Numbering the Days of 2020

Psalm 90:12 NIV

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Today, we will be taking a break from our series in Luke, and do some reflections (We will continue our series with Luke next week).

The passage we read was Psalm 90:12.

It comes from reflective literature.

Remember back to our kingdom series: God had given literature to the nation of Israel so that they could meditate and reflect as they waited for their coming king.

And today, we could benefit from practicing the truths within the wisdom literature.

We could benefit from practicing Psalm 90:12.

Here the Psalmist is crying to God that he would teach us how to number our days.

If we number our days, we will gain a heart of wisdom.

Sometimes we live blindly and just keep moving forward.

But we need to pay attention to every day, how God has been working and appreciate what God has done—how he has given us life.

When we do this, we start to practice wisdom.

This year maybe made time go very fast or made it go very slow. At any rate, it’s important to contemplate on the days that have passed.

We need to be aware of what actually happened.

And today we are going to take some time reflecting on what has happened

I would have loved doing this during a winter retreat or something like that. But I think it’s good to do it today, on the last Sunday of the year.

I will speak personally on my reflections and also things that have affected Encounter Church.

Late 2019

Let’s go back to late 2019.

Alyda and I were attending a great church.

I was going to seminary (still am).

I was studying to become a professor (and I still am).

While we were attending this church, we were having discussions with friends and mentors that I have, and we saw a need for a church here in Lodi.

But you might say:

“There’s already so many churches here in Lodi.”

And you would be right.

In fact, if you do a google search of churches in Lodi, you would see that there are a whole bunch of churches. (There’s even some churches that don’t appear here.)

And I would even add that there are some good churches here in Lodi.

But, we saw a need.

You go out at night, and you would see that there are a lot of young people out here in Lodi.

Maybe it doesn’t compare to a college city, but there is a good amount.

And while you may see a lot of young people out and about in Lodi, you go into a church and you will see that young people are underrepresented.

In other cities, like Sacramento, there are Christian events where young people are present.

But yet, here in Lodi, there is no clear church that looks for Millennials and Gen Z’ers.

You see churches filled with boomers, Gen x, people over their 30s, but virtually no one in their twenties or younger.

And here’s an interesting yet terrifying stat:

Pastors used to hope that young adults who left the church would return, but according to a recent study, younger generations are not returning to church.

We cannot hope that these young people will return later on in life.

No, we need to be actively engaging them.

As another stat shows, the percentage of Christians in America declined by 10% in just 7 years.

These are not good stats.

And the church should be alarmed.

Today, there are as many people who don’t believe in anything as there are Christians who believe in the Bible.

Back in the day, in America, it was cool to be a Christian, but now, most people look at Christianity, not as a step forward, but as a step backwards.

And here’s probably one of the most alarming of things:

Christianity will drop almost 20% and 30 % of the total population in 2050 would be religiously unaffiliated.

And what’s crazy is that the young people who are going to church, about 42 million of them will disaffiliate from Christianity by 2050.

This is alarming.

And to think that how churches are currently doing things—it will be ok, no we can’t think that the status quo is good when we have these types of trends!

And we thought, “Maybe we’re too young to launch a church.”

But, we also realized, if we’re going to reach people who are in their twenties, the best time to reach them is probably now, as we are in our twenties and more relatable than if we were older.

So, we decided to get serious.

Look at the prospects and see if it’s possible.

Some of us started meeting at Panera.

We would bring it up in conversations. And pray often.

And we started to devise a plan.

First, we wrote a mission statement.

Why will Encounter Church exist?

We exist to reach the lost generation with the good news of Jesus Christ and to disciple students of the Bible.

We are intentional in reaching the lost generation. This, of course, does not mean we ignore other people groups—we value being multi-generational—but it does mean that we are focusing our efforts on reaching the lost generation.

We are reaching the lost generation, the young people, and we will be intentional with how we go about it.

But we’re not compromising on what gives hope.

We believe, wholeheartedly, that the Bible gives hope.

Moreover, we believe that Jesus gives hope. And that the body of Christ, the church, gives hope.

And that is why we are going to preach Christ and sing about him and live as his people.

If we compromise on these biblical truths, then we really don’t have anything new to offer to the lost generation.

And we exist to make disciples.

Remember Jesus’ Great Commission?

Matthew 28:19–20 NIV

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Make disciples—that’s the main verb of this command.

And we are going to do our bests to make disciples.

We are not going to neglect those who come and just give a superficial teaching or worship experience that makes people feel good. No, we are going to partner with people as they walk on this journey called life.

And we also wanted to know where we would be going

Vision of Encounter Church: We strive to be a thriving, gospel-centered, community that equips the people of Lodi and of the surrounding area.

So, we made a plan.

In the year 2020, we will start a new church.

Turn of 2020

Things looked good for the year 2020.

I mean it’s so good, that the number 20 appears twice: 20 - 20

I remember so many churches were so excited for this year.

They made a play on words, saying that this was the year of 20/20 vision.

And I do think we did see clearly this year for things that truly mattered.

But I don’t think we got the 20/20 vision that anybody expected in the beginning of the year.

2020 was going to be the year.

I remember people posting about how awesome 2020 was gonna be because of how all of the holidays landed on a good day:

Fourth of July - Saturday

Halloween - Saturday

Christmas - Friday

New Years - Friday

2020 was going to be poppin.

2020

But a few days into 2020, things looked like uh, maybe things were going to be a bit different this year.

On just January 2nd, after the death of Iran’s general, Soleimani—there were fears of WWIII happening—yes this happened this year.

There were even fears of a draft taking place:

But you know us, a technological generation.

You know how we coped with the tensions between Iran and the US growing.

We made memes.

Big Daniel over here said that this is how our Snapchat would look like if we went to Iran for WWIII.

We also thought that it was the end.

Of course, this was just the beginning of 2020.

A few days later, there was a tragic death.

Kobe with his daughter Gianna, with seven other people, died in a helicopter crash in California.

Kobe was an icon, a role model, someone whom a lot people, esp. young people, looked up to.

I know that a lot people were devastated by his death.

Then, in January, the House voted to impeach the president.—Yes, this happened this year.

And through it all, there was this rumor of a new virus.

It’s called

COVID-19.

I remember hearing about it in the news.

Some news back then were saying that it wasn’t that big of a deal.

I remember people comparing it to the Flu.

I remember talking about it with my friends back in Feb or Jan, with Oscar, Kristian, and Luis.

It didn’t seem like a big deal, really.

At that time, there was just one case in Eureka.

But it turns out, that the first COVID-19 related death in the States occurred on Feb. 6th here in Santa Clara county.

Well, I was just thinking, this is an oddity. Still, nothing to worry about.

Then, another death, in Washington state.

And let me tell you, during this time there were primaries taking place—we wondering who our next president would be: It looked like it would be Pete Butigieg at first, then Bernie, and finally Joe Biden, and several months later, we saw Biden won the electoral college.

And during the election cycle, people were dying because of COVID-19.

Then, in March 15, the CDC recommended that events with 50 people or more should be cancelled.

And the thing that really made things real for me was when the NBA was cancelled.

I was like, oh snap, stuff is happening.

And then stuff started close.

There was an intense shut down.

Students were not going to return to school after spring break.

And all of this started to happen when Encounter Church was approaching its first preview service.

We had planned to meet at hotel meeting room.

We had it booked and were getting ready.

But a couple weeks before, there was a push for this initiative called,

Flatten the curve

The idea behind this was that for a couple days, most businesses would close.

And to prepare for this, a lot of people went out to buy.. toilet paper in bulk.

Many church buildings shut down, everyone went to an online format.

We were united on this front, at least at first.

We were gonna do what we can to protect those we love from a virus we did not know much about.

Encounter Church did what it could.

We had a pre-service meeting.

Many of us were in that pre-service meeting—in that Zoom meeting.

Then, Easter came, and church buildings were still closed.

We had our first preview service that Easter.

We did it via the web, on YouTube, talking about the resurrection of Christ.

In April, we were still in lockdown.

We got a stimulus check—that was nice.

We had our second preview service.

In May, we finally met here at Gravity.

And it was great!

We met for our monthly services in the following months, and it looked like things would’ve been great for our launch service--for our August launch service.

But COVID was still around.

And meeting with people was still discouraged.

And there was also something that took place in May and it lasted for a couple of months.

The recording of the horrible death of George Floyd, which revealed the evils of police brutality—the recording incited protests through the summer.

People were protesting against the evils of injustice and racism that have plagued this world, and more specifically, this country.

COVID, racism, hopelessness, depression, death, joblessness—all of these things made us reconsider the role of the church.

What is the role of Encounter Church?

That’s what we thought

Should we as a church just not start?

People are iffy about meeting together.

Would it be smart to launch a church plant in the year 2020?

Maybe it’s not smart.

But, I think 2020 helped us realize that there is a need for God.

And that there is a need for a church to point to God.

So many churches and Christians have focused on how we address cultural issues.

But sometimes, in spite of the the church’s approach to cultural issues, the church fails to make disciples.

Encounter Church, we will make disciples.

And we have made disciples.

Look at yourselves,

Yes, maybe you have fallen in many ways, but by the power of God, I have seen you grow this year.

Something about a year like this is that it can help us grow stronger.

And through singing together, I believe, we have grown.

And through opening the word together, we have grown.

And our children have grown.

Within the small groups that we’ve had, we have grown together and in the Lord.

2021

And in 2021, we will continue to grow.

We will reach the lost Generation with the good news of the Gospel.

We will make disciples of the Bible.

We will gather together-laugh together-learn together.

Maybe we will even meet within another building.

We will be a beacon of hope.

And I close with this: God has been with us, there is a reason for this year, there is a reason for Encounter Church to exist, and God will continue to be with us.

Matthew 16:18 NIV

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

God will build Encounter Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail. Hell can’t mess with God’s church.

What we have sowed in 2020, we will see the fruits in 2021.

Thank you for your faithfulness this year.

God sees what you have done.

And the experience we gained in 2020 will help us with the years to come.