605 BC, Daniel, Ezekiel, and three young men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were deported to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had said to these young men, “When I blow this trumpet, you are to bow down and worship the golden idol I have made.” However, they were steadfast and refused, and they said that they could not because were people of God. So they were thrown into an extremely hot furnace that caused the people that threw them in to die from the heat. From a distance though, the King saw four people in the furnace, because the fourth was the Son of God. The three young men remembered – and you must too – to keep your eyes on God when walking through a fire or trial.

Many people have watched this church grow, thinking the church would eventually fail. Well twenty-one years later, this did not happen, instead this church has grown through the grace of God. It was important that we built the church horizontally rather than vertically. God told me that He cannot make you immune from circumstances, but you must remember that Jesus will walk you through the furnace.

I want to thank Dan and Carol Ann Shima. In 1995, God gave them the grace to help me start and pioneer New Hope. Look at John and Lanu Tilton. Lanu was at the very first service. They have put their hands to the plow, and have never looked back.   I look at Noni, he is so talented singing and doing the video – this is by God’s grace. Brian was serving at Kulani prison. When he got out, he came here with his family to serve. His kids were basically raised at this church. Fred Drumming – to see him now as our music director and as a fabulous father and husband. All of us, and the stories behind our great kids – it’s by God’s grace, and not by our own merit.

I want to thank Dane Ison who has been with us for 21 years and who oversees the New Hope Youth Performing Arts Center (YPAC). Our youth have just won quadruple awards at Disney for their musical performance and for their abilities. I also want to thank Jera Silva and all of the Children’s Ark workers for their fabulous investment.

I want to say thank you to my wife Anna. When I was engaged to Anna, at twenty years of age, I sat Anna down and told her that God is calling me into ministry; therefore, my life is not my own, and life will be pretty tough. I wanted to give Anna a chance to leave if she wanted to go a different way; but she said, “No, I love you and will stay with you forever.” This only happened because of the grace of God.

Five years ago, when Farrington High School’s auditorium roof collapsed on us, we had already grown to 14 thousand members, so we decided to continue a decentralization that started in 2005. We now have 24 New Hope churches on this island. Some churches have changed their names such as Metro Christian Church, The Sanctuary and C4; however, they all came from this mother church. Altogether we now have 140 New Hope Churches. I believe this will be the birth place of many more churches to come.

By His Grace, God has developed a great foundation for us to build on. The heritage that is in these young people is fabulous. The Apostle Paul said that he was aware of the faith of your mother and of your grandmother within you. As this new season starts, God is saying that it is time to rise up and build. Thank you for being a part of the foundation. We will build with young, middle aged, and old people, because we need everyone. We need the stories of veterans passed down to the little ones. We need middle-aged people to model and mentor the younger ones. This is the design of God.

I am thrilled about Jon Burgess and his leadership here. Sixteen years ago he and Johnny Murillo came as interns to our school of church planters. Now Johnny is in Hollywood doing films while John along with other pastors representing Hawaii Kai, Manoa, Leeward and Aina Haina pick up the picks and shovels to do the work. Other leaders have teamed up with Jon like Richard Waialeale.   Aaron oversees our interns in the equipping area and is doing a fabulous job. Justin oversees music and front lines. We also have former fire chief Ken Silva. By combining this team with John Tilton, and with our accounting team of Cindy Goo, and all the others, we have one of the best sterling staffs that we have ever had. It is only because of this, that I can let the reigns go a little bit and have John take over while I work with him, and while he works with everyone else. Will you now welcome the lead pastor here, Jon Burgess.

Jon Burgess:

Pastor Wayne is right about me being corrected a lot. One month after arriving for my internship, Pastor Wayne gave me the opportunity to plant the first satellite church in Hawaii Kai. After service, I remembered him debriefing me and saying, “John, don’t do that again – this is how it works.” I then remember telling Cindy that I was a miserable failure, to which she replied, “Isn’t that why we are here? We are here to learn how to do this from one of the best.” Can we thank my wife Cindy? If it was not for her, I would not be here. Pastor Wayne entrusted me being the interim pastor at New Hope Kapaa, Kauai, then at planting a church in Seattle, then he entrusted me to work with some of the most amazing people that I have ever known. Now I am going to speak to the next generation, and entrust them with exactly the same things that I am learning from Pastor Wayne.

For this building initiative, I had a chance to talk to the children attending Children’s Ark. During my visit, I asked them if they had ever built a building to which they replied “No…”

I then asked the children if they would you like to build a building, and they said, “Huh..?”

So I told them God is going to use you to build a new building for your family and for your friends, because there is not enough room for them right now. I then gave each of them a Lego piece that had the words “future” on one side, and “hope” on the other side. Jera said they shared their Lego pieces with their parents, and how they could be a part of the building initiative. We also got to talk with OG, and with Pastor Will with Collective. I shared that this building is for you, your family, your friends, and for those that do not know Jesus. When I looked in their eyes, I could see that our young people understood that they wanted to be a part of something bigger that will outlast them. So my question is, are you going to be part of the next thing that God wants to build and that will outlast you?

Our next video shows how our young people have become the fruit after being raised up on the amazing soil of New Hope. In this video titled, “Growing Up at New Hope, Pastor Wayne said relay races are won or lost at the passing of the baton. In this video, Ikaika of the Programming Team said that everyone’s story has a common theme. All were invested in and mentored by someone, who in turn, started mentoring someone else. Each generation invests in the next generation.

At New Hope there is a future and a hope. A church that was primarily homeless in the past, is now going to build a new home. The Bible says, “David summoned all the officials of Israel to Jerusalem. The officers over the tribes, the commanders of the divisions in the service of the king, the commanders of thousands and commanders off hundreds, and the officials in charge of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the warriors and all the brave fighting men. King David rose to his feet and said: “Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, My people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.’ Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel forever. He chose Judah as leader, and from the tribe of Judah he chose my family, and from my father’s sons he was pleased to make me king over all Israel. ⁵ Of all my sons—and the Lord has given me many—he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.” 1 Chronicles 28:1-5

When David had this sacred assembly, he called in everyone to build God’s house.   David said that this was for his son Solomon and the next generation.

The next series is called a Future and a Hope, where we will study how David helped set up Solomon for success. Everyone will memorize scripture together.   Each week you will receive a new dog tag ingrained with a different scripture to memorize, and we will pray how God will have each one of us involved with this building initiative. If God moves you to give $10.00 a week, that can add up to over a thousand dollars in two years. Recently, Cindy and I moved to a smaller house in Aina Haina so that we could be part of this building campaign. Your donation to this building fund is not about a transaction, it is about transformation of what God is calling us to do. One man said yes to an impossible dream 21 years ago, and the rest of us get to follow in his steps. Let’s welcome Pastor Wayne on up.

Pastor Wayne:

25% of the people were involved with phase one of this church building. Now we need the other 75% involved so that we will be able to fulfill all that God wants us to do. You saw how God used our young people to build upon the foundation that had been laid. Now is the time to rise up and do it. We can do it.   Our future is waiting for us. Let us walk into it together.