Today we come as the First Baptist family to celebrate the beginning of construction of our new Education Ministries Center. The idea for this new building began in 2001 with prayerful listening to the voice of God spoken through the needs our congregation believed were priorities. Those priorities were to centralize our preschool, children and youth education ministries into one location and in turn provide new space that would meet the needs of our church family as well as those drawn to our church. This location would provide quality space and security for those most valuable to the future of our church, community and our world. It would also be seen as an anchor of faith before God and our community that we as First Baptist believe that we are fulfilling the mission he has given us by staying in the downtown area of our city. What began as a vision for the future is now becoming reality. We truly have begun "Building Tomorrow…Today!"

Every building begins with a foundation. The foundation of any structure is vital because it serves as the base and support of the structure. The foundation determines the size, shape and strength of what is built. Our new Education Ministries Center will have four stories and stand over 54 feet tall. To support that structure 28 piers were drilled into the earth, each between 20-24 feet deep. Because we live in an area that is threatened by earthquakes the foundation has to be strong enough to withstand that danger.

While we are constructing a physical building whose strength rests on its foundation, we are as well being reminded that we are laying another foundation. This foundation is not one that can be measured by physical dimensions but will be determined by the lives that are impacted. For you see this building is being initially and primarily devoted and dedicated to children from birth through 18 years old. We are investing almost seven million dollars for a structure for children. We are sacrificing resources personally for the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children. We are determining the future ministry of our church for children. Why are we doing something so costly for those who can’t do anything themselves? We are doing it because children are the foundation for our future! The prophet Isaiah said 2800 years ago, " Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as the people who rebuild their walls and cities." (Isa. 58:12)

The text I am using today from the prophecy of Isaiah came not in a time of celebration but in a time of despair as well as hope. The despair came from the reality that the city of Jerusalem, once proud and powerful, had been devastated by years of war. The walls of the city by this time have been down so long that Isaiah refers to them as "deserted ruins" or, as some translations have it, "ancient ruins." The hope, however, rested in the prophecy that their descendents, those who were born to them, their children, would rise up and rebuild what was deserted. In doing so they would secure the future of their lives, cities, communities, and nation. The hope for the foundation of the future lay in the children, "Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your city."

Those timeless words have a voice and a message for what we are celebrating today. One thing they say to us is that today’s children build tomorrow’s future (Isa. 58:12a). Isaiah voiced with a clear hope that the children of those to whom he was speaking would one day be inspired to do what others before them had failed to do and that was to "rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities." This raises the question as to why others had failed to take responsibility for what had been destroyed. Why did they not see the obvious need to use their hands and pick up the tools and stones and rebuild the walls? Was it because of a lack of inspiration, leadership, direction or training? We don’t know. All we do know is that Isaiah believed that there was coming a generation of children who would see what needed to be done and do it. My question for us is: "Do we have that same hope?"

Whether good or bad, today’s children build tomorrow’s future. They will shape the days, months and years after this one. They will determine what is going to happen in those days, months and years. Whatever tomorrow is going to look like depends on the children of today. If that is true, and I believe it is, then does that reality give you relief or regret? Do you feel content that the future of our communities will be stable and secure or do you feel concern that our future will be uncertain and threatened? When Isaiah said, "Your children…" he meant that collectively, not individually. You and I might say we feel positive about "our" children but can’t worry about "your" children. Yet that is not a choice we get to make! While we may be confident that "our" children will make a difference in the world that same world will be impacted for good or bad by what other children become and do with their lives.

Of the 57,085 people who lived in Jonesboro in 2005, 15,328 or 29% of them are children under 18 years old. Those 15,328 children live easily within five to ten minutes of our church. On an average Sunday in our church we will have a little more than 300 children birth through 18 in Sunday School. A few churches may have more but with the average church having a little more than 100 in total attendance, there are a staggering number of children to be reached in our community. Are the 300 children that are "ours" the only ones that we are concerned about? No, because all the children, "ours" and "theirs," will shape the way tomorrow looks.

I don’t have to tell you that the challenges for children today and what they will be tomorrow are enormous. I asked several public school educators in our church about some of these challenges. One elementary teacher said that they see more and more grandparents and blended families who are raising children so much so that simple communication of the needs or progress of a child is a struggle. Another educator said that by the time a child is in high school most parents have checked out of parenting at a time when their involvement is needed more than ever, which results in schools being responsible for raising children. Another said that even the definition of responsibility is changing so that it all comes back on the schools to do things they were never designed to do. They may not be your children but they are somebody’s children who will positively or negatively impact our world. Today’s children build tomorrow’s future. Can we say with hope, as Isaiah said, that our children will rebuild what we have abandoned in our world and secure a better future for themselves and for us?

The answer to that question depends on us. It depends on us because the tools children are given today are the ones they will use to build tomorrow (v. 12b). Isaiah said, "Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities." As I asked earlier, "Why didn’t the generations before them do something?" Again, we simply don’t know. Regardless of why no one did something in the past, Isaiah believes that there will be a generation to come that will be strong enough and courageous enough to say, "No longer will I be content with the ruins of what was but I will take these stones and repair the walls!" They were not the ones responsible for the failures of the past but they were the ones who would take responsibility for the future.

Do you realize that our children are left with the responsibility of rebuilding from the rubble of our failures? The children of today are not the ones who started the wars but they are the ones who will fight them. The children of today are not the ones who have decimated homes and marriages but they are the ones who can repair them. The children of today are not the ones who abandoned biblical morality for our culture but they are the ones who can restore it. The children of today are not the ones who have cheapened human life but they are the ones who can redeem it. The children of today are asked to rebuild the results of our greed, pride, lust, gluttony, anger and hate. They are the ones who will take what we have left them and say, "I can’t make it!" or will say, "I can make it better!" The difference lies in the tools we give them.

You and I celebrate today a facility that is something like a toolbox for children. It is a place that children can come and find given to them the tools they will need to build their future. In that place they should find men and women who are passionate about enabling every child to have a life-changing encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. While we talk about the "No child left behind" initiative of our government, we should have over the doors of that building, "No child left behind" spiritually. No child should leave our education ministry without understanding basic principles of our faith. No child should be left behind without knowing in simple ways the story and major stories of the Bible. No child should be left behind without being equipped to make the decisions that will keep them from the reality of regret. No child should be left behind without being ready to face a world fully opposed to everything they stand for as a Christian and to face that world and say, "I’m not giving up or giving in!"

I know today that there is not one person here who doesn’t believe that. Yet believing that and transferring that into action is another thing. Recently our school systems were involved in "benchmark" testing for students. Benchmarks are standards that our state has dictated that students should have at each age level. While there is some debate among educators and parents about the positives and negatives no one is saying a child shouldn’t be given the tools to meet the demands of our world. Do we feel the same conviction about this spiritually? Accuracy in the benchmarks of education doesn’t mean ability to overcome the spiritual challenges that children face. That ability is not the responsibility of a public school. That ability is laid at the feet of the church of Jesus Christ! Our children will build tomorrow with the tools we give them! How I thank God that this is a church that realizes that and is willing to sacrifice today to ensure that children have the tools they need for building tomorrow.

If we realize that today’s children build tomorrow’s future and that the tools we give them today are the ones they will use to build tomorrow, what will be the result? Well that depends on what we invest in them today. I believe this verse teaches us that the construction of our future depends upon what we invest in them today (Isa. 58:12b). Isaiah said, "Then your children will be known as the people who rebuild their walls and cities." He’s looking at this from a results standpoint. What he is describing is that because their descendents would rebuild the walls that the nation itself would be secure. The words actually mean the "restorer of the streets." In other words, what they do by their rebuilding will make it safe to live in community with others. He is promising them that their investment today will determine the construction of their future.

That same principle is true for us as well. The literal construction of our new Education Ministries Center is an investment rather than only an expense. An investment is something you do because you believe you will get something back. This new building is an investment of our resources, time, energy, focus and our lives. This new building should never be associated with mere childcare or just an activity center. What we are doing should always be seen as ministry! This church has been in the past and now even more in the present blessed with leadership that works for the best of our children. They want the best because they know it is an investment in the lives of those who are shaping tomorrow.

I had one educator tell me that children learn more in their preschool years proportionately than at any other time for the rest of their lives, that what happens in those years sets the foundation for a lifetime of learning. They described them as sponges that soak up everything around them. That is true spiritually as well. The best research tells us that a child who is 5 to 12 years old has a 32% chance of coming to Christ. Yet that drops to only 4% between the ages of 13-18. After 19 it is 6% for the rest of their lives. Every dollar or minute spent on children’s ministry has 60 times the likelihood of seeing a child come to Christ than that same dollar or time spent on adult ministry! That is why this is the wisest and most effective investment we can make as a church! If we are ever to have a redeemed culture then we must populate it with redeemed people. The time to invest in our future as a church and as a community is now! That’s why we are giving, sacrificing, being inconvenienced and challenged because we are investing today in the construction of our tomorrow! "Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your city."

It seems daily that new revelations are given about the massive failures on every level of local, state and federal government regarding response to Hurricane Katrina. Story after story of warnings about breached levees, transportation and evacuation problems, food and water supplies that went unheeded are tragic. That tragedy is compounded due to the devastation still apparent in the areas hit by the storm and hundreds of thousands of lives that will never be the same. On the Sunday night that Katrina was making landfall Matthew Broderick, director of Homeland Security Operations Center, already had eyewitness reports of levees being breached in New Orleans. What did he do? Nothing but go home and go to bed. For reasons like that and hundreds of others, the House committee investigating the Katrina response titled their report "A Failure of Initiative." (Arkansas Democrat Gazette, March 5, 2006, p. 1, 6J)

How I thank God that when it came time to take initiative to build on a foundation for tomorrow that this church didn’t go home. That we didn’t walk away. That we didn’t put off. That we didn’t make excuses. That we didn’t ignore God’s call to realize that our children will build our future, that they need the very best tools we can give them and that because we believe that redeemed children can be used by God to redeem our culture, we are truly "Building Tomorrow …Today!" Because of what we do today may it be said of us, " Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as the people who rebuild their walls and cities." (Isa. 58:12)

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org